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8/7/2019 Short Stories Resource http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/short-stories-resource 1/38  A World Transformed 201 1 LITERATURE  World Scholar’s Cup SHORT STORIES CHANGING LIVES, CHANGING WORLDS EDITORS Tania Asnes Daniel Berdichevsky ® the World Scholar’s Cup ®  5  P  Y 

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 A World Transformed 

2 0 1 1

LITERATURE

 WorldScholar’sCup SHORT

STORIESCHANGING LIVES,

CHANGING WORLDSEDITORS

Tania Asnes

Daniel Berdichevsky

®

the WorldScholar’s Cup®

Y  E  A R  S  

5   C  E  L E  B  R  A T  I  N  G   5   P  W  

A A - T  A S  T  I  C   Y  E  A R  S  !  

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Literature:

Short Stories

Changing Worlds, Changing Lives

Table of Contents

Preface ..............................................................................................................................................3

I. Gabriel García Marquez: “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” ...................................4

Objectives .....................................................................................................................................4

Gabriel García Marquez ................................................................................................................4

“The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”: Overview .........................................................5

Content and Meaning...................................................................................................................7

Conclusion....................................................................................................................................8

Objectives .....................................................................................................................................9

Ray Bradbury................................................................................................................................9

“There Will Come Soft Rains”: Overview ...................................................................................10

Literary Devices ..........................................................................................................................10

Motifs and Themes .....................................................................................................................12

Conclusion..................................................................................................................................13

III. Isaac Asimov: “The Last Question” ...........................................................................................14Objectives ...................................................................................................................................14

Isaac Asimov ...............................................................................................................................14

“The Last Question”: Overview ..................................................................................................16

Literary Devices ..........................................................................................................................17

Content and Meaning.................................................................................................................18

Conclusion..................................................................................................................................20

IV. Isaac Asimov: “Nightfall” ..........................................................................................................21

Objectives ...................................................................................................................................21

Context.......................................................................................................................................21

“Nightfall”: Overview .................................................................................................................21Literary Devices ..........................................................................................................................22

Motifs and Themes .....................................................................................................................23

Conclusion..................................................................................................................................25

V. Daniel Keyes: “Flowers for Algernon” ........................................................................................26

Objectives ...................................................................................................................................26

Daniel Keyes ...............................................................................................................................26

“Flowers for Algernon”: Overview...............................................................................................27

Literary Devices ..........................................................................................................................28

Motifs and Themes .....................................................................................................................28

Conclusion..................................................................................................................................30VI. Robert Charles Wilson: “Julian: A Christmas Story” .................................................................31

Objectives ...................................................................................................................................31

Robert Charles Wilson................................................................................................................31

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I. Gabriel García Marquez:

‘‘The Handsomest Drowned

Man in the World’’

 Who needs little green men when you’ve got a mysteriouscorpse? In “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”, a

dead body washing up on the beach is enough to trigger the

seemingly accidental transformation of an entire town.5 The

dead body takes on such great meaning that it forces the

villagers to reexamine their society—and it is altered forever.

Objectives

By the time you complete this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions.

For what literary style is Gabriel García Marquez famous?

 What does the title character in “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” represent?

How does Esteban transform the village?

Gabriel García Marquez

 Although he has not lived there very much

since the 1950s, Gabriel García Marquez is

considered Colombia’s foremost writer.Born in 1928 in the town of Aracataca, he

grew up listening to his grandparents tell

fantastical stories.7 He began his writing

career as a journalist while at university in

the 1940s, and published his first two

novels in 1961. In between, he became

friends with Cuban Communist leader

Fidel Castro, and founded the Colombian

branch of Castro’s news agency.

In 1965, García Marquez began writing the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude , which remains his

single most famous work. Like many of his pieces, it makes use of magical realism, a literary style in

 which unusual or magical happenings are related to the reader as though they were ordinary.

Like Pablo Neruda and many other Latin American writers, García Marquez has produced work that

angered his government. As a young man, he was sent on a newspaper assignment to Rome8 after his

series of newspaper stories about a Colombian shipwreck exposed the Colombian government’s

5 A question to ask as you read this story: can the world transform by accident?6 Musical theater is an example of magic realism: characters break out into song, but then (in most musicals) continue on

as if nothing strange has happened. If everyone at the World Scholar’s Cup abruptly began singing about alpacas, I feel

like someone would call the police.7 That’s how I grew up, too. For a long time I believed 747s could fly upside-down and that chickens lived in the sea.8 Poor chap—exiled to Italy.

Magic Realism: Dumbledore Not Welcome Here

Magic realism is a literary movement in whichstrange things exist in an otherwise normal world-----and no one treats them as strange.6 Some peopleconfuse it with science fiction and fantasy because itsometimes has ghosts and other bizarrephenomena-----but it’s not the same thing. Thescience fiction writer Pat Murphy put it like this: ‘‘Inscience fiction, if everyone is walking around with atalking monkey on his head, you need an explanationfor it. Maybe the monkeys are aliens. In magicrealism, everyone acts as if the monkeys have

always been there. Like head lice and baseball caps.’’

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The irony of an unidentified corpse becoming something like a god draws our attention to the

story’s main themes: mankind’s deep desire to believe in something greater, and our impressive

capacity for faith. Humans are so eager to believe in and to make sense of things that they can find

meaning in a nameless corpse.

Symbolism

To the villagers, there is more to the drowned man than meets the eye. They feel a deep connection with and admiration for him—as if they have been waiting for him all their lives. Esteban is a symbol

of the god or gods of any religion. The people consider him flawless, and redesign their whole village

to keep his memory alive, just as religious people build shrines to gods and saints.

Like a god’s greatness, Esteban’s greatness is beyond human comprehension. García Marquez writes,

“even though [the women] were looking at him there was no room for him in their imagination.”

 Also like a god, he fills the people’s lives with meaning, giving them a sense of purpose—of their

place in the world. Their village becomes Esteban’s village, and they become Esteban’s people. In the

same way a shared religion allows strangers to connect and understand each other, the people’s

admiration for Esteban unites them. It makes the entire population of the village a family: “Throughhim all the inhabitants of the village became kinsmen.”

Esteban can be seen as a symbol for any compelling belief with the power to transform people’s lives.

Allusion

García Marquez uses a religious allusion to drive home the point that the drowned man is like a god

or saint. The name Esteban is the Spanish form of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, killed

(according to the Book of Acts in the Bible) for his belief that Jesus was the Son of God. Stephen is a

saint in several religious traditions, including the Catholic Church, which was the official state

religion of Colombia until 1991, and remains the main religious institution in all of Latin America.

The author contrasts Esteban to Sir Walter Raleigh, a great 16th-century English explorer who would

have been very exotic to the villagers with his white man’s accent, a parrot on his shoulder, and a gun

in his hand. The villagers admire Esteban even more than they would this famous, exotic explorer.

 When the villagers are carrying Esteban to the cliffs for his funeral, their weeping is so loud it can

even (people claim) be heard by sailors at sea. It is rumored one sailor “had himself tied to the

mainmast, remembering ancient fables about sirens”. The allusion is to Homer’s Odyssey , in which

Odysseus ties himself to his ship’s mast so he can resist the song of the sirens, beautiful female

creatures that lure sailors to their deaths. By linking the story of Esteban to a famous myth, García

Marquez gives “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” the feeling and weight of a fable.

The allusions to St. Stephen, Raleigh, and Odysseus also heighten the irony of the story, by standing

in bold contrast to the anonymous drowned man. The man is not a saint, great foreign explorer, or

epic hero. He is merely an unknown dead person—yet the villagers worship him.

Setting

Though the story is not set in a definite time, allusions hint at the 16 th or 17th century, possibly on

the coast of Chile. In addition to Raleigh, Gabriel García mentions the 16th-century Mapuche chief 

Lautaro, a leader of Native Americans who defended the territories of present-day Chile from the

Spanish.11  At the story’s end, the narrator envisions the captain of a modern ocean liner using an

11 The Mapuche were pretty good at that sort of resistance. They had previously held back the Incans.

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astrolabe, a navigation tool that fell out of use in the 18th century. The village is set at the edge of a

desert; the only significant South American desert is the Chilean Atacama.

The 16th century was a time of great transformation in Latin America, when European explorers like

Raleigh clashed with native people like Lautaro and forever changed the face of two continents. The

17th century continued his process, as Spanish colonies came to dominate much of the Americas.

García Marquez’s references to that time period underscore the theme of transformation in the story.

It is also possible, especially given the story’s magic realism, that the setting is actually more modern,

even 20th century—a backwater village lost in time and in no particular place.

Content and Meaning

“The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” is sometimes subtitled “A Tale for Children”,

because it is meant as a parable, a short, instructive story that illustrates a lesson. Parables often have

simple morals such as “it is wrong to lie” or “you shouldn’t be selfish”, but “The Handsomest

Drowned Man in the World” expresses more complicated truths about our world.

Truth is Subjective

The saying “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”

plays with the idea that beauty is subjective rather

than objective. Even if I think something is beautiful,

you might find it ugly. “The Handsomest Drowned

Man in the World” suggests that truth, too, is

subjective. Truth, you could say, is in the mind of the believer.

By most counts, the existence of gods cannot be proved or disproved, and neither can the myth of 

Esteban. He is dead, so the people are free to decide who he was. They decide he was saintly. For all

 we know, the drowned man was a criminal, but his true identity is unimportant to the villagers.

 What matters is their faith in his goodness and sincerity. It unites them and gives them purpose.

The women are relieved when it is confirmed that Esteban is unknown—because they like their own

version of the truth and do not want it disproved: “Praise the Lord 12,” they sigh, “he’s ours!” Since

his identity is unknown, it is theirs to decide.13 By making their village one big shrine to Esteban, the

people ensure their version of him will endure: “no one in the future would dare whisper the big

boob finally died, too bad…because they were going to…make Esteban’s memory eternal”.

 At the story’s end, it is suggested Esteban’s story becomes an accepted truth. The narrator envisionsthe captain of a passing ship identifying it for his passengers. The captain is an authority figure

  wearing a fancy uniform and “a row of war medals”, and also an educated man, who speaks

“fourteen languages” and uses astronomy (the astrolabe and “pole star” or North Star) to guide his

ship. Surely he can be trusted, and he confirms the identity of the village as “Esteban’s village”.

Meaning Can Transform the World

The story suggests people need meaning in their lives as much as plants need water. The villagers live

on the edge of a desert, which is a symbol for the lack of meaning in their lives. A desert has almost

no source of water, so little life grows there. Similarly, the villagers have no source of meaning, so

12 The villagers might be Christians, referring to God—but they could just as easily mean Esteban when they say 

“Lord”—for he is sacred to them.13 If they had found out he was really a garbage man named Bob, they might have had a harder time worshipping him.

