LITR 4632: Literature of the Future

Student Midterms 2011: Sample Essay 1 Excerpts

Valerie Mead: . . . These narratives tend to overlap in many ways and are often seen in the same stories.  However, even if they overlap, these distinctly separate narratives act in different ways in the story and fulfill separate functions within it and for the reader.  For example, Creation/Apocalypse narratives are either caused by evolutionary means or make the characters involved evolve throughout the story after the said apocalypse. . . . Apocalyptic and evolutionary narratives complement each other, in a sense that they are somewhat cyclical: an apocalypse causes decline, which leads to evolution, which leads to progression, which leads to creation and then another apocalypse.  Though evolutionary and apocalyptic narratives tend to go hand in hand, alternative narratives also combine with one or the other from time to time.  Such is the case with “Mozart in Mirrorshades”: the majority of the story focuses on the alternate history that is taking place because the space/time continuum has been compromised, but there is definitely an apocalyptic essence to the story.  These narratives can overlap in obvious ways, but more often than not, one type is of primary focus while the other serves as a supplement to it.

            Apocalyptic narratives are by far the most common type in the science fiction genre.  This could be simply because human nature compels us to these types of stories or because many church doctrines support these types of scenarios, whereas evolutionary and alternative narratives are not just unsupported, but actively shunned.  Though the events in apocalypse stories in all likelihood will never transpire, they are unfalsifiable, so this is one of the more prevalent narratives of future literature.  The human race, as a whole, based on historical evidence and current human behavior, is hell-bent on causing harm and destruction towards the world and each other, so it is no surprise that many people like to read about such catastrophic and cataclysmic events taking place in the near future; it might even seem somewhat cathartic to readers . . . .

            Apocalypse narratives are often based on/steeped in some sort of religious overtones.  Some examples of this are the book of “Revelation” as well as Parable of the Sower.  These are both based on the fundamental idea that the religion involved is right and a means to save the characters involved or the people reading it from the forthcoming apocalypse or the one that is already taking place.  In “Revelation,” the prophet John is being told that he and the human race will be saved if they adhere to the Christian religion that the Bible perpetuates.  The same is true for Parable; Lauren believes that the religion that she came to realize as truth will be the one thing to help save humanity from the apocalypse that they are in.  Many of these stories, including Parable and “Revelation,” incorporate the use of prophecy.  Because prophecy is unfalsifiable, it can be easily incorporated into a work for the mysterious connotations it adds without detracting from a work.  Though religion and prophecy are often key ingredients in apocalyptic narratives, it is not essential, as is proven by the story “Stone Lives” and The Time Machine, which show the future world in an apocalyptic manner, but without religious overtones.

            While apocalyptic narratives  often have a religious basis, which are open to interpretation and can be challenged, evolutionary and alternative narratives are primarily based on the principles of science, which is based on fact, and thus, constantly changing and even sometimes irrefutable.  Where apocalyptic narratives are transmitted through revelations, evolutionary ones are transmitted through empiricism, the act of gaining knowledge in a manner that is not given, but learned, through observation and reason.  Though this type of narrative is not as common in the science fiction and future literature genres, it is often a subtler aspect of the apocalyptic narratives, though it is steadily gaining popularity on its own as we learn more about science and discover new technologies.  As science is always changing, it is becoming easier for readers to discontinue their disbelief about issues raised in these stories and accept them.  These are the type of narratives that commonly bring up the ideas of Darwin as well as aspects of social Darwinism, which is seen in “Bears Discover Fire,” The Time Machine, Parable of the Sower, and “Stone Lives.”  The first two stories bring up the actual physical evolutionary Darwinism and the second two put into play the ideas behind social Darwinism, including the idea of “survival of the fittest.”

