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LITR 4368 Literature
of the Future lecture notes |
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Readings: "Hinterlands"; "Men on the Moon" (VN 238-247); "Newton's Sleep" (FP 311-338)
Discussion-starter: Tom Britt
video: Fermi Paradox (Fermi Paradox)
Belonging Kind: alien infiltration as evolution
change will happen, just not exactly the way we think it will
entertainment as play, imaginations stay lively, engaged with reality (more or less)
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)
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.
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.
Hinterlands 1.1, 2.7 human mind, drugs, computers
2.9 rituals of drugs and pockets
2. How successfully do the stories get beyond
the predictable formulas of popular
science fiction and become
literary fiction?
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)?
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.
Fermi paradox
Humans smartest thing we know, and almost impossible imagine knowing more than we do
metaphor in Hinterlands--chapter 7
world, nature so much bigger than we are, or our minds can conceive, but can't stop trying
accept facts of evolution, changing environments
but desire for more, desire to think with the mind of God
[3.8] They had better luck with the seashell. Exobiology* suddenly found itself standing on unnervingly solid ground: one and seven-tenths grams of highly organized biological information, definitely extraterrestrial. Olga's seashell generated an entire subbranch of the science, devoted exclusively to the study of . . . Olga's seashell. [*Exobiology = astrobiology, study of life in universe beyond Earth]
[8.1] Late that night Charmian brought a special kind of darkness down to my cubicle, individual doses sealed in heavy foil. It was nothing like the darkness of Big Night, that sentient, hunting dark that waits to drag the hitchhikers down to Wards, that dark that incubates the Fear. It was a darkness like the shadows moving in the back seat of your parents' car, on a rainy night when you're five years old, warm and secure.
[8.6] Olga must have known, must have seen it all, somehow. She was trying to keep us from finding our way out there, where she'd been. She knew that if we found her, we'd have to go. Even now, knowing what I know, I still want to go. I never will. But we can swing here in this dark that towers way above us, Charmian's hand in mind. Between our palms the drug's torn foil wrapper. And Saint Olga smiles out at us from the walls; you can feel her, all those prints from the same publicity shot, torn and taped across the walls of night, her white smile, forever.
extended metaphor
Hinterlands flies 7.2, 7.8
1.16] Tsiolkovsky 1 is fixed at the liberation point between Earth's gravity and the moon's, but we need a lightsail to hold us here, twenty tons of aluminum spun into a hexagon, ten kilometers from side to side. That sail towed us out from Earth orbit, and now it's our anchor. We use it to tack against the photon stream, hanging here beside the thing the point, the singularity we call the Highway. [the singularity = popular science term for advanced evolutionary-technological transformation]
[1.17] The French call it le metro, the subway, and the Russians call it the river, but subway won't carry the distance, and river, for Americans, can't carry quite the same loneliness. Call it the Tovyevski Anomaly Coordinates if you don't mind bringing Olga into it.
[1.18] Olga Tovyevski, Our Lady of Singularities, Patron Saint of the Highway.
[3.6] But when he opened her right fist, something spun free and tumbled in slow motion a few centimeters from the synthetic quartz of his faceplate. It looked like a seashell.
[3.8] They had better luck with the seashell. Exobiology* suddenly found itself standing on unnervingly solid ground: one and seven-tenths grams of highly organized biological information, definitely extraterrestrial. Olga's seashell generated an entire subbranch of the science, devoted exclusively to the study of . . . Olga's seashell. [*Exobiology = astrobiology, study of life in universe beyond Earth]
[8.1] Late that night Charmian brought a special kind of darkness down to my cubicle, individual doses sealed in heavy foil. It was nothing like the darkness of Big Night, that sentient, hunting dark that waits to drag the hitchhikers down to Wards, that dark that incubates the Fear. It was a darkness like the shadows moving in the back seat of your parents' car, on a rainy night when you're five years old, warm and secure.
"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.
Allusion
Hinterlands 1.15, 2.1, 2.8, 3.2 (Kurtz), 4.6 Bambi, 7.7
Kuhn allusion; cf. Poplar Street Study
Chocco 213 our home here on this planet
"Men on the Moon" (VN 238-247).