Debate it!

Resolved: That the story’s message would be justabout the same had a beautiful foreign vase washed

ashore instead of Esteban.

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their lives are very plain and uninspired. They have little appreciation for beauty: their houses are

plain and they do not grow flowers. They live a life of simple survival, without ambition.

During Esteban’s funeral procession, the villagers realize how empty their lives have been. “Men and

  women became aware for the first time of the desolation of their streets, the dryness of their

courtyards, the narrowness of their dreams as they faced the splendor and beauty of their drowned

man.” Esteban sets a new standard of beauty and greatness for the community. He opens their eyesto the possibility that they and their village could also become beautiful and great. They can no

longer be satisfied with how things were: “everything would be different from now on.”

The people beautify the village so much it becomes world-famous despite its tiny size. They dig for

springs so that they can grow enough rosebushes to cover the courtyards and cliffs. They transform

the desert into a garden—just as their village transforms from a nameless speck on the map to

“Esteban’s village”, and they from people without a purpose to people driven by a shared belief.

Often, the world is transformed by more concrete forces, such as war, inventions, and natural

disasters. “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” reminds us that ideas can be just as

powerful. Religious beliefs, scientific theories, philosophical ideas, and even works of fiction canchange everything.

Conclusion

In this section, we have learned:

Gabriel García Marquez is a Nobel Prize-winning Colombian novel and short story writer who

is considered a leading writer of magical realism.

“The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” is a parable about humankind’s need for

meaning and belief, and the ability of ideas to transform the world.

One of the story’s major themes is that truth is subjective. It does not matter if Esteban really 

 was a sincere and noble man as the people believe—or even if he is actually beautiful—because

their faith in him, their truth, is what matters.

Esteban is a symbol of the god or gods of any religion, and also of any compelling belief that

has the power to transform society.

The transformation in the story is caused by a coincidence—the body washing up on the

shore—a reminder that the world changes in unpredictable ways.Before moving on to the next section, ask yourself:

 What discoveries in your lifetime have transformed society?

Do people irrationally worship things equivalent to Esteban in the modern world?

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II. Ray Bradbury: ‘‘There

Will Come Soft Rains’’ You can order a robot vacuum cleaner on Amazon. Why not?

 We are growing used to ever-greater convenience. Kindles andiPads let us carry thousands of books in a backpack, and cell

phones allow us to stream episodes of Glee almost anywhere.

In Ray Bradbury’s story “There Will Come Soft Rains”,

convenience has reached new heights: the stove makes

breakfast on its own, the weather box by the front door tells

you if you need an umbrella, and tiny robot mice do all the housekeeping. It’s the ideal

lifestyle—so ideal it chugs along even when there isn’t anyone living it.

ObjectivesBy the time you complete this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions.

 What are some typical themes of Ray Bradbury’s works?

 What view of technology does he present in “There Will Come Soft Rains”?

Ray Bradbury

He never attended college, but Ray Bradbury’s output eclipses that of many writers with multiple

degrees. Born in 1920 in a small town in Illinois, he calls himself “a student of life,” and his novels,

short stories, poems, essays, and plays all reflect his observations of our world and the people in it.

Bradbury’s best-known works are probably Fahrenheit 

451 and The Martian Chronicles . His work has been

variously classified as fantasy, horror, science fiction,

and mystery.14 Some of his novels and short stories are

dystopian, or set in a bleak future. He lives in Los

 Angeles, California, and, although he turned 90 this year, is still writing. “Writing, for me, is akin to

breathing,” he has said. “It is hard for me to believe that in one lifetime I have written so many 

stories. On the other hand, I often wonder what other writers do with their time.”15

Originally published in Collier’s Weekly magazine in 1950, “There Will Come Soft Rains” is also part

of  The Martian Chronicles , a short story collection. The 28 stories are loosely connected by a

storyline involving interactions between the inhabitants of Mars16 and the people of Earth. In the

first third of the collection, humans from Earth try to reach Mars and colonize it. They are able to

settle on Mars after unwittingly killing many of the Martians with Earth germs. 17 However, most of 

them return to Earth when it is threatened by a global nuclear war.18 The war eventually wipes out

14 Like Asimov, he is the kind of writer who annoys bookstore shelvers.15 This comment comes from the introduction to a volume of 100 of Bradbury’s stories. (He’s written more than 600.)

 Apparently, story writing is what Bradbury does with his time. He could probably use an automatic house.16 Not including Marvin.17 The plague that devastates the Martians is similar to smallpox, which wiped out many Native American populations.18 I feel like this would be a good time to stay on Mars. Just saying.

’’Libraries raised me. I couldn’t go to college, so Iwent to the library three days a week for ten

years.’’

-----Ray Bradbury

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most of Earth’s population. The last five stories in The Martian Chronicles focus on the aftermath of 

the nuclear war on Earth. “There Will Come Soft Rains” is the second-to-last story.

‘‘There Will Come Soft Rains’’: Overview

The story begins on an ordinary morning in Allendale, California in

the United States. The clock is striking seven. Breakfast is ready.But, to readers in 1950 and even to readers today, this morning

  would seem strange. The clock is a voice-clock, and the breakfast

stove is making breakfast automatically. Despite the activity of 

various gadgets, the scene feels oddly vacant: “The morning house

lay empty.” Something is wrong: the owners of the house (the

McClellans) are absent, and we do not know why.

The automated house continues its mechanical functions through

each hour of the day. The kitchen appliances are a busy person’s

dream, and the robot mice are very efficient. At ten o’clock in themorning, we are given a chilling answer about why the house is

empty: “The house stood alone in a city of rubble and ashes. This

 was the one house left standing. At night the ruined city gave off a

radioactive glow which could be seen for miles.” This is the sole

house to survive a nuclear war.

 At ten-fifteen, we see the side of the house, on which the outlines of the family that used to live there

are preserved in paint. The rest of the house is covered in “a thin charcoaled layer”—the paint having

burned off in the nuclear explosion. Until now, the house has “kept its peace”, remaining calm, but

today it seems worried about the owners’ absence. It lets in the dog, which sniffs frantically for its

owners. Shortly after, the dog goes into a hysterical frenzy and dies. The house incinerates its body.

  With growing dread, we progress through the

afternoon: the bridge game, martinis, children’s hour,

bath time, dinnertime, and bedtime. Just after nine, a

voice reads a poem called “There Will Come Soft

Rain” by 20th-century American poet Sara Teasdale. The message of the poem is that nature

continues regardless of man’s fate. It includes the lines: “And no one will know of the war, not one /

 Will care at last when it is done. / Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree / If mankind perished

utterly”. The poem strongly suggests all of humanity has perished in the nuclear war of the story.

 At ten o’clock at night, a storm causes a tree branch to break a window, knocking over a bottle of 

cleaning solvent, which sets the house on fire. The house tries to save itself, but cannot. The

mechanical voices die out one by one as the fire destroys every room. The house frantically tries to

continue its normal routine, reading poetry and making a huge breakfast—but then there is silence.

The story ends with “a last voice”, the voice-clock, stating the date over and over again from among

the house’s ruins: “Today is August 5, 2026, today is August 5, 2026, today is...”

Literary Devices

Post-Apocalyptic Setting

Post-apocalyptic stories, set after the end of civilization, are often used to reflect on the dangers of 

the present-day world. Particularly since the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and

Debate it!

Resolved: That “There Will Come Soft Rains” wouldbe more effective as a film.

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Nagasaki during World War II, post-apocalyptic literature (and film) has tended to warn of the

devastation of nuclear war.19

“There Will Come Soft Rains” is set among such

devastation—but the more specific setting, the house,

strengthens the story’s sense of danger and unease.

Viewing a totally destroyed landscape with no housesleft standing would be unsettling, but the house

creates an intense sense of dread by reminding us

  what has been destroyed20. The house’s automated

functions are a chilling reminder that no actual

humans—and few creatures of any kind—remain in

 Allendale, and perhaps on Earth.

Personification

The fact that the machines have voices and perform

human functions is not personification. They are

simply programmed that way. Bradbury personifies

the house by giving it other human qualities,

including emotions. The personification begins in the very first line, when the voice-clock sings

“time to get up…as if it were afraid that nobody would.” Later, the robotic mice are said to be

“angry” and the house extremely worried: it “had shut up its windows and drawn shades in an old-

maidenly preoccupation with self-protection…” The house seems to have become an almost

conscious being. It quivers with nervousness, sensing its owners are dead.

Bradbury compares the house to a human body when he writes that food leftovers are washed “down

a metal throat.” The mice are said to have “eyes” even though they are machines, and the house hasan “attic brain”. The incinerator seems to “sigh”. When the house is destroyed, it is said to die, and

is compared to a human body, with a “skeleton”, “skin”, and “veins and capillaries”. It fights for its

survival like a living thing, becoming like a hysterical person—in a state of “maniac confusion”.

Bradbury also personifies the fire as “clever” and “angry”. Its actions are human: it “fed on” the

paintings and “lay in beds, stood in windows”.

Personification creates a sense of irony. Nearly all the doing, thinking, and feeling in the story 

(except for the dog’s actions) is attributed to inanimate objects. The scenes that occur in the story are

like a mockery of life, for life being ‘lived’ by machines and fire is not really life at all.

Symbolism and Metaphor:

The house is a symbol of human civilization. It is advanced and efficient, just as we consider our

modern civilization to be. The McClellan family symbolizes humanity’s almost total dependence on

technology. As we watch the house function, we come to understand that the McClellans no longer

have to do anything for themselves—not even cook breakfast, entertain the children, or light a cigar.

19 The idea of an apocalypse has been around much longer. There’s always been someone who thought the world was

going to end.20 The phrase “the last one standing” usually refers to the winner of a contest, but the last house standing in the story is

the opposite: a symbol of mankind’s defeat.

Mini-Directed Research Area

The Day After was a post-apocalyptic film that many

believe had an impact on political and public opinionin the United States and possibly beyond. Find outwhat sort of apocalypse it depicted. Was it the same

apocalypse as in a different film, The Day After Tomorrow ? If not, why do you think these films

described different apocalypses?

Debate it!

Resolved: That household appliances have improvedthe human condition.

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Bradbury uses a metaphor to suggest that pride was the cause of mankind’s downfall21: “The house

 was an altar with ten thousand attendants, big, small, servicing, attending, in choirs. But the gods

had gone away…” Humans have gone beyond using technology to improve their lives. They have

taken convenience too far, to the point where they act almost as gods, with endless mechanical

servants. The McClellans do not even have to look at the clock, or read the weather report.

The metaphor is ironic, because gods usually live forever. The McClellans, not so much.