            Though the alternative histories and futures narrative tends to be seen as the loner of the three, it could be said that this type comes from the characters in the story evolving in such a manner as to create the technology required to make such unorthodox thinking and/or time travelling possible, as is the case with “The Garden of Forking Paths,”  “The Gernsback Continuum” and The Time Machine.  With “The Garden,” it could be said that since most people do not think along these lines, the characters could have evolved slightly in order to think this way and believe it, thus making the idea of alternate futures more available and believable.  With “Gernsback” and The Time Machine, thinking and technology had to evolve in order to get people capable of thinking in such a manner as to create ways to travel into the past and the future, where what is seen could be avoidable or changed.  Though this type of narrative is not as common as the other two because the science behind it is difficult to fully comprehend, it is perhaps the most thought provoking of the three. . . .

Jennifer Summerlin

The Weaving Together of Narrative Thought

            What an interesting, eye-opening experience Literature of the Future has been for me so far.  I, like so many former and present day students, did not know what to expect when I registered for this class, and I was pleasantly surprised when I showed up in class, read the syllabus, and discovered the readings for the course.  It was like a melding of two worlds that I had been exposed to my whole life.  My father was an evangelical minister for 45 years, and I have been in church my entire life, so the biblical text from Genesis and Revelation were very familiar to me.  On the other hand, my father was also a huge science fiction fan, which sometimes surprised people because there seems to be such a contrast between the worlds of religion and science.  For me, it was normal because both were always prevalently talked about when I was growing up.  It was always Star Trek on Saturday night, and King James on Sunday morning – the best of both worlds.  New to me, though, has been the idea of the three narratives of the future, namely apocalypse, evolution, and alternative.  I have learned that, like my own experience, these narratives do not always have to conflict or compete with one another (though at times they do), but can meld together and sometimes coexist.

            The biblical text from the books of Genesis and Revelation gives one of the most straightforward descriptions of the creation/apocalypse narrative.  That is because this text follows the characteristics of this type of narrative.  One of these is the linear path it takes from beginning (creation/Genesis) to end (apocalypse/Revelations).  This path, though not yet completed, encompasses a much shorter frame of time than that of evolution and consists of stories and traditions passed down from generation to generation.  It also embodies the characteristic of being both frightening and full of promise at the same time.  We see this in Revelation’s descriptions of the end times when one verse speaks of devastation and death, while another describes scenes of followers rising to a place of beauty and eternal life.  The text in this type of prophetic genre tells of a future that has not come to pass, but can not be disproven.

              Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower is not quite as clean cut in its narrative.  While Butler’s story can certainly be considered apocalyptic with its doomsday feel and its scenes of death and destruction, it also has evolutionary aspects interwoven in the pages of the novel.  Evolutionary narrative is one in which the story takes on elements of change and adaptation of a species or the world in general.  This can be seen in Parable as the United States has fallen into crisis and the characters in the story, namely Lauren and those she lives and travels with must adapt to the changes around them.  For instance, we water is in short supply and rain comes several years apart, people have to conserve their supply and catch water when it does begin to rain.  The society in Butler’s story is one in which only the strong survive and the weak live on the streets where they face disease and death.  This is another evolutionary line of thought which ties in with social Darwinism, a theme also seen in the story.  This is seen as private corporations take over the space program and entire towns, enslaving its population in an effort to make big money.

            There are other readings that fit into this concept of a double narrative – having elements of both apocalyptic and evolutionary themes.  The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells also fits the bill.  This is a story of a scientist/inventor/time traveler who builds a machine which can carry him through space and time.  The tale he tells his dinner guests is of his adventure traveling to the very distant future.  Apocalyptically, the time traveler watches, as he speeds through time, the world around him fall apart.  The traveler says,” I saw huge buildings rise up faint and fair, and pass like dreams” (30).  But he soon discovers that the world does not fall apart completely.  Some species have survived and have adapted to the ever changing world in which they live.  The Morlocks, who live underground, have learned to adapt and thrive in the darkness of the world below while the Eloi, from above the ground, must learn to coexist with and escape the danger faced from the Morlocks.