The economy in Opium is rarely, to never described in the book, I think that this is because Opium is ruled by one person whom accepts gifts as a form of respect or love. I would say that there is no economic system because it is never described or even hinted to. In the end of the book, when Tam Lin was about to let Matt escape he had just remembered he had never told matt about money (currency) and I took this as a hint to the fact the maybe Opium has no form of currency.
This led me to thinking that in what way do the people in Opium record or even determine how much something costs, and how would they pay for such item. I began to think that in Opium there is no form of currency, so that maybe people pay with respect or in return offer their labor. I began to think, what place if such a place exists would have no form of payment just like in Opium, I came up with nothing. In Canada we have the currency of the dollar or $. This form of currency is used in multiple places around the world.
Even in such a different, and extremely rare occasions would you ever stumble upon a place or even civilization in which has no form of currency. Everywhere you look there is some from of the economy, houses, clothes, phones, books, everything was paid for with currency, and that currency goes into buying more supplies and selling more materials to make what is needed. This cycle never ends. Money is always in the economy, even if there is no clear indication of that. If you have read through the whole book, you would really have to look carefully to spot a place in which Farmer describes an economy in Opium.
This post is pretty good overall, but I think you could talk more about maybe why Farmer decided to do this. Also u can talk about what she wanted you to see about Opium, like maybe she wanted you to see a sort of old caveman style place where you would barter or something for things.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jack. I like how you made connections to the text and noticed that there was no form of currency, which could lead to an inference that there is no economy. However, you could elaborate and add some personal opinion. Why do you think Farmer is doing this? What do you think life would be like without an economy? Also, you have a few grammatical errors, and the text is a little too small which makes it harder to read.
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