LITR 4632 Literature of the Future

Sample Final Exams 2005

Bryan Hyde

Literature of the Future Final Exam

Start Time: 12:20

John Milton once said, "Loneliness is the first thing which God's eye named, not good.”  The implication, of course, is that since the beginning of time, loneliness has been a problem, perhaps the problem that man must constantly face and overcome.  As early as Adam in the Garden of Eden, man has longed for human companionship above all else.  All men in all times have struggled to find a place to belong in this vast, empty universe.  This is one of the main focuses of any good literature, and literature written about the future is no exception because, when all of the technology and complex terminology is stripped away, the reader is left with the human condition in the future, laid bare and found to be just as vulnerable and isolated as it has ever been.  Many of the stories we have encountered deal with individuals alienated and searching for some semblance of community, whether it be large and overflowing with the vitality of humanity, or as simple as a single person to share thoughts and feelings with.

            There are times when community is separated permanently, leaving a person constantly searching to rebuild what was lost.  In “Speech Sounds,” humanity is overcome by an illness that eliminates the possibility of communication through the spoken word.  This has a devastating effect on the community, leaving each individual a prisoner in his or her own body, unable to reach out and make any human contact, except through violence.  When Rye finally meets Obsidian, she is unable to read or write and he is unable to speak, which leaves them trying to communicate through a series of clumsy gestures that demonstrate how truly vital communication is.  However, through Obsidian, Rye has been restored some semblance of togetherness, but it is quickly ripped away from her as a bullet rips through Obsidian’s skull.  Rye is left to wander in fear again, along with all of the others who lack the power of communication, the most basic form of human contact. 

In William Gibson’s “Hinterlands,” each of the characters suffers from isolation.  Olga, the first traveler of The Highway, travels out into the unknown alone, and comes back severely distressed and catatonic.  Likewise, every subsequent traveler to The Highway returns either as Olga did, or dead, victims of suicide.  There is much speculation as to what causes this phenomenon, and surrogates like Toby are used to gain this information, but as the rules of Highway travel state, “One entity per ride; no teams, no couples.”  Cosmonauts must face the unknown alone, and the loneliness must cause as much stress as the journey.  None of the cosmonauts survive the trip in the long run.  The record for keeping one alive is two weeks.  So, as the cosmonauts die, the surrogates like Toby and Charmian are left alone as well, having invested time building relationships with people who will inevitably leave them behind.  Not all situations of loneliness in literature about the future ends as bleakly as these.

Sometimes, individuals find something to ease the ache of loneliness.  In “The Logical Legend of Heliopause and Cyberfiddle,” Pryor is alienated from his crew because he wishes to build a violin out of real wood, rather than the virtual substitutes he is offered.  They all think he is crazy, so Pryor works alone, spending countless hours in virtual isolation procuring the wood and fabricating the violin.  When Pryor attempts to play the violin for the others, he is further ostracized because his playing is cacophonous.  Left alone and to his own devices, Pryor practices the violin day and night, until “one day he draws his bow gently across the violin strings, and a pure lovely tone flows forth, and his ears and his heart are filled to brimming with the living wooden voice of his violin.”  Pryor no longer needs the companionship of his crew or of Carmen Memoranda, because he has found the music of the violin and he never feels alone. 

In “Drapes and Folds,” Pearl finds herself in a restrictive future, with a robotic granddaughter, and a best friend who has been brainwashed to forget the past they have shared together.  The only refuge left for Pearl is her many articles of clothing, which the government is threatening to take away.  She is unwilling to give up her fabrics because they remind her of a time when family and community were important, something that is no longer true.  But, even as the government takes away her fabrics, her only tangible link to all she has lost, she regains it all as her best friend and granddaughter hide the most important article in the granddaughter’s shoulder, reestablishing family and friendship through fabric.  This type of ending, the regaining of community, is more common in the texts read during the course.

