Individual and society as a theme shows us up in the books very often - authors love to use “extra people”, as it is called in Russian literature, to show absolute difference between them and other people. In most cases, these characters are endowed with unique way of thinking, ideals, and moral principles. Because of their bright individuality, they are alone, in most cases, without friends and soulmates what makes them feel uncomfortable and suffer in society.
In this class we have covered a few books, short stories and couple movies and some of them used this theme as one of the main ones to show the difference between main character and society in general. Short stories “Repent, Harlequin!”- said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison and The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury are extremely similar, both authors depict their main characters as “extra people” that are alone and considered dangerous for the society. Ellison’s story, published in 1965, shows that readers anti-utopian future, whose rulers control the very time of human life! Each has an individual time card and a special heart implant, which reduces the wearer’s life depending on his/her compliance to law - person is 10 minutes late for the work and 10 minutes lower on his life, etc. The worst punishment for constant violators is being “turned off” what is impossible to avoid - the society is really scared of it and obeys this the law properly. As in all societies, periods of time, cultures, revolutions begin with a small - after slight doubts in the omnipotence of the system. Rebellious Harlequin exactly that character who advocates free time, without fear of losing his head and timing for up to a second. For the sake of his goal, he arranges various actions, disrupting the daily routine for different groups of citizens. Even when Pretty Alice betrays him and their love deciding “to conform”, the main character does not give up - he becomes even more purpose-oriented and disagreed with the society, in opposite. In this story, Ellison brought together a very gloomy entourage of nightmarish totalitarianism through the society and system, it seems like there is no way to stop it, but through the character, his actions, and desire to actually “live” instead of surviving just like others, it gets clear that it is possible to stop this totalitarianism and small changes/actions matter causing big changes step by step - these small changes eventually lead to bigger ones. After reading this work, it is absolutely clear that even the most entrenched systems of power are not immune to change.
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Writer in the past, Leonard Mead, main character from another short story, is also shown as an “extra person” - while everyone stays at home and watches TV, he is the only one who walks outdoors and does not have TV at all. For this society this behaviour is strange, absolutely unusual or just one word - crazy. Everything what is abnormal for the society is dangerous for its existence, so, Leonard Mead with his walkings in the evenings and enjoying nature may cause disagreements, conflicts and cracks in the society that got used so much to technological “reality” indoors. This short story is extremely sad - through all the epithets, comparisons, dark and deep metaphors, the author depicted so accurately what is happening right now in “their” future, but our current situation. Already at that period of time, he noticed how people were moving from reading books, creating art works, communicating with each other walking in the parks to watching tasteless, silly TV shows. It was very sad to read the story understanding that today the situation is identical with the world depicted as a warning to us, next generations... Professor Mr. Kelly mentioned in the class that he misses those days, when people were talking to each other, walking instead of driving, calling instead of texting killing the communication skills, etc. I totally agree with him and believe that we all need to become Ray Bradbury’s character and by our examples show the society how it is amazing to just walk, read, enjoy simple things, and actually “live”!
Ray Bradbury, just like Harlan Ellison, showed dystopia where is no individualism, creativity, feelings, but monotonous thinking and priorities, ideals and fears. In the first story the hero dies, while in the second one the ending is unknown, but knowing the attitude of society through the policeman, the ending is pretty predictable.
Both authors show how tough it is to be an “extra person” - alone and rebellious, not accepted, but ridiculed by the society. Authors show that it is not easy to be a person like that: in the movies and books they die chasing their ideals in most cases - the work maker just kills them to show all the inequality, dishonesty, and classiness. Even though, it is clear how it is important to be Harlequin or Leonard Mead when the community makes mistakes changing the path, when the progress develops so fast, that people do not even notice how human priorities and ideals change upside down... It is important to be that “gadfly” just like Socrates for the society buzzing and awakening, making them to think and analyse everything as a result.
The short story The ones who walk away from Omelas by Ursula Kroeber Le Guin tells about utopian city of Omelas during solemn celebrations - the Summer Festival, full of music, joyful screams and squeals, dances, and processions. As the world in the short story depicted, it seems like it is absolutely perfect: is it possible to observe the existence of such happiness, carefree, naive, and simple?
