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LITR 4368 Literature
of the Future lecture notes |
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Last class: study of utopia / ecotopia in a dystopian natural landscape
denial or despair? > thought-experiments on how to live differently, sustainably
learn how to talk about what we don't know how to talk about
last class: "crash" > "crunch"
suffering > wisdom
two enormous and related crises that threaten civilization, cultural evolution, progress
climate change: whole economy centered around cheap, portable energy source
makes some people very rich > politicians, media get bought
literature can seem escapist but, if it matters to us, it's because literature talks about the dangerous real world in symbols or representations or stories that we can process and share
stories or narratives as problem-solving
Purpose of web links
Class discussion rich and stimulating to individual thought
students come to class with varying preparation and motivation > capability to put together what we're doing or to want to
wide-ranging but potentially disjointed or at loose ends
may enjoy experience more than lecture, but may not be clear what was learned
as instructor, try to reinforce continuing themes or make connections, but students may or may not catch
instructional links as outlines of terms, themes, points
exams as demonstrations of learning
What have you learned, and can you explain so that your reader learns from you?
The more confident students are in their content, the better their writing becomes.
Discussion Questions: 1. What do we learn about ourselves and the unknown as a result of reading Alien Contact stories about the future?
1a.
How does outer-space sf change our view of humanity
on earth? If humans and aliens represent
"the self and the other,"
what do "they" reveal about "us?"
1b. What literary techniques make you
understand, care, and learn about the unknown? (e.g.,
metaphor, allusion,
irony,
the sublime)
1c.
Given the
scale and majesty of the universe, how much does alien contact
literature feel religious in some sense?
2. How successfully do the stories get beyond the predictable formulas of popular science fiction and become literary fiction?
2a. How much do the characters escape the good guy-bad guy-confused woman characterization of popular science fiction or the aliens-as-terrorists models from The War of the Worlds, Independence Day or other standard "Earth vs. Aliens" movies in which aliens automatically appear as apocalyptic terrorists or as innocent child-like wise men (e.g., E.T., Yoda)?
General pop-culture questions:
3. Since alien-visitation or "contact" is about as true or likely as ghost stories but is frequently represented in popular literature and film, what purposes does this subject serve for us? Why do we prefer stories about aliens to stories about our environment?
4. What dimensions of time or narratives of the future do aliens represent? How do they represent our future narratives of apocalypse, evolution, or alternative futures?
5. How do today's readings fulfill today's scenario for Alien Contact?
1. What do we learn about ourselves and the unknown as a result of reading Alien Contact stories about the future?
1a. How does outer-space sf change our view of humanity on earth? If humans and aliens represent "the self and the other," what do "they" reveal about "us?"
Belonging
5 he dressed like a Martian
43 cold irony of the fact that it was he, Coretti, the Martian dresser, the eavesdropper, the outsider, the one whose clothes and conversation never fit, who had at last guessed their secret.
1b. What literary techniques make you understand, care, and learn about the unknown? (e.g., metaphor, allusion, irony, the sublime)
Poplar 158 like wind in trees > thoughtful
Belonging 1 She swam > 5 undersea light
2 as if
5 Clothing was a language and Coretti a kind of sartorial stutterer, unable to make the kind of basic coherent fashion statement
31 dived into the thick of the crowd. The shifting throng closed about her like something molten.
70 But a kind of slit widened. . . . as the man unfolded it, like the wings of a moth just emerging from the chrysalis.
1c. Given the scale and majesty of the universe, how much does alien contact literature feel religious in some sense?
72 in contact 2 galactic rotations ago (galactic year)
2. How successfully do the stories get beyond the predictable formulas of popular science fiction and become literary fiction?
Meat crosses up self & other, they're the superior race but not necessarily hostile, just superior
all dialogue
Meat 69 probed them all the way through [humor: "cavity search"]
Belonging
9 A face like an animal's. A beautiful face, but simple, cunning, two-dimensional.
42 for the first time, Coretti knew what they were, what they must be. They were the kind you see in bars who seem to have grown there, who seem genuinely at home there. Not drunks, but human fixtures. Functions of the bar. The belonging kind.
65 Coretti found her at 2:15 on a Wednesday morning, in a gay bar [romance narrative?]
2a. How much do the characters escape the good guy-bad guy-confused woman characterization of popular science fiction or the aliens-as-terrorists models from The War of the Worlds, Independence Day or other standard "Earth vs. Aliens" movies in which aliens automatically appear as apocalyptic terrorists or as innocent child-like wise men (e.g., E.T., Yoda)?
