LITR 4632 Literature of the Future

Sample Final Exams 2005

Lori Nolen

June 30, 2005

A common theme in literature of the future is the evolution of the interaction with humans and anything non-human.  These non-human elements are technology and aliens.  “Alien” is not limited to life from another world, but is often more of something that has something of a human appearance or feel but does not meet the cultural criteria of being “human.” 

Science fiction is, as noted in one of our class discussions, practice for the possible struggles of life.  The writer has the freedom to allow his mind to wander in the land of possibilities of what might exist if some of man’s habits and preferences are enhanced or destroyed.  All of the narratives - apocalyptic, evolutionary, and alternative – build on the perception “that prehistoric cultures were critical in making us what we are, and…about our relationship to the world that we should not forget.” Kim Stanley Robinson’s introduction to Future Primitive is a connection to the quote that those who do not learn from the past are “doomed to repeat it” (Santayana?). 

Callenbach’s “Chocco” is a clear example of Robinson’s statement.  “Chocco” has Jon and Mikal describing the Machine People, their ancestors, and in the process giving an opinion of the short-term effects of the mechanical world against the long-term benefits of the organic world.  The Machine People lived between the time of the ancient ones and the current civilization of the text whose greed for power and resources nearly destroyed their earth, which is their own ancestor, for they were created from “the dust of the ground” (Genesis).  Jon describes these people in an empathetic manner that shows his connection to them and the appreciation of the knowledge gathered from their mistakes while Mikal dismisses them.  Mikal presents them as the rejects of his history.  The Machine People should be remembered as the mistakes of his lineage, yet Mikal himself exhibits some of the same arrogance and misuse of knowledge for power that he abhors in the Machine People. 

Ferber’s “Drapes and Folds” continues the idea of the human connection with lineage as well the misuse of knowledge and power.  In an attempt to spare humans from the pains of mortality, such as cancer and deteriorating joints and limbs, the government’s use of technology has shifted off course from helping humanity to reducing it into “one bland, universal form.”  Pearl’s philosophies are similar to Chocco’s tribe.  She believes in the ways before technology ran amuck.  Her granddaughter, however, rejects these ideologies.  Xera is the product of the new technology, the new form, and at first appears to adapt to the constant limitations placed on her society.  Pearl does not see her granddaughter as being human, and Xera does not see Pearl as anything more than the dying breed of primitive thought.  By the end of the short story, the reader sees that the words and artifacts of her ancestor has reached Xera and that Pearl has seen past Xera’s manufactured parts and found the human soul.

The building of a new human existence through technological advances is one of the practice struggles of science fiction. Xera is mostly the “modern conveniences” of technology “plus the pleasing familiarity of inherited traits.”   “The Onion and I” is Averill’s possible segue from the real world and the virtual world as one family attempts to live the lives in virtual reality and eliminating the organic, real world that would seemingly have to exist before Pearl and Xera’s society.  The mechanical human appears in “A.I.” as presented by Liavette Peralta this semester and also in Gibson’s “Johnny Mnemonic.”  Johnny is a “half-breed” of technology and humanity who eventually wants to dispose of all the memories stored within him that are not his own.  He wants to return to a more human, individual existence. 

Gibson’s narratives often show a world of existence after the connected molding of high technology with low technology, however all of his narratives have a misfit feel.  His protagonists are misfits in their societies.  Coretti, in “The Belonging Kind, ” at first appears to be a typical social misfit.  His lack of fashion and conversational skills (although a linguist) suggests that he is an outsider to his own culture.  As the story progresses, he finds his own kind, and with that, a place of belonging.   He is a misfit the balance of the human and non-human, alien world as Johnny and his story partners are misfits of the human and non-human, technical world. 

Two of the readings touch on the idea of the human being a misfit not in the present and near future, but in the universe and time.  Rather than writing about strange, seemingly human, alien forms on earth and our opinion of them, Bisson’s narrative gives insight into an alien life form’s opinion of humans.  “They’re Made Out of Meat” gives lighthearted insight that humans are thinking meat and the shock of this type of discovery among the advanced universal beings.  We are such misfits that the aliens do not even want to record us into their log of findings.  They would rather ignore us than acknowledge these freaks of their universal nature.  Silverberg’s “House of Bones” also flips the take on the modern man by sending the future into the past.  In Europe’s Ice Age, the future homo sapien is a bit of a retard among the prehistoric man.  All the technological advancements separate from his knowledge of the earth.  Although he cannot wait to share his ability to build bridges and make beer, without the ability to build shelter from bones and other organic materials, the narrator would have died alone with all of his technological knowledge trapped only in his mind.

Our human existence is a connected by an evolutionary thread.  We have our own genetic code which contributes to our human personality.    We have inherent qualities that repeat themselves through time.  Some of these characteristics are good while others lead to our own demise.  If we do not learn to temper some of these qualities, as well as enhancing or suppressing some of them, we will doom ourselves into apocalyptic scenarios.  Science fiction literature about the future are practice examples of the possibilities of our world in dealing with the individual and the idea of community with technology, misfits, and other worldly concepts.