The more you read, the more you understand that the situation is not that perfect, not at all. We learn that every inhabitant of Omelas knows about the unfortunate child, whose suffering rests on the joy of everyone else (his suffer is a basement of the society), but they are forbidden to show compassion and help in every way - because then everything will collapse. Shock at the sight of the child covers people, but no matter how strong their desire to help him somehow, nothing can be changed, nothing can help. Most residents of Omelas, having splashed out an impotent sense of rage, end up putting up with this order of things. They just accept the reality of the city. For the sake of their own good, for the benefit of all the inhabitants. The book is said and thought to read, but it makes the readers to think about many important topics, such as, importance of kindness in the society, importance of mutual help and support when it is necessary, and importance to be people in the society that feel and think, not just to enjoy the life, when others suffer from pain, poverty, but do something with it.
The cornerstone of this work is not people who live happily and happily in it, not a child who redeems this happiness with terrible suffering, but those who leave it. Of course, the author used the title for the work hinting to readers what did he want to cross out - those who walk away from Omelas, are those few individuals that are not scared to show their disagreement with the community, who are not going to pretend anything, but going to do what their heart, mind, morals, and ideals tell. All the revolutionists have this way of thinking: they are not scared to be separated by the community, but they are scared to be a part of the society they do not agree with.
All the individuals shown as oppositions to the communities in all the stories perfectly prove that changes require a lot of efforts, bright mind, new ideas and desire to change the world for the better. Unfortunately, these people have to go through a lot being alone. As a result, they die - writers just kill them to show the tragedy of their lives.
It is believed that science and utopia are opposite, but this is a mistaken thesis. The successes of science are dramatically changing society, creating the illusion of the omnipotence of modern man, his limitless possibilities, his ability to build a world on any, even the most arbitrary, projects. In the twentieth century, the United States and the USSR became two superpowers that combined scientific and technological progress with nationally determined utopianism and made a breakthrough on this wave.
This semester we read some books, stories and movies about technologies and science in society: A sound of thunder written by American author Ray Bradbury, Brave new World and a movie Black Panther that interested the viewers with his special effects, a musical selection and an incredibly large number of actors, representatives of the black race.
The short story A sound of thunder written by American author Ray Bradbury is going to be the first artwork and the effect of the science on the people is not optimistic at all. In A Sound of thunder, the main character, Eckels, pays $10,000 to the company called Time Safari Inc. that deals with time machines taking the people back to the era when dinosaurs existed. Eccles and other hunters so excited to go hunt well-known dinosaurs, despite the fact that they need to pay $10,000 with no guarantees about their lives and safety from the company, but strong rules and requirements how the clients need to behave. As it is said in the rules from Time Safari, hunters cannot touch anything during their “trip” - it confuses the main character, why is it so important? From the conversation between Travis, the guide, and Eckels, we find out that it is highly important to follow this rule in order not to change the pace of the life on the planet and future in general. Before the travel, there is a discussion about elections in USA where the readers find out about success of Keith and everyone’s happiness because of that.
Bradbury tells about the adventures in the past, shows the meeting with the dinosaur, and conflict in the travel group. When they return back from the trip, Eckels notices the changes in the sign hanging on the wall, what makes him nervous and scared - the changes started and the next change that happened was the different president winning the elections. All the changes happened and the future(what is current) is different, but what happened? He stepped on a tiny, beautiful butterfly, what was forbidden by the rules of the company, and it leaded to terrible results, what is election in USA, and bad effect on all the fields of life, obviously.
Of course, we do not have the time machines yet, but it definitely makes sense that if we changed some of our decisions in the past, our future(today) would not be the same. For example, people very often talk about World War 2 as a bloody, expensive war that was possible to avoid, but if it did not happen, what would we have today? Would we exist? Would people still argue about races, religion, sex, etc.? All these questions do not have an answer, but, according to Bradbury’s point of view shown in this artwork, it is good that we do not have a chance to go to the past through special machines. Writer gives his opinion towards the technology showing that people might start using the science and progress in a wrong way what can cause the troubles for the society in general.I remember I was talking to Mr. McFall about Russian since-fiction novel called The Fatal Eggs written by Mikhail Bulgakov, the Russian novel has the same idea and the same problem - inept use of science, which in itself is very complex and requires extra attention and knowledge, in interaction with nature led towards terrible chaos. The American story also makes people to think a little about our planet and our responsibility to take care of it, knowing that all those technology and modern society are very damageable for it. In today’s world, when everyone has endless access to science, technology, and Internet, it is highly important to balance it and use all of them properly, not excessively, what can cause to a big catastrophe, especially in the age of technology…
Another work of fiction that depicted interaction between science and a human being is Brave New World that was written by English author Aldous Huxley. The science of the New World has advanced so much that old age and other natural human ailments no longer disturb people. Having reached the age of 30, a person simply ceases to age - he remains young and full of energy for life, until his death!
