Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Distopian Futures

After reading He She and It I 've noticed two patterns I find rather disturbing. I do not know if He She and It and the Neuromancer necessarily meant to portray a distopian future but the idea that the corridor from Boston to Atlanta becoming one large metro area really bothers me. To me this area possesses some of the greatest natural beauty in the US (along the Appalachian Trail) and viewing this area as a massive parking lot means that the environmental movement and much that I stand for has failed. For this metro area to happen also means that the zero population growth movement has failed and the Earth is more severely overpopulated than ever and most likely much of the "third world" is starving.
The other fact in He She and It that bothers me is the class separation that is portrayed around Y-S. Not only are the blue proletariat forced to live outside of the enclave and "tube in," but they are also given color coded jump suits to keep them from wandering outside of their assigned area. Even within the compound the bourgeoisie are separated with the techies living comfortably in small houses and the wealthy managers living the their own enclave within the enclave assuring separation from the lower classes.
OK sorry everyone I can now step down from my liberal soap box.

1 comment:

Chloe said...

Sadly enough, I believe the destruction of nature on a large scale such as the Appalachian Trail turning into a large parking lot in Sean’s description is rather plausible. On a large scale consider the scope of America and the change over the past few decades. Small farms are disappearing for the sake of strip malls and parking lots, and most food is produced on “super farms” where a few thousand head may be cramped together in a box for the greater portion of their existence. President Bush wants to tear apart national parks for the sake of oil drilling, and without a doubt, cities are constantly expanding. Green Bay, De Pere, Ashwaubenon, Allouez, Howard are all smaller cities or villages but after expansion, they all ran up against each other and commonly people now refer to the entire area as simply “Green Bay”. To use one more example closer to home, a new highway is currently being constructed near my house and as a result, old forest and scenery I grew up with is being bulldozed into the ground simply so tourists can drive to the peninsula faster. As we have mentioned in class, this genre is not about predicting the future as much as it is a critique on the present, and I believe this sort of Glop along the East coast is more than a prophecy of what is to come but rather an observation of what is currently happening.