Motifs and Themes

Consequences of Nuclear Warfare

Like “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”, Bradbury’s story is a parable. It was written at

the start of the Cold War, a long period of tension between Communist countries, most notably the

Soviet Union, and Western powers, including the United States. Both sides engaged in a nuclear

arms race, building up massive arsenals of nuclear weapons. The fear of nuclear war was felt in many 

parts of the world. People built fallout shelters to protect them during a nuclear attack, and

schoolchildren were led through fallout drills, in which they practiced hiding under their desks.22

“There Will Come Soft Rains” encourages Americans of the 1950s not to turn a blind eye to the

possibility of nuclear annihilation. The people of the United States were enjoying relative prosperity 

after World War II, having suffered less as a nation than countries in Europe and Asia. In a sense,

the United States was like the house in the story—the last country left standing after war devastated

much of the world. The story warns Americans not to forget about the dangers of war.

The story’s title also provides an ironic contrast to the final scene, in which the house is reduced to

“rubble and steam”.

The Downside of Technology

The story takes a critical look at the value of mechanical things. They are useful in serving humans,

but have no intrinsic value—no worth independent of their function23. The breakfast stove and

robot mice are useless without humans there to enjoy breakfast or a clean floor. Despite how 

advanced the technology of the house is, it is completely helpless against the fire. Even the fancy 

sprinkler system fails, because the nuclear explosion has cut off the water supply to the house.

Next to the frightening reality of nuclear destruction, the animated nursery, automated poetry-

reading, and foldout bridge tables seem frivolous—having no real purpose other than amusement24.

“There Will Come Soft Rains” was written in the post-World War II era, a period of prosperity inthe United States. Suburban life25 with household appliances such as washing machines and vacuum

cleaners was becoming an ideal for many families. The story takes the ideal of convenience to an

extreme, envisioning a suburbia in which the whole house is an automated appliance. Families no

longer have to perform even the most basic household chores.

21 In Greek tragedy, the characteristic that leads to the hero’s downfall (and, usually, death) is called his tragic flaw . Many 

Greek heroes, such as Phaethon and Icarus have the tragic flaw of hubris , excessive pride or confidence in one’s abilities.22 Despite the fact that a desk would provide very little protection against a nuclear explosion.23 That is, unless you own a solid gold, diamond-encrusted iPhone.24 You will want to hide this story from your parents when you are trying to convince them that you “need” an Xbox.25 Suburbs are areas outside the centers of major cities, where people tend to live in houses, not apartment buildings. The

 American suburban ideal in the 1950s was a “house with a white-picket fence”.

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The destroyed town of Allendale contrasts disturbingly with the convenient technology of the house:

“The house stood alone in a city of rubble and ashes.” Technology, in the form of nuclear weapons,

has destroyed Allendale. The juxtaposition26 of the house and city causes us to weigh the advantages

and disadvantages of technology. It is a source of convenience, but also an agent of destruction.

The Endurance of Nature

Bradbury uses Teasdale’s poem to make a point about the relationship between nature and mankind.

The poem muses on the fact that nature is indifferent to mankind—it does not need people’s help in

order to survive, and lacks the capacity to care if we thrive or even survive. Teasdale predicts that

nature will persist even if humanity destroys itself completely 27. Spring will still arrive, with “soft

rains and the smell of the ground”, and the plants and animals will go about their lives. We humans

often consider ourselves superior to nature—but the poem suggests that we are not so great. In the

event of annihilation, life would go on without us.

In “There Will Come Soft Rains”, the fire destroys the last traces of humanity. Nature triumphs over

the manmade. We are left with a scene of complete devastation. In this context, the story’s title can

be interpreted two ways. It is a message of hope, suggesting spring will come again and life will

someday, somehow, grow out of the radioactive rubble. It is also ironic, for the charred, smoking

landscape is the opposite of spring, the time of freshness, flowers, birds, and new growth. In either

case, Bradbury suggests that nature is superior to technology. Fire defeats the house, and nature will

continue to exist even in the absence of mankind28.

Conclusion

In this section, we have learned that:

Ray Bradbury is a prolific American author of the 20th

and early 21st

centuries.

“There Will Come Soft Rains” (1950) pictures a town in the wake of nuclear devastation.

 We witness the final motions and the destruction of the last automated house left standing.

The main literary devices used in the story are a post-apocalyptic setting, personification,

symbolism, and metaphor.

The story was written after World War II, at the beginning of the Cold War. The story 

 warns an American audience not to take its prosperity for granted. Relatively unharmed by 

the war, it is like the last house left standing in the story—and could be destroyed.

“There Will Come Soft Rains” warns that technological advances are not just sources of convenience, but agents of destruction.

Like Sara Teasdale’s poem, the story suggests nature will outlast mankind.

Before moving on to the next section, ask yourself:

 Are modern families becoming like the McClellans?

Is it a tragedy that the house is destroyed?

26 To juxtapose is to place very different objects or ideas next to each other.27 She wrote the poem shortly after the end of World War I. Known then as the “Great War,” it was the largest and

bloodiest in modern times, and many people believed there would never be another to equal or surpass it.28 The aftermath of the 1986 nuclear power plant disaster in Chernobyl, Ukraine suggests this may be true. Many people

died; survivors had to abandon the area. In their absence, wildlife—even horses and bears!—has reappeared and thrived.

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III. Isaac Asimov:

‘‘The Last Question’’ What will happen at the end of time? This is the question

Isaac Asimov asks and answers in “The Last Question.” Over

the course of ten trillion years, the universe and humanity 

transform until they are beyond recognition. Earth ceases to

exist, the Sun dies out, and people’s minds float through

space, separate from their bodies. When all the stars have died

out and almost nothing exists anymore—not even time—a

single question still holds the potent power of change.29

Objectives

By the time you complete this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions.

 What is Isaac Asimov famous for writing?

In “The Last Question,” what transformations do the universe and human race experience?

 What is the purpose of biblical allusion in the story?

Isaac Asimov

“This is by far my favorite story of all those I have written,” Isaac

  Asimov has said of “The Last Question”—no small claim, since

 Asimov wrote and published over 500 books, even more than Ray 

Bradbury.30 On June 1, 1956, Bob Lownes, editor of Science Fiction

Quarterly , asked Asimov if he could submit a story for publication.

Three days later, Asimov sent him, the finished manuscript of “The

Last Question”, which he called, in his autobiography, “the science

fiction story to end all science fiction stories.”31

The story’s impact was deeply felt and inspired creative responses

among readers. Soon after its release, a preacher discussed “The Last

Question” in a sermon. In 1972, a fan turned the story into a

planetarium show that Asimov attended. He said the show helped

him better understand his own story a full 16 years after writing it.

“The Last Question” is one of Asimov’s most science-focused stories,

dealing with time, chaos, and technology. It proved memorable for

readers, though, according to Asimov, many forgot who had written it.32

29 Or the power of a reboot, at any rate. Everyone knows a reboot fixes anything.30 Most were not science fiction, however—in fact, most were not fiction at all. They ranged from histories to collections

of “lecherous” limericks.31 It failed. There are still science fiction stories.32 In fact, Asimov once had a phone call from a man who began, “Dr. Asimov, there’s a story I think you wrote, whose

title I can’t remember,” and Asimov told him the title, thereby convincing the man he could read minds.

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Born Isaak Ozimov in Petrovichi, Russia, in 1919 or 1920, Isaac Asimov immigrated to the United

States with his family at age three. Although Russian-born, he never learned Russian, since his

parents spoke Yiddish33 and English with him. He learned to read at age five, and, within a year or

two, was reading early science fiction magazines.34 By age eleven, Asimov was writing his own stories,

and, by nineteen, he had begun publishing them. He would continue to publish stories, novels, and

nonfiction works until the end of his life in 1992.

 Asimov attended high school in New York,

graduating in 1935, and earned three

degrees in chemistry—a bachelor’s,

master’s, and Ph.D.—over the next 13

years. He worked as a chemist at the

Philadelphia Navy Yard during World War

II, and then served for nine months in the

United States Army before returning to

science and writing. He joined the faculty 

of Boston University in 1949. However, he  was a professor for less than a decade,

becoming a full-time writer in 1958.

 Asimov is known today as a Grand Master

of  science fiction.35 His Foundation and

Robot series novels are considered modern classics of the genre; both series are examples of a type of 

science fiction called future history . Future histories create elaborately detailed histories of the

future, in which an author then sets multiple stories.

 Asimov also penned many non-fiction works, as well as

some straight mystery novels, but is best remembered for

his science fiction. When considering science fiction, it is

important to remember that the genre of science fiction

is difficult to define, as it is very broad and varied. On

the fringes it overlaps with other genres, such as fantasy 

and magic realism. Asimov’s science fiction is known as

“hard science fiction”—not because it is difficult, but

because it is based on actual science (“hard” science) as it was understood at the time. Asimov 

sometimes referred to his work as “social science fiction” because it often explored the impact of 

science and technology on human societies. Most critics agree that Asimov’s work was more notablefor its powerful ideas than for containing deeply-imagined characters or poetic language.36

 Asimov’s death in 1992 is suggestive of how social values can transform in a single decade. The cause

of his death—a disease called AIDS, which he caught through a contaminated blood transfusion—

 was so controversial at the time that his family decided to hide it from the world. Ten years later,

society had become more accepting, and his wife revealed the truth behind his decline.37

33 Yiddish is a language once spoken by many people of Jewish descent—in large part a mixture of German and Hebrew.34 Isaac’s father disapproved of the magazines, but Isaac won him over by arguing that, since their titles included the

 word “science”, they had to be educational.35 Yes, it’s an official title, though it runs the risk of inflation as a new Grand Master is elected every year.36 Ironically, arguably his most famous and well-realized character isn’t even human: the robot, R. Daneel Olivaw.37 Asimov once wrote he hoped to die typing, his (sizable) nose stuck between the keys of his typewriter. It wasn’t to be.

Is Multivac a Vacuum Cleaner?

Today, it may seem strange that Asimov named allhis computers this-vac and that-vac, but the veryfirst computers were made with thousands ofvacuum tubes. As a result, one such real-worldcomputer, which gave Asimov the idea for Multivac,was named UNIVAC. Computers based on vacuumtubes required tremendous space and were veryslow. Asimov, like many writers projecting into thefuture, imagined computers becoming even larger

and more powerful, but failed to grasp how radicallythey would change. You might be surprised to learnthat, as late as the 1980s and 1990s, science fictionwriters created entire future histories withoutanything remotely like the Internet-----or cell phones.

Mini-Directed Research Area

Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series rests on theimaginary science of psychohistory. Find out

what this science is, and discuss with your teamwhether you think it might be possible someday.

