LITR 4632: Literature of the Future

Irving Peralta

June 21, 2005           

Future Vision Presentation

Primary Objectives—Narratives & Visions of the Future

1.     To identify, describe, and criticize narratives or stories humans tell about the future:

a.      Apocalyptic

b.     Evolutionary

Secondary Objectives—themes & styles

3. Is the future "written" (i. e., set, fixed, programmed, and usually apocalyptic) or "being written" ("open-ended" and usually evolutionary)?

4. To identify and criticize "the romance narrative" (hero’s quest) as a model for the past, present, and future and to search for alternative narratives that are less escapist and antisocial. .

8. To distinguish distinct temporal dimensions of the future

·        Near future; short-term; day-after-tomorrow (often dramatic or apocalyptic change, such as alien contact)

·        Deep future, long-term (usually evolutionary change involving natural or artificial adaptations to new or changing environments)

·        Various depths of future between, beyond, parallel, or skew

Movie:  The Day after Tomorrow

            This movie is a phenomenon that occurs do to the changing of currents under the ocean.  Such shifting of currents are what causes thunderstorms, hail storms, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes like no one ever seen before over areas that rarely experience such events.  The entire Northern Hemisphere is covered with ice at the end pf the movie.  Nature at its best!  Above it all, there is a sort of romance-heroic-Mel Gibson-protocol son kind of story taking place.  The heroic father travels miles by foot to rescue his son and his friends in New York.  During the movie science is questioned and so is the possible ice age era looked at once more to see if it actually happened in a very long period of time or if it took place in a matter of hours. 

Questions:

1.       If such an event could actually take place in a matter of hours, that I could see possibly happening, we just experienced it this pass year with the tsunami…Could it be that it is written, the book of Revelations, or is it being written…chemical plants…big trucks and suburban…humanity involvement? 

2.       Can anyone see this as a more possible way of destroying mankind and the world rather then robots or aliens invading our planet earth?

3.       What is it that changes your opinion when you see films like this one rather than Sci-Fi films?

Self Notes:

>Mammoth

>Animal panic>Jonah’s Ark

>Revelations 16:18 “…No earthquake like it has ever occurred ever since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake…”  (NIV)

>Revelations 16:21 “From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon man…”  (NIV)

>Revelations 11:19 “…And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and earthquake and great hailstorm” (NIV)