LITR 4632 Literature of the Future
scenario: alien contact & near-contact: "Homelanding," (VN 3-7)."They're Made out of Meat," (VN 69-72)."The Poplar Street Study" (VN 140-148); "The Belonging Kind" (BC 43-57).
Most of our time units are based on astronomy
1 day = 1 rotation of the Earth (night and day, light and shadow)
1 month = approximately 1 complete revolution of the moon (month = moonth)
1 year = 1 revolution of earth around sun.
Today is my wife's 55th birthday. She has completed 55 trips around the sun.
Exception (non-astronomical units of time)
The week as 7 days has no observable basis in nature
Instead, cultural or scriptural < Genesis account of God creating world in 6 days, resting on 7th
Futurists like H. G. Wells have proposed 10-day weeks (with 3 day weekends)
instructor's questions
How does the unknown become known? (look for metaphors)
Does apocalypse become evolutionary adaptation?
aliens change environment--do humans adapt?
Risky for a present generation to tell the coming generation what's desirable. What we think of as adaptive or correct behavior and equipment may not be so in a changed environment.
In "Poplar Street," Sunny is a bad our out-of-control kid in the pre-alien environment. But her dangerous attributes adapt to the alien environment.
For instance, instead of obeying her parents and doing as the previous generations model, she observes the new circumstances
Parents' generation reaction:
Poplar Street 147 entitled to explanation
Poplar Street 147 “You’ve no right . . . “
Poplar Street 148 [Mrs. D] could easily dominate . . . if dressed appropriately
Poplar Street 150 weapons?
Poplar Street 150 cf. Twilight Zone
aliens: 147 “these things are no longer necessary”
Poplar Street 145 Sunny was the first child to defy her parents and venture outdoors
Poplar Street 157 children proving adaptable
Poplar Street 158 Sunny who mediated
Poplar Street 158 discovered patterns
Poplar Street 158 used expertise to bully the grownups
Poplar Street 158 began to seem natural to listen to Sunny
"humanization" of aliens
Poplar Street 156 regrettable, enjoyed
Poplar Street 157 interesting
Poplar Street 157 thoughtful
Resist or join up?
Poplar Street 158 Mr. Anderson = Messiah or experiment?
Poplar Street 158 living with Aliens
Belonging 45 mimetic
Belonging 49 human fixtures. Functions of the bar. The belonging kind.
Who are the aliens?
Infinitely adaptable forms
Ultimate thought experiment
"too crazy"--?
What's the use of reading stories that cross you up so much?
Literature of the future--it's not going to be this way,
But Pride & Prejudice not the way it was in 1800s in England
Huck Finn not the way it was in pre-Civil War America
But as close as most people get
critical thinking is modeled--Sunny watches and adapts rather than remembering what her parents told her
Literature provides a place where you can differ but keep talking
Since "it's just a story," the stakes aren't as high as in bridge-building
Literature entertains and instructs
But condition, train, exercise mind for various possibilities
Literature is like play, but purposeful play
Art imitates reality
An imitation of reality for the sake of learning about and shaping reality
Don't give you the answer for what the future will be
Defense of study of literature, art, humanities
"tell us the right answer"
the answer will change, the world has already changed since I asked the question
> learn how to think
meet the future on its own terms as well as ours
"Homelanding," (VN 3-7)
Atwood 3 Where should I begin?
Atwood 3 you have never been there
Atwood 3 only your reflection (?)
Atwood 3 fur [hair] evolved, no functional purpose, probably decorative
Atwood 4 appendage > prong; pocket or cavern
Atwood 4 tourists [ET’s?]
Atwood 6 some visitors have never heard of death
Atwood 6 you too much have death
Atwood 6 halfway language
Atwood 7 death is our common ground
Atwood 7 from another planet
Atwood 7 take me to your trees
main point? Difficulty of explaining world / being to people without starting point
def. Prong [ME pronge]
1. Fork
2. A tine of a fork
3. a slender pointed or projecting part as
a. a fang of a tooth
b. a point of an antler
prong, vb. To stab, pierce, or break up with a prong
"The Poplar Street Study" (VN 140-148)
Poplar Street 140 nice lawns; gunfire, dogfight
Poplar Street 141 trouble center of block
Poplar Street 141 professionals, gone all day & tired at night
Poplar Street 142 not a social unit
Poplar Street 142 “Father Knows Best” reruns
Poplar Street 143 totally ineffectual in controlling her daughter
Poplar Street 143 car went dead
Poplar Street 143 enormous presence on the Desmonds’ lawan
piece of modern sculpture, huge, iridescent
Poplar Street 144 cf. 8-foot mood ring
Poplar Street 144 bulges = eyes
small, metallic boxes
Poplar Street 144 rubbing arms together; mechanical voice
Poplar Street 145 Sunny: “Gross out, really.”
Poplar Street 145 “We’re surrounded.”
Poplar Street 145 other blocks deserted?