Then, be ready to debate motions related topsychohistory at a tournament.

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‘‘The Last Question’’: Overview

“The Last Question” covers ten trillion years of history by giving us glimpses into seven different

moments.38 In each of seven scenes, beginning in 206139 and extending far into the future, humans

ask highly intelligent supercomputers40 for the answer to the same question: “How can the net

amount of entropy in the universe be massively decreased?” Entropy is the gradual progression of the

universe towards chaos41

and heat-death, and the characters want to know if it can ever be reversed.

In 2061, the computers are known as Multivac though they are later called Microvac, the Galactic

  AC, the Universal AC, the “Cosmic AC, and, finally, just AC. They are vital to human life,

controlling nearly everything, from power sources to starships, and are far more intelligent than

people can ever hope to be. The human characters are in awe of the computers, and ask them the

questions that they themselves cannot answer.42

The “last question” begins as a bet between two half-drunken men, Adell and Lupov. Mankind has

recently harnessed the energy of the sun, and the men are arguing over whether the sun is really an

unlimited energy source, or if it will someday run out of energy. Lupov says the sun and other stars

 will inevitably burn out. The universe is doomed to go dark; Entropy is inevitable. Adell counters

that man might be able to reverse entropy and keep the universe going indefinitely. The men ask 

Multivac to resolve their argument. The computer is so overwhelmed by the question of whether

entropy can be reversed that it falls silent. It eventually responds: “INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR 

MEANINGFUL ANSWER.”43

This answer is repeated in each of the scenes, except

the final scene. In scenes four through six, the words

“AS YET” are added to emphasize the fact that

mankind has been asking the question for ages, and

yet the answer still cannot be found. Each group of characters asks its supercomputer the same question

and receives the same answer. In the wide time span

of the story, mankind learns to derive all the energy it

needs from the sun, humans have colonized planets in other galaxies, achieved immortality, and

Earth’s Sun has become a white dwarf, meaning that it has exhausted its energy.

By the fifth scene, people’s minds have melded with

 AC, the largest universal computer ever to exist, while

their bodies are cared for by robots, “automatons”. In

the sixth scene, almost nothing exists. The seventhand final scene occurs past the end of time, in

hyperspace, a term Asimov uses to mean a state in

 which the laws of science that we know on Earth no longer apply. Time, space, and speed are all

radically different than we know them to be—as in a time warp between different universes. The

38 I once wrote a short story titled “Seven Ways to Live Forever.” It took me forever to write. Don’t ask if you can read it.39 2061 must have seemed much farther away in 1956, when Asimov wrote this story, than it does now.40 In the last scene, a computer with human consciousness both asks and answers the question.41 When a block of ice melts into water, its entropy increases. In the solid form of ice, the molecules are tightly arranged,

 whereas in the liquid form of water, they are more loosely arranged. When water evaporates water vapor, in which the

molecules are even more loosely arranged, entropy increases again.42 This footnote is not #42 by accident.43 At least it didn’t give them the Blue Screen of Death.

Discuss it

Historically, most science fiction writers have beenmen. One early female science fiction writer, Alice

Sheldon, even pretended to be a man, using thename James Tiptree, Jr., in order to fit in. Why do youthink men have dominated science fiction—and, to a

slightly lesser degree, fantasy?

Mini-Directed Research Area

What is the difference between soft and hard science

fiction? Which of the works studied this year wouldyou consider to be soft? Start here:

www.bellaonline.com/articles/art35058.asp

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only reason AC still exists is because it has not yet answered the question. Finally, it figures out the

answer. It speaks into the void: “LET THERE BE LIGHT!”44—and light appears.45

Literary Devices

Form

“The Last Question” is told in a series of  vignettes, short scenes featuring different characters in

different times and places. The scenes flash before us like scenes in a TV show, with no transition

between one and the next. Common elements—human characters, computers, and the “last

question”— connect the scenes. Using the vignette form, Asimov is able to, as he described it, “tell

several trillion years of human history in the space of a short story.” The abrupt jumps from scene to

scene give us a sense of the giant leaps in time we are making.

The vignettes grow shorter46 and more intense as the story goes on. The first scenes occur at a

leisurely pace, especially the first one, in which the characters are drinking. Adell and Lupov 

experience a bit of anxiety about the future of humanity, but they forget all about it the next

morning. By the fourth scene, tension is high between man and computer over the subject of the

question. Man wonders whether the question is solvable. The last two and shortest vignettes are

composed mainly of short narrative sentences rather than dialogue, since mankind has died out and

fused with the AC. The surging drama of the last scenes makes the story’s conclusion especially 

strong. The tension of the final vignettes turns quickly into a haunting sense of awe at the last lines.

Writing Style

 As in most of his writing, both fiction and non-fiction,

  Asimov’s style in “The Last Question” is clear and

concise, with little space devoted to long descriptivepassages or to the inner minds of his characters. In

response to critics who see this style as a lack of style,

 Asimov wrote in a 1980 essay that what he wanted was

for readers to forget they were reading and feel directly 

engaged in his stories. To write clearly, he suggested,

 was more difficult in some ways than to write un-clearly. Readers of Asimov’s work should keep in

mind that he was not encoding secret messages in it, but trying to be transparent.

Biblical Allusion

The last lines of “The Last Question” allude to the

beginning of the Book of Genesis, the first volume of 

the Bible, when God creates the world. Then God

creates light. In the King James translation of the

Bible, the record of this event is translated from Hebrew as, “And God said let there be light, and

there was light.” The creation of a new universe reverses entropy, because it creates order where,

previously, nothing existed. A few lines earlier, the phrase “And it came to pass” appears. This phrase

is often used in the Bible to introduce significant events.

44 If only it would turn off the Caps Lock and stop yelling at us.45 It’s too bad this does not work in real life, “light” being substituted with “a perfect finished copy of my homework.”46 I’ve always been amused by the phrase “grow shorter”.

’’Colored glass mosaics have been known senseancient times. Creating clear plate glass that

doesn't distort one's view of the world is muchharder. Even though it's less beautiful and less

‘poetic,’ it's much harder to make.’’

-----Isaac Asimov, on his choice to write clearlyinstead of poetically

Discuss it

Is it easier to write clearly or beautifully?

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Names

The characters in each scene gradually become less distinct from one another until all of humanity is

combined with the AC. Eventually, humans cease to exist. Asimov uses the characters’ names to tell

us that man is losing his individuality. We progress from Adell and Lupov, two distinct men, to the

similarly named Jerrodd, Jerrodine, and Jerrodettes to characters whose names are a combination of 

letters and numbers—like machines.47

The names continue to become progressively less human-sounding as we meet characters whose bodies have been made immortal, while their minds exist on

some other plane. Their names, Zee Prime and Dee Sub Wun, are spelled in letters, yet sound like

numbers. Next, all the people on Earth come to share one mind, or one consciousness, and are

called, simply, “Man.” Asimov tells us, “Man, mentally, was one.” In the last scene, humanity no

longer exists and therefore no longer has a name. Even the computers’ names shorten over time,

giving us a sense that existence—of any kind—is fading away.48

Content and Meaning

“The Last Question” often leaves readers with strong feelings, ranging from awe to despair, becauseit deals with such grand ideas. Asimov’s stories are often multilayered, considering scientific concepts

on the surface, but, on a deeper level, asking questions about the human condition.

The Search for Meaning

In every age within the ten trillion years of the story, mankind asks the same question: Can the

universe be prevented from deteriorating into chaos? Many of the characters seem sure that entropy 

cannot be prevented.49   Jerrodd states, “It will all stop someday…Even the stars run down, you

know”, and VJ-23X claims, “We both know entropy can’t be reversed. You can’t turn smoke and ash

back into a tree.” However, in each age, the characters still hold enough doubt to ask their

supercomputer the question, and, in each age, that supercomputer cannot provide an answer.

By repeating the question over so many trillions of years, Asimov demonstrates mankind’s unending

quest to know what is unknown, find meaning, or make sense of the universe. The people asking the

question are concerned with the practical matter of how the human race will continue to survive,

but, perhaps more so, they are troubled by the idea that certain truths can never be known50. The

question is scientific, yet it is not really asked out of scientific interest. As such, like the questions,

“Does God exist?” or “What is the purpose of mankind?” it does not have a scientific answer.

The answer, like the concept of an all-powerful creator god, requires a leap of faith. It stands in

contrast to all the scientific progress made over the millions of years in the story. Instead of a formulaor theorem, it is a line from the Bible. Asimov answers “the last question” in a way different readers

might interpret very differently. Those who adamantly believe in God may think the answer means:

 Yes, entropy can be reversed, but only by a miracle of God. Readers who, like Asimov, are atheists51,

or believe it is impossible to know whether God exists52, may find the answer vague. To them, the

answer may seem to be: Yes, entropy can be reversed, but in a way beyond human understanding.

47 Nowadays, they’d probably be called iJohn and iJohn 4G.48 Existence is ceasing to exist. Commence headache.49 If you’d studied chemistry, you’d be sure too: the inevitable increase of entropy is the second law of thermodynamics.50 Appropriately to the ten-trillion-year story, an unknown truth is sometimes called “a question for the ages.”51 An atheist is someone who does not believe in the existence of God.52 Asimov is quoted as having stated: "Emotionally I am an atheist. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't

exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time."

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Since Asimov was an atheist, it is important to consider the story from the second perspective. “The

Last Question” demonstrates that curiosity and the search for meaning are central to human

existence. It also stresses we must never stop being curious and trying to make progress—for even

after all life, matter, and even time and space seem to exist, human curiosity allows the universe to be

reborn: “All other questions had been answered, and until this last question was answered also, AC

might not release his consciousness.” In the story, a mere question outlasts everything else, and

makes the impossible possible. Had mankind never asked the question, AC would never have solvedit and entropy would not have been reversed.

The story’s last moments can be seen as a metaphor for the process of scientific inquiry and

discovery. The statement “LET THERE BE LIGHT!” represents the desire for progress. It is the

desire mankind has had since at least 2061, when Adell and Lupov first asked the question, and

arguably since man began erecting civilization out of the wilderness. The light at story’s end is a

symbol of knowledge and progress. Entropy is reversed and order emerges in the universe again.

Here the story suggests that, ultimately, progress is the only solution to chaos.

In the age when the stars are dying out, Cosmic AC tells Man: "NO PROBLEM IS INSOLUBLEIN ALL CONCEIVABLE CIRCUMSTANCES." This statement is like the thesis of the story—that

even the most difficult problem can be solved if enough inquiries are made and data collected.

Though Asimov was not a religious man, he believed in the power of human ingenuity to enable

progress and transform the universe. One could say he believed in the Almighty Question.

