LITR 4632: Literature of
the Future
Student Future-Visions Presentation 2007
Monday, 25 June: Future-vision presenter: Cheryl Voskamp
Future Vision Presentation
Playing God~ How Far is too Far?
Atwood, Margaret. Oryx and Crake. New York: Anchor Books, 2003.
Summary:
Oryx and Crake is a novel about a boy named Jimmy (aka Snowman) and his high school buddy, Crake, growing up in a series of sterile compounds (made in the image of 1950s life with technological perks) and the lives they end up living. Their future hinges on an abused girl dubbed Oryx, as Crake uses her to lure Jimmy into his scheme, as well as to plant the seeds for the simultaneous destruction and recreation of humanity.
Primary Objectives:
1. To identify, describe, and criticize stories humans tell about the future.
¶ Apocalyptic~ sudden, extreme change with salvation following
¶ Evolutionary~ biological change to suit environment (in this case, forced change)
2. To identify typical visions of the future as seen from 2007.
¶ Utopia vs. Dystopia~ inside the compounds vs. pleebands
¶ Ecotopia~ Perfect balance of genetics to create harmonious life/ village life
¶ High Tech vs. Low Tech~ compound technology vs. Craker lifestyle
Examples:
1. Pg. 27: “Despite the sterile transport corridors and the high-speed bullet trains, there was always a risk when you went through the city. Jimmy had never been to the city. He’d only seen it on TV—endless billboards and neon signs and stretches of buildings, tall and short; […] thousands of people, hurrying, cheering, rioting.”
“They called the cities the pleebands.”
“Outside the OrganInc walls […], things were unpredictable. Inside, they were the way it used to be when Jimmy’s father was a kid, before things got so serious, or that’s what Jimmy’s father said. Jimmy’s mother said it was all artificial, it was just a theme park and you could never bring the old ways back.”
2. Pgs. 80-1: “EXTINCTATHON, Monitered by MaddAddam. Adam named the living
animals, MaddAddam names the dead ones. Do you want to play?”
Pg. 305: “What had been altered was nothing less than the ancient primate brain. Gone were its destructive features, the features responsible for the world’s current illnesses. For instance, racism […] had been eliminated in the model group, merely by switching the bonding mechanism: the Paradice people simply did not register skin colour. Hierarchy could not exist among them, because they lacked the neural complexes that would have created it. Since they were neither hunters nor agriculturalists hungry for land, there was no territoriality: the king-of-the-castle hard-wiring that had plagued humanity had, in them, been unwired. They ate nothing but leaves and grass and roots and a berry or two; thus their foods were plentiful and always available. Their sexuality was not a constant torment to them, not a cloud of turbulent hormones: they came into heat at regular intervals, as did most mammals other than man.
In fact, as there would never be anything for these people to inherit, there would be no family trees, no marriages, and no divorces. They were perfectly adjusted to their habitat, so they would never have to create houses or tools or weapons, or, for that matter, clothing. They would have no need to invent any harmful symbolisms, such as kingdoms, icons, gods, or money. Best of all, they recycled their own excrement.”
3. Pgs. 324-5: “The first bulletin came in at nine forty-five. […] At first Jimmy thought it was routine, another minor epidemic or splotch of bioterrorism, just another news item. The boys and girls with the HotBiosuits and the flame-throwers and the isolation tents and the crates of bleach and the lime pits would take care of it as usual. Anyway, it was in Brazil. Far enough away. […] Then the next one hit, and the next, the next, the next, rapid-fire. Taiwan, Bangkok, Saudi Arabia, Bombay, Paris, Berlin. The pleebands west of Chicago. The maps on the monitor screens lit up, spackled with red as if someone had flicked a loaded paintbrush at them. This was more than a few isolated plague spots. This was major. […] By midnight the hits were coming almost simultaneously. Dallas, Seattle, New New York. The thing didn’t appear to be spreading from city to city: it was breaking out in a number of them simultaneously.”
Pgs. 340-1: “For the first two weeks he followed world events on the Net, or else on the television news: the riots in the cities as transportation broke down and supermarkets were raided; the explosions as electrical systems failed, the fires no one came to extinguish. Crowds packed the churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples to pray and repent, then poured out of them as the worshippers woke up to their increased risk of exposure. There was an exodus to small towns and rural areas, whose inhabitants fought off the refugees as long as they could, with banned firearms or clubs and pitchforks. […] Street preachers took to self-flagellation and ranting about the Apocalypse, though they seemed disappointed: where were the trumpets and angels, why hadn’t the moon turned to blood?”
Pg. 351-2: “The trees surrounding the dome were lush and green, everything seemed pristine, but when they reached the RejoovenEsense Compound proper, the evidence of destruction and death lay all around. Overturned golf carts, sodden, illegible print-outs, computers with their guts ripped out. Rubble, fluttering cloth, gnawed carrion. Broken toys. The vultures were still at their business.
“Please, oh Snowman, what is that?”
It’s a dead body, what do you think? “It’s part of the chaos,” said Snowman. “Crake and Oryx are clearing away the chaos, for you—because they love you—but they haven’t quite finished yet.””
Pg. 353-4: “Late in the evening, they came at last to the shore. The leaves of the trees were rustling, the water was gently waving, the setting sun was reflected on it, pink and red. The sands were white, the offshore towers overflowing with birds.
“It is so beautiful here.”
“Oh look! Are those feathers?”
“What is this place called?”
“It is called home,” said Snowman.”
Pg. 228: “The whole world is now one vast uncontrolled experiment—the way it always was, Crake would have said—and the doctrine of unintended consequences is in full spate.”
Questions:
1. Is either environment of high tech or low tech living a desirable situation or should there be a balance between the two?
2. The Crakers are a beautiful idea, an end to war, strife, and all the ill-consequences resulting from man’s primal behavior, but is this utopia/ecotopia where humans live in harmony with nature really a viable, practical option for existence?
3. We assume that, in apocalyptic narratives, the world will end in a hail of fire and brimstone. How does this version of apocalypse coincide with what we have read so far, and how does it reflect the current views of 2007?