Future Imperfect  - Dystopic Prophecy 

 - by Jannine Taylor

 

This essay explores the texts required for the Higher School Certificate in ? Elective 2: In the Wild, English (Advanced) Course?. There is a focus on the context and response to the texts Brave New World  (http://www.huxley.net) and Blade Runner, (http://kzsu.stanford.edu/uwi/br/off-world.html)   prescribed by the Board of Studies in the ?Prose, Fiction and Film? section (p19)

 

 Key competencies for students as outlined by the Board of Studies (http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au) in the publication, English Stage 6 Prescription: Area of study Electives Texts, Higher School Certificate 2001 NS 2002  are emphasized. The skills of ?collecting, analyzing and organizing information, ? and ? communicating ideas and information? are highlighted in links to web sites which are recommended as useful for refining skills. Exercises based on the internet sites are contained in the exploration to highlight the following  requirements :

The integration of the modes of reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing and representing;

Responding to and composing texts;

  The integrated study of language and text;

Examination of a variety of textual forms  (Board of Studies, syllabus p51).

 

Strategies for Studying Texts

 

Assistance for students to critically read and analyse texts can be found on the following websites:

 

Critical reading strategies http://mind.phil.vt.edu/www/1204CRS.html

Analysisng and interpreting literature http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~nick/amlit/method.html

Reading and understanding literature http://www.usq.edu.au/users/campbede/research8.htm

 Comparing Brave New World and Blade Runner: Replicating Savages

 

Background

 

Aldous Huxley (http://www.primenet.com/~matthew/huxley/)  writes about a dystopic future where nature and culture are at odds with humanity and emotion as we know it. Natural rhythms are disrupted; relationships confused and the western culture is contaminated by sexual rituals and aversion therapies which would be considered offensive by today?s standards. John, the main character, is a ?savage? marginalized because of his traditional beliefs and alternate cultural beliefs. Ridley Scott (http://www.afionline.org/nft/aug97/nft.rs.htmlpresents a world where human existence is questioned and a detective,  Deckard (note the similarity to Descarte http://www.studentweb.tulane.edu/~abrown4/.descircle.htm ), investigates existence and humanity through technology; vision and memory. Gender and patriarchy are themes interwoven throughout the two narratives.

EXERCISE:  Visit the website for Existentialism.( http://www.members.aol.com/KatharenaE?private/Philo/philo.html  How is the maxim of ?I think therefore I am? challenged by Huxley and Scott in their texts? How is humanity represented? What is considered civilized and who or what is savage? How are the motif of the eye and the repetition of the word ?savage? disturbing to the reader/viewer and notions of individuality and humanity?

 

The Novels in Context

 

Brave New World was published in 1932, and would have shocked the audience of its time. Australians of the time would have survived the Great Depression(http://www.labor.org.au/lcnsw/libcat/7595.html)  they would have experienced a time of misery and pessimism. The Twenties and Thirties were a time of upheaval disruption. Soldiers had returned home in 1919 from World War 1 (http://www.history.hanover.edu/20th/wwihtm)  there was still division over the issue of  conscription (http://www.labor.org.au/library-catalog/7155html) ; there were religious and cultural differences between Protestants and Catholics which was worsened by Easter Rising of 1916 (http://www.ireland-information.com/irishhistoryreport.htm)  in Ireland; there were strikes in 1919 which were accompanied by violence; The Brisbane Russian club was attacked in March 1919 and Bolshevik (http://www.mo-net.com/~mlindste/revtciv6.html)  and Socialist (http://www.wsws.org/)  ideas were frequently the target of political attacks.  To the modern audience, ?recreational? drugs and ?recreational? sex are not as scandalous as they were when the book was first read; movies such as Austin Powers (http://www.austinpowers.com/)  are a satire of the era of Women?s Liberation (http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm) ;  free love and drug use and the Hippy (http://www.hippy.com/)  culture ; Australia in the sixties (http://www.acay.com.au/~usana/menzera/default.htm) was part of this world trend. Technological advances such as invitro fertilization are commonplace in medicine today, and although there is greater emphasis placed on the acquisition of knowledge, there is still an elite class, which controls information and wealth. Patriarchal structures exist today in Government, Religion and business and although they are recognized, there remains a struggle for equality. 

 

Blade Runner Director?s Cut was released in 1992, although the original screening of Blade Runner had taken place in 1982; audiences were more sophisticated than their counterparts of the thirties, however, mobile phones, bar coding; optical character recognition; the internet and virtual reality were unknown as consumer items. A future controlled by a central computer system was a terrifying future option to people who lived in Australia in the eighties http://www.inthe80s.com/articles.shtml) . Australians debated issues concerning Refugees (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/rrt/) ; Multiculturalism (http://www.fred.net/malta/multiaustr.html) , and Pollution (http://www.ecoversity.org.au/)  and agencies such as Greenpeace (www.greenpeace.org/iinf.html)  and Amnesty International (http://www.amnesty.org.au/ )  were prominent in the eighties and nineties.

 EXERCISE: Speak to someone who lived through the thirties and the eighties, compare their recollections of life in Australia to the information provided in the websites.

   

Wider reading for comparison of the  texts

 

There have been other texts which explore the issues of the individual against the state. Prominent among these are George Orwell?s (http://www.levity.com/corduroy/orwell.htm)  Nineteen Eighty Four and Anthony Burgess?s ( www.brother.mcbrayer.com/literature/summary/Burgess.htm) A Clockwork Orange .  These publications contain sub-texts of morality and justice based on today?s standards. Modern video games such as Oddworld ( http://www.oddworld.com/)  published by GT Interactive (www.gtgames.com) also reflect problems of the individual against the State. There is an environmental sub-text to this game, which is about the extinction of life due to the ignorance and greed of the governing beings.

EXERCISE: Visit the websites for the three mentioned and texts and note any similarities. Extend the list of texts which are concerned with individuals manipulated or controlled by the State. Write a list of changes you think will occur in the next twenty years, compare them to those on the website, Australia 2010: A future for us all (http://morrison.fl.net.au/Australia2010/)

 

Bibliography

 

Huxley A  (1983) Brave New World Longman Study Group, England

 

Kerr L and Webb K (1995) Australia and the World in the Twentieth Century McGraw Hill Book Company, Sydney

 

Merritt A and O?Brien C (1995) Questions and Issues in Australian History Nelson, Australia

 

Net Research Group (1999) The 1999 Australian Internet Directory for Education NRG Australia

 

Sammon P M (1996) Future Noir, the Making of Blade Runner Orien Media, Great Britain

 

Spencer R J (Editor in chief) Australian PC Gamer  Vol. 1 No. 9, May 1999  Image Media, Brisbane