Technology: Good or Bad Influence?

The relationship between humans and computers in “The Last Question” is complex and open to

interpretation. On the one hand, we might feel uncomfortable at the extent of mankind’s reliance on

computers. Even in 2061, humans can no longer fully comprehend computers, which have becomeincredibly complex: “the general plan of relays and circuits [had] long since grown past the point

  where any single human could possibly have a firm grasp of the whole.” Because computers are

beyond human understanding, humans seem to greatly admire them. Asimov calls Adell and Lupov 

“faithful attendants” of Multivac, implying that they tend to it the way servants serve a king.

 At the same time, in the second scene, the Microvac seems like a servant to the family of Jerrodds,

responsible for shuttling them to their destination and answering any questions they might have.

However, they, like Adell and Lupov, as well as the humans in all the other scenes, would be helpless

 without the computers. The survival of human society is based on Multivac and its descendants,

 which provide energy and transportation to the human race.

Gradually, humanity as we know it disappears. People’s minds are separated from their bodies,

 which are tended by robots. Humans can no longer comprehend any part of the supercomputer, at

this point, the Cosmic AC: “The question of its size and Nature no longer had meaning to any terms

that Man could comprehend.” At the end, bodies (like everything) cease to exist, and all human

consciousness is absorbed into AC. “The Last Question” portrays humanity becoming so dependent

on technology for survival that humanity transforms itself out of existence.

On the other hand, the generations of Multivac allow humans to survive long after Earth’s demise

and the death of the Sun. Multivac brings newfound hope for humanity’s survival when it discovers

how to harness solar energy. Microvac transports people to live on new planets. The Galactic AC andCosmic AC keep humanity going, even when they have long outstripped human understanding.

Over time, humans survive by merging with AC—and, in the end, AC makes it possible for the

universe to continue existing. AC has taken on the role of a divine being.

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Viewing AC in this way allows us to view technology in a positive light. Though an atheist, Asimov 

gives a computer, a piece of technology built by humans, the importance and abilities of God. From

this viewpoint, technology is the greatest power in existence. It can answer unanswerable questions.

It is the last and greatest hope of humanity.

 We do not know what happens after the end of the story, when light appears. If we follow the tale

from the Bible, Earth will be created again, and so will humanity—but this is only one possibility. Itis unclear whether AC will continue to shape the course of the new universe, or whether a series of 

random events will. We do not know whether the universe as we know it will form again, or whether

a new type of universe will form—perhaps one we cannot even imagine53.

The humans in the story ask the question due to their

fear that humanity will die out. They want the

universe to continue because they  want to continue.

Taking this into account, we can view the story’s

ending as the beginning of a new age for humanity. It is possible that a new Earth might form and

humans evolve on it all over again.54

Technology not only transforms the universe over the ten trillion years of “The Last Question,” but

it even creates something out of nothing.

Conclusion

In this section, we have learned that:

Isaac Asimov was a writer of science fiction whose books deal with major themes of time,

computers and artificial intelligence, and the effect of technology on humans.

 Asimov was an atheist and a scientist, and his views on religion and science helped shape

the major topics and themes of his works of fiction.

“The Last Question” is Asimov’s favorite of his own stories.

The ending alludes to the biblical Book of Genesis, in which God creates the Earth.

The question in “The Last Question” represents mankind’s desire for progress. The story 

emphasizes the importance of progress to the survival of humankind.

The story portrays technology in both a negative and positive light, depending on one’s

interpretation. Humanity becomes dependent on technology for survival, yet technology 

enables mankind to survive for ten trillion years, solves mankind’s most important and

troubling question, and may even bring mankind back into existence.

Before moving on to the next section, ask yourself:

How do the universe, and man’s role in it, transform during “The Last Question”?

 What do you think happens after the end of the story?

 What technological advances have most affected your life?

53 As famous science fiction writer, Arthur C. Clarke, may have said: “Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine,

it is stranger than we can imagine.”54 And then Cylons will destroy the world all over again. Sigh.

Debate it!

Resolved: That the most important questions in thisworld can be answered through science.

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IV. Isaac Asimov: ‘‘Nightfall’’

If you are lost, find the North Star. If you are outside on a

dark night, admire the constellations. If you see stars for the

first time, go insane and burn your city to the ground.

 Actually, save that for the Lagashians. Unlike us, theinhabitants of Lagash in Asimov’s “Nightfall” have every 

reason to be terrified of starlight: it spells the end of 

civilization.

Objectives

By the time you complete this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions.

 What does the darkness in “Nightfall” symbolize?

Does science or religion triumph in the story?

How do the “cycles” in the history of Lagash compare to those of Earth’s civilizations?

Context

  Although “The Last Question” is Asimov’s favorite of his own

stories, “Nightfall” is arguably more popular with his fans. Asimov 

once said, “It frequently ends up on the top of the list—not only of 

my stories but of anybody’s. Yet I was only twenty-one when I

 wrote it and was still feeling my way.”

  Asimov wrote “Nightfall” after a conversation with the editor of 

 Astounding Science-Fiction, John W. Campbell, who was pondering

this quote from 19th-century American writer Ralph Waldo

Emerson: “If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years,

how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many 

generations the remembrance of the city of God!” In other words,

 we are so used to seeing stars that we take them for granted—but if 

 we saw them only once in a thousand years, we would be so amazed

that we would instantly renew our faith in God.

Campbell disagreed. He told Asimov he believed people would go insane if they only saw the stars

once per millennium. “I want you to write a story about that,” he told Asimov.

‘‘Nightfall’’: Overview

“Nightfall” begins with an epigraph56, Emerson’s

quote—which it proceeds to disprove. Far from being

excited about the approaching total solar eclipse on

their planet, the Lagashians are beside themselves

 with terror. The eclipse is an extremely rare event, occurring only once every 2,049 years, and is a

55 Except maybe the next Stephanie Meyer novel.56 An epigraph is a quote that introduces a work of literature.

Debate it!

Resolved: That nothing could ever drive all humansinsane at once.55

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frightening prospect on a planet that has six suns and experiences eternal daytime. The Lagashians

are accustomed to sunlight—which is always so bright that they have never seen the stars.

 When the eclipse has happened in the past,

the Lagashians have been so desperate for

light other than starlight that they burned

down their homes and buildings,destroying their civilization. The scientists

at Saro University who have discovered the

approach of the eclipse are trying to ensure

that at least some Lagashians survive to

carry on civilization. Among other things,

they perform trial simulations of darkness

and stock a hideout with supplies.58

  A journalist named Theremon has been

assigned to cover the story of the eclipse, provided he survives it without being killed or going mad. While preparing for the eclipse,

the scientists capture a young religious man or “Cultist” named

Latimer59, who believes the cause of the event is divine, not

scientific. The scientists prepare to document the eclipse on camera,

steeling themselves for the terrifying dark—but, in the end, every 

last Lagashian goes insane.60

“Nightfall” ends with the stars shining down as Theremon

succumbs to madness. A “crimson glow…that was not the glow of a

sun” begins to rise from the city, implying people are already 

burning buildings for light. The story’s final words read: “The long

night had come again.” Tragically, the scientists fail to record the

eclipse, and their research will likely be burned, so Lagashians

another 2,049 years in the future will probably face the same fate.

Literary Devices

Dialogue

 Asimov gives us most of the information we need to

understand his characters through dialogue, orconversation. “Nightfall” starts with an encounter

between two characters that leads to a conversation.

This device continues throughout the story. Since the

protagonist, Theremon, is a reporter, he gathers most

of his facts by interviewing other people—mostly the scientists. Latimer, the Cultist, also shares some

of his beliefs in conversation, and eventually starts speaking in gibberish, which is the language of his

57  Yes, there are awards for science fiction stories. I would happily burn down my civilization if I won the Hugo or a

Nebula. – Daniel58 I can’t imagine this would be very comforting to a Lagashian. “Hi. The world is going to end tomorrow—but don’t

 worry, there’s a small team of scientists working on it.”59 His name may or may not be a reference to Hugh Latimer, a 16 th-century Christian martyr of England who was

burned at the stake during the reign of Queen Mary.60 I wonder: aren’t there any blind Lagashians? You’d think they would be able to deal.

After Nightfall, More Nightfalls

John Campbell first published ‘‘Nightfall’’ inAstounding Science-Fiction in 1941-----but the story

has been frequently reprinted ever since. In the1950s, it was broadcast as a radio program. In 1968,the Science Fiction Writers of America voted it thebest science fiction short story written before 1965(when they began voting for annual winners).57 Ithas been made into a film twice, in 1988 and2000-----neither film was very good. In 1990,Asimov’s friend Robert Silverberg expanded it into anovel that carried on past the eclipse to show uswhat happened next.

Watch it on YouTube

Speaking of dialogue, you might enjoy this interviewwith Asimov. Do you see any connections in hisresponses to “Nightfall” or “The Last Question”?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CwUuU6C4pk

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Book of Revelations. Through Theremon’s inquiries, Asimov accomplishes most of the exposition,

or delivery of background information, for the story.

Metaphor and Symbolism

The darkness and light in “Nightfall” are metaphors for humanity’s greatest sources of fear and hope,

respectively. Darkness represents the unknown—a lack of knowledge, as well as disorder and

madness. Light represents knowledge, order, civilization, and reason.61

The metaphors in the story end up playing out quite literally. As long as Lagash is bathed in light,

civilization persists and the scientists can continue seeking knowledge and work towards maintaining

order and reason. Candles are extremely holy, like “the most sacred item of a religious ritual”, to the

Lagashians, because they protect them from darkness and madness. The moment darkness falls and

the candles burn out, fear and insanity take over. The title “Nightfall” and the “long night” of the

last line refer not to the eclipse itself, but to the period of destruction that follows.

Biblical Allusion

The Book of Revelations in “Nightfall” alludes (quite bluntly) to the final book of Christian Bible,

the Book of Revelation, which describes the apocalypse. The text Latimer quotes from is not

Christian, so it mentions unfamiliar places and religious figures, but its content is similar—

describing the end of the world. It has the same type of phrasing as the Bible, such as “And it came

to pass”, and Latimer quotes from it in an ancient language, perhaps corresponding to Latin.

Motifs and Themes

The Struggle Between Science and Religion

The main characters in “Nightfall” are a journalist and a group of scientists. Both jobs require a rational, objective view of the world,

based on evidence. Latimer, the young Cultist who invades the lab,

has an entirely different worldview based on faith. He believes his

soul will be saved when he sees the stars during the eclipse.

Through the interactions between Latimer and the scientists,

 Asimov illustrates the age-old conflict between religion and science.

In exchange for data, one of the scientists, Aton, provided the

Cultists with scientific proof to support their belief in the eclipse.