Originally in alternative futures section
How fit there?
Shares some reality with dominant culture, but sees it differently, reacts differently
Alt future as multicultural
Defamiliarizes technology, mission
Plus puts American space mission in historical continuum: "Space, the Final Frontier"; "New Frontier"
238 TV, Father’s Day, Sunday Mass
238 coat for 20 years
238 antenna (not cable)
238 snowing
239 two men struggling with each other. Wrestling
239 Apache Red. Chiseh tsah
239 wondered why they were fighting (x-virtual reality)
239 an object with smoke coming from it
240 didn’t know many words in Mericano
240 Faustin remembered that the evening before he had looked at the sky and seen that the moon was almost in the middle phase. . . . Are those men looking for something on the moon?
240 looking for knowledge
Faustin wondered if the men had run out of places to look for knowledge on the Earth
240 Rocks. Faustin laughed quietly
240-1 Indian school, some strange and funny things
241 The rocket was trembling and the voice was trembling.
241 voice from the TV wasn’t excited anymore . . . almost bored
242 TV, his daughter said. You watch it. You turn it on and you watch it.
Were you afraid this one-eye would be looking at you all the time? Amarosho laughed and gently patted the old man’s shoulder.
242 When he finished he studied the sky for a while.
242 That night, he dreamed.
Flintwing Boy was watching a Skquuyuh mahkina come down a hill.
243 It looks like a mahkina, but I’ve never seen one like it before. It must be some kind of Skquuyuh mahkina. [cf. Moon and America]
243 It walked over and through everything.
243 they faced east. [cf. Sun People?] Flintwing Boy said, We humble ourselves again. We look in your direction for guidance. We ask for your protection. We humble our poor bodies and spirits because only you are the power and the source and the knowledge.
244 without any rush
244 And now, Anaweh, you must go and tell everyone. Describe what you have seen. The people must talk among themselves and decide what it is about and what they will do.
244 went outside. The moon was past the midpoint
244 voice seemed to be separate from the face
245 He weighs less, the old man wondered, and there is no air except for the boxes on their backs. He looked at Amarosho but his grandson didn’t seem to be joking with him. [cf. Amarosho and Anaweh]
245 no life on the moon. Yet those men were trying to find knowledge on the moon. [i. e., no one to tell?]
245 He couldn’t figure out the mahkina. He wasn’t sure whether it could move and could cause fear. He didn’t want to ask his grandson that question.
246 Do they say why they need to know where everything began? Hasn’t anyone ever told them?
247 It’s a dream but it’s the truth, Faustin said. [cf. Revelation]
I believe you, Nana, his grandson said.
“Newton’s Sleep”
back matter: 341-352
+ fiction: dialogue of voices, views, esp. gender
Ike as dominant voice
But
Susan
Esther
Anti-Semitic voice
People left behind
Women repressed in fundamentalist state: Reason
Cryogenics
Breakdown of nation-state?
Apocalypse
Ecological disaster > depopulation?
Earth as woman / mother
Survival of fittest
Race in future / science fiction
“New Urbanism”
Escape / engage
+
fiction: dialogue of
voices, views esp. gendered
Ike as dominant voice
But
Susan
Esther
Anti-Semitic voice
People left behind
312 women and children sentimental, “homesick”
316 Susan: “I guess I’m a little afraid of oversimplifying.”
319 Susan: Her silence was almost hostile, and he resented it.
319 blames monitors
Susan: “He didn’t need to listen to the monitors.”
327 after your eye transplant . . . That would be stupid,
Esther.
328 “What if I . . .don’t want to”
328 Susan. Her mother was silent.
328 “You’ll make the reasonable choice.”
334 Helena takes over leadership of Emergency Committee
334 hallucinations > ghosts
334 bison!
335 Susan: a vine growing by the front door
Women repressed in fundamentalist state: Reason
312 women and children sentimental, “homesick”
318 The discourse concerned power, and the teachers didn’t
understand it; few women did.
321 telling ghost stories, quoting hysterical little girls
Cryogenics
313 organfreezes, fishsticks
Breakdown of nation-state?
