LITR 4632: Literature of the Future

Final Exam Essays 2013 assignment Sample answers for Essay 1: “future scenarios”

Katasha DeRouen

Morphing: Changing to Belong

However one may view literature visions or scenarios of the future, the fact remains that the future is not definite. Throughout the course various scenarios have been offered, some sharing commonalities and others dissimilar in countless ways. A constant throughout many of the visions involves human behavior and the ability to morph, or change accustomed behaviors in order to belong and survive in the alternate future. Speech Sounds, The House of Bones, The Onion and I, and The Belonging Kind are texts within the course that typify the evolutionary adaptation and re-adaptation from a high tech virtual reality to a low tech actual reality and vice versa, using assimilation as a common trope.

Speech Sounds by Octavia E. Butler is a gripping portrayal of evolutionary adaptation from the high tech to a low tech world for means of survival. Allow for an explanative journey here. The setting of Speech Sounds indicates that before the present situation the community did operate at an intermediate level of technology, “Buses were so rare and irregular now, Cars were rare these days…” (Future Primitive 92-3). Thus, this reading can lead one to classify the “old” community as high tech, which leaves the current community deemed as the low tech society. The members of the community have lost their ability to speak, read, and write; hence, they communicate through simple grunts and exaggerated body language. The citizens’ ability to revert to primitive- like behaviors in order to survive amongst the savages lurking throughout is paramount in understanding the assimilation aspect utilized within this text. On many occasions Rye described herself as an educated and extremely literate individual. Now, in the low tech reality she has had to maintain, or re-adapt if you will, to her current surroundings, thus exuding no speech, and displaying an inability to read or write. Because she was able to adapt her behaviors and assimilate with the others she ultimately claimed survival.

The House of Bones is a scenario of assimilation for both belonging and survival. Robert Silverberg, in this text, displays for the reader the act of adapting to a low tech time from a high tech capacity. The narrator is one who has come from a familiar future enhanced with technology. He is now trapped in the primordial past where life is uncomplicated, yet surprisingly developed. He finds himself amongst a group of simple strangers who live without many of the luxuries he is accustomed to. They are a very resourceful people, and take to building their own shelter and living off the land that surrounds them. He retorts, “They’re highly skilled individuals,” as he reflects on the abilities of the group (Future Primitive 88). The main character, again from the distant high tech future, finds himself altering his behavior to now belong within this new natural world. In attempting to assimilate into the ways of the group, he has to adapt to the past, learning their old vernacular, and practicing their dated mannerisms, both new to him. He even judges himself against their standards, “I used to be considered highly skilled too, back where I came from,” thus being a strong sign of assimilation- absorbing oneself into the mainstream culture. (Future Primitive 88).

Thomas Fox Averill’s The Onion and I embodies the characteristics of a shift from the low tech vision to the high tech scenario. At textual opening, the reader gains an intimate insight of the actual life of the human family. The father is portrayed as a simple and humble man, connected to all the aspects of a real onion, from planting to consumption. The mother is technologically advanced and outgoing; thus, both lifestyles are combined with the birth of their adaptable offspring. The father is hoisted into an uncomfortable virtual reality and most remnants of his reliable actual world are erased; he is left with his only constant, the onion, which he has managed to preserve. Furthering Anonymous’ statement, as written in All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Sci-Fi “The way I see it the onion is a symbol”, the onion itself symbolizes the father’s assimilation in this piece. As the “new world” works to morph the real onion into an acceptable cyber replacement, the father is able to relate this change to one he must make within himself in order to also absorb the cyber world. Reluctantly, the father understands that the onion will still be an onion even if the superficial layers are missing. As hinted through interpretation, the onion has several layers, and no matter how many one peels, ultimately the core remains intact (organic). Just as removing the many layers of the onion doesn’t alter its core, the immersion into the virtual world will not change the father’s beliefs or passions concerning his actual world. Understanding the transformation of the onion allows the father to comfortably insert himself into the unyielding cyber world, thus embracing assimilation.

Assimilation is also prevalent within the text The Belonging Kind by John Shirley and William Gibson. Together, the authors convey the concepts of both belonging and survival in this piece. Controlled by an innate awkwardness, Coretti struggles to identify with an evolving world. He is socially awkward, and often feels as though he is better at being invisible. As he stumbles upon a creature, “Antionette” at a bar he becomes infatuated with her compelling confidence and intriguing beauty; she is who he needs to be in order to belong. As he follows her he finds that she is not one, but one of many who are able to adapt to their surroundings and blend as a member of a particular scene. Since failing to assimilate into his naturally mundane society, Coretti knows he must virtually join Antionette in order to belong. As the authors progressively communicate the story, Coretti’s evolutionary adaptation begins to take place as he morphs into a creature comparable to Antionette. Not only can Coretti now feel himself finally belonging, but he equates his belonging to his survival. Previously, before finding Antoinette he struggled to survive with in a world to which he did not belong. Now altered, he no longer has to try to adapt to belong; he now belongs to adapting, textbook assimilation.

Future vision and scenario texts often utilize assimilation in displaying the evolutionary adaptation and re-adaptation that occurs during the shift from a high tech virtual reality to a low tech actual reality, and the reverse. Authors often supply readers with a common trope to bridge the gap between the two worlds, just as the aforementioned highlights assimilation.  In past, present, and future the only constant definitive is change.