Latimer considers Aton’s scientific evidence sacrilegious—highly offensive to his beliefs—because if everything can be proved, there

is no longer a need for faith. He accuses Aton of falsifying the proof to destroy his religion: “your

pretended explanation backed our beliefs, and at the same time removed all necessity for them. You

made of the Darkness and the Stars a natural phenomenon, and removed all its real significance.”

It turns out there is truth to both Latimer and the scientists’ predictions about the eclipse. The

scientists have accurately predicted the occurrence of the eclipse and used historical data to foresee

the chaos it will create. Latimer anticipates the same events using a religious text called the Book of 

61 Writers around the world have been using metaphors of darkness and light for hundreds, if not thousands of years. We

even use them in conversation. When a person explains a concept, she is said to “shed light on it”, and when a discovery 

is made, it is said to be “brought to light”. The term Dark Ages is used to describe the stagnation of civilization after the

fall of the Roman Empire, while the age of reason of the 18th century is known as the Enlightenment.

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Revelations. It describes the eclipse of Beta, darkness, the appearance of the stars, the separation of 

people’s souls from their bodies, and total chaos and destruction.

The Cultists fulfill the other part of the idea expressed in Emerson’s quote. The Cultists go mad like

everyone else when they see the stars, but still think they are having a religious experience—they 

“believe and adore”. They do “preserve” their belief in their religion “for many generations”—which

 we know because they still know and believe in their ancient Book of Revelations. By calling the stars“indifferent” towards the end of the story, Asimov suggests they are merely stars—not godly as the

Cultists believe—but the Cultists still accurately predict the eclipse and destruction of civilization.

  Asimov was an atheist, so his decision to include religion in the story should not be taken for

granted. On Lagash, the eclipse and appearance of the stars are such grand, complex, terrifying

events that no one can claim to fully understand them. Asimov seems to suggest that some aspects of 

the universe are too complex and mysterious for us to comprehend and control. As an atheist,

though, he may also be discrediting religion: what the Cultists view as a holy event turns out to be a

perfectly predictable scientific phenomenon. Perhaps, a reader might conclude, the same might be

true of events described in the Christian Bible and other real-world religious texts.62

Man’s Desire for Control

Latimer’s belief in the Book of Revelations helps to keep him from fearing the eclipse. He believes

the eclipse and chaos to come are out of his control, so he does nothing to try to prevent or outsmart

them. As one of very few cultists on Lagash, he is an exception to the rule.

Rational as they might be, the scientists fear the eclipse because it is out of their control—the same

reason one of us might fear an earthquake or tsunami. They cannot prevent it. The best they can do

is survive it and pass on knowledge of it to future generations, which might find a solution before the

next eclipse. The scientists spend the entire story developing methods to control the effects of darkness. Theremon, who is afraid of the dark despite trying to sound skeptical and brave, fabricates

some control and order for himself by reporting on the eclipse and the scientists’ ideas.

The characters’ intense desire to control their world—and their failure to do so—suggests that

certain aspects of the universe, like natural disasters, are out of our control. Today, we can clone

animals, crash atoms together in a particle accelerator, and use robotic Mars Rovers to explore Mars,

but we cannot prevent a volcano from erupting63 or darkness from falling.

The Cycle of History

In “Nightfall”, archaeological evidence has been discovered of nine cycles of civilization, “all of 

  which have reached heights comparable to our own, and all of which, without exception, were

destroyed by fire at the very height of their culture”. Civilization on Lagash has been developing to

an advanced state and then succumbing to fire for 9 x 2,049 = 18,441 years.

The story of Lagash mirrors the rise and fall of civilizations 64 on Earth. Ever since civilization first

appeared, great and complex societies have developed and disappeared, or have transformed into new 

societies. One difference between the histories of Earth and Lagash is that civilizations on Earth are

never totally and instantly destroyed.65 They tend to decline over a period of many years. By 

contrast, history on Lagash is completely reset at regular (2,049-year) intervals.

62 Asimov later wrote a guide to the Bible in which he looked at possible real-world parallels to Biblical events.63 As many travelers rediscovered last year after the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland grounded thousands of planes.64 Alpaca fact: the 2008-2009 World Scholar’s Cup theme was The Fall of Empires.65 Not yet. See “There Will be Soft Rains” for total destruction. See “Julian: A Christmas Story” for gradual decay.

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The knowledge and artifacts of Earth’s civilization are preserved over time, and each successive

society builds on the discoveries of the last. History on Earth can be said to move in cycles, yet it is

constantly evolving. Since there are countless civilizations on Earth at a given time, they can interact,

share knowledge, and influence each other. Lagash is on its own, seeming to lack contact with other

  worlds. Its history is truly cyclical, starting totally anew after the apocalypse, with the Lagashians

gone mad—so knowledge is lost66—and their buildings destroyed. The end of each of their cycles is

less like the fall of an Earth civilization and more like one of Earth’s mass extinctions.67

In “Nightfall,” the scientists have figured out what

happens at the end of each cycle, an eclipse and

ensuing destruction, and hope to prevent it—but

history repeats itself. They might not even be the first

scientists to have figured it out—because their work is about to vanish, along with everything else.

The transformation of the world cannot be stopped.

Conclusion

In this section, we learned that:

“Nightfall” is one of Asimov’s most popular stories, though he wrote it toward the beginning

of his career. His mentor and editor, John W. Campbell, encouraged him to write it as a

response to a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

 Asimov provides both exposition and character development through dialogue.

Darkness and light are metaphors in the story, dark representing the unknown, chaos, and

madness, and light representing knowledge, order, and reason.

“Nightfall” depicts the struggle between science and religion.

The scientists and Theremon demonstrate man’s desire to control the world. They realize they 

cannot prevent the eclipse, but believe they can control its effects. In the end they, too, go

mad—suggesting that some aspects of the universe are beyond our control.

Every 2,094 years, Lagash completes a cycle of creation and destruction that is like an extreme

version of the rise and fall of civilizations on Earth.

The cycle of history in the story is unstoppable—and so, Asimov implies, is the continued

transformation of our world.

Before moving on to the next section, ask yourself:

If you found yourself on Lagash with the eclipse rapidly approaching and could choose

 whether to be a scientist or Cultist, which would you choose to be?

How do you think the Cultists were able to remember some of the past?

 Would the story be different if Lagash had never known light, and experienced its first sunrise?

Does “Nightfall” ultimately offer a positive or negative view of civilization?

66 Except in the mythical beliefs of the Cultists.67 Oh, triceratops. We hardly knew you.

Debate it!

Resolved: It is unrealistic that all knowledge in asociety could be destroyed the way it is in “Nightfall”.

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V. Daniel Keyes: ‘‘Flowers

for Algernon’’

Is it possible to go too far in trying to transform the world?In “Flowers for Algernon”, Daniel Keyes uses the story of one

 white lab mouse and one mentally disabled man to warn us

that there are limits to what science can do for mankind and

the world. Science is good—but when it goes too far, it can be

dangerous and destructive. Where do we draw the line?

Objectives

By the time you complete this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions.

 What are the consequences of manipulating intelligence in “Flowers for Algernon”?

 What is Algernon’s purpose in the story?

How is the experiment performed on Algernon and Charlie ethically questionable?

Daniel Keyes

  When Daniel Keyes published the short story “Flowers for

  Algernon” in 1959, he had no idea it would become his most

famous work. It received so much acclaim that Keyes expanded itinto a novel of the same name, which he published in 1966. It has

been adapted for the stage, screen, and radio, and Cliff Robertson

even won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Charlie Gordon in

the 1968 film version, Charly . Keyes has published four other novels

and three nonfiction books, including the memoir Algernon, Charlie 

and I: A Writer’s Journey . He has taught creative writing at several

  American universities while continuing to write, but the story of 

Charlie and Algernon remains his most famous.

Born in 1927 in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, Keyes wasthe child of European immigrants, both of whom had little

education but knew its value. They wanted their son to be a doctor, and he worked hard to excel in

school and please them. Unfortunately, the more Keyes learned, the less he related to his parents.

This experience made him realize that education could change people’s relationships with one

another—and even drive a wedge between family members.68

Keyes further explored the tension between people’s education and their perspective while a teacher

in New York City schools. He taught an English class for students who struggled with the subject.

Many were intellectually limited; some had learning disabilities. One day, a students came up to him

and said, “I want to be smart”, causing Keyes to wonder what would happen if it were possible toincrease human intelligence. The idea for Flowers for Algernon was born.

68 Something a lot of children of first-generation American immigrants have probably experienced—the argument in

 which a parent says, “Just because you went to such-and-such-a-college doesn’t mean you know better than me.”

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‘‘Flowers for Algernon’’: Overview

Charlie Gordon is a mentally disabled man who has always worked

menial (unskilled) jobs. When the story opens, he is the janitor at

a factory. He knows he is not as smart as other people, but he has

learned to read, write, and live by himself. He attends a night

school for adults, and his teacher, Alice Kinnian, hasrecommended him for a surgical experiment to increase his

intelligence. He will be the first human test subject. The story is

 written in the form of progress reports in Charlie’s journal—his

own narration of what is happening to him during the experiment.

Before the operation, Charlie is made to complete a series of 

laboratory tests, including solving mazes with a mouse named

 Algernon69. Algernon has undergone the same operation Charlie will, so he is three times smarter

than a normal mouse70. Despite observing Algernon’s abilities, Charlie is not convinced the surgery 

  will increase his intelligence—but, after the operation, his IQ does increase at a rapid rate. Hisnewfound intelligence changes his view of the world on various levels.

It allows him to better understand human relationships—so he realizes his co-workers at the factory 

 were never really his friends, but liked to have him around so they could make fun of him. Charlie

learns other languages, begins reading scientific journals, and grows smarter first than Ms. Kinnian

and then than Dr. Nemur and Dr. Strauss, the doctors who performed the experiment. As his

intelligence soars, Charlie begins to look down on most people, even the brilliant doctors; he is now 

smarter than all of them. Gradually, Charlie starts to realize that high intelligence can be as isolating

as low intelligence. He has no more friends now than when he was mentally handicapped.

One night, eating in a restaurant, Charlie sees a mentally disabled boy, a dishwasher, who breakssome plates and gets teased by the other customers. At first, Charlie laughs at the boy too, but then

he realizes: this is the way people used to treat him. Charlie yells at the other diners, “Shut up! Leave

him alone! It’s not his fault he can't understand. He can’t help what he is! But for God’s sake, he’s

still a human being!” Watching the boy, Charlie sees his own past clearly for the first time. He is

angry and ashamed that people who would never treat a lame or a blind man badly “think nothing of 

abusing a man born with low intelligence.” He is even more ashamed that he joined in their jeering.

