|
(2016
midterm assignment) Model Student Midterm answers 2016 (Index) Essay 1: Compare, contrast, and evaluate Narratives of the Future |
 |
Christa Van Allen
Telling Tales of Tomorrow
Literature of the Future is one of the strangest but most engaging classes I
have ever had the pleasure to participate in, and the primary narratives lend
themselves to that excitement. So far we have had extensive discussions on
Creation/Apocalypse, Evolution Narratives, and Alternative Future storylines.
Time has always fascinated humankind and so, along with fantasy, time-theorizing
stories continue to grow in popularity. I think that this may be due to the
natural allure of the unknown.
Of
the narratives discussed I find myself less assured in the Creation/Apocalypse
genre. This stays primarily in biblical texts, and though straight forward, also
cycles on itself. It is a narrative with a clear beginning and end, but a not so
simple middle. The linear pattern is understandable and expectant because of the
comparatively short scale, roughly 6,000 to 10,000 years, but the overarching
ether and old English writing has caused me to stumble over interpretations.
Ironically because the story of Adam and Eve is so simple, I feel like we’re not
being told the whole story, and I’m left with questions. It is perhaps put best
within Jesus’ words during the ‘Little Apocalypse’,
“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my
words shall not pass away”. Words need not change to have their meanings
transform.
In
Parable of the Sower, Lauren goes on
her own version of the creation/apocalypse narrative, but with a far more
circular view. In her case, the story starts with the last cycle’s apocalypse
and follows her through to the new start of creation. She is one of the few
survivors of a world engulfed by danger, fire, and death, and she is the direct
mother to the new beginning of growth and change. Lauren’s thoughts on her
religion in chapter 24 best summarize this idea.
"God is Change, and in the end, God does
prevail. But we have something to say about the whens and the whys of that end."
She seems to imply that while God may be the ultimate decider of whether or not
things continue, humanity’s influence is what keeps the wheels in motion, both
in terms of the start and the end.
Evolution builds on the past to predict the future. I believe that despite its
necessity for a longer time scale up in the billions of years, evolution
narratives devote more time to slow progression and explanation, complex enough
that questions are answered immediately or through patience. All events are tied
together in an ever-growing spiral of time, even if some pieces still need to be
uncovered. Because it relies on a theory of change, narratives that follow this
way of storytelling can acknowledge possible theories and transformations or
even admit when they are wrong. The dog-eat-dog, and adaptable ideology of
Darwin are well-known in modern society, so it is fairly reasonable to presume
their continued use in future narratives of various genres. One can even argue,
that the bible itself incorporates some ideals of evolution, as Melissa
Holesovsky, mentioned in her 2015 midterm submission,
“Though the book of Genesis begins with
the inspiring story of creation, the expulsion of Adam and Eve resulting in
their “rebirth” as worldly beings is both apocalyptic and evolutionary”.
When
we read the story Bears Discover Fire,
I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. It may have been due to its surprisingly
nonchalant delivery of the story, but when I think about now, such an event
would probably be met with the same sort of cautious observation and theorizing
displayed in the text. The book follows an evolutionary event as humanity might
if given the opportunity to view it in a somewhat faster timeframe. The bears
discovering fire is the big thing, but because of their finding it, they have
also ceased hibernating and moved closer to, if not in direct contact with,
people. These are side-effects of the event, and though theories are considered
as to why they happened, there are no similar quandaries as to how the bears
learned to make fire in the first place. The questioning seems primarily on what
the bears are doing currently and what it may lead to. Working forwards before
looking back, I suppose. It’s an interesting take on the evolution narrative,
explaining both how this discovery is changing the bears and then how humanity’s
discovery of the bear’s discovery changes human actions and behavior.
Evolutionary on two different fronts.
Alternative future narratives are the wildcards of the group. They can
effectively be part of or apart from both of the previous narratives. They
dabble into quantum physics, theoretical timelines, and alternate dimensions
with no real proper evidence to suggest one direction or another. They model
best like a tree where at one point a decision must be made, and regardless of
your choice, either resulting branch is considered to be a legitimate existing
future, forever expanding and growing outward as more and more choices or events
occur. Time in these stories is mixed, one universe may be older or younger than
your own, may be influenced by yours or entirely oblivious, and they are
unstable, forever shifting, and entirely unpredictable. It is such a wide and
overwhelming interpretation of theoretical science that the implied
possibilities are mind boggling.
As
specific examples go, The Time Machine
by H.G. Wells was particularly interesting, and this is because the very
creation of a time machine lets you play with dimensions. Early on is a line
about how “…Time is only a kind of
Space.” There exists in the narrative, observations on what the time
traveler saw, but also questions about how these things developed. You could
even ask if the development of the time machine changed the future into what the
traveler saw. Mozart in Mirrorshades
also embraces this narrative, not
only warping America’s and the world’s history, but admitting that the world
that we spend time in for the story’s duration is nowhere near the only one that
our prime characters have visited or created. In fact, it could be argued that
every story we cover in our class has the potential to be a true future scape.
We may get to see one or none of them because our version of the future either
does follow, comes close to, splits off from, or never follows, the specific
changes and pathways that lead to them. Spend too long contemplating that and
you could get a headache.
Most
often you hear that phrase of history and those that fail to learn from it being
forced to repeat it. It’s a valid piece of advice, but so is the simple standard
of being better safe than sorry. To ever be prepared for the future you must
consider what can happen and plan accordingly. Time has a way of changing
things, so it’s best to observe what is happening, predict what may come of it,
and roll with the punches if some previously unforeseen variable threw
everything you thought out the window. Future narratives are fun but, for the
moment, not really happening. However, the unknown that they explore is
fascinating and equalizing for all that pursue them. No one, student or teacher,
actually knows what the future will bring until it gets here, but in the
meantime we can all take solace in knowing that we are carefully mapping it out
together.
 |
 |
|