|
(2015
midterm assignment) Model Student Midterm answers 2015 (Index) Essay 1: Compare, contrast, and evaluate Narratives of the Future |
 |
Alejandro Renteria
The Acceptance and Rejection of the Story We View
There are many narratives for one to describe as the Literature of the
Future; however, a common theme is an inverse relationship between the declines
in moral standing of the population relative to the progression of technological
advancement of the timeline where the story takes place. For my first example I
refer to The Time Machine by H.G. Wells as an example where the Time Traveler
from the era of Victorian England travels to the future to find what he first
presumes to be a utopia of the garden of Eloi. As the story advances these
theories of mankind’s conquest over nature, medicine, and poverty are gradually
swept aside by the realization of the existence of the Morlocks and of the
primal roles of each species. The Narrative of the Novel is one of eventual
decline along linear time where humanity is on the wane. This contrasts with the
progress seen in Bears Discover Fire, where the Bears are seen as progressing,
developing community’s, and gather society’s in the medians of interstate
highways. The Protagonist in “Bears” finds the animals to be welcoming, and kind
to strangers much like the Eloi in the Time Machine, yet the Bears are more
technologically advanced with their discovery. The Eloi and Bears serve as the
base primitives in the Literature of the Future, showing attributes of kindness
and compassion inherent to the concept of low technology.
The
decline and progress of humanity is evident in both stories as is the evolution
of native species to adapt to the environment around them. The Time Machine
examines this process of evolution well into the far future where humanity has
finally parted the alien world of the distant future, and nothing remains of
life on earth. The end of life on Earth in the Time Machine is a gradual but
inevitable affair where humanity has little control over the fate of the world
much in the way of the Bible. In both stories, the narrator is first presented
with the garden before witnessing the death and destruction of the world. As put
by Sera Perkins in her assignment Tell Me a Story, “There
is no war, no hatred, no pain, no sickness among the Eloi. “He will wipe away
every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be
mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away”
(Revelation 12:4).” This quote describes the imagery and symbolic cohesion of a
garden before the destruction that follows with the passage of time in the Time
Machine, and the Apocalypse of Revelation.
The
Novel of Parable of the Sower also compares to the Bible and the Time Machine
but for different reasons. The Parable of a Sower follows a similar path but
diverges in the manner of position. In Parable the protagonist is in the process
of decline where humanity is dying, suffering a degradation or decline, yet the
decline is not total. The past in Parable of a Sower is the Garden, and the
present is the apocalypse, and yet there are those who survive and prosper. The
decline and destruction of humanity is far from total. People enjoy lives of
luxury in walled estates, taxes are paid by a majority of the population, and
the space program continues unabated. There is hope for what comes after in
Parable of a Sower. Referencing the work of Sera Perkins once more,
“Creation/Apocalypse stories begin in paradise, followed by apocalyptic
devastation, but in Revelation there is more beyond the rapture and the
tribulations, there is paradise again.” The Parable of the Sower is a story of
tribulation, one where mankind must find redemption for its actions in an actual
reality vision of the future.
At the extreme end of the technological and moral divide are the
dystopian worlds of the future that lie within Burning Chrome, Stone Lives,
Johnny Mnemonic, and Mozart in Mirror Shades. In these futures power and wealth
are unequally distributed to the point entire worlds exist between characters.
Figures who are symbols in their own right such as Thomas Jefferson, Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart, and Roman Centurion Gray Card soldiers are used as characters in
the story of Mozart in Mirrorshades to advance the plot of the story without
slowing down the pace by explaining the motivations of the individual
characters. The reader is expected to know who these symbols are and what they
signify in the story. Rather than a Creation/Apocalypse narrative, these stories
follow a narrative of evolution alongside technological advancement. All of
these futures are dystopian in character where practicality and structure are at
odds with one another. Off all the symbols and examples I could chose none I
find are as effective as Jones the Dolphin.
Jones the Dolphin is a veteran from World War Three, who was given
cybernetic implants to serve in the anti-submarine and mine warfare roles within
the U.S. Navy, and addicted to heroin to keep him loyal. (I, as the author would
like to point out at this time that this is all amazingly close to reality and
that this is something the United States Navy has been working on for decades
despite its absurd premise upon first reading). Jones communicates using symbols
and when offered heroin for a task he refers to the protagonist’s first as
saviors in the form of a blue cross for offering him the task, and then as
Nazi’s in the form of a red Swastika for not immediately giving him the drugs
when he completes the task. Jones serves multiple roles in genre, as a tragic,
comedic, satirical, and romantic symbol of the high tech world he lives in. He
is a character who can only speak in in red, white, and blue symbols, yet is the
most complex character I can provide in the high tech Literature of the Future.
The third and final Narrative of the future is that of alternative
realities exemplified by three stories. Mozart in Mirrorshades, the Garden of
Forking Paths, and the Grensback Continuum. In the first story, Mozart in
Mirrorshades is a world where one timeline has discovered time travel, and
pillages numerous other timelines for resources and treasure to benefit the
fixed original timeline. The second story of Garden of Forking Paths examines
the foolishness of time, and refers every decision made as one of numerous
splits within different realities where every decision creates a new universe
that follows the consequences of a single decision. The third and final example
is the Grensback Continuum where a man is offered a chance to live in a utopia
of the perfect future but chooses to reject it for the near dystopia he
currently lives in. In all three stories a different choice is made. In Mozart
in Mirrorshades, Mozart chooses to go to the future, in Garden of Forking Paths
the descendant of Ts’ui Pen chooses every reality and murders Stephan Albert as
it his role in his timeline, and lastly in the Gernsback Continuum the
photographer chooses the present as the reality of his time and rejects a
perfect future by reading the news and watching bad porn. The futures of each
world are in flux, able to be manipulated by the narrator to their desired goal,
yet there is always a sense of hesitation and comprehension of the future. The
Narrator understands the future, the present and their actions. They are in
complete control of the choice ahead, and act to reach the future they wish.
In comparing the various stories and the concepts of decline and
progress, visions and Symbols, and alternative realities and futures, the common
characteristic remains to be the relationship between the moral and
technological progress of society. The more advanced the society is, the more
that the society feels it needs to be satisfied with the world that exists. The
more primitive the society, the more comfortable and relaxed the goals of the
characters are. Every character has a motivation or purpose for their actions.
The behavior of the characters follow the goals they set for themselves, and are
justified by the reality they believe they live in. In one story inequality is
inherent, and in another it is nonexistent. In fact there is no rule or reason
that every story cannot exist in the same original universe. It is possible that
every story presented takes place on the same planet, along different times
where the world is created and the time traveler travels past the towering
cities of the free economic zones to see the garden of the Eloi, much in the way
that, the photographer had the opportunity to walk a different forking path
along time. The stories have the ability to overlap as they are individual
stories along the plane of time and space. Can a life not exist in an instant
much in the way a decision alters the possibility of the future. Rather wither
we accept or reject the story we view to be true or false, the worlds contained
within them are real for the instant we perceive it to be.
 |
 |
|