Zev Faintuch Blog entry - Not wanted on the voyage

In this class, we began by discussing the second segment of Timothy Findley’s Not Wanted on a Voyage. One of our major discussions concerned Noah Noyes. In the first section of the novel, we are introduced to Noah. He is a cold, gruff, calculating, pragmatic old man who does not treat his wife and kids very well (from our 21st century point of view). In addition, he can’t hear the animals talk which is one his major character flaws. Right off the bat, this section sheds a new light on Noah. At first the reader doesn’t connect to Noah because he isn’t that nice a person; he isn’t a warm and cuddly. When Noah decides to make the biggest sacrifice ever, and burn alive his animals, he crosses the threshold in the readers mind from being Noah the cold hearted hero, to Noah the blood-thirsty, animal-murdering, Michael Vick -like antagonist: “All her cattle-all her sheep-all her horses- all the dogs and their cries being driven towards cremation in the name of God (Findley, 119).” Moreover, to perpetuate this idea of Noah being the “bad guy” Findley uses harsh diction to describe him and his actions. An example of this is when Findley says “… he raised himself from the holocaust below (Findley, 120)”, equating Mr. Noyes to Hitler.

This section contrasts Mr. and Mrs. Noyes. Up until this point in the novel, Mrs. Noyes is somewhat of an nondescript character. She is motherly, she loves her children and animals, she drinks - escapes her sorrows with gin and like most wives - , she sometimes disagrees with her husband (but never circumvents his authority or takes action against him). Contrary to her husband, Mrs. Noyes crosses the threshold in our mind from being a powerless, subdued housewife to a heroine. She risks her life on several accounts in this section: she runs into the inferno to save her cat, disobeys Noah and Yaweh by entering the orchard and eating from it (no women, children or animals allowed), she almost drowns to save Emma’s handicapped sibling and in doing so, moves far away from the ark- increasing her chances of getting left behind. Furthermore, Mrs. Noyes openly expresses her disdain towards Noah: “I will kill him(Findley 119)!”
Moreover, she is viewed by the reader as the BCE’s Rosa Parks, when she, a woman defies the word of G-d and word of husband by entering the orchard (an allusion to the Garden of Eden) and eats.

We also managed to conclude our viewing of Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi thriller, “Blade Runner”. Our viewing began as Deckard enters Sebastian’s apartment in search for a dangerous replicant. The replicant hides among the living figurines and dolls, thereby dehumanising her by equating her with the toys.

The last scene is a Western-like showdown between Deckard and his nemesis, Roy, on a rooftop. This last scene drives home the fundamental question posed by the movie: what is a human? Ironically, in this scene, Roy is portrayed as being more human than Deckard. When he realizes that his life is almost over, Roy cries, showing us his humanity. On the other hand, Deckard does not behave like a human. He doesn’t show emotion, he fights through the pain of having a hand full of broken figures and doesn’t speak. Roy, sticks a nail though his hand to give himself pain, so he feels more “alive”. In addition, Roy saves Deckard’s life, showing us his compassion -the most human of traits. Furthermore, in his famous speech, Roy talks nostalgically about his memories-one of the fundamental aspects of humanity: “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw6D_QfsmUY



From this scene, and the movie as whole, we can say that a human is a being that has physical and emotional feelings and memories than help define one’s personality. Yes, the replicants are human, just like you and me.