This is a question in my mind: What is the opposite of Uplift? Is it Putdown? Some books so obviously fall into the Absolute-Opposite-of-Uplift category, and I would like a name for it.
Why this negative stuff? I thought this was an uplifting blog?
In order to understand what is uplifting, I think I need to look with clear eyes at what isn’t.
First, What is Uplift? in my context. In the strictest literary sense, they are speculative fiction (fantasy and science fiction) where one species of being lifts another species into intelligence or expanded sentience. In my looser sense, books that ‘uplift’, can be fiction or not. They uplift their characters, or their imaginary world, or they uplift me — the reader.
A New Name?
So what is the opposite of Uplift? In a book, it is to consciously (or not) attempt to push down another being. Or group of beings. Or maybe even bring them to extinction. Or wipe out their intelligence.
Maybe Put-down. That’s already a word, so I could use that. Or a push-down, which contains a bit more negative intent to my ear. (PLEASE drop a comment if you think of another name!) For this post, I’ll use Put-Down for now.
An Example of Put-Down
Connected to this question, I would like to offer a brief review of a children’s classic that is loved by many: The Lemming Condition by Alan Arkin, a children’s book from 1976. Lemmings are a type of short-tailed vole, a mouse-like rodent in the Artic north.
The book tells a story of a lemming village that kills itself en masse, with pictures for children. Fluctuations in Artic lemming populations most likely led to the “the idea” of their sacrifice. A 1958 movie attempted to show it happening, and turned into a mass-killing created by Walt Disney filmmakers of White Wilderness, which won an Oscar. The cameraman admitted that they had forced the animals off the cliffs some years later.
It was even written up by a wide-eyed, believing New York Times in 1976, with nary a word to object that the farse of the Disney film was now being fed in a children’s book. https://www.nytimes.com/1976/05/02/archives/the-lemming-condition.html?smid=url-share
CONTENT WARNING: Graphic/Cruelty to Animals (hidden but still obvious)
From the movie to the book was 19 years, and in that time “the idea” was solidified in people’s minds. If you call someone a lemming, it still means that they mindlessly follow the crowd. Cute graphics and creative narratives follow as an earnest, young lemming named Bubber rebels against the instinctual desire to launch into the Western sea and ultimately Bubber leaves his home overwhelmed by powerlessness. He heads East!
A Disney short and a children’s book carry out character assassination of an entire species.
You might say I am being overly negative. You might be right. Most reviewers love the book as an allegory for fighting against society when society has got it wrong. I wonder how many people even stop to think about the effect this has had on the animal world. On the lemming itself.
I think the only saving grace is the message of Bubber, “Not anymore. I am not a lemming anymore.” Perhaps this is a message that humanity needs to hear through the timid voice of a small rodent. To help us hear. To hear that we are the lemmings. Only then maybe can we do something about it.
Plato’s POV: Opposite-of-Uplift in White Wilderness & The Lemming Condition.
Who? A species was diminished, their intelligence reduced in our minds at least. And it was done by killing many on film. Bubber was unable to stop his community from mass suicide.
Why? For Walt Disney: Money? An Oscar? For Alan Arkin: an allegory to benefit humanity.
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