Maybe just a fictional theme, not necessarily desirabl
World-wide human rights, then OK
If Texas doesn’t have Massachusetts, Texas still has slavery
or at least segregation; if Massachusetts doesn’t have Texas, choked on taxes
311 Government of the Atlantic Union
311 Atlantic Union > USA > Republic of California
313 resource exhaustion, population explosion, the breakdown
of government
317 Sonny was a drawling, smiling good ole boy from the CSA
[Confederate?]
Apocalypse
311 millenarian cult group
317 Down there: life, liberty, and the pursuit > Four Horsemen
Ecological disaster > depopulation?
311 depopulated chemical wastelands of the San Joaquin Valley
312 Amazon Basin. Dunes and bald red plains
312-13 “It’s
all dead.
How come everybody isn’t up here?”
“Money.”
“weren’t willing to trust reason”
313 resource exhaustion, population explosion, the breakdown
of government
313 immense dust storm, deserts of Amazonia
Earth as woman / mother
312 women and children sentimental, “homesick”
315 monitors: a lien, a tie, an
umbilicus.
I wish we could cut it.
321 “did you hear about this burned woman . . . “
325 All right, so maybe this burned woman was a black woman
Survival of fittest
322 every single person must be fit
Race in future / science fiction + rich-poor gap
312 wore glasses, like some slum kid
318 geology, not ethnicity!
320 Susan: “Ike, Spes people are very
conventional, conservative people, hadn’t you noticed?
Very elitist people.
How could we be anything but? . . . Power hierarchy,
division of labor by gender, Cartesian values, totally mid-twentieth century!” .
. . You pay for safety.”
322 lack of African-ancestry colonists: closed community
322 every single person must be fit
322 After the breakdown of public schooling during the
Refederation, blacks just didn’t get the training
322 wonderful people, of course . . . through no fault of
their own, disadvantaged from the start [irony of language]
324 those people that used to live
where that was before the desert, right.
Africa?
324 they’d been born in the Colony.
They’d never lived outside.
Esther had.
She remembered . . . cockroaches, rain, pollution
alerts, Saviora
324 Saviora: “I just be your eyes, OK? And you be my brain,
OK, in arithmetic?”
325 All right, so maybe this burned woman was a black woman
325 when all the faces in your whole world were soft and white
and fat
332 like some old tape in anthro or something
337 Esther released, little black girl came with wife’s note
“New Urbanism”
314 The Roses lived in Vermont, faced on Vermont Common [cf.
New Urbanism]
314 horizon projection
Escape / engage (escape Earth / live here)
311 Earth was not a viable option
311 liberation point
316 turn us from clinging to the past, free us toward
actuality and the future
316 What relevance is anything about
Earth going to have to those people?
They’ll be true spacedwellers
316 Susan: “I guess I’m a little afraid of oversimplifying.”
336 Susan: “If I don’t think about it
in those words. If I just look at it . . . it makes sense.
How did we, how could we have thought we could just
leave?
Who do we think we are?”
336 “Is surgery the answer to all your problems?”
338 boulder
338 “Now we can go down.”
311 Government of the Atlantic Union
311 Leap Year Coup
311 Atlantic Union > USA > Republic of California
311 millenarian cult group
311 depopulated chemical wastelands of the San Joaquin Valley
311 dometown = prototype of Special Earth Satellite
311 new epidemic
311 Earth was not a viable option
311 liberation point
311 Ramirez’s hordes had overrun Bakersfield [reversal of USA
invasion of mid-19c]
312 wore glasses, like some slum kid
312 women and children sentimental, “homesick”
312 wanted his children to see what Earth was and why they had
left it
312 Amazon Basin. Dunes and bald red plains
312-13 “It’s
all dead.
How come everybody isn’t up here?”
“Money.”
“weren’t willing to trust reason”
313 resource exhaustion, population explosion, the breakdown
of government
313 reason x luck, God, or easy fix
313 organfreezes, fishsticks
313 immense dust storm, deserts of Amazonia
313 “x-luck; x-chosen people; we chose.”