Poplar
Sunny as brat > leader
Mr. Anderson as Messiah or experiment?
Belonging 4 lectured in introductory linguistics; he could talk with the head of his department about sequencing and options in conversational openings. But he could never talk to strangers in bars or at parties
19 The part of Coretti that was dialectologist stirred uneasily; too perfect a shift in phrasing and inflection.
2b. How can you identify William Gibson's style from our previous readings ("The Gernsback Continuum"; "Johnny Mnemonic"; "Burning Chrome") to "The Belonging Kind" and "Hinterlands"? Consider extended metaphor and anti-hero characterization.
8 a thirtyish man with thinning dark hair
20 totally unconvincing tough-guy mode, "Michael Coretti."
46-7 bird trilling . . . nest
75 They were roosting.
General pop-culture questions:
3. Since alien-visitation or "contact" is about as true or likely as ghost stories but is frequently represented in popular literature and film, what purposes does this subject serve for us? Why do we prefer stories about aliens to stories about our environment?
more direct conflict
shorter time scales, story needs to move
4. What dimensions of time or narratives of the future do aliens represent? How do they represent our future narratives of apocalypse, evolution, or alternative futures?
Poplar
148 Mrs. D. dominates
150 x-adapt, Twilight Zone
157 children adaptable
158 Sunny adapts > superior
158 Mrs. Natt adapts (learned)
158 Messiah (apoc) + end of the world
Belonging
12 [mimetic or imitative behavior as adaptation]
25 there, in the light of a streetlamp, like a stage light, that she began to change
28 disco . . . environment
49 metamorphosed
5. How do today's readings fulfill today's scenario for Alien Contact?
Meat 70 explore universe
71 mission + irony
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"--?
"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?
Ø 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
Ø 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 (galactic year)
Meat 72 Imagine how unbearably . . . unutterably cold the universe would be if one were alone
"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"
1 she moved through her natural element, one bar after another.
4 community college, lectured in introductory linguistics
5 Clothing was a language . . . His ex-wife told him he dressed like a Martian; that he didn't look as though he belonged anywhere in the city. . . . [compare to evolutionary creature failing to adapt to environment]
7 erection [evolution as mating]
[9] Beside him, in the dark clarity of the mirror, the green-eyed woman looked like Irma La Douce [French prostitute, 1963 film]. But looking closer, studying her face, he shivered. A face like an animal's. A beautiful face, but simple, cunning, two-dimensional. When she senses you're looking at her, Coretti thought, she'll give you the smile, disdainful amusement or whatever you'd expect.
[12] "You would, um, like to buy me a drink? Why, how kind of you," she said, astonishing him. "That would be very nice." [mimetic or imitative behavior as adaptation]
26 she began to change
27 her movements began subtly to take on a new rhythm
28 an environment designed for complete satisfaction-in-distraction
[30] She moved in perfect accord with the music, striking a series of poses; she went through the entire prescribed sequence, gracefully but not artfully, fitting in perfectly. Always, always fitting in perfectly. Her companion danced mechanically, moving through the ritual with effort.
[33] But the alcohol seemed to have had no effect on her at all.
. . .
[37] He drank the bourbon and ordered another. He couldn't feel the alcohol much tonight.
[42] And for the first time, Coretti knew what they were, what they must be. They were the kind you see in bars who seem to have grown there, who seem genuinely at home there. Not drunks, but human fixtures. Functions of the bar. The belonging kind.
[43] Something in him yearned for a confrontation. He reached his table, but found himself unable to sit down. He turned, took a deep breath, and walked woodenly toward the bar. He wanted to tap her on her smooth shoulder and ask who she was, and exactly what she was, and point out the cold irony of the fact that it was he, Coretti, the Martian dresser, the eavesdropper, the outsider, the one whose clothes and conversation never fit, who had at last guessed their secret.
[46] The two seats beyond her companion were quickly taken by a couple who were talking politics. Antoinette and Golf Shirt took up the political theme seamlessly. recycling, speaking just loudly enough to be overheard. Her face, as she spoke, was expressionless. A bird trilling on a limb.
