The End of Eternity

Time travel is really hard to write about. Asimov's suspenseful time travel standalone novel is no exception to the rule. Like many time travel tales, it occasionally veers into the absurd with paradoxes and neologisms to create a plausible world about a society of time traveling agents who oversee humanity's history, present, and future to maximize human happiness. Where Asimov succeeds in this novel is with the character of Harlan gradually coming to the realization of the dangerous consequences of a humanity whose gravest mistakes and errors are not experienced to create new challenges and reach greater heights in the long run. The plot twist of the tale was unexpected to us here at the blog, but excellently shows the connection between this universe and the alternate Reality that saw the rise of the Galactic Empire and human dominance of the Galaxy. In a world where Eternity, Harlan's organization, does not exist, humanity takes to interstellar travel successfully and avoids a future where sentient non-human life colonizes the Galaxy, leaving humanity several centuries of decay and gradual extinction. The ending sorta "makes" the novel work, at least for those readers eager to see connections in the various novels of Asimov. While the other question of the problems with determinism, utilitarianism, and the idea of a corrupt organization of "psychopaths" dictating the course of humanity's time are also explored in the novel, the "romance" of Harlan and Noys, particularly in the conclusion of the novel, are the most interesting aspects.

Continuum

Time travel is really hard to write about. Continuum went from being a great show exploring the moral ambiguity of time travel and terrorism against corporate dictatorship to becoming a convoluted mess in the third and fourth seasons. Although still worth completing, it's always tragic to see a science fiction show with great potential go astray. Nevertheless, this show made me fall in love with Vancouver while providing several hours of action-packed entertainment. I can't believe I somehow missed this show during the Occupy years and thereafter, since it seems to be a perfect accompaniment to ponder the criticisms of high finance and corporate plunder. 

Moreover, despite its later decline, I appreciated the show's complex ending, which doesn't choose the easy way out for Kiera's character. Moreover, the coming together and dissolution of Liber8 and the complex conflicts playing out across timelines are perfect for those who adore science fiction mumbo jumbo. Compared to Dark Matter, this show aims higher in terms of its message, but the dominance of corporations in the future settings of both programs seem to be a telling feature of science fiction of our day. The zaibatsus of Gibson have taken on a life of their own. 

The Time Machine

After finally reading The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, one can see why it is so important in the history of the genre of science fiction. However, since I had expected a longer narrative with more details on the Morlocks, I was a little disappointed. Nonetheless, the socialist politics of Wells and his views on evolution, capitalism, and the 19th century's myth of progress provide an interesting opportunity to explore utopia and dystopia through the lens of science fiction. As a socialist of a Fabian bent, one sees the Time Traveller and the unnamed narrator (who sounds a lot like Wells) using the Eloi and Morlocks as a metaphor for the social conflict of the bourgeoisie versus the proletariat. However, as a non-Marxist socialist, one cannot help but feel that the Time Traveller, who identifies more with the physically beautiful Eloi, is still focused on top-down social change and legislating socialism instead of class war (which, presumably, would culminate in the dystopian future evolutionary divergence of the species).

 Moreover, the impact of Darwinism and, perhaps, Hegelian dialectics, indicates a need for a constant struggle of to create new forms. In the distant future visited by the Time Traveller, the descendants of the bourgeoisie have become weak, small, and less intelligent, while the descendants of the proletariat retain some knowledge of machinery but live in the underworld and are reduced to feasting on the Eloi for their survival. A solution to the crisis of capital and labor that retains social inequality will not suffice, but the glimmer of conflict and change is necessary of some sort. What that entailed to Wells in 1895 is not clear to me, but clearly the environment of Social Darwinism, scientific racism, elitism and socialism fueled his imagination over what steps should be taken to avoid entrenched social inequality. Due to his contradictory nature on the dilemma, Wells is thought-provoking, as well as a challenge to the discourse of progress. 

The Penultimate Truth

PKD's The Penultimate Truth involves time travel, post-World War III apocalypse, world government propaganda, quasi-feudal relations on the Earth's surface of the elite ideas men who supply the government propaganda (plus their armies of robots from World War III and newer models), and the vast majority of humanity living in subsurface tanks because of the surface government's lies. However, due to the numerous internal power struggles and conflicts between different power-hungry individuals on the surface, the Agency which, uniting the former USSR and US, thereby ruling the world and rewriting history in the process, creating some rather bleak associations between Nazi Germany and the Fuhrer Prinzip and the current regime), the strength of the regime is waning and no one knows how the subsurface population will react to the news. Like other PKD novels, the Cold War fears and dystopian themes abound, but there is a fundamental moral ambiguity about resolving the conflict and the what path society will take. As one can see in Counter-Clock World or The Simulacrum, the very forces against the major antagonist possess questionable motives, since Lantano, Brose, Runcible, Foote and Adams are not heroic in any sense of the term. Nicholas, the unlucky schmuck character type common in PKD's work, comes closest to being the protagonist, but the aura of moral ambiguity lingers for him, too. Perhaps, when compared to his numerous similar novels, The Penultimate Truth lacks the tighter writing and religious themes of his better known novels, but this is another thought-provoking read that tackles some of the same fundamental problems as his more illustrious novels. 