Suddenly Algernon begins to lose his surgically-induced intelligence, proving that the experiment is

flawed, and Charlie panics. He knows he is also likely to lose his intelligence, and begins to conduct

his own experiments on the flaw in the experiment, which he calls “The Algernon-Gordon Effect.”Unfortunately, just as he finishes his experiments, his intelligence begins to degenerate, and both he

and his doctors are powerless to reverse his decay. Charlie is painfully aware of what is happening to

him as his understanding of the world and his writing and reading skills slip away from him. In the

midst of Charlie’s slide back to lower intelligence, Algernon dies.

Charlie asks for his old janitorial job back, and tries to return to his former life, yet he cannot stand

the pity in the eyes of his co-workers, landlady, and Miss Kinnian. He decides to move to a new 

place where no one knows him. At the story’s end, Charlie asks Miss Kinnian, or whoever is reading

his journal, to lay flowers on Algernon’s grave.

69 The name Algernon means “with a moustache” or “with whiskers”—an appropriate name for a mouse.70 John Steinbeck might have titled this story “Of a Mouse and a Man”.

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Literary Devices

Form

“Flowers for Algernon” is written in epistolary  form (as a series of letters or other documents),

though Charlie’s progress reports are not addressed to anyone. We experience the story from a first-

person perspective, through Charlie’s eyes, which allows us to feel more of his emotions.

The improvement and deterioration of Charlie’s writing skills enhance our understanding of his

experience. At first, his spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure are very poor, since his IQ is

only 68—well below average. As Charlie’s intelligence increases, his spelling improves and his

sentences become longer and more complex. As the “Algernon-Gordon Effect” takes hold, his

 writing returns to its original, childlike state.

Algernon: Foreshadowing and Symbolism

  Algernon is a complementary character to Charlie, for everything that happens to Charlie has

happened to Algernon first, from the tests and operation to the subsequent increase and decrease in

intelligence. Keyes uses Algernon to foreshadow  what will happen to Charlie—an upsetting prospect

for readers who like Charlie, because they realize what is about to happen to him. Charlie’s request

that someone lay flowers on Algernon’s grave is an act of friendship and respect, but it is also

Charlie’s way of mourning for his own life, altered and perhaps ruined by scientific experimentation.

  Algernon is also a powerful symbol of the way in which Charlie is viewed by the doctors—and

society, by extension. Mice are frequent subjects of scientific tests designed to inform scientists about

humans.71 The tests performed on mice are often considered unethical (morally wrong) to perform

on humans, because they can cause death or serious harm. Though Charlie is human, scientists view 

him in the same way they do Algernon—as a test subject rather than a human being. They value him

only for his ability to contribute to their research. It is doubtful they will leave flowers on his grave.

Motifs and Themes

Intelligence and Success

“Flowers for Algernon” asks us to consider the

benefits and dangers of intelligence or the lack of 

intelligence. In the story, intelligence is like a

currency that allows people to attain their goals. Drs.

Nemur and Strauss have built their careers, andearned large sums of money, by using their

intelligence to achieve scientific advances. In the experiment on Algernon and Charlie, they attempt

to create a super-intelligent human being—a very worthy goal, in their opinion.

Miss Kinnian agrees with the doctors that intelligence is crucial to a person’s success in life. She

typically cannot increase the intelligence of her students—only help them gain knowledge—but

 when the opportunity arises, she encourages Charlie to participate, knowing intelligence can improve

his life. Charlie believes in the value of intelligence, too, which is why he agrees to participate.

 All the characters have a basis for their belief in the value of intelligence. Very smart people, like the

doctors, can achieve fame and fortune, while mentally disabled people like Charlie must work low-paying, boring jobs. In the story, people with more intelligence receive more respect than those of 

71 People often call tests subjects “guinea pigs”, after a type of rodent commonly used in scientific experiments.

Watch it on YouTube

You won’t be tested on it (or the novel) but, if you’dlike a different take on the story, check out the

opening of the story’s movie adaptation:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=loi3gDeGTwU

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low intelligence. Charlie’s coworkers ridicule him before the experiment, just as the restaurant

patrons look down on the mentally disabled boy. When Charlie shouts, “He’s still a human being!”

he points out a harsh truth about society: people of low intelligence are treated as less than human.

Intelligence and Isolation

Keyes experienced the isolating effect of education when he found himself no longer able to relate to

his parents—and, by extension, their inability to relate to him. In “Flowers for Algernon”, Keyes

focuses on intelligence rather than education, but he still demonstrates how too much or too little

knowledge can separate people from one another.

  When Charlie is mentally disabled, he is isolated

from his coworkers, not even aware they make fun of 

him. At the height of his brilliance, he becomes a

hypocrite, looking down on those dumber than him,

including the very doctors who made him smart. After the incident at the restaurant, Charlie realizes

being brilliant and being stupid have something in common: both can be very isolating. Horrified to

be slipping back into retardation, he writes of the boy in the restaurant: “the blank expression, the

silly smile, the people laughing at him. No—please—not that again.”72

Charlie is happy before the experiment. His lack of intelligence does not prevent him from being

friends with Miss Kinnian, and it allows him to be ignorant of his coworkers’ cruelty and think they 

are his friends. Extreme intelligence is a burden on Charlie because it makes him unable to connect

 with Miss Kinnian and others of lesser intelligence.

However, once the experiment has been done, Charlie can never return to his original state of 

ignorant contentment. Moving to a new place where no one knows his past sounds appealing, but it

cannot spare him from the painful awareness of what he has lost and of people’s ridicule73

. Thereader may be left thinking that Charlie’s possible death due to the experiment will be merciful,

considering the sorrow he is sure to feel for the rest of his life.

The Ethics of Medical Experimentation

Charlie’s experience raises questions about the ethics of a world where humans and animals can have

their intelligence artificially increased—and warns of unexpected consequences.

 Was Charlie mentally competent enough to agree to

participate in the experiment? Given his limited

intelligence, he may not have understood the possibleside effects and consequences of the operation.

Keyes implies that experimenting on people can be dangerous. “Flowers for Algernon” is tragic—but

not just because the experiment ultimately fails. Charlie’s life is transformed for the worse after he

loses his intelligence, but, even if he had survived and kept it, he would have been very isolated.

Using science to alter organisms is sometimes referred to as “playing God”. Whether genetically 

modifying crops, performing research on stem cells, or experimenting on a human, scientists are

stretching the limits of nature. “Flowers for Algernon” can be seen as a cautionary tale about

72 Like Theremon in “Nightfall”, who knows he is slipping into madness, Charlie is aware of the regression of his

intelligence, yet he is powerful to stop it.73 As the saying goes, ignorance is bliss.

Debate it!

Resolved: That Charlie would have been worse off ifhe had kept his increased intelligence.

Discuss it

When is it acceptable to perform scientificexperiments on people?

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manipulating the natural world. It pinpoints a problem with “playing God”: unlike a perfect deity,

humans can fail. When is failure an acceptable risk?

Conclusion

In this section, we learned that:

“Flowers for Algernon” is Daniel Keyes’ most famous story, about a mouse and a man who

undergo operations to increase their intelligence—with tragic consequences.

The story is written in the form of Charlie’s journal entries. Keyes uses changes in Charlie’s

 way of writing, including spelling and grammar, to indicate his changing level of intelligence.

  Algernon’s fate foreshadows Charlie’s—suggesting Charlie will also grow dumb again and

possibly die. Algernon reflects how the doctors treat Charlie, as less than human.

The story suggests that very high intelligence is just as dangerous as very low intelligence,

because either extreme causes a person to be isolated from others.

“Flowers for Algernon” can be seen as a cautionary tale about scientifically manipulating

nature. When humans “play God”, we run the risk of failure and unintended consequences.

Before moving on to the next section, ask yourself:

Does Charlie’s choice to participate in the experiment make what happens to him more

acceptable? Would it be worse if he had been experimented on without him agreeing to it?

Today, people who have certain diseases can participate in experimental trials of new 

treatments. Does their participation in these trials differ from Charlie’s in the experiment?

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VI. Robert Charles Wilson:

‘‘Julian: A Christmas Story’’

The year is 2172. The setting is Athabaska, a region in what

 was once Canada and now part of an expanded United Statesthat boasts sixty stars on its flag. The issue at hand: driving the

Dutch Army out of Labrador. Oh, and it’s Christmas.

Between reading banned books, trying to avoid being drafted

into the army, and protecting his best friend, Adam Hazzard

has plenty to think about. Christmas shopping is the least of 

his worries—but, unbeknownst to Adam, this holiday will bring a totally unexpected new 

birth.

Objectives

By the time you complete this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions.

How is Wilson’s fictional 22nd-century America different from the United States today?

 What makes the characters of “Julian: A Christmas Story” heroic?

 Why is the story called “A Christmas Story”?

Robert Charles Wilson

Born in California, Robert Charles Wilson has spent most of his life in

Canada. He has won nearly every major science fiction award for his

 work. Wilson’s novels are often fresh new twists on traditional science

fiction themes. Perhaps inspired by the magic realists, he often begins

a novel with one strange event in an otherwise normal world—but,

unlike the magic realists, the characters in his novel realize something

strange is going on. For example, in one novel, Darwinia, all of  

Europe vanishes in the year 1912, replaced by a bizarre new continent

populated by bizarre new creatures. In another, Spin, one day all the

stars disappear from the sky.Unlike these novels, “Julian” presents a vision of the future not based

on a single strange event. Wilson sets the story 166 years into a future

that could be our own. In 2009, he expanded “Julian: A Christmas

Story” into a novel, Julian Comstock: A Story of 22 nd -Century America.

‘‘Julian: A Christmas Story’’: Overview

  Adam Hazzard, a close friend of Julian’s, narrates

both the story and the novel. In the 22nd-century 

United States of America, there is a rigid class system,consisting of the few high-born, wealthy “aristos,” the

“leasing class”, or middle class, and the indentured laborers—very close to slaves. Most people’s

standard of living is low. The indentured servants have it the worst; they are bound to their

Debate it!

Resolved: That religion has a rightful place in politicsand public policy.

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employers with little hope of breaking free or earning enough ever to support themselves. Members

of the leasing class have their freedom, but are far from well off.

  Adam ranks somewhere between the leasing and

indentured class. His mother is a talented seamstress,

but his father is an illiterate member of a snake-

handling religious sect. Julian is an aristo, but he and Adam have grown up together because they are both

tutored by Sam Godwin, Julian’s mentor, who has been in charge of Julian since his father was

hanged for treason. So far, class differences have not affected Adam and Julian’s friendship. Adam

knows Julian is “fond of blasphemy”—he even debates science and religion with the clergymen. Sam

 worries that Julian’s apostasy , his rejection of the official religion, will get him into trouble.

