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(2015
midterm assignment) Model Student Midterm answers 2015 (Index) Essay 1: Compare, contrast, and evaluate Narratives of the Future |
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Fariha Khalil
29
June 2015
Building the Future during the Present
Last
semester I took the literature course of Tragedy with Dr. White, in which we
were asked to define the term Genre. In simple terms, genre is what defines a
work of art, and basically gives the audience an overview of what they are about
to encounter. But, that is not all. I learned that genre
can actually be “classified in three broad, non-exclusive” categories: subject/
audience, form, and narrative (Introduction to Genre Handout).
The subject/audience category describes the subject and/or content of a
text, the category of form refers to a number of voices in a text, and the
category of narrative refers to the type of story or plot that a work of
literature enacts. Upon learning that, I also learned that genres tend to
overlap one another, and that there is no such thing as a pure genre. Now,
taking this course, I have learned that not only do genres tend to overlap one
another, but narratives do too. As
Lindsey Kerckhoff states “literature of the future offers different approaches
to the genre of science fiction.”
It does that through the three primary narratives:
apocalyptic, evolutionary, and
alternative futures.
The apocalyptic narrative sees time as a linear plot that has one beginning, one
middle, and one solid end. A good example of this is the Holy Bible, in which
Genesis is the beginning of the story and Revelation is the only end in the
story. Apocalyptic literature, in
general, remains prevalent in our culture because there is usually a sense of
hope or a chance of deliverance found within the text. In the end of
The Revelation Jesus offers an
escape from the horrible future that has just been depicted, saying, “Blessed
are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life,
and may enter in through the gates into the city” (Revelation 22:14)(Complete
Midterm 2003, Example Z). I agree with
Liavette Peralta in her model assignment that the book of
Revelations is the prime example of
apocalyptic narratives in that “it speaks of the events leading up to Christ’s
return and the end of the world.” The details given are very descriptive and
follow an specific order in which they will take place with the result of living
in heaven and seeing your loved ones who have gone on before and to live
eternally with Christ. Since the future has already been written in this book of
the Bible, there is nothing that can be done to change it or prevent it but it
does give a solution on how to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Evolutionary narratives are infinite, unlike apocalyptic narratives; they do not
have a definite beginning or a definite ending.
The sequence of an evolutionary narrative is cyclic or has a spiral
pattern.
The Time Machine
and “Bears Discover Fire” are
good examples of evolutionary narratives.
In
The Time Machine,
the time traveler discovers the evolution or cycle of human existence turn
from the present human life form to the Eloi and Morlocks human life societies.
The similar concept of adaptation to changes in the environment develops in the
story of “Bears Discover Fire” when
the well-known bears now turn into more intellectual bears in the future. These
bears’ minds change through the story and now no longer need to hibernate
because of their innovation of fire and seasonal change, like global warming.
Both of these stories are great examples to show that the key to evolutionary
narratives is survival.
Although, the apocalyptic narratives’ structure and design differs from the
evolutionary narratives, they can be intertwined within a text.
Parable of the Sower and “Stone
Lives” both have the elements of apocalyptic and evolutionary narratives
present. In
Parable of the Sower the people have damaged their environment
immensely, which has led them with very less water, food, and money.
With little of the resources they have, the people have learned and
evolved to live according to their environment. They have walled communities to
keep the thieves out, they help each other out within their community, and teach
the children and the young teenagers the skills to survive in the time they are
living in. Similarly, in the story
“Stone Lives” Stone must adapt to his surrounding by changing to meet the
environment around him. This undertaking involves his new eyes and the training
to use them. All these things symbolize an evolution into a new man, but the
apocalyptic flare lingers in the background. Apocalypse means to reveal, which
was what happened with Stone’s true mother being revealed to him in the end.
Furthermore, much like the chosen ones in the book of
Revelations, Stone is pulled from a
world of torment into a more favorable world.
Lastly, The stories on alternative futures depict a future that is not written,
but has many possibilities. In “Mozart
in Mirrorshades”, the story shows how time travel is used to go back and
exploit the past. In exploiting the past the present is not harmed because with
every change of the past a new branch of time splits of to form a new time line.
This kind of narrative cannot be really seen as apocalyptic, due to the fact
there is no real beginning, middle, and an end. The true beginning is different
in all timelines, thus is true with the middle and end. The alternative future
lends itself to free will. The characters in an alternative narrative can choose
any destiny. For example, in "The Garden
of Forking Paths" the spy chooses to kill Albert to set off the events to
lead to the newspaper headlines.
I never really liked or enjoyed reading through the genre of science
fiction before, because every time I would hear the words science fiction, I
imagined aliens, space invaders, and robots. So far, this class has introduced
me to a whole different side of science fiction that I really enjoy reading.
Reading through the three narratives made me realize that there is a
possibility that the future might be not be as advanced as we picture it, rather
it can be crumbling down to pieces getting closer to its end.
And despite its crumbling down, people of that time will have evolved and
learned to adapt to their environment in which they reside.
With that being said, I also believe that we are building our future
during our present time and we must choose to build it wisely, because if not
us, our coming generations will be living in the future that we create.
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