Poplar Street 145 Sunny was the first child to defy her parents and venture outdoors
Poplar Street 146 aloft at moment of freezing
Poplar Street 146 the Andersons might be the key
Poplar Street 146 a professional, self-confidence
Poplar Street 147 entitled to explanation
Poplar Street 147 “these things are no longer necessary”
Poplar Street 147 “You’ve no right . . . “
Poplar Street 148 [Mrs. D] could easily dominate . . . if dressed appropriately
Poplar Street 149 [Sunny blurts]
Poplar Street 149 Sunny & Mother’s beer
+ Sunny observes
“They all look alike”—“Not to me.”
Poplar Street 149 “a force field” < Star Trek
+ fantasies of adventure-romance
Poplar Street 150 weapons?
Poplar Street 150 cf. Twilight Zone
Poplar Street 150 “Why did aliens invade a suburban neighborhood?”
Poplar Street 151 “Except for Sunny what?” 152 TV = routine; welcome programming suggestion
+ Sunny
Poplar Street 153 weekly physicals
Poplar Street 154 rat food . . . lab rats . . . a study
Poplar Street 154 just physicals x premonitions
Poplar Street 154 Whitman’s candies . . . hidden, must hunt
Poplar Street 154 Sunny: “I will”
Poplar Street 155 Sunny: “I get all the chocolate creams”
Poplar Street 155 never see Sunny stifled like that
Poplar Street 156 additional testing
Poplar Street 156 control group; necessary to remove you
Poplar Street 156 regrettable, enjoyed
Poplar Street 157 interesting
Poplar Street 157 children proving adaptable
Poplar Street 157 thoughtful
Poplar Street 157 Five years passed before they saw him on Poplar Street again
Poplar Street 158 Sunny who mediated
Poplar Street 158 discovered patterns
Poplar Street 158 used expertise to bully the grownups
Poplar Street 158 began to seem natural to listen to Sunny
Poplar Street 158 Mr. Anderson = Messiah or experiment?
Poplar Street 158 living with Aliens
"The Belonging Kind" (BC 43-57);
Belonging 43 she swam . . . she moved through her natural element
Belonging 43 linguistics . . . sequencing and options
Belonging 44 clothing was a language [code] [cyberpunk; virtual reality]
Belonging 44 that night, her eyes were green
Belonging 44-5 a face like an animal’s, beautiful, but simple, cunning, two-dimensional
Belonging 45 linguistic tic
Belonging 45 too perfect a shift in phrasing and inflection
Belonging 45 mimetic
Belonging 46 she began to change
Belonging 47 entire prescribed sequence
Belonging 48 the only one to follow her change [Gibson style: iconic woman]
Belonging 48 couldn’t feel the alcohol much tonight
Belonging 48 their lips didn’t move till he was within earshot
Belonging 49 human fixtures. Functions of the bar. The belonging kind.
Belonging 49 a gap in their camouflage
Belonging 50 metamorphosed
Belonging 50 they were old now
Belonging 50 evening dress and dark suit
Belonging 51 jealousy for conformity; human wallpaper
Belonging 51 not drunk at all
Belonging 54 with sleep all spurious humanity had vanished
They were roosting
Belonging 56 the summons had come
Belonging 57 total cellular communion . . . mating
Belonging 57 And he said it right. Like a real human being.
"They're Made out of Meat," (VN 69-72)
all dialogue
Meat 69 probed them all the way through [humor: "cavity search"]
Meat 69 radio signals? Messages to stars?
Ř from machines
Meat 69 sentient meat?
Meat 70 a meat stage? Cf. orfolei
Meat 70 thinking meat?
Meat 70 explore universe, contact other sentiences, swap ideas and information. The usual.
Meat 71 meat sounds . . . singing meat
Meat 71 [mission] contact, welcome, log in all sentient races or multibeings without prejudice, fear, or favor
Ř erase records and forget whole thing
Meat 71 being meat, they can only travel through C space . . . limits. Makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal
Meat 71 So we just pretend there’s no one home in the universe
Meat 72 meat’s dream
Meat 72 marked the entire sector unoccupied
Meat 72 hydrogen core cluster intelligence
in contact 2 galactic rotations ago
Meat 72 Imagine how unbearably . . . unutterably cold the universe would be if one were alone
William Bazemore
6-28-07
“Discussion-Starter”
In both Homelanding and They’re Made of Meat, did you find the alien’s accurate description of humanity odd? Do you think this is because we humans lack the capacity to describe our existence without using humanist terms or simply put; we don’t have anyone to describe ourselves to?
Do you think that the underlying message in both the Homelanding and They’re Made of Meat stories is that if we perceive an alien lacks all the defining characteristics of what we define as life, communication becomes impossible?
Ex. In VB pg. 7 – “It’s this knowledge of death where we overlap. Death is our common ground. Together, on it, we can walk forward.”
In VB pg. 70 – “Yes thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat! Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal!”
Do you think in the story The Poplar Street Study, Mr. Anderson was right and the controlled experiment was tainted because the aliens couldn’t perceive that the lack of freedom, and intrinsic quality found in civilization? VB pg. 157 forth paragraph
Do you think the suburbs are the best place to find a model example of human civilization?