LITR 4632: Literature of the Future

Student Future-Visions Presentation 2009

Josh Hughey

LITR 4632

Literature of the Future

2 July 2009

An Unavoidable Dystopia

The Wanting Seed by Anthony Burgess   © 1962

Setting- Sometime in the future (through vague statements from Burgess often estimated to be around 2080) in London, now part of Enspun.  World is plagued by extreme overpopulation.

Enspun- English speaking union.

Ruspun- Russian speaking union.

Chinspun- Chinese speaking union.

Important Characters

Tristram Foxe- average man, history teacher, cynic and freethinker.

Derek Foxe-  Tristram’s brother, important figure in the Ministry of Infertility/Fertility, pretends to be homosexual.

Beatrice-Joanna Foxe- Tristram’s wife, homemaker, having an affair with Derek.

Government- the government of Enspun is in a constant cycle transitioning through three political ideologies.

Pelagianism (Pelphase)-->Intermediate Phase (Interphase)-->Augustinianism (Gusphase) then repeating.

Pelphase- Liberal with minimal punishments for crimes. Non-religious.

Interphase- transitional period of unrest.

Gusphase- Conservative with harsh punishments.  Very religious.

Dealing With Overpopulation

Pelphase

Propaganda comics- Mr. Livedog (godevil) spawns life all over the world and his human master Mr. Homo must stop him.

Limits Births- every family may only have one child and may not have another if that one dies.

Promotes Homosexuality and Sterilization- Homosexuals are given better jobs and respected because they cannot naturally produce offspring.  Some people even get castrated. 

Horrible Food- no one eats meat anymore because there are hardly any animals.  Food is almost entirely synthetic due to lack of arable land.

Other- very small living spaces.  Very little printed on paper and when it is it’s in extreme shorthand.

Interphase- government is increasingly upset at growing population and reaches breaking point.  Starts cracking down and police become more aggressive.  Religion starts coming back. (Christianity)

Cannibalism- people are fed up with too little food and begin plucking the disliked police and random people off the street to cook and eat at their “dining clubs.”

Gusphase- religious government that believes people should “go forth and multiply,” however, goes to greater extremes to control population growth.

Armed Forces- increases amount of police to deal with new unrest and eventually forms a standing army for the outbreak of  “The War.” (there has been no war in decades and no one but historians like Tristram know about guns, tanks or poisonous gas)

The War- people are duped into joining the military, given minimal training and sent to the frontlines. China? Ireland?  Enemy speaks Chinese but they are unknowingly in Ireland.  Both sides rush each other and untrained soldiers fire until everyone on both sides is dead.  Now there are fewer people and the remaining population has more food, but at what cost?

The cycle continues…

Questions

1.     If you had to pick one of the three phases to live in which would it be? 

2.     Do any of the scenarios in the story seem possible?

3.     What other dystopian conditions may arise from the faults of mankind and not any particular government?