LITR 4632: Literature of the Future

Sample Student final exams 2007

Jenna Zucha

First Essay

Searching For A Place Called Home

            In the book Sirens of Titans Kurt Vonnegut said this about the future of space exploration, “Outwardness lost, at last, its imagined attractions. Only inwardness remained to be explored. Only the human soul remained terra incognita.”  This search for a place to belong in time and space is a common thread that weaves itself, and at times tangles itself within the concepts pertaining to literature of the future. The need for community and to find likeness among other beings is a human condition that can never be striped away. Even when it is costumed in tales of cybertopia, alien invasion, or space exploration the condition never fades as the primary nourishment of man. Human companionship is held highest among everything else. The idea of the soul is humanly indefinable, but community and companionship with others gives meaning to this unexplainable phenomenon. It is difficult to say what makes us who we are but if we can find others that are attracted to this unknown essence of ourselves then we no longer feel isolated and alone. After humans have gone as far as they can go into space, technology, and the interaction with other life forms we will return to the exploration of the inner self. In each story encountered this concept either plays the primary role or acts as the underlining force that moves the story along.

There are times when a community is found where it was not expected to be. In House of Bones, the time traveler discovers that his primal ancestors exhibit sophisticated knowledge of companionship and have a highly developed working community. These people who are considered Neanderthals to us are really the best architects, musicians, and poets the traveler has ever encountered. This reverse or perverse anthropology uncovers the probability that certain morals connected with “loving your fellow man” have existed ever since the beginning of man. The time traveler is perfectly content remaining where he is in time, not only because the people act similar to those of his own time, but because the serenity and comfort they offer is more then what can be expected from anyone he knew before. The feeling of true unbridled care for one another is reaffirmed when the traveler discovers that his test was not really to kill the stupid primal being invading the community, but to show it unconditioned acceptance, the same that had been shown to him when he arrived in this distant past. The individuals search and need for community has always existed and will remain no matter what the future holds.

Another unexpected place that community and acceptance is found is in the story Homelanding. This attribute is unexpected because the author or observer of the humans is so far removed from the human mind frame that it is difficult to even comprehend what is being described in the story. Once it is realized that the strange thing that is being described is humans the first thought is utter disgust. The description is lacking the emotion that usually accompanies our definition of fellow human beings. Once the initial disgust wears away the observer’s desire to understand and accept the human species is realized. At the end of the story or descriptive cataloging the observer states, “Instead take me to your trees. Take me to your breakfasts, your sunsets, to your bad dreams, your shoes, your nouns. Take me to your fingers; take me to your deaths.” Not only does the observer need these things to gain the terms and vocabulary we use in order to communicate, but it is understood that it is on these types of things that the human soul is imprinted on. If it can not be described in words then it can be observed in our everyday activities and costumes. Perhaps the search for community can go beyond man to man and extend to intelligent life to intelligent life.

This concept of expanding a community to other intelligent life forms is abandoned in They’re Made Out of Meat. Not only is the human species described in a disgusting cold way, but we are ultimately ignored and considered unworthy to interact with this other alien life force. “So we pretend there is no one home in the universe. That’s it.” We are considered so strange and undesirable that we are left out of the great space conversation. The hope of expanding community is lost in this idea of life form to life form interaction.

Community regains its composure and relevance in Speech Sounds. In a time when the sense of community as a whole is lost forever, the individual is forced to search and rebuilt companionship any way possible. In this story the world has fallen victim to a mass world wide epidemic that strips people of their ability to communicate with one another. In some it affects their ability to speak, in others their speech remains but they lose their ability to read or write. This leaves people frustrated, and enraged to the point of killing one another and mass rioting breaks out all over the world. Adults began to act like unlearned children who have been told they can’t have any candy at the grocery store. They flop around screaming incoherently in public places, lashing out at any one who comes near them. Two men almost tear a bus apart fighting for reasons unknown to themselves and to the reader. The bus is rescued by a man who is still holding on to his sense of duty and order by wearing his police badge and helping people wherever he can. It is also at this time that the main character, Rye has found a possible end to her search for community and companionship. Rye accepts the man's protection and offer for a ride with reluctance at first, but in the end she accepts his offer because she really feels that she has nothing left to loose. Rye asks the man to go home and live with her. He finally accepts her offer only to be killed by a mad man chasing a woman with a knife in the street. At this point Rye feels that everything again is lost, but the children that are survived by the dead woman in the street reveal their ability to speak. Rye reestablishes her hopes and dreams for the future rebuilding of a community and society through these children that seem unaffected by the deadly epidemic.

The story of Speech Sounds is written by Octavia Butler, the same author that wrote Parable of the Sower. The search for community and the emphasis on its importance is a common theme in both stories. Butler uses the need for community as a driving force for her characters. They are pushed along and forced to survive even when destruction and human desolation is all around them. Both Lauren and Rye are encouraged by their own internal optimism that fellow camaraderie among men can eventually be restored.

The working community can also work as a negative factor against humans. This is especially evident in The Poplar Street Study. The aliens are attracted to this concept of community and leadership so much that they use a suburban street as a study site for further exploration into this idea. In Bryan Hyde’s final exam he says this about the condition of the story, “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.” So far we have seen community as the driving force that will lead us out of despair. Unfortunately the enslaved community in this story has a hard time ignoring the preconceived differences between themselves, and the idea that they are free adults who are exempt from the poking and prodding of other alien life forms. It is only the rebellious child Sunny who adapts to the new ways of living and begins to enforce her charge and ways on the unsuspecting adults.

The concept and definition of the term community may not always remain the same. It was stronger in the past as described in House of Bones and slowly faded into a mere glimpse of hope for Rye in Speech Sounds. Community is also found and fostered in Homelanding and then is lost completely in They’re Made Out of Meat. It finally is used against the humans trapped in The Poplar Street Study. If the idea of community is always relevant but changing in stories such as these, then perhaps community will morph into something completely different. Maybe it will change into to something that finally provides a home for this undefined concept we call the human soul.