I am Legend, Armageddon, 1984, World War Z, The Maze Runner, The Stand, the titles go on and on for books and films that exemplify a world in terror. The coming or aftermath of an apocalypse is a common theme in many story lines that has been done time after time. Authors and writers choose these settings because they have skepticisms and predictions of what will come of our society. These idea have revolved around, extraterrestrial intervention, war, disease, and even zombies (how original). There is a common aspect in almost all of these stories that human society completely breaks down and turns against itself. I think this expresses a strong conviction that the human race is considered potentially destructive and unable to function under high pressure situations. I'm pretty sure that no matter what year you're from or what year these stories were written, these attributes can be found in society always.
This week I read "The Star" by H.G. Wells and "Speech Sounds" by Octavia Butler. Both of these are AMAZING, I absolutely recommend reading these. The nice part about pairing these stories together is that they appeal to all kinds of readers. "The Star" is much more descriptive, there is very little dialogue and is told from the perspective of looking in on a world and its behavior as opposed to following one person or the story being told from one person's perspective. It adds a nice element to understanding the story. "Speech Sounds" is told about the story of a girl "Rye" and is full of dialogue and a simple but intriguing plot line. It was nice to be able to enjoy two stories of different builds but similar themes.
I did think that "The Star" was a little predictable but for being a story written in the 1800s I guess it's understandable. Although it was inevitable that the star would eventually hit or come close to Earth, it was nice that throughout the story, Wells constantly made the reader ask "Well what does that mean" and "What's going to happen to that". I think it is important to grasp the concept that no matter what level destruction the Earth and the human race faces it is near impossible to destroy them. Just like in this story, I think that humans will always try to rebuild society over and over again, no matter what happens, they will attempt to rescue and restore technology. Also, it was a great touch how at the end Wells added the Martian species and their perspective on what had happened to the Earth. This perspective made it seem like all of the devastating change that happened to Earth was such a trivial and insignificant concept.
"Speech Sounds" was a pretty great story and told a great amount of information for just being a short story. This story falls under my very long list of 'Short stories that should be novels", but I'm sure the story was probably intended to grow only in the readers mind and not on pages. I've read and watched many stories where an artificially created disease diminishes or changes the world's population. This was the first interpretation that effected the understanding and utilization of speech, which was awesome. I think that Obsidian was merely a pawn to this game. It is my understanding that his purpose was to give Rye a reason to live and continue to explore life. Also, without him she would have never met the children. Other than that, I'm not completely sold that his character alone was supposed to inspire a great part of the understanding of the reader (I'm sure people will disagree with me on this). The children offered a great deal of hope to Rye because they could speak and understand speech. She was blindly ignorant to thinking they had any future other than behaving as feral creatures. It was a look for Rye into what the world could be, again a rebuilding of society and starting from 'scratch'.
"'... and indeed the only difference seems to be a shrinkage of the white discoloration (supposed to be frozen water) round either pole.' Which only shows how small the vastest of human catastrophes may seem, at a distance of a few million miles." - "The Star", H.G. Wells
I find what you wrote about the story H.G. Wells wrote very helpful it made me realize more than what I got out of the story and your first paragraph combining other stories with the ones we read does of course show that now more than before we are seeing this post apocalypse theme more often than usual and they are some really good reads too.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your enthusiasm. I think you'd enjoy Octavia Butler's novels.
ReplyDeleteSarah, your interpretation of "Speech Sounds" was an interesting read. I always seem to find it fascinating how different perspectives are reached from the same reading. Your interpretation that Obsidian might have been Rye's pawn on her journey of fulfillment is understandable. I can see where he was a stepping stone to Rye. She had such jealousy when she saw him reading the map. I could somehow picture her facial expressions as she looked at him with so much envy in her heart. The majority of the their interactions reflected so many different human traits that are universal from generation to generation. I like the way you interpreted "Speech Sounds". I also enjoyed reflecting on your apocalyptic movie list and reminiscing about the time I watched War World Z and I am Legend on the big screen. But what about Book of Eli? Once again, nice blog set!
ReplyDelete