LITR 4632: Literature of the Future

Student Midterms 2013 assignment Sample Student Submission

Tina Le

A Mixing Pot for Narratives of the Future

          Upon entering this course I was completely unaware of what we would be learning in class. I was new to the genre of science fiction in a literary sense, only having knowledge of it in movies and television shows. To my surprise Literature of the Future has expanded my field of knowledge through explanation and critical thinking which has given me a new appreciation for science fiction. With breaking down the readings into different narratives I now have a better understanding of the genre. In this course we discussed narratives of creation / apocalypse, evolution, and alternative futures. However the stories we have read do not single out a narrative on its own but have at least one other narrative that overlaps.

          In discussing the creation / apocalypse narrative we learned that the narrative holds on to a linear timeline which is more accessible to readers because it has a very definite beginning, middle and end. When analyzing creation stories one must be aware that there is no scientific evidence as to how and when the world was created. The same idea also applies to apocalyptic stories in a way that we do not know when our final moment will rain fire down on us. In Katherine Fellow’s essay she states that “because these stories are derived from dubious or unverifiable sources, any apocalyptic assumptions or assertions made within them are difficult to disprove” that apocalyptic stories we have read are either prophecy or a warning of what may come. Also when reading these narratives we see a pattern of decline and progress that coincides with evolutionary narratives. If the conditions of our decline are improved, then maybe the people will act better, we can learn from the past to evolve into something greater. However there can be a problem when mixing the two narratives because with evolutionary narratives there is now a question of whether the future has been written out or if it continues to be written.

          The book of Genesis and Revelation are scriptures from the Bible that follow the creation / apocalypse narrative. In Genesis God created heaven and earth and everything living in a sequence of events. In this progression God planted the Garden of Eden for Adam and Eve to have dominion over every living creature on earth and to take care of the garden. However there is a moral decline within the story when Eve eats from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and gives the fruit unto her husband. This was the beginning of the end that leads to the book of Revelation. The apocalyptic ending in the Bible punishes all who are unfaithful to God, and the fallen have to face God’s wrath of raging fires and horrendous monsters. However those who remained faithful were saved them from the collapse of the old world and are entered into a new heaven and earth. Although Genesis and Revelation follow the narrative of creation / apocalypse there is decline and progress that is seen in evolutionary narratives. It gives hope that the old world full of sin delivers the birth of a new, innocent, fresh start; but because so many of the Christian faiths believe in the world of God it is hard for them to accept the idea of evolution. To them the book of Revelation is the sure fate of the world’s sinners.

          Parable of the Sower is a novel that begins in an apocalyptic setting after an economic and environmental downfall but rises from the ashes to start a better life with a new faith. The world we are given in the novel is a harsh environment where people have to fight for their survival. Resources are scarce, especially water which we take for granted every day, and disease runs as rampant as the manic drug addicts that rape, steal, and set fires to almost everything they see. Walled communities are not safe from the growing number of scavengers and the authority figures that we trust to protect the innocent have turned corrupt, only caring about themselves. The novel provides a clear description of an apocalypse but also has a beauty to how there is progression and evolution. Lauren, the protagonist, brings about a new religion after she becomes a fallen believer of her father’s faith, the faith she was raised on. Her God is defined as change and she writes a verse that defines her Earthseed belief, “All that you touch, you Change. All that you Change, Changes you. The only lasting truth is Change. God is Change” (79). Lauren manages to spread her belief to those she meets along her path to a better future, and in the end of the novel she and her group start a community founded on Earthseed. Unlike Revelation, the future of Parable continues to be written and in this way it follows the evolutionary narrative.

          Besides evolution being interwoven into the narrative of creation / apocalypse, science fiction can portray evolutionary narratives in biological terms that most readers are more familiar with. In The Time Machine the Time Traveler is sped off into the very distant future where we are introduced to two sub-species of the ancestral humans which he calls the Eloi and the Morlocks. Although the Eloi take on some human physical appearances, the Morlocks no doubt have humanistic qualities to them even though they are seen as ape like bottom feeders, while the Eloi are the more superior species. As the Time Traveler goes much further into the future in intervals of thousands of years he sees the coming of the end of the world, and in chapter eleven he tells his listeners ”I saw the black central shadow of the eclipse sweeping towards me. In another moment the pale stars alone were visible. All else was rayless obscurity. The sky was absolutely black” (11.13). The Time Machine not only gives the readers a detailed description of the transmutation of species but has an apocalyptic ending to the Time Traveler’s journey, going back to the mixing of narratives.

          The last narrative we discussed in class was of alternative histories and futures. Alternative narratives have a playful appeal to them that focus on the theme of multiple or infinite realities. One question this narrative brings up is the question of “What if?” Every decision we make opens up the possibility of an alternate reality to a decision we might have possibly chosen. To make the narrative a little clearer one can imagine a maze, branches of a tree, or forking paths on the road.

