LITR 4632 Literature of
the Future
Sample Student final exams 2009
Tamatha Beasley
2009
Preface: I am again watching the fireworks in my mind go off as I read magnificent papers written by past authors of my seemingly impossible task before me. But when I go to ignite the fire cracker of my paper it is a dud. I have no connecting theme to make this finale a big boom. I am left blowing a stick of ember trying to make smoke that will distract my audience who starts to doze off in the darkness of my blank sky (paper).
Here it goes!
“Of course there will always be those people who simply roll their eyes up and think that anything different is weird and not worthwhile,” as adequately put by Laura Moran. In 2007 (when Laura wrote her final exam) people were turning their noses up to science fiction. Much like they do now, but that will not stop the students of Dr. White from passing on our new science fiction love into the youth we will encounter in order to make the future a much better one. We will ignite a passion for science fiction that will spread like wild fire into the minds of our future leaders in academia. It will not take long for the fire to consume all the minds of our near future.
What happens when the past is thrust into the future by science fiction? Like in the movie “Millennia” people of the past are injected into the future by present intervention. In the movie the present is in dire need of the past in the same way Dr. White is the wrinkly gray guy who makes the past come in to the future. Sorry, you are not wrinkly. The past stories of the future were given to future educators by Dr. White, therefore changing the future dramatically. As in my experience, I will use the people of the past (writers) to change the future by giving my students the same knowledge I received. Dr. White is making a time paradox where he is affecting many future generations by changing the minds of his students on science fiction. Hold on for the quake.
Much like Dr. White, who changed many minds about science fiction, Octavia Butler is a changer by opening up a whole new audience to science fiction. Through her empathetic telling in “Parable” she has created a much bigger army for science fiction love; unlike the author of “Homelanding” who makes humans feel so alien, therefore turning away many soft supporters of science fiction. “Homelanding” kicks the people off to the wrong side of the fence for science fiction. In my awakening of past essays I have proven the importance of being on this side of the fence.
The future holds many different things. Change is constant and cannot be escaped. Why not be prepared for change, be ready to deal with it? Use “Half past eight” as a guide to dealing with dramatic change. Like gender change or mindset change, things will happen to rattle you dramatically. To react as a bigot and be ignorant or intolerant of change is only a way to die. Like “Poplar street” teaches us, only the ones able to adapt accordingly to change will survive or maintain a certain quality of life that includes food. When Sunny reacts sensibly by just doing what it takes to survive like hunting the food and not being stuck in the past, like the adults, she shows how to truly learn from alien contact. What I mean is she used her knowledge of science fiction (the twilight reference) to help her survive.
I am not encouraging messing with the past by any means (even for survival purposes). I want this to be clear, we use the past stories only to better the future. Something of this sort can also be learned from science fiction. For example in “Mozart” they had good intentions to use the past to better the future but they went clearly over board. I am encouraging use of past in a controlled and beneficial setting (like Dr. White’s class).
Although I am endorsing change in the future, I am not suggesting we change so dramatically we cannot relate to the past. These stories are meant to be understood and then used but that cannot happen if the future has forgotten the context of these texts. Like in “Newton’s sleep,” the humans leave behind the context of earth only to be followed by haunting images of the place they left behind. There is no getting away from the effect of these stories if we are willing to relate.
A great appreciation of the past is the most I can really ask for but I cannot even get that if one does not give science fiction a try. In “House of Bones” an old misunderstood time is experienced by a typical person (like you or me) and his preconceived notions of this primitive community are completely wrong. He actually experiences the time period only to find that it is much more sophisticated, intelligent and beautiful than he could have ever imagined. Science fiction deserves this kind of attention by those sticking their noses up. Take your head out of the clouds and let the clouds come to by reading some science fiction. Stop writing off what you have not given a chance. Stop being ignorant and let the change happen, read some science fiction.