LITR 4632: Literature of the Future

Sample Student Midterms 2007

Pamela Richey

June 16, 2007

The Future: What Our Fears, Hopes and Choices Create

            When I first saw Literature of the Future offered I immediately began to think of Asimov, Bradbury, and others of their ilk. Science fiction has been a pleasant diversion for me. Here, I thought, is a class that will allow me to delve deeper into my secret addiction to the world of science fiction. Admittedly, I am fonder of the pulp science fiction than the higher brow art of the above mentioned. But, I at least have a passing knowledge of them. This class, I told myself, will not only be interesting, it will be a cinch. It was on the first day of class that I found myself questioning my earlier suppositions. While books such as Parable of the Sower might be classified as science fiction by a liberal mind, there are few (more likely none) who would classify Revelations in that category. I had to do some major reshifting of my thinking. I still find the class and the material interesting, but in a different and richer way than I expected.

            In order to understand the concept as laid out in class, a prospective student must first understand that ours is a culture of storytellers, whether it is around the campfire with a ghostly voice or around the water cooler discussing the news. As one student in the 2005 class put it, “An interesting aspect of humans is that we like to use narratives or story-patterns to explain or examine our world and condition. Narratives are a way of getting a handle on our reality and justifying a worldview and set of values. Besides reflecting, narratives often shape the real world, as decisions are made within a particular narrative's framework” (Bryan Lestarjette.) There are three basic narratives in Literature of the Future: apocalyptic, evolutionary and alternative futures. Each handles the vision of the future in a unique and compelling way. The apocalyptic narrative epitomizes all that we fear about the future. The evolutionary gives us hope for the future. And the alternative future narrative reminds us that our choices direct the future.

            The apocalyptic narrative of the future is characterized by war, pestilence, violence, famine, and death. It is linear, marching through time to a goal of destruction and, not decay, annihilation. One of the best metaphors to describe this narrative of the future comes from Revelations in the form of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Disease, War, Famine and Death. They will sweep the land leaving destruction in their wake and decimating the world. Similarly, in The Parable of the Sower a similar force in the form of the “Paints” sweep through her neighborhood, destroying and laying waste to the small piece of security Lauren has left. Like the horsemen, they are faceless, associated with color and merciless in their regard for humanity. In chapter 14, after the attack, Lauren returns and finds people scavenging through what was once her home. When she approaches one of the dead “Paints” a woman stops her saying “’She died for all of us. Leave her alone’” (142.) Both Revelations and The Parable of the Sower describe the world crashing in on itself. But, there is a contradiction in the linear nature of the apocalyptic narrative. Both stories circle around to the beginning. In this way the apocalyptic narrative walks hand in hand with his sister, the evolutionary narrative. In Revelations the fall of the world or the fall of Babylon gives way for a new order, a new hope. A remnant of the faithful is given a new and better world. In The Parable, Lauren’s neighborhood falls prey to the “Paints” and the poor that surround them. But, Lauren ends up leading a small group to Acorn with the vision of Earthseed to guide them. As we discussed during Lindsay Kerckhoff’s future presentation, “out of chaos and destruction comes creation.”

            As opposed to the apocalyptic narrative, the evolutionary narrative is usually seen as cyclical, a circle that spirals out from the original. As stated by another student, “The main difference in apocalyptic texts is that the future is already written, whereas in evolutionary narratives, the future is being written and the story has a cyclic pattern (life is a cycle).” (Liavette Peralta, 2005.) It evolves, growing from what once was and creating either a better world or degenerating into a world of the past as is the case in The Time Machine. But, even in that horrific vision of the future as a cannibalistic society preying on the weak and foppish, there is a ray of hope. At the end of the story, the narrator acknowledges that The Time Travelers vision of the future might be true and if it is, “…it remains for us to live as though it were not so” (120.) Also, in the character of Weena the narrator acknowledges that “…gratitude and a mutual tenderness still lived on in the heart of man” (120.) In the evolutionary narrative, there is a sense of survival. Although it is a horrible survival, The Time Machine’s Morlocks fit this criterion as do the bears in the short story “Bears Discover Fire.” Like the Morlocks the bears find themselves in a new environment. The world has changed: the weather is now warmer and the bears must adapt to a world where hibernation is no longer a viable option. The bears learn to depend on each other. The narrator tells us that only a few bears seemed capable of creating fire and that the other bears grouped around those who had the knowledge and created a self sustaining community that shared what it had with those who came within its circle. Some gathered berries, some gathered firewood etc. Like the walled neighborhoods of The Parable, the bears created a small society to protect themselves in a changing world.

While the apocalyptic and evolutionary narratives seem to work together in a weird symbiotic nature, it is the alternative future that seems to be the redheaded stepchild of Future Narratives. As opposed to the other two narratives, alternative future has not one path but a multitude of them that the future can take. As in “The Garden”, time is a Labyrinth of paths taken and ignored. The paths taken will lead to the future in which we live. But, what of the path we ignore? This, in the alternative future breaks off and becomes another future, a parallel future to the one we know. In “The Garden”, time is described by Dr. Stephen Albert as “…an infinite series of times, in a dizzily growing, ever spreading network of diverging, converging and parallel times” (100.) Each time has a different outcome because each time different choices were made. This same idea is echoed in “The Gernsback”. But, instead, this is a communal vision that diverged because the world changed in a way that could not support the vision. The vision of the future in the 1930’s was a clean sanitized vision created by people that had not seen the horrors of World War II or Korea or Vietnam. They had not questioned themselves or their morals or consciences. They saw a streamlined future before it got messy. It is that vision of the future that peeks through the veil into reality as if to remind us that it is not just us that change the reality of future but all those who walked the world before us as well.

Literature of the Future is much more than mere science fiction. It is a vision put on paper that highlights our greatest fears as well as hopes for the future. It is what authors see through the filter of our present. As Corrie Lawence, a student in 2003, stated, “One wonders in the time-line of Future Literature what the literature of our own time, our own anticipations of things to come, and the evolution of the future narrative, conveys about us as a historical people, while yet the people of the fleeting present – and what might we further project from this?” Literature of the future is a chronicle of what we fear and hope for our own future. It can be a cautionary tale of woe and hardship or it can give us hope for survival. It makes us aware of our impact on the future. Personally, I do not think that I will be able to read a science fiction novel or short story in the same way again and I do not count that as a bad thing. Literature of the Future has taught or reminded me (I am not sure which) that the future is not always written in stone. It can be changed. But, because humanity is not perfect there will not be a perfect future.