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LITR 4368 Literature of the Future  |
Sample answers
for Essay 1:
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Michael Bradshaw
Technology vs Community
In
our readings in Literature of the Future, we were presented with many scenarios
on both ends of the technology spectrum, from the neolithic age of House
of Bones, to the ultra tech Johnny Mnemonic. As I read
through the selections, some overarching themes began to develop. Many of the
technologically advanced stories contained characters that were much more
individualistic in nature as opposed to their low tech counterparts. The
characters of the low tech stories were very community focused. I will be using
selections from House of Bones, Chocco, and Parable of the Sower,
to illustrate my views on low tech future visions, and the short stories in
Burning Chrome, to represent high tech scenarios.
One
Family
In
many of the low tech stories we read, the characters were very close knit. Chocco
follows the story of the River People a group of people who banded
together after the "Machine People" nearly destroyed the planet. They "polluted
wide areas... causing much disease."(FP, 196). To ensure that this didn't happen
again, the River People created the role of Memory Keeper. Elizabeth L Suffron
states in her essay "Don't Run with Scissors", that a Memory Keeper "must
possess exceptional retention, rich in detail, delivering each memory
eloquent[ly] and convincing[ly]". The Memory Keeper is the most prestigious job
one can aspire to, but when Michael isn't selected as Keeper, he does not fight
it. The community is more important than self.
In
House of Bones, Gebraver is stranded in a prehistoric age and is
taken in by a tribe of primitive men, "not savages, far from it. But they aren't
even remotely like modern people." (FP,88). He was a man of many talents
"electronics, computers, and time-shift physics," (FP, *89), all of which become
hopelessly inadequate when he becomes stranded. The prehistoric people take him
in, and he learns from them how to survive in this new, old world. In turn, he
desires to teach them what he can of technology of their future. He desires to
contribute to the community which saved his life.
Lauren in Parable of the Sower, lives in a love/hate relationship
with her community at first. "Its like an island surrounded by sharks except
that sharks don't bother you unless you go in the water. But our land sharks are
on the way in. It's just a matter of how long it takes until they get hungry
enough" (Sower, 18). When the sharks found their way in, Lauren escaped and met
with some from her old community. In their travels, more came to join their
group, until they became their own small community. They looked after each
other, provided for one another, and killed to keep the community safe.
Survival of the Fittest
By
contrast, community has little to do with many of the high tech scenarios read
by the class. The characters from William Gibson's Burning Chrome anthology
all showed an independent streak. They are driven by their own desires and
goals, and pursue them regardless of what, or who gets in their way. Other
people are, at best, bystanders, or obstacles, and at worst, targets.
The
titular character in Johnny Mnemonic, is marked for death by the
Yakuza for information stored in his head, that he can't even access. "I had
hundreds of megabytes stashed in my head on an idiot/savant basis, information I
had no conscious access to." (JM 1.5). "Client's code is stored in a special
chip... Can't drug it out, cut it out, torture it. I don't know it. Never
did." (JM 4.6). He is saved by Molly Millions who he offers two million. Molly
also want to kill the Yakuza hit man who is targeting Johnny. "I'm gonna get
that boy. Tonight. He's the best, number one, top dollar, state of the art." (JM
3.3). Molly shoots heroin into a junkie dolphin and endangers a gang of Low Teks
in order to put the assassin in an advantageous position for her to fight and
kill him. In doing so, Molly gets the Yakuza off Johnny's back, but that was
secondary to the fight. She had to know if she was better than the assassin, and
she risked her life to find out.
In
Burning Chrome, hackers went after and underworld boss' computer in
cyberspace in order to intercept steal the money she was laundering for
organized crime. Chrome, their target, in addition to money laundering, ran a
new age brothel where the prostitutes are rendered unconscious, and used as
living sex dolls. " I tried not to imagine her in the House of Blue Lights,
working three hour shifts in an approximation of REM sleep, while her body and a
bundle of conditioned reflexes took care of business. The customers never got to
complain she was faking it, because those were real orgasms... Yeah, its so
popular, its almost legal." (BC 194). Chrome doesn't care what happens to these
women, just as Bobby and Jack don't care that clearing out her accounts is
essentially the same as murdering Chrome. "I though about Chrome too That we'd
murdered her, as surely as if we'd slit her throat... We'd taken her for
everything she had... I doubted she'd live till dawn." (BC 181.) Whether it was
Bobby and Jack, Chrome, or the customers at the House of Blue Lights, everyone
had their own desires, and it didn't matter what happened to others, as long as
those desires were met.
The
world of Hinterlands, is so obsessed with acquiring alien
artifacts and technology that they regularly sacrifice astronauts and cosmonauts
in order to possibly acquire more. The space travelers all come back either
dead, or mentally damaged beyond repair. "Our DOA count is twenty percent.
Suicide. Seventy percent of the meatshots are automatic candidates for Wards:
the diaper cases, mumblers, totally gone. Charmian and I are surrogates for the
other ten percent. (H 5.8). The surrogate program is a token gesture of aid for
people who may have a chance of recovery. None have ever recovered. "She
(Charmian) holds the current record; she kept a man alive for two weeks, until
he put his eyes out with his thumbs." (H 8.4). Despite all of this, the benefits
to sending people to the Highway, as the area of space where the transportation
takes place is called, are deemed to outweigh the risks. "...a dead Frenchmen
returned with a twelve centimeter ring of magnetically coded steel.. that ring
was the Rosetta Stone for cancer." (H 6.1). There is also no shortage of
volunteers. The surrogates are people who tried to make the trip but, for some
reason were not selected by the unknown force. Toby, the narrator states, "Even
now, knowing what I know, I still want to go." (H 8.6).
The
Safety to be Selfish
Perhaps technology has enabled this individualism. The River People had to band
together to survive after the Machine People scorched the earth. The early men
in House of Bones formed a community for protection against a
newer earth that was still an ever present threat to their existence. Even
Lauren and her followers had to protect each other from wild dogs, forest fires,
and other people who had regressed to an almost feral state. On the other hand,
Molly Millions's cyberware made her the most dangerous person in any given
situation, so she desired to eliminate the only other potential threat to her
dominance. Bobby and Jack, could destroy lives from miles away, and if they were
able to mask their presence, no one would ever know it was them. The people of
Hinterlands, can continue to send countless brave or foolish
volunteers to the Highway, and reap the benefits as their broken shells return.
Perhaps with no inherent struggle for survival, humans must contrive some
struggle of their own. Without the need for the protection of the community, the
individual is free to seek his or her own interests.
