Chapter twenty begins by talking about how there almost wasn’t much else to write or even talking about. All people wanted to hear or read was “bomb, bomb, bomb,” nothing else truly appealed to them. Chapter twenty one was the true turn of our media towards talking about the future. We began seeing stories of worldwide fallouts and surviving. Chapter twenty two is the impact on the scientific world and how people started to almost believe science as much as their own religion.
*Triple J Hack ‘what will 2045 look like?’ intro plays* Welcome! I’m Triple J ’s finest hack host Alysha and today we will take a glance at two dystopian fictions called ‘Feed’ which is the novel and ‘I Am Legend’ the movie which both carry cannibalistic zombies as we explore on how tales of these fictions may be what we could possibly face in the long run. Tune in to find out here at Triple J. Being a futuristic overview of our society, dystopia often is a frightening, exaggerated worst-case scenario showing us, the reader the dangers we could possible overcome later in the future.
Asleep “I don’t try to predict the future; I try to prevent it.” Ray Bradbury is an author of many works, of which include The Pedestrian, There Will Come Soft Rains, A Sound of Thunder, and The Veldt. In these texts, there is a theme of a futuristic reality where destruction is to occur which might not be that far off from our own. This is purposeful, Bradbury claims to use his writing as a message to the masses calling them to open their eyes to the direction our world is hurdling towards. These texts deal with warnings of losing touch with the natural world and other humans, devaluing life, an increase in disastrous irresponsibility, and the most prominent being the abuse of technological advancements.
In Roald Dahl’s short story “Lamb to the Slaughter,” dramatic and situational irony forward the plot. For instance Dramatic irony is shown when the police are talking to Mary about dinner she asks them to stay and eat it. She also states “It’d be a favor to me if you’d eat it up. ”(345 Dahl) We the audience know that Mary used the lamb leg to murder her husband.
A popular sub-genre commonly mentioned when one thinks of a dystopia is the ever so terrifying rogue technological future society that we one day might become. What is it that makes this idea so popular and so scary? It is the fear hidden within the unknown, the question of, what if we become too advanced. A trend can be seen within this genre, technology is created and it becomes so powerful that the citizens that use it become so obsessed that they become blind to what’s around them. Two prime examples of this are Minority Report and Fahrenheit 451, they share many similarities within the plot line as well as the characters and perhaps even the moral lessons that run at the heart of the stories.
The books, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and Feed by M.T. Anderson, each describes a dystopian future where technology is dominant, and literature is close to extinction. In these futures, technology causes humans to dumb down. While societies strict social standards creates each person to be similar to one another, allowing groups to be manipulated easier. The books have a similar theme; don 't let technology get out of control. In Fahrenheit 451 's future, technology overtakes literature and human interaction, and people rely on their TV for entertainment and daily news.
“What are some examples of common themes and/or key ideas from the Science Fiction unit? ” The stories read by the class in the Science Fiction unit maintain a similar key idea of societal advancement. Two specific stories, “2Bro2B” and Brave New World, take this key idea further to develop the connecting theme: when government control and scientific breakthroughs align with immoral practices, society advances at the expense of becoming quite dystopian. In “2Bro2b” the scientific breakthrough in question is the secret of immortality, or rather, the complete slowing and halting of the aging process. In order to upkeep this triumph over human nature, people must die.
Many of us don’t realize just how devastating the atomic bomb was on Hiroshima. The author John Hersey in his book called Hiroshima suggests that we as Americans should feel more compassion towards those affected by the bomb as he tries to explain how terrifying that bomb really was. The book follows 6 different characters as it changes viewpoints we get to see the different ways people were in despair and in need of help. The book was published about 40 years after the tragedy as it persuades it readers of just how badly the atomic bomb affected their lives. The book was mainly aimed towards the general public that were a part of a subscription to get articles and such in the mail.
The consequences of catastrophes are everlasting. Maus is an intricate graphic novel written by Artie Spiegelman that entails the horrifying experiences of the Holocaust through the eyes of his father Vladek. Art’s upbringing in a household of survivors and the calamity that his father lived through were detrimental to both characters’ mental health. A clear theme in Maus is the effect responsibility has on those who obtain it. There are several occasions in the story where someone is displayed as being accountable for very pressing situations; Maus demonstrates that culpability is often the result of having an obligation.
The attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the upcoming of Adolf Hitler, and the 9/11 attacks are three unpredictable incidences. Surely, no one could have predicted these disasters-- but Nostradamus did. One night, while meditating, Nostradamus saw visions of the future and wrote his predictions in a twelve-volume set which he titled Centuries. His writing sparked controversy but became one of the most well known books. Readers from all around the world became puzzled as to whether or not his prophecies were correct.
Hiroshima by John Hersey recounts the drop of the first atomic bomb by the United States of America. The novel follows the lives of six survivors and their experiences the day of the bombing and the days after. Hersey avoids discussing the ethics of the bomb, but instead focuses on how lives were drastically changed. The lesson to be drawn from this novel is that regardless of whether or not dropping the bomb was “right”, it is important to understand the struggle of the citizens of Hiroshima. One should not only consider the massive loss of life, but also the difficulty for the survivors to continue living.
Many natural disasters and catastrophes may happen at any point in time and there is no way to plan how you will react or no way to prepare. There are many ways to survive but you never know what supplies you will have in order to survive. When I read the passages called Night, Is Survival Selfish and The End and The Beginning it changed things and made me think about each story and that it was hard to survive in tough situations that you never knew could or would happen. I feel that the best story that shows the most brutal or harsh situation to survive in was the story Is Survival Selfish. The story really showed how harsh it was to be stranded or not have the right supplies to live and it talked about many different scenarios
On August 6, 1945, the first ever atomic bomb dropped on a city destroyed Hiroshima. Many accounts of this occurrence have been recorded throughout the years due to the fact it was not only immensely fatal, but also because it was a major turning point for the second World War. Hiroshima by John Hersey tells the story of what happened on that tragic day through the memories of six survivors: Miss Toshinki Sasaki, Dr. Masakazu Fujii, Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura, Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge, Dr. Terufumi Sasaki, and The Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto. Hersey’s novel has been described as,“This timeless, powerful and compassionate document has become a classic that stirs the conscience of humanity” (The New York Times).
Some people may have experience a situation where they thought their world was ending. Some may haven’t. Either way, they would know what it is like, for instance, a natural disaster. Especially about an earthquake. Imagine the rumbling beneath your feet, just as you are about to go to school.
The unimportance of humanity’s absence due to technology, is described through Ray Bradbury’s ‘There Will Come Soft Rains.’ The short-story describes how as a result of a nuclear explosion, only one house filled with modern technology doing chores, jobs and other functions remains standing, while all other life including humanity is killed. In spite the fact that technology is all that remains, it carries out all required functions and consequently controls the society established by Ray Bradbury. Through several literary techniques, including similes, personification as well as symbolism, Bradbury reveals that modern technology will enable society to continually progress, despite whom or what is present, emphasising how humans are a useless
