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(2019
premidterm assignment) Model Midterm answers 2019 (Index) Essay 1: Compare, contrast, and evaluate Narratives of the Future |
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Brandon Burrow
24 February 2019
Crossing the Streams: Weaving the
Future Through Speculation and Apocalypse
So far in this course we have been studying literature
written across time by authors who were trying to make sense of the future the
best they could by utilizing the technologies and symbols that were present in
their own cultures to imagine it. Much of this work adheres to one of three
common future narrative paradigms: the Creation/Apocalypse model, the Evolution
model, or the Alternative model. These three ways of exploring future narratives
differ in their time and scale, structure, and literary appeal, but interweave
in ways that make them all interesting lenses to study the “literature of ideas”
through (discussion).
The Creation/Apocalypse model is perhaps the most
prevalent and primal narrative style in existence. Genesis begins as far back as
possible, with the creation of everything from a formless “void” (course site).
As Clark Omo notes in his 2017 essay “The Future Duo: The Links Between the Two
Narratives,” these stories consist of a “definite beginning and a foreseeable
ending” (Omo 2017). The Genesis/Revelation timeline also conforms to the linear
Aristotelean concept of storytelling as it features a concrete “beginning,”
“middle,” and “end” (course site). The biblical narrative starts with the
Creation and bliss of Eden, gives way to exile, trials, and tribulations for
mankind climaxing with the events detailed in Revelation, and ends with Heaven
a.k.a. New Jerusalem descending as an eternal utopia for the faithful. Jesus,
symbolized by the bloody lamb, emphasizes repeatedly in Revelation that he is
“Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end,” adhering to the neat linear
chronology often present in Creation/Apocalypse narratives (course site).
In Octavia Butler’s
Parable of The Sower we see a
narrative style known as the Evolution model that behaves quite differently from
the Creation/Apocalypse model. While it mirrors some aspects of the linear
biblical narrative closely, it leaves room for branching paths and outcomes as
the story proceeds. Laura Wilson notices that in
Parable Lauren begins in a state
reminiscent of Genesis: “like Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, the community
Lauren lives in is something of a utopia, at least amid the horrors of the city”
(Wilson 2017). Lauren likewise loses this community of innocence in a fashion
similar to how Adam and Eve lose theirs. Lauren’s community’s inability to
follow the directives that God (Change) is mandating them (to prepare adequately
for the inevitable attack), causes their downfall just as the insubordination of
Adam and Eve does theirs. After this inciting incident however, the future is
uncertain, and the reader can see how different outcomes are possible as Lauren
is forced to adapt if she wants to survive.
Lauren uses the abstract idea of God as a symbol to
communicate what she believes is the one absolute universal principle, change.
In evolutionary narratives time is often seen as a spiral, and this is evident
in Lauren’s worldview in Parable.
In a world that has largely fallen into a downwards spiral of decline,
she chooses to adapt and change her own behaviors and mindset as she guides
herself and her Earthseed followers along an upwards spiral of progress that
rebels against the status quo of death and destruction present in
Parable. After losing her Eden,
Lauren realizes that she can’t wait for the Christian God of her childhood to
“fix things for [her] or [to] take revenge for [her],” and instead wholly adopts
the view that God is “not punishing or jealous, but infinitely malleable” (220).
In other words, Lauren’s path is not pre-ordained, as she can evolve and change
her story, shaping the world around her through her actions.
Prophecy and biblical symbolism are still present in
Parable, but it serves to accentuate
that symbols can be changed, and how a familiar model can be given new meaning.
As noted in class discussion, at the beginning of the novel, Lauren is having
recurring nightmares about burning and being reborn into awakening. She feels
that she is being immolated and consumed by the evils of the world around her,
but through her actions in the novel she instead becomes a phoenix who rebirths
herself and a lost world. After immediately losing her community she is
distrustful and on a dark path, willing to shoot anyone who challenges her as
she practices a Darwinian “survival of the fittest” mentality (course site).
However, through seeing the suffering of humanity around her, she changes her
perspective on the cruelty of the world and reforms herself towards a brighter
future.
Lauren’s Jesus-like hyperempathy syndrome plays a large
role in her ability to understand the human condition and suffering, as she
thinks, “if hyperempathy were a more common complaint” and people had to “endure
all the pain they caused,” they would be less likely to do heinous things (115,
278). The catalyst for her becoming a “Good Samaritan” is seeing a struggling
family at a water station (202). Lauren comes to have sympathy/empathy for the
wounded and downtrodden, as well as the survivors who are brave enough to be
parents in an apocalyptic time. Moving from wondering how “anyone can get
married and make babies with things the way they are” to realizing that
“children were the keys to most of the adults present” in her group, Lauren
starts to believe in the future that they can create together (87, 321). She
moves across the wasteland with the goal of sowing the seeds of a new future
coalescing in the establishment of Acorn, the reforged utopia planted with seeds
from her original Eden. Using familiar symbols, Lauren has created her own
story.
The Creation/Apocalypse and Evolution models are the two
narratives that we have primarily focused on thus far in class, but there is a
third, the alternative model, and as Katie Morin has observed, “these groups are
not entirely exclusive of one another, and it is not uncommon to notice elements
from one storyline present in another” (Morin 2017). In fact, elements of the
alternative model can be seen in Parable
in the inclusion of climate change, giving the story an overall cautionary vibe.
Lauren knows that she is living in a timeline where people chose to “deny
reality” and contributed to the extreme weather patterns that now plague their
lives (58). Going forward, I am excited to learn more about how all three of
these narrative models interact and combine with each other and contribute to
our idea of the future. While the course that development will take is often
unclear, and the models showcase different methods, possible realities, ends,
and speculations about whether we are declining or progressing, one thing is
certain—the future is coming.
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