Life in The
Village is not all that pleasant, well not for the prisoners who don't talk it
isn't, especially for those whose hearts and minds lie further afield in
another world.
You might
think that Number 6 is pubic enemy No.1, and to all intents and purposes you'd
be right. A thorn in the side of Number 2 might be a better way to put it. Yet
there are others, whose life in the Village is not what it might be. There's
Cobb, but it didn't take long for him to be turned, and soon found himself a
'trustee' who although having been brought to The Village a prisoner, he was
trusted enough to leave The Village and not talk about it. Or did he? Because
once away from the Village, Cobb could have gone and done anything. Talked to
anyone about the Village, if
he was feigning having gone over to the other side, who-so-ever side that might
be, just to be able to escape!
Then
there's Number 12 of Administration, who sees the Professor as being a trouble-maker
who attracts trouble-makers. As well as being a crank, and should be treated as
such! Number 12 was not against the occasional act of sabotage, and assisting
Number 6 in bringing down both ‘The General’ and thus sabotaging the
educational experiment of Speedlearn.
The
Rook-Number 53 was put through a form of Pavlovian experiment, which was
originally used on dogs, not rats, by Pavlov. Number 8-the white Queen, she was
used in an experiment that was originally used with dolphins in submarine detection.
Having had a emotion transmitter placed on her in a locket, that made her part
of The Village alarm system! More than that, Number 8 was conditioned and
hypnotised into believing that she was in love with Number 6, and he with her.
Number 73
had it worse, because she was only brought to the Village because 'they' didn't
know where her husband was. Who having tried killing herself once by
slashing her wrists, was driven to jump to her death out through a
hospital window by Number 2 during an interview.
A retiring
Number 2 also becomes a victim of The Village's Administration, by being under
sentence of execution, by the
Administration he had served so loyally.
In ‘A Change of Mind’ everyone in The Village is a potential
victim, should they do anything which is out of the norm, hence being posted as
disharmonious or unmutual! Those trouble-makers who continually offend, are given the treatment
known as 'Instant Social Conversion.' By this it is meant a leucotomy, to
isolate the aggressive frontal lobes. Of course there are all manner of
different therapy treatments for those citizens who are found to be in need.
Such as to counteract obsessional guilt complexes producing neurosis for
example.
There are
also those citizens who perhaps feel dissatisfied with life in the Village,
such as the shopkeeper-Number 19 or is it 56, or the painter-Number 42, who have sufficient wit to join forces
with Number 6 in order to help with his escape plan. And don't forget
all those 'jammers' whose plans and developments of all kinds of
mischief were designed to confuse the Observers. The plots were all
make-believe, non-existent. But Control couldn't know that until they'd checked
them out. They used to run themselves ragged, checking out the schemes of jammers.
But they don't do it any more. Anything Control picks up from known jammers,
they simply let ride {sounds like a perfect way to escape for a jammer!}.
Then there
is Number 51, the Watchmaker, who takes the next step and becomes an anarchist.
For in his mind he is in league with
Number 100. He makes a bomb which is housed in a replica of the Great Seal of
Office, and designed to kill the retiring Number 2 during the Appreciation Day
ceremony. This act is designed, as far as Number 51 is concerned, to wake the
Citizens up from their lethargy. Number 6 was once accused of being an anarchist,
of having a bomb, by Number 2, but that was just his paranoia!
Number 48 had been
with The Village, until he went and gone! But what employment, or
position Number 48 held in The Village can only be speculated on. Perhaps
he was a Top-Hat Official, seeing as how No.48 wore a Top Hat! And don't forget
that list of malcontents as mentioned by the interim Number 2 in ‘It's Your Funeral,’ of which Number 6 is top of the list! It would seem
that there has been an air of dissatisfaction within The Village, long before
the Prisoner-Number 6's arrival!
Be seeing you
No comments:
Post a Comment