[47] She sat so easily on her stool, as if it were a nest [extended metaphor]. Golf Shirt paid for the drinks. He always had the exact change, unless he wanted to leave a tip. Coretti watched them work their way methodically through six cocktails each, like insects feeding on nectar. But their voices never grew louder, their cheeks didn't redden, and when at last they stood, they moved without a trace of drunkenness—a weakness, thought Coretti, a gap in their camouflage.
[49] As they entered Waylon's, they metamorphosed so quickly that Coretti had trouble following the stages of the change.
59 If he saw her, he didn't recognize her.
65 strange pride he now felt in her and her kind. Here, too, she belonged.
[70] In the dim glow of the cab's dome light he watched closely as the man reached into his coat for the fare. Coretti could see the coat's lining clearly and it was one piece with the angora sweater. No wallet bulged there, and no pocket. But a kind of slit widened. It opened as the man's fingers poised over it, and it disgorged money. Three bills, folded, were extruded smoothly from the slit. The money was slightly damp. It dried, as the man unfolded it, like the wings of a moth just emerging from the chrysalis.
[72] The lobby was deserted and the desk clerk bent over a crossword. The couple drifted silently across the lobby and into the elevator, Coretti close behind. Once he tried to catch her eye, but she ignored him. And once, as the elevator rose seven floors above Coretti's own, she bent over and sniffed at the chrome wall ashtray, like a dog snuffling at the ground.
[75] No light burned in that room, but the city's dim neon aura filtered in through venetian blinds and allowed him to see the faces of the dozen or more people who sat perched on the bed and the couch and the armchairs and the stools in the kitchenette. At first he thought that their eyes were open, but then he realized that the dull pupils were sealed beneath nictitating membranes, third eyelids [as in reptiles or birds] that reflected the faint shades of neon from the window. They wore whatever the last bar had called for; shapeless Salvation Army overcoats sat beside bright suburban leisurewear, evening gowns beside dusty factory clothes, biker's leather by brushed Harris tweed. With sleep, all spurious humanity had vanished. They were roosting.
76 something called to him across the distance, promising rest and peace and belonging. And still he hesitated, shaking with an indecision that seemed to rise from the genetic core of his body's every cell.
[81] Sometimes, at dawn, perched on the edge of his unmade bed, drifting into sleep—he never slept lying down, now—he thought about her. Antoinette. And them. The belonging kind. Sometimes he speculated dreamily. . . . Perhaps they were like house mice, the sort of small animal evolved to live only in the walls of man-made structures.
[82] A kind of animal that lives only on alcoholic beverages. With peculiar metabolisms they convert the alcohol and the various proteins from mixed drinks and wine and beers into everything they need. And they can change outwardly, like a chameleon or a rockfish, for protection. So they can live among us. And maybe, Coretti thought, they grow in stages. In the early stages seeming like humans, eating the food humans eat, sensing their difference only in a vague disquiet of being an outsider.
[83] A kind of animal with its own cunning, its own special set of urban instincts. And the ability to know its own kind when they're near. Maybe.
Galaxies, groups of galaxies prep: space / time intimately related (remember Time
Machine re 4th dimension, but not really) humans can't think very far or deep in time, but knowledge of
cosmic or outer space helps Our universe 12-20 billion years old Farthest objects 12-20 billion light years away (light year as
distance light travels in a year . . . 186,000 miles per second) (equivalence of age and distance helps comprehend space as
time, time as space)
Andromeda Galaxy, "sister galaxy" to our own Milky Way galaxy Milky Way 100-400 billion stars; 50 billion+ planets (estimate
. . . more are actually being observed every year) Milky Way / Andromeda spiral galaxies
thanks to
http://www.universetoday.com/65601/where-is-earth-in-the-milky-way/
Composite fish-eye image of Milky Way galaxy from southern
hemisphere. Some dwarf galaxies 10 million stars Some giant galaxies 100 trillion (Meat 72 galactic rotations (225-250 million earth years) The star nearest to our star, Proxima Centauri, is 4.2 light years away.
A space shuttle flying at its normal speed would need 150,000 years to reach
Proxima Centauri. 200 billion galaxies in observable universe distance across a galaxy overwhelms human mind;
distance between galaxies is far greater . . . .
All true according to empirical measurements, but . . . How much difference does knowledge make? Humans evolved without knowing this; not essential to our
daily lives; cf. arguments over Creation / Evolution
Hubble Ultra-Deep Field of Ancient Galaxies
(formed shortly after Big Bang,
app. 13 billion years ago)