LITR 4632: Literature of the Future

Sample Student final exams 2007

 Laura Moran

Part II: The Future is Now

The main thought that I will take away from this class is that other people are thinking and writing about the future all the time, not just while I am studying it. After this semester I am more conscious that the future is being written constantly and relentlessly. Had I not taken this class I probably would not have given the article by Film Critic Amy Biancolli in Zest (Houston Chronicle, July 1, 2007) a second glance. But the piece, “Is There a Future for Serious Sci-fi?” about the popularity of Sci-fi in today’s cinema was interesting. In the article Lawrence Krauss, a professor of physics at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, points out, “ People like the idea of a hopeful future” and also says that science, like art, considers our place in the cosmic scheme. He concludes, “The reason that we’re scientists is not because we want to build a better toaster, but because we’re interested in what’s possible in the universe.” This course has shown me that other people are concerned with the genre and its changes; good and bad.  Discover would not have been my magazine of choice a year ago, yet I picked it up while at the doctor last week and when I read Jaron Lanier’s commentary, “The Murder of Mystery: How Silicon Valley Joined the Superstitious Fringe as the Enemy of Open Inquiry,” (Sept. 2006) I found that I could identify with the author’s frustration of, “… having Word suddenly determine that you are creating an indented outline at the wrong moment.” Lanier continues,

While I am all for the automation of petty tasks, this is different. From my point of view this type of design feature is nonsense, since you end up having to learn more than you would otherwise in order to manipulate such software’s expectations of you. The real function of the feature isn’t to make life easier – it is to express a new philosophy.

I have learned not to struggle too much at the beginning of one of these stories and not let the mechanics of writing get in the way of the author’s message. Reading literature of the future does not have to be intimidating to myself or to future students of mine. While “Cyberfiddle” had me mixed up as to who was who it used just enough “regular” language to let me think I was hip to the hi-tech lingo in the story. Just like the protagonist in the story, I had to struggle through the text, much as he had to work to find the tools and wood for his violin. The ending of the tale was well worth the effort. My eyes filled, as Pryor’s did, when he actually made music with his creation. I read it (the ending) over again at different times just to get the pay off of emotions that came with all the labor (his word working and my decoding the cyber-language) it took to get there.

I decided to take this class so that I would be more in touch with genres other than those I was already interested in and comfortable with. I wanted to be able to relate to the student who reads literature of the future for pleasure and now find that I am one of those students. I have a list of works that I want to read while on break between the last summer session and the fall semester. While I did struggle at first with some of these stories, I find myself thinking about them later. Even though “The Belonging Kind” was a little disturbing and creepy, it has a dreamlike feel that is completely different than anything else I usually read and I like it. Knowing now that in order to enjoy this writing one needs to just let go of what is familiar and relax with it, I can pass that knowledge on to another reader. I am thinking that rather than just being there for the occasional student who already enjoys this genre, I can read some of it (age appropriate, of course) aloud and perhaps set in motion another person’s enthusiasm for these stories.

Surprisingly enough, the course was very similar to Mythology and Shakespeare – in that just reading the works is not enough. I found that class discussion and future vision presentations were helpful in breaking down the subject matter in all these stories. I think that my degree in Literature would be lacking had I not taken this course and discovered not just the narratives but the thinking involved behind the stories as well. It is also interesting to hear what my peers are thinking about the future. As for my near future, I hope that I can carry at least some literature of the future into my (future) classroom and not be intimidated by the already established teachers who resist change. Of course there will always be those people who simply roll their eyes up and think that anything different is weird and not worthwhile. Perhaps I can introduce literature of the future just a little at a time, enough to create a spark in someone’s mind. After all, the future is now!