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LITR 4368 Literature of the Future  |
Sample answers
for Essay 1:
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Holly Williams
You Can’t Have One Without The Other
Because the future is a constant unknown, various scenarios are constituted in
literature as science fiction that portray different visions of what the future
could hold. Different scenarios such as
high-tech & virtual reality and
low-tech & actual reality shape the future as depicted in the narratives
House of Bones, Chocco, The Onion and I,
and Drapes and Folds. These two
scenarios are individually on complete opposite ends of the spectrum, but you
cannot have one without the other. In each of the narratives, there is always a
shift from one to the other constituting in a change or an adaption, also known
as evolution. And isn’t evolution the main theme in science fiction scenarios of
the future? The only constant in life is change and the reader begins to see
this recurring theme throughout each of the “literature of the future”
narratives. Each new scenario involves a shift into a utopian world, where the
world is evolving for the better, or a dystopian world, where the world is
rapidly declining. Each has different literary appeals to different readers that
teach very different lessons.
When the reader thinks of the two terms
high-tech & virtual reality and
low-tech & actual reality
interchangeably, there is a correspondence between the two, despite the fact
each are totally different scenarios. Virtual reality coincides with terms such
as high-tech or
cyberpunk which are set in a plot
that is far fetched from reality. According to Dr. White, virtual reality is
specifically a media simulation of actual reality. Basically, virtual reality is
a world (or state) virtually created by technology and can be manipulated by
man. Virtual reality is on the opposite end of the spectrum from actual reality.
Actual reality is the ecological world we, as humans, live in. This reality is
not tangible and cannot be entirely manipulated by man. Dr. White contrasts the
two realities by stating, “in place of virtual reality’s escapism into a
fantastic cyberspace, low-tech
science fiction and speculative fiction encourage a re-engagement in actual
reality” (White, 2015). Though high-tech
and low-tech scenarios are
certainly different, they need each other to exist.
In each of the narratives, there is a shift from one scenario to the
other in some fashion. Without high-tech,
there is not a low-tech scenario
because each are dependent on each other. For example, in the narrative
House of Bones, Robert Silverberg’s
main character Gebravar makes the shift from a future technological world to the
primordial past reflecting an alteration from a
high-tech future to a
low-tech past. There would not be a
shift to a low-tech or primordial
past if a high-tech or technological
future did not exist. Now Gebravar is faced with living tribal and assimilating
to the lifestyle of Zeus’s tribe, along with learning a new language and
adapting to life in that period of time. The reader sees the same shift in
The Onion and I except in this
narrative Thomas Averill sets up the plot to shift from
low-tech actual reality to a
high-tech virtual reality. In this
narrative, the entire family assimilates to a virtual reality lifestyle, some
voluntarily and some not. The mother of the story is technologically advanced
and convinces her entire family to dissolve their actual life in reality and
conform to their new life in virtual reality. Each cannot exist on their own,
but rather they coexist together. The significance of shifting from
high-tech to
low-tech or vice versa is the
constant evolutionary aspects each one portrays. The characters in each of these
narratives are having to adapt to their new environment whether it is
voluntarily or involuntarily as we see in
Drapes and Folds where Pearl is against forming to the new world that is
becoming high-tech.
When dealing with evolutionary conditions, the general goal is to move
towards a utopian society, where things are changing and adapting for the
better. We see this in the narrative
Chocco where the world shifts from
high-tech to a low-tech society,
where the people of Chocco worship Gaia, the living earth-world. After the
devastation of the machine people, the people of Chocco have stripped away all
technological and physical artifacts to live earthly and respect the biological
remains of the world to keep their life intact. Ernest Callenbach used the
transition of a high-tech world into
a low-tech world to demonstrate the
dystopia our present world is heading into. Callenbach uses the fall of
the high-tech world to lead into the
adaptation of the low-tech world to exhibit evolution. Another example of
this transition is demonstrated in the narrative
Drapes and Folds except the world is
moving from a utopian lifestyle into a dystopian lifestyle. The catch is that
one person’s utopia may be another person’s dystopia. For example, in
Drapes and Folds, Pearl is one of the
elderly who lived in the world before it morphed into a
high-tech reality. She struggles to
adapt to her new environment and tries to hang on to artifacts, such as her
fabrics, to cling to her utopian life before it changed into such a dystopian
world. While Pearl is living a dystopian life, her granddaughter, who was born
in the new generation, is living a utopian life and could not imagine her life
any different.
A dystopian narrative can appear as a warning of the direction the world
can change into in the future and lend itself as a what-not-to-do in a sense.
For example in the narrative Chocco,
where the world ended for the machine people who relied so heavily on
technology, is a warning for the technological present world we live in
currently where technology is increasing at an exponential rate. Shifting from
the wipe out of the machine people into a utopian world based on a lifestyle
that revolves around preserving the earth can be a warning of our disconnect
from the real world in our present time. A utopian narrative can appear as
what-to-do in a sense where the world is not completely doomed and we still have
hope for a better world. The narrative
Chocco is also an indication of a utopian world, or a what-to-do in that
type of situation. Utopian narratives have literary appeal to many readers
because it instills a sense of hope. Just as
high-tech cannot exist without
low-tech, a utopian world cannot
exist without a dystopian world. The two go hand in hand with each other even
though they are polar opposites. In Rachel Jungklaus’
Does Utopia Exist, she explains how
one cannot exist without the other and how “every utopia has an underbelly or an
outside where those who do not cooperate go” (Jungklaus, 2013). The world will
never be in perfect harmony, because every individual has individual wants and
needs that will never be satisfied. Veronica Nadalin, in her final essay
One and the Same, makes a great
statement when she states, “thinking that there is one utopia that would make
everyone happy is far-fetched and, with the reading of this course,
impossible. No matter how hard a person, group, or government tries, not
everyone can be pleased” (Nadalin, 2009).
Nobody can foresee the future, so what do we do? We create the future in
literary terms with different scenarios of what
could happen. Whether that is done in
a high-tech virtual reality or a
low-tech actual reality, each has
different literary appeals. Each narrative displays a shift from one to the
other, because each cannot exist without the other. Just as
high-tech and
low-tech coexist together, a utopia
cannot exist without a dystopia and vice versa. Each narrative shapes a utopia
or a dystopia in which they lend themselves to different end goals. What is your
end goal?