In certain situations, the community must evolve in order to survive.  In “The Poplar Street Study,” there is a community in existence, but the aliens that arrive segregate them from the larger community.  The neighbors find themselves unable to leave the boundaries of Poplar Street, and they begin to try to establish the dominance of the leadership role.  All of this occurs as the aliens study their behavior, much like rats in a cage.  Formal community roles break down and evolve as the inhabitants of Poplar Street struggle for survival.  The most fit to survive and lead is Sunny, an outsider by previous social standards, who, in this new situation, becomes the one person to help the others survive, thus commanding a leadership role.  As social conditions change and the individual community is isolated from the larger community, the rules quickly evolve as the one person who had no community becomes the one to lead the new community.

Also, community is redefined in Parable of the Sower.  Lauren is an empath, which makes her an outsider in her own community.  She is also separated from the rest of the community because of her unique religious belief that she feels compelled to hide—Earthseed, where the central mantra is “God is Change.”  Lauren knew little of how much she would change.  Then, she loses that community in a fire that kills everyone.  She is set upon a lonely journey in the world from which she had previously been protected, finding fellow pilgrims along the way.  At the end of the novel, Lauren creates Acorn, the first Earthseed community.  Like Sunny in “The Poplar Street Study,” Lauren’s position is evolved from outsider to leader of a new community created by new conditions.

At times, the story centers on a lone protagonist, struggling to adapt to a world where he does not belong.  This is what happens in Gibson’s “The Belonging Kind.”  Coretti is an outsider who does not fit in.  He does not dress the way others do and he cannot speak naturally when conversing with other people (which is certainly odd for a professor of linguistics).  His ex-wife once said, “He didn’t look as though he belonged anywhere in the city.”  One night, Coretti meets a woman he is drawn to and followers her.  Through the course of his stalking jag, he learns that this woman and her companion are social chameleons.  They literally change form to fit into their surroundings, causing them to belong in any environment.  Coretti is intrigued by this ability to change form until he discovers that he is one of them, the belonging kind.  He realizes that in trying to fit into human society, he fails, because he is not human.  However, he fits in with his new friends, and by extension, fits into human society once he discovers who he is, and who he has been all along.

Likewise, in “House of Bones,” the narrator finds himself in a completely different time—he is a modern man trapped in the time of Cro-Magnon man.  He is brought into their community, but as the perennial outsider.  He has married into their tribe, but he cannot be taught the secret, religious language.  He also learns that he cannot perform any of the basic tasks that the others can do easily, causing them to view him as “retarded.”  However, he is soon sent on a mission that will change all perceptions completely.  The narrator is sent to find another interloper, a Neanderthal who has been spotted near the camp.  He finds the Neanderthal and plans to kill him, but he soon discovers the Neanderthal’s humanity when he is offered food.  He decides to bring this Neanderthal back to the camp with him, afraid of what might happen.  What he learns is that through his acceptance of another outsider, he is made into an insider, and is finally taught the secret language.

Each of these texts address the most basic of human needs—the need for companionship.  The journey from loneliness to community is a long, often painful journey that is the crux of many works of literature because at the center of the human experience is humanity, which cannot be reached in isolation.  Community cannot always be achieved, as in the cases of surrogates like Toby and Charmian, as well as cosmonauts like Olga, Jorge, and Leni in “Hinterlands,” but these and others like them will no doubt continue to die trying.  A sense of belonging can be achieved through alternate means, such as Pryor and his violin, or Pearl and her myriad fabrics.  Hopefully, true companionship can be achieved, as in the cases of the characters in “The Belonging Kind” and “House of Bones,” but often a change in dynamics must first occur, as in “The Polar Street Study,” or Parable of the Sower.  In any case, those isolated from humanity constantly struggle to find their places in it.  Kurt Vonnegut put it best when he said, “What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured."  This seeking of the cure for loneliness is the human story that is the undercurrent that flows beneath the machines, the virtual reality, the space exploration, and the time travel that are staples of literature of the future.

End Time: 2:35