universal_charm | Literary Inquiry [ Video ]

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Literary Inquiry [ Video ]

[ So, Luceti, you have Kirk showing up today on our totally hi-grade, super deluxe communication system (haha, yeah right). Anyways, he's there, and he currently has a copy of George Orwell's "1984" displayed in hand. ]

So... I have an honest to god sort of question for everyone.

How many of you ever thought or believed the stuff in books like this would come true in the future? Or better yet, does anyone actually live in a world like these books describe?

Because, really, the twenty-first century view of the future is... interesting.

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[She doesn't recognize the book he's holding. But based on his question, she's not entirely certain she wants to know what book this is. There weren't many books in District 12. What was there were all previously screened and approved by the Capitol. The idea of reading for pleasure still seems foreign to her.

She'd much rather sing. Or tell stories. You couldn't get in nearly as much trouble for sedition if stories were passed orally rather than written down.

But she remembers it being different in the Capitol. There had been books there. Media that wasn't Hunger Games reruns. Capitol propaganda. Or, at least, not on the same level as in the Districts.]

Not all the worlds represented here are good ones.

Yeah, I know.

_{[ He knows, because you've told him, and his heart breaks thinking of
a world like that, so very... broken. ]}

But even knowing that, some of this stuff just sounds so crazy and far-fetched. I mean, good on them for imagination, I guess.

Captain... I was not aware that you were into science fiction.

[Irony abounds.]

I really wasn't, but there's not all that much to do so I thought I would give one a chance. And... it really just kind of made me laugh and really hope that they were giving this guy medication.

And so you decided to start with George Orwell? Fascinating choice.
I would have recommended that you read Jules Verne for a... 'warm-up'.

But I wish to know, did you enjoy the novel?

Jules Verne... oh, he's the "Center of the Earth" guy right? The one where an ecosystem has managed to exist seemingly outside the bounds of time deep within the earth itself?

And... I dunno, it wasn't necessarily bad. He got kind of wordy here and there, but mostly I just thought it was kind of a sad way to look at the future.

Indeed it is. And do you believe that any of these preconceptions made it into our universe Captain?

[Huh, a proper discussion between these two, this is impressive.]

Well, the book existed in our universe at one point, and while I think some of the ideas may have made it through the years, in a small, fractal sort of way...

That is true, but they, no matter how advanced their imagination, were products of their time.
No stereotype of ships flying in space has been applied to starfleet and the federation, with the exception that they are in face in space.

Not me, but someone I met recently...

Yeah, I've met a few who live in what would be classified as post-apocalyptic or dystopian, but not quite like these books. I mean, there is no "Big Brother" in my time, that's for sure.

Yeah, that's true. Most of the descriptions I've come across all have them very stream-lined, like an airplane or the old shuttles they used to send to Mars and the moon.

Indeed, always like a rocket I believe.

[Spock seems to fall quiet, as if thinking. Perhaps he is enjoying this bookclub session.]

It would be quite interesting to catalog the expressions of those people if they were given the chance to see the Enterprise.

Haha, yeah. I think we would need to add a column for 'fainting' though. Does not count as an expression or a reaction?

I do believe 'reaction' would suffice Captain.

[But there was a bit of a smirk on Spock's lips, enjoying the joke they shared.]

I must admit though, that I was intrigued by Orwell's use of the slogan 2+2=5...

Uhhh, nobody thinks that stuff's like actually gonna happen. [It's called science fiction for a reason, after all.]

They just make you read those kinds of books in school so you learn to think about like, how dangerous extremists can be and stuff.

Well, I admit, he does write a lot about extreme government.

But if on some level you don't believe this stuff can happen, why write about it? Someone had to believe Star Fleet could be real, some day, after all or else I wouldn't my Enterprise.

I didn't say people don't think it could happen, like maybe possibly, I said they don't think it will happen. I mean, it's a pretty big stretch, y'know?

Dystopian novels are more like... a warning? Yeah, like considering the human psyche, here's the worst possible scenario, so don't do this! [She gives a short chuckle.]

Oh trust me, we get plenty of that still in my time.

_{[ Alien psyches could be truly terrifying sometimes, though the human
one.. that one was still the most terrifying of all most days. ]}

But you only give warnings if you think they will happen, to keep people from doing the thing you fear. Like telling someone not to press the big red button, because you think they will if you don't.

[There's a delay before this response, as though Kitty needs a few minutes to consider her argument; she is only in high school, after all, but luckily, she just happens to have read 1984 for English class last year.]

Nah, I think you're still reading too much into it... taking the idea too literally, y'know? Like, the story's just an example; the author was using the distant future to put what's going on today in perspective. He's trying to remind us to think about stuff in the present, not trying to predict the future.

I have seen two terrible futures. One of them could have had roots in concepts similar to Orwell's book.

[What? Laura reads!]

Big Brother is watching you.

[He snorts. Yeah, he's taken a look at that book before. Kind of grim, honestly.]

Anyway, it really wouldn't surprise me if worlds like that existed. Some of the places I've seen were pretty bleak. No Thought Police or anything, but I've dealt with evil computer programs obsessed with making a perfect world.

[Maybe it's better now. She still thinks that every now and then. Wonders if Paylor's government will stand the test of time, will remain that republic Plutarch talked about. Or would they go back to Snow's dictatorship? The controlling Capitol and the crushed Districts?

She doesn't know. And for now, still, whenever she thinks of home, she thinks of the home that she grew up in.]

Like the Hunger Games?

Why do you ask?

[It doesn't seem like just an idle question.]

I'm curious, I guess. Because I live in what I think a lot of people classify as a futuristic world to them. And it's interesting, seeing what people way, way back in the day though the future would be like and when they thought it would be like they wrote.

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