LITR 4632: Literature of the Future

Sample Student Midterms 2007

Cheryl Voskamp

18 June 2007

The Mind in Overdrive

            I walked into this class with the thought, “YES!!  Sci-fi!  They just think this is going to be about learning, but I’m looking forward to enjoying myself!” and my opinion hasn’t changed much.  There is something deeply satisfying to be found reading literature of the future, whether it is an understanding of the way our literature molds the future or the hope available that our future will not be as bleak as our mortality would have us believe.  As humans, we expect the world to end with us, that history has to be a creative fiction, though we know it will not and see evidence of historical truth every day.  Despite this being my favorite genre of literature, I have never explored the depth of its subgenres, nor did I realize the extreme impact of the different types of narrative on how the future unfolds.  Yes, ideas are what shape our existence and create change, but the possibilities explored in and resulting from literature of the future are extraordinary.  To think that so much has and will result from apocalyptic, evolutionary, and alternative narratives shaping our conception of the past and future is a bit overwhelming, so much so that one has to wonder if this is not a chicken and the egg situation.  Did these forms of narrative come first, or did it result from the need to explain and categorize existing schema?

            Narrative assuredly began and became an oral tradition with the second human to come into being.  Someone had to explain what to do, not to do, and how to think past a few days, and storytelling is the best teaching tool we have ever had.  Because it began as an oral tradition, narrative literature is often repetitive, either of historical truths or themes that are necessary to survival, which provides us with a plethora of knowledge to use and discard as is necessary.  Somewhere along the line, what began as a method to provide simple instruction evolved to a vehicle to provide an outlet for hope and desire, a way of making sure that future generations would have better than the previous generations, as we understood the reality of human existence carrying on past a single lifetime.  Now, that has become so widely varied, it is necessary to categorize the types of narratives for accessibility and comprehension.  The primary narratives in literature of the future consist of apocalyptic, evolutionary, and alternative so we may transmit hope for the future and an explanation of events and possibilities in a confusing world. 

            Interestingly, it is said that apocalyptic narrative began with the Bible and is strongly relevant in Genesis and Revelation.  As Liavette says, “the most popular of the three [narratives] tends to be the apocalyptic narrative because people with strong religious beliefs take the end of the world seriously and want to prepare themselves for what is going to happen in the future” (midterm 2005).  We are brought back to the question of what came first, an event needing explanation or the foretelling of what is to come.  Genesis and Revelation incorporate both as Genesis explains where we came from and Revelation prepares us for what will come.  Both incorporate the basic tenet of apocalyptic narrative in that they show the creation and destruction of the world as we know it occurring in a rather short amount of time.  No one is quite clear on the exact time span involved in these books, but there is no doubt that the world was created from chaos, will fall into chaos again, and will be “saved” and transformed into something even better afterward.  Parable of the Sower incorporates the same kind of thinking as humanity crumbles into chaos, yet is transformed by Lauren into a viable haven for like-minded individuals creating their own Eden from what is left over.

Together, though, Parable and the books of the bible also introduce an evolutionary sort of thinking into the mix. The evolutionary narrative considers change over a long period of time and the adaptations made to prepare for changes that will occur.  Again, we are reminded that we do not truly know how much time is/was involved in Genesis and Revelation, and the span of time possible and historically evident between the two creates an evolutionary text.  Together, Adam and Eve had to adapt to being alive as well as life outside the Garden of Eden, and their offspring will do the same with the ravages evident in the apocalypse as is yet to come just as Lauren and her followers have to evolve their thinking in order to adapt to the living situation they have been thrown into.  The world continues on despite the near or absolute destruction of everything we know as those left after the apocalypse in Revelation live with the creator(s) in the new world and Lauren and her tribe in Parable prepare a safe place for the future generations they are working on conceiving.  Similarly, Stone Lives embraces both apocalyptic and evolutionary narratives as Stone is given sight again by a shady benefactor who then engages him in a plan to help humans evolve and master the environment looking to destroy them.  Regardless, The Time Machine destroys the hope evident in those narratives through a purely evolutionary mindset when the Time Traveler travels to the “end of the world” in the hopes of finding a better outcome for humanity than the Eloi and Morlocks only to find evolution has weeded out the human entirely. 

In all of these narratives, the future is depicted in a linear fashion from the creation to the end of the world.  In the primarily apocalyptic narratives, the future is written and there is nothing anyone can do about it.  Similarly, the evolutionary texts create the same mindset, though any changes can happen during the interim, such as the bears possibly remembering fire in “Bears Discover Fire” after the change in weather stops their hibernation pattern and technology can become virtually real despite the primal instincts that continue to shape human behavior in “Somebody up there likes me.”  Lindsey showed a perfect example of the inevitable timeline evident in both apocalyptic and evolutionary narratives when she presented on The Fifth Element.  Despite extraordinary changes in the way humans live (cubicles and flying cars), there is still going to be the threat of extinction through overpopulation or apocalyptic evil that humans will either adapt to or suffer from.  Though the characters in the movie are able to stave off immediate destruction, humanity will be forced to fight again in another five thousand years regardless of evolutionary changes (unless they become extinct though the off-world habitation would lean away from that), therefore the future is written for these people whether they like it or not. 

The last form of narrative we have looked at to date throws this perception somewhat askew.  Alternative narratives create the option of many futures with time represented in a latticework of possibility rather than a straight line of thinking.  Rice, in “Mozart,” states it wonderfully when he tells President Jefferson they are not destroying their past but working in a branch of time unconnected to them based on the changes they have introduced (227).  The “Garden” takes the thought further with the novel written by the main character’s ancestor that everyone thought was a collection of rough drafts rather than an outline of all the possible futures a path can take and where they may lead.  Through these explorations of the changes possible according to the choices we make and how events may have happened differently in the past, we find much confusion, but just as much hope that we have more of a say as to what our future will be like.  Unlike apocalyptic and some evolutionary narratives, the future is wide open to make what we will of it, such as is highly evident in the Tucson happened upon by the photographer in “Gernsback” as he is overcome by the images he has cataloged and inundated in the collective thoughts, hopes, and dreams of the 1930’s population.  This collectively created Tucson lying beyond the veil shows the power of the human consciousness and our ability to change the future through collective effort either through that of an imagined alternative future or our own hard work in the future we see and feel.

Overall, the narratives we have touched on in class lead one to believe that the future is lined out where major occurrences and adaptation are concerned, but we do have a say over what will happen in the meantime.  The availability of literature of the future will help mold the technological advances we create to make in an effort to master nature even if we cannot forestall the end of days indefinitely.  This class has really set my mind into overdrive as I consider all of the possibilities gifted through the genre and explore the ideas and concepts evident in the texts.  From now on, I’ll never be able to just submerge myself in what I initially looked at as brain candy.  There will always be the awareness now of what can happen in relation to what has been written rather than merely enjoying the scenery of someone else’s imagination, and I will continually wonder, as I walk my path, whether I will be forced into a similar situation as Lauren in Parable or if the veil will part for me as it did the photographer in “Gernsback.”  Who knows, maybe I am actually running under normal time constraints in some other life instead of always late in this one!

Start time: 9:30 am.  End time: 11:50 pm.