LITR 4632: Literature of the Future

Student Future-Vision Presentation 2011

Heather Mills

27 June 2011

The Evolutionary Revelations of the Eighties

Primary Objectives: 

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

a.    Apocalyptic

b.    Evolutionary

c.     Alternative

2.    To identify typical visions of the future as seen from the 1980’s.

a.      high tech; virtual reality—slick, cool, unreal, easy with power (+ cyberpunk style)

b.     low tech; actual reality—rough, intimate, messy, hungry, warm, real

c.      utopia / dystopia / ecotopia—perfectly planned worlds / dysfunctional world / + ecology

Television Show:  Thundarr the Barbarian (1980-1982)

Summary:  

The year 1994: From out of space comes a runaway planet, hurtling between the Earth and the Moon, unleashing cosmic destruction. 

Man's civilization is cast in ruin. 

Two thousand years later, Earth is reborn...

A strange new world rises from the old: a world of savagery, super science, and sorcery.

But one man bursts his bonds to fight for justice!

With his companions Ookla the Mok and Princess Ariel, he pits his strength, his courage, and his fabulous Sunsword against the forces of evil.

He is Thundarr, the Barbarian!  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhAobPugvsk

Questions:  Thundarr the Barbarian

1)     Apart from the “sorcery” this new civilization is not that much different from that of Parable of the Sower.  Are there other stories recently read that can be compared as well?

2)      What other apocalyptic themes or narratives have you noticed in other children’s programs and cartoons that you may have watched as a young child but did not realize it?

3)     Are these narratives something we want to teach our children at a young age?

Movie:  Millennium (1989)

 Summary:  

An investigator seeking the cause of an airline disaster discovers the involvement of an organization of time travellers from a future Earth irreparably polluted who seek to rejuvenate the human race from those about to die in the past. This movie is based on a novel by John Varley.

"This is not the end. This is not the beginning of the end. It is the end of the beginning" (Winston Churchill). 

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3433824537/

Questions:

1)     The movie Millennium appears to have two different types of narratives happening at the same time; however, at the end the audience is presented with an alternative beginning and end.  Which of the 3 main narratives of the future does Millennium appear to be geared more towards?

2)    Millennium is much like the short story, “Mozart in Mirrorshades” in relation to the alternative narrative theme and the idea of multidimensional paradoxes.  Why are the paradoxes’ so easily dismissed and readily destroyed for the benefit and survival of those willing to destroy it in the first place?