314 Susan: “And we sacrificed”
314 Ike’s mother: “Leave me to breathe smog, okay?”
314 Chicago Dome
314 rapidly mutating virus, 2 billion human deaths
Ø
slowrad syndrome and famine
314 The Roses lived in Vermont, faced on Vermont Common [cf.
New Urbanism]
314 horizon projection
315 monitors: a lien, a tie, an
umbilicus.
I wish we could cut it.
315 x-landscapes.
Let it find its own aesthetic.
316 turn us from clinging to the past, free us toward
actuality and the future
316 What relevance is anything about
Earth going to have to those people?
They’ll be true spacedwellers
316 Susan: “I guess I’m a little afraid of oversimplifying.”
316 Weather . . . that stupid, impossible unpredictability!
316-17 happy, absolutely happy . . . negative ions . . .
rational happiness
317 Down there: life, liberty, and the pursuit > Four Horsemen
317 Sonny was a drawling, smiling good ole boy from the CSA
[Confederate?]
318 The discourse concerned power, and the teachers didn’t
understand it; few women did.
318 geology, not ethnicity!
319 Susan: Her silence was almost hostile, and he resented it.
319 blames monitors
Susan: “He didn’t need to listen to the monitors.”
320 Susan: “Ike, Spes people are very
conventional, conservative people, hadn’t you noticed?
Very elitist people.
How could we be anything but? . . . Power hierarchy,
division of labor by gender, Cartesian values, totally mid-twentieth century!” .
. . You pay for safety.”
320 door of NE framehouse, but hissed open sideways
321 prochips
321 “did you hear about this burned woman . . . “
321 telling ghost stories, quoting hysterical little girls
321-22 projecting designs for second ship, rationally
beautiful, form follows function
322 lack of African-ancestry colonists: closed community
322 every single person must be fit
322 After the breakdown of public schooling during the
Refederation, blacks just didn’t get the training
322 wonderful people, of course . . . through no fault of
their own, disadvantaged from the start [irony of language]
323 only one criterion: excellence
323 a working scientist, a breeding woman, a 200-IQ kid
323 a warm body sighed inside the darkness
324 those people that used to live
where that was before the desert, right.
Africa?
324 they’d been born in the Colony.
They’d never lived outside.
Esther had.
She remembered . . . cockroaches, rain, pollution
alerts, Saviora
324 Saviora: “I just be your eyes, OK? And you be my brain,
OK, in arithmetic?”
325 All right, so maybe this burned woman was a black woman
325 when all the faces in your whole world were soft and white
and fat
325 English, the only language she
would ever know.
Roaches, rain, Spanish, all washed away
326 Her mother’s half-brother . . . my family!
Maybe the word did mean something
327 16 = age of reason
327 like he has to control everything or everything will be
out of control
327 after your eye transplant . . . That would be stupid,
Esther.
328 “What if I . . .don’t want to”
328 Susan. Her mother was silent.
328 “You’ll make the reasonable choice.”
328 the Hag? Sort of Asian, you know . . other people sitting
at the table and they were black
329 mass hallucination and environmental deprivation
330 aching need to be alone . . . just to be alone, sitting at
his Schoenfeldt screen, in the night, in peace.
331 Laxness: “our guilt.”
331 Larane: “nobody is hysterical.
These people are here.”
332 like some old tape in anthro or something
332 had on animal skins, but they were actually kind of
beautiful
332 they might be seeing us
332 people are getting closer
333 “To deny what I and the people with me see, that would be
just as insane.”
333 goldfish . . . came out of the tap
334 Helena takes over leadership of Emergency Committee
334 hallucinations > ghosts
334 bison!
335 Susan: a vine growing by the front door
335 no earth in Spes
335 Noah: “It’s going backwards, Dad: people > animals >
plants”
336 Susan: “If I don’t think about it
in those words. If I just look at it . . . it makes sense.
How did we, how could we have thought we could just
leave?
Who do we think we are?”
336 “Is surgery the answer to all your problems?”
337 Esther released, little black girl came with wife’s note
338 boulder
338 “Now we can go down.”