Dr. Futurity

Philip K. Dick's Dr. Futurity is an early novel in his oeuvre but quite interesting. Written in the 1950s and published in 1960, Dick's novel is clearly inspired by decolonisation in Asia and Africa as well as confronting the history of white supremacy and colonialism throughout the Americas. Dick always struck me as one of the more progressive white 'fathers' of science fiction, despite some of his issues with women and perhaps inappropriate "racial humor" in A Scanner Darkly, Ubik and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. In this tale, Parson, a doctor, in the early 21st century is transported to the 2400s, a world dominated by mixed-race people organized in tribes. Whites are no longer around (everyone is "amalgamated"), death is accepted to maintain society and keep population levels lower, and there are small prison colonies on Mars. Parsons, finding out that medicine is illegal in this civilization, finds out things are far more complicated than they should be and has to, through more time travel, ensure history doesn't change. Despite its anticolonial and antiracist stance, the novel does not, ultimately, rewrite history and kill the explorers and conquistadors, but the novel's attention to details of ethics, life and death, cultural relativism, and exploration of timelines are interesting to compare to his future work. For example, time travel in Now Wait For Last Year is employed in a more compelling and intriguing setting (time travel through drugs) but never explained in this novel. The plot is, compared to his later great works in the 1960s, underdeveloped, too. In the end, we're treated to a liberal retelling of the Pocohantas myth in which the white man and the "Indian," Loris, actually do feel for each other. 

Martian Time-Slip

"It is the stopping of time. The end of experience, of anything new. Once the person becomes psychotic, nothing ever happens to him again."

Still working my way through the essential PKD list George gave me a few weeks ago. Just finished "Martian Time-Slip" today. Very intriguing story on many levels. UN, co-ops, unions, colonization, human nature, schizophrenia, metaphysics, education, and race (the 'black' Bleekmen) figure prominently in this novel, and I appreciate how intertextual PKD's 1960s novels are (precogs). In a sense, Three Stigmata, Ubik and other works are hinted at by the early exploration of 'psionic' powers and human settlement elsewhere in the solar system. The description of schizophrenia here also brings to mind the destructiveness of Substance D on the protagonist of "A Scanner Darkly" or even the questionable sanity of Dick's fictionalized version of himself in "Valis."Furthermore, there is some insightful social commentary, particularly on mental illness, avarice, and the limitations of industrial models of education. I suspect PKD would be quite critical of the corporate education reform movement had he lived to see the rapid changes in public schools, although the public education system of his own lifetime was horrid enough. Class, greed, the need for human intimacy, all illustrated quite movingly in this novel. 

One should certainly not ignore the prominence of race and colonialism as themes of this work. By far the most race-conscious novel by Dick (the indigenous Bleekmen of Mars, who live bleak, nomadic lives as a dying race, are often referred to as niggers, blacks, and compared to the "Bushmen" of Africa), racism, anti-Semitism, fear, and how human societies "deal with" those on the margins or periphery are disturbingly demonstrated by the corrupt union boss, the casual anti-Semitism of a black market dealer in Earth luxuries, and the willingness of some colonists to support eradication of schizoid or mentally ill children, unsurprisingly kept at Camp Ben Gurion in New Israel, the Israeli settlement on Mars. Although one could ask why Dick did not use Earth-born people of African descent in a discussion about race, since one does not need to resort to fictional alien blacks to dissect society's racial "issues," the "dark" race of indigenes broadens the discussion of race to become analogous with European expansion in the Americas as well as anti-black racism. Indeed, when reading Arnie's harsh words for his "tame" Bleekman servant, Heliogabalus, one cannot help but think of the white working-class unionists who opposed blacks, against their own class interests, a similar fate for Arnie as Mars is on the brink of attracting massive land speculation and development from the co-ops and UN. 

One last point. As a recovering housing cooperative community member, the depiction of cooperatives in Dick's future world is fascinating yet never elucidated. Clearly, Earth is crowded and the cooperative apartments have become exclusive underworlds with shopping centers, supermarkets, or, in short, mini-cities in themselves. This future of cooperatives in which the wealthy can afford to invest in their own, separate reality, apart from the "real" world, as experienced in the schizophrenic episodes of Jack Bohlen, depicts a dystopia none of the cooperative housing proponents I have met would ever imagine. Alas, sometimes I think the housing cooperative umbrella I joined was too similar to this science fiction construct...

Safety Not Guaranteed

Here are some of my thoughts on this low budget film starring one of my favorite actresses from Parks and Recreation, an interesting NBC sitcom with some obvious influences from The Office and Aubrey Plaza's deadpan humor. Safety Not Guaranteed is an endearing and interesting film on growth, love, the journey, and the wonder of science fiction/time travel. The film is largely about personal and emotional growth, wonder, and redemption. I think the characters are mostly believable, although the Indian caricature was not great. What they should've done is switch the white jock-type character with the Indian virginal nerd, that would be a good stereotype reversal and would've added more depth to the sweet and thoughtful humor of the film. Also, partly due to a low budget, the film adopts a quasi-minimalist approach to music in the background, character development and careful dialogue. I wouldn't say it's amazing, but the film is certainly interesting and has some serious thematic content with unique observations on the search for identity and maturation we all strive for, you know, existential angst, confusion, and learning to make future changes in our lives by taking agency, being vulnerable and open. When I shared these sentiments regarding the film on a social networking site, some childish, inane responses tried to claim the film was "indie-cliche" but the landscape, apparent emotional depth and meaning to the film's characters in this journey, and the use of archetypes is hardly 'cliche.' Anyway, different strokes for different folks, I guess. There is a reason Netflix is successful, providing niche film audiences with low budget work such as Safety Not Guaranteed featuring quirky and lovable actresses such as Plaza.