          Mozart in Mirrorshades depicts an alternative history where the main character Rice, a time traveler who goes back in time to the eighteenth century to gather oil and minerals in order to bring them back to his future called Realtime. He explains alternative histories to Thomas Jefferson who in this story is America’s first president. As Thomas Jefferson is angered at Rice and is partner’s destruction of his present and their past, Rice tells him that “History is like a tree, okay? When you go back and mess with the past, another branch of history splits off from the main trunk. Well, this world is just one of those branches” (227). Jefferson’s world does not lead to Rice’s future, so the time travelers are not affected by the exploitation of Jefferson’s resources. Another example of an alternate reality in this story is when Rice tells Mozart how Marie Antoinette got her head cut off in the French Revolution and corrects himself by saying “That was our French Revolution…Yours was a lot less messy” (230). In this story of alternative histories and realities, there is also an apocalyptic feel to it when Rice’s refinery to obtain oils and resources to bring them over to Realtime destroy the city of Salzburg, and all the citizens have to evacuate.

          In these four stories it is clear that a narrative does not stand alone but can be interwoven with another narrative, thus making these stories of the future a lot more enjoyable to read, allowing readers to understand more on how science fiction works. With the mixing of the three narratives authors of science fiction can create what seems like an endless possibility of futuristic stories.

From the Inside and Out

          As I look back to how much technology has changed in the past ten years, it amazes me how fast electronics are being created and turned over and forgotten about, giving in to new generations of bigger and better, smaller and faster devices, and as they become more high tech they are able to retain so much more information. However, the genre of science fiction also has a rapid turnover rate; cyberpunk a sub-genre of science fiction, is a genre that must keep with our society’s demand for inventors and engineers to spit out new ideas. In the cyberpunk stories we have read so far, the characters use technology in ways that are used to find out their true identities, but does not take away from the human condition. In this essay I will be focusing on Objective 3- romance narratives and Objective 4- genres of future literature.

          Paul Di Filippo’s Stone Lives is the most high tech story we have read so far. Filled with numerous advancements of the future, it is a story of a man who is given an opportunity to study the world and report back his findings to the head of Citrine Technologies, Alice Citrine. This story places readers in a world that is ran by Citrine Technologies in which there are areas of expertise such as “areology, chaoticism, fractal modeling, and paraneurology” (188). The technological advancements include eye implants which Stone undergoes in order to take on his new position, subdermal implants that are filled with synthetic luciferase found in fireflies, carbon chips, and blood-borne programmed repair units. Although this evolution in technology still seems very far-fetched in today’s society, it may is impossible. Stone finds out that Alice Citrine is “nearing the theoretical close of her extended life” and believes that she has given him the job to “justify her existence” (192). However in the end he finds out that Citrine Technology is the reason to why he is alive, for Stone is the clone of Alice Citrine, “Blood of my blood, closer than a son to me. You are the only one I trust” (201). As he is handed over the corporation it is now up to Stone to fix what Alice had created. In this story, Stone discovers his true identity with the help of technology. He sees that the world is beautiful yet unfair, and although he is a model of Alice, he knows that “his words, his perceptions matter. He is determined to do a good job, to tell the truth as he perceives it” (192).

          Somebody up There Likes Me is a story of a man who is conflicted with a personal and professional relationship but finds peace in technology. The main character Dante communicates with his wife Snookie through E-mails to try to keep his fragile and long distant relationship with her from becoming extinct. At the same time Dante is receiving E-mails from Mary Beth, the chair of language and media studies at San Jose College of the Mind, where he is a junior professor, asking to state his position. Both his love life and job are descending downhill, yet when Dante talks about technology all his problems temporarily fade away. His friend Boyce tells Dante what he plans to do with computers-- to build a Cosmic consciousness “a fantastic, free, self-reflective knowledge base of every good thing humanity has ever thought or dreamed” (218). In order for Boyce to start this project he needs the help of The Revelation 2000 “the sexiest piece of hardware you could put on a table” capable of doing much more than the other computers of their time. Eventually the same computer is what gives Dante a push in finding his true self. With the help of Mickey and The Revelation 2000 Dante is left without a job, and when Mickey sees Dante crying, he offers to sell him his second Revelation, “But he likes computers, right? Computers make him happy, it seems like.” “’They always do seem to cheer him up.’ Boyce said” (234). At the end when Dante goes to the ATM to withdrawal money for the Revelation, he receives an E-mail from Snookie. She writes that she is coming back home and how Dante’s previous E-mail of computer word-vomit prophesized the end to her educational career, and perhaps the rebuilding of their marriage. Dante finds his true identity when he becomes the owner of his very own Revelation 2000 and joins Boyce in his project of a Cosmic consciousness, “with my life’s liquid assets wadded up in my hand, I dashed to Boyce’s Kodak Image and the golden future of knowledge and love” (237).

          In a world full of technology it is hard to imagine living without it; however technology does not take away from who we really are and what we know to be good or bad. Our hearts and our minds stay the same and we are still human on the inside. In Stone Lives and Somebody up There Likes Me technology has only helped our protagonists realize their self-worth and true identity. This is something that we need to keep in mind for our own future. No matter how much technology advances we must not allow it to take over us, instead we should use technology to help us better understand ourselves and each other. These two stories can still be read today because the technology is not outdated, but instead gives us an idea as to what may come in our near or distant future.