There is no longer place for hunger in the world, because synthetic products have appeared - they are rich in vitamins and perfectly replace the old, natural food. As for natural food, agriculture still exists, but it no longer fulfils its main task - to feed the population. This is a relic of the past, which remained only for employment and to reduce the percentage of unemployment. If people get tired of a tactile cinema in which the viewer can feel like they are heroes, or watching TV, then there’s a better means - soma. This is a drug in the form of a pill that does not do any harm to the human body, but gives a lot of unforgettable sensations. It may seem that the world depicted by Huxley is perfect, but it is way too far from perfection: people are programmed since their childhood and controlled - all those sciences biology, psychology, and physiology are aimed at managing people, their feelings and thinking. This technological “progress” led to “happy” society that does not need to work hard to achieve anything, does not have to worry about deceases, lack of food, crisis, and problems in general. But is it that freedom all the people want? They do not read, do not create, do not dream.These people think it is not right to have only one sexual/love partner, they see it shameful. These people do not have feelings, they do not know how to love and depend on somebody’s mood or life, is not it scary to be surrounded by such robots…? These people are dead inside, they are not alive and how a normal person can see this whole world shown in the book as an utopia? This novel shows from the different angle interaction between science and the society, it shows the unbelievable progress of science that lead to all the goods people want to have. So, in the world, no one needed anything and it seemed like everyone was happy and satisfied, but the society got spoiled and corrupted. Yes, they did not have any needs anymore,but it sounds crazy and unrealistic to me knowing the novel. For me, these people are dead inside, because what is the point of life where everything is predictable, easy, perfect, and funny. Then, there is no progress, no development and no growth, what is so important to me and the people who are role models to me - the worst thing that happen to a person is to die inside, mentally, what happens when a person decides he/she does not need anything from the life, does not need to learn, and fight for the life - exactly this type of people I saw in the book. So, the writer of the novel also sees science as something extremely serious what requires attention, analyse, and deep thinking.
The last argument for this question is the movie that appeared last year, Black Panther that is directed by Ryan Coogler, shows absolutely different point of view on technology: in the movie you can observe a fictional country Wakanda where are tribes united by first Black Panther, they are well educated because of their technology that is so developed and so ahead of time in comparison with our “technology era”. They are a technological superpower - they have so many scientists and engineers with incredible intellects, but they hide all of that from the world, so they can stay quiet and no one finds them. In the movie, there are black people and they are highly educated, according to the movie director. Historically, most of the educated people were white ones, but this movie shows absolutely different picture - successful, powerful and well-educated people are black ones. Why did they become so successful, wealthy and intelligent, they got an access to technology that developed them and gave an opportunity for the growth. Cooler shows how well technology/science can be used and how it can lead the life to the better and greater changes.In the movie, there are also many powerful and strong women that know what they want, but keep their moral principles and ideals the same - Nakia, Okoye, these details differ them from other movies and norms in general where are women are considered as poor, small, silly, and weak. It also differs them from the characters from the Brave New Worlds that do not care about the society, family bond, friendship, love, etc. All these feelings and thoughts appear when a person thinks, but if he is dead inside, how can you expect him/her think and feel?
The movie, of course, shows science as a positive effect on the society, tells how it is important to believe in one’s skills, knowledge and opportunities, no matter which colour of the skin, which sex, preferences in beliefs, etc. This movie definitely made the people reconsider their chances to go to science business, more interested to study, motivated to get better and work hard towards their goals. This movie, in comparison with the previous two stories, gives the hopes to the people for the better future, better technologies and nicer opportunities for the conditions, but no one will create for us this beautiful future, besides us - WE NEED TO GET BETTER TO MAKE OUR PLANET A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE!
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