The story opens with Adam, Julian, and Sam visiting the Tip, a trading post where Tipmen, or

scavengers74, sell artifacts of the old American civilization and offer them to the aristos and their

servants. Julian, who is fascinated by old books, selects a textbook full of the scientific theories he

loves (dismissed as “heresies” in this new world) and hands Adam another book,   A History of  Mankind in Space . Like most people of his time, Adam is skeptical that mankind ever visited the

moon, but takes the book home anyway.

  A few weeks later, the military troops come into town to conduct the presidential election. The

election is uncontested: Julian’s uncle, Deklan, is the only candidate. Adam and Julian sneak into the

assembly hall downtown, where the military is showing a film. Julian suspects the military is going to

conscript all eligible young men (force them to enlist). While the armed forces do need new recruits

to fight against the Dutch, Julian suspects Deklan is trying to get him conscripted and killed so that

he will never become a rival for the presidency. Technically, succession to the presidency is by 

election, not inheritance, but the Comstocks have ruled the United States for thirty years. Deklan is

young and healthy, but jealous and insecure, and he wants to remove Julian “from the game of 

politics.” Julian decides to run away.

The next day, Adam tells Sam about Julian’s escape.

In the process, he is shocked to discover Sam belongs

to a non-Christian and thus non-acceptable religion,

 Judaism. Adam and Sam separately decide to follow 

 Julian. Adam finds Julian being held captive by a Reservist (an inactive member of the army who can

be called to duty at any time). The friends manage to overpower the Reservist, with help from a nest

of snakes. When Julian spots the snakes slithering toward the soldier’s boot, he overcomes his own

fear of snakes to inform the soldier of the threat. The snakes are actually harmless—but the

frightened Reservist empties his gun trying to shoot them. Adam attacks him, knocking him out so

they can tie him up and take him prisoner.

The next morning, Sam joins Adam and Julian. (He had heard from Adam where Julian had gone,

but had to wait for the right moment to sneak off.) Sam devises a plan for the three of them to head

for New York, where they can blend into the city and find friends. They send the Reservist back to

town, with a letter to Adam’s mother, telling her not to worry and sending his love. The story ends

 with the three men riding off “toward the rude (harsh) and squalling (stormy) infant Future”—a

future that is unknown but sure to be full of hardship and danger.

74 Like that pelican in The Little Mermaid.

Watch it on YouTube

Watch an interview with Robert Charles Wilson andlearn more about his approach to science fiction:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO_rw4gIm60

Debate it!

Resolved: That political leaders should be able todraft soldiers into their armies.

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Literary Devices

Dystopian Fiction

“Julian: A Christmas Story” depicts a transformed America: tyranny has replaced democracy, and

people live in a rigid class system with little access to science and history. Wilson does not directly 

tell us the cause of this transformation, but hints at a catastrophe caused by the depletion of the oil

supply on which American civilization had depended. Without oil, agriculture, industry, and

technological progress have collapsed. Slavery has effectively returned, and scientific thought has

been suppressed by the official church.

Setting the story in a dystopian future heightens the

sense of drama. The story is ultimately hopeful, and

hope is all the more powerful set against a hopeless

backdrop—just as it is more powerful to imagine a

flower blooming in a war zone than it is to imagine

one blooming in a field full of flowers.

 Wilson’s dystopian vision of America also calls our

attention to the current state of American society. Democracy still exists in the United States, but it

is not perfect. There are social classes, and people still believe in the “American Dream”—the idea

that a working-class person can become rich and powerful through hard work and luck—but it may 

not be as easy to achieve as it once was. There is also freedom of religion in the United States today,

but Christianity is dominant and sometimes becomes mixed up in politics. The story warns readers

that values such as democracy, equality, and freedom of religion should not be taken for granted—

and neither should natural resources like oil.

Footnotes

 Wilson uses footnotes throughout the story to clarify certain information or make comments aside

from the main action of the story. Since footnotes are usually reserved for scholarly or scientific texts,

they give the impression that Adam’s story is a factual, historical account, instead of fiction.75 When

 we approach the story as a report from the future, rather than an imagined tale, it is easier for us to

accept the conditions and events of the story as real and therefore take the story’s message to heart.

Narrative Voice

The narrator, Adam, is free of any political motives. He tells the story in an objective way, without

passion for social issues, allowing the reader to form his or her own opinions. If Julian narrated the

story, he might talk about his society’s political injustices, or the unfairness of its religious policies.

Like the footnotes, Adam’s neutral perspective helps make the story seem more factual and objective.

The author also makes a conscious choice to have Adam write in a style similar to that of authors in

19th century America. This old-fashioned writing style reflects the regression of society into

something based on 19th century technology and beliefs; it helps us get a flavor of the times.

Irony

Because Adam has grown up in 22nd-century America, he sees nothing out of the ordinary in the

 world around him. He explains his society to us with complete seriousness, but the effect is ironic.

75 DemiDec footnotes are, of course, always entirely factual and historical.

Mini-Directed Research Topic

Dystopian science fiction runs the gamut: continentsdrowned in water, cities ruled by angry apes, people

eating food made from other people… the future isn’t afun place to visit. One field of science fiction oftenlinked to dystopian futures is cyberpunk . What is

cyberpunk?

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He ends up pointing out aspects of it we instantly recognize are hypocritical—exactly the opposite of 

 what they claim to be76.

For example, 22nd-century America claims to enjoy freedom of religion, yet there is a controlling

agency that has the power to approve or reject religions. By the same token, the presidential

“election” is not an election at all. It is merely a formality, because no one runs against Deklan—

presumably because they will be killed if they try.

Some of the most important scientific discoveries and advances of our time, like the existence of 

DNA, Einstein’s theory of relativity, and men walking on the moon, are considered heresies, false

beliefs in direct opposition to religion. Most of us would expect a story about the 22 nd century to

depict an advanced society, but the world of “Julian: A Christmas Story” has regressed, or moved

backwards. The books Adam and Julian take home from the Tip do not have the “Dominion Stamp

of Approval.” They are books of what we know as fact—even photographs of the Apollo mission to

the moon—but the scholars of 22nd-century America would consider them apostasy , illegitimate

because they contradict the state’s established religion.

Motifs and Themes

In an interview about the novel Julian Comstock , Wilson said: “I don’t believe science fiction is about

prediction.” However, when he began writing a story set 150 years in the future, he tried to imagine

 what changes would have occurred in North America by then. “How bizarre would contemporary 

headlines look to Herman Melville77 or Harriet Beecher Stowe78?” he asked. The world is

unpredictable, and yet, Wilson says, one thing we can predict is dramatic change. We cannot know 

 what the world will be like in the 22nd century, but we can be sure it will have transformed.

Religion

  Adam refers to the past as “the secular age.” He disapproves of the “vice and profligacy”—the

immorality and wastefulness—of people who lived during “the Age of Oil”. Although part of an

unpopular church, he still sees himself and his contemporaries as superior to “the secular ancients.”

Christianity is very important in 22nd-century America, but each Christian denomination must be

approved by an agency called the Board of Registrars of the Dominion of Jesus Christ on Earth.

  Adam’s father belongs to a snake-handling sect of Christianity, which is approved, but frowned

upon. Non-Christian religions are prohibited. Sam must practice his Judaism in secret. Yet no one

seems overly concerned with a personal faith, or even with doing the right thing most of the time;

most of the characters are acting either on government orders or for their own survival.

 Wilson uses this limited form of religious freedom to make a point: such limited freedom is actually 

no freedom at all. Sam is not free to practice his faith. Julian is called a heretic when he studies

science and comes to believe in certain scientific theories. A church so afraid of outside influences, so

determined to shut out everyone who does not conform, is not a strong church, nor does it have

much effect on people’s personal spirituality.

Transformation Is Inevitable

One of the story’s major themes is that things are constantly changing. Early on, Adam says that he

does not like the Tip because it seems haunted by ghosts of past eras. The relics of the “secular age”

76 The statement “Do as I say, not as I do” summarizes hypocrisy.77 A 19th-century American author who wrote, among other works, Moby-Dick .78 19th-century American author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, one of the most famous anti-slavery novels of all time.

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make him wonder if he, too, is a ghost, and will someday haunt future generations. Julian confirms

that all living things are “forms of DNA,” meaning nothing stays exactly the same over time. In

 Julian’s theory, evolution happens because DNA tries to “remember” and ends up creating different

versions of the same being. “You sound like a Darwinist,” Adam tells Julian, referring to Charles

Darwin and his theory of evolution. Both Sam and Adam dismiss the idea of DNA as a myth.

  At the end of the story, much has changed. Adam, Julian, and Sam are on the run, to avoidconscription and also to save Julian’s life. They are running away on Christmas Day, finding

themselves in a totally different place from every other Christmas of their lives. Adam also

remembers, as he thinks about Christmas, that it used to be a pagan holiday, but has changed into

the current celebration, “and was no less dear because of it.”

 Adam concludes that “time itself” evolves. As events take place, they change the landscape of the

  world, and human beings also change. “Maybe this logic was true of people, too; maybe I was

already becoming an inexact echo of what I had been just days before,” Adam muses. “Maybe the

same was true of Julian.” He can actually see Julian changing, becoming less gentle and more

commanding. (We know from the beginning of the story that Julian will later be called JulianConqueror.) Wilson alludes to Yeats’ “The Second Coming” here, as he refers to Julian “slouching

toward New York to be born.” Julian may not be reborn as a beast, but he, Adam and Sam will have

to transform to fit their changing circumstances. “Julian: A Christmas Story” tells us that we can

never be certain of anything—except the fact that change is inevitable.

Christmas and Time

Christmas is both the setting for the story and a symbol of the peace that is slipping away, even as

Christmas Day itself slips away. At the story’s end, Adam is “poignantly aware of the date,” which to

him has always meant time with family, and a soothing ritual that speaks of peace. (He notes that

Christmas has never held great religious significance for him.) But in this new world, the rules arechanging, and this year, Christmas is a time to ride away, to escape and try to make a new life. So

 Adam sends a letter to his parents, trying to apologize, explain, and comfort them all at once.

Christmas also appears in the title, partly because of 

the time of year, and partly to suggest Julian will be

the one who transforms this society for the better.

This story of a rigid, rule-filled, class-conscious

society seems hopeless at first, but the reader is left

 with a sense of hope. Adam, Julian, and Sam are escaping, and they will find a way to change things.

 Julian, especially, is the great hope for change. That is why this is “A Christmas Story”—a savior isbeing born. Julian even has two disciples to aid him in changing the world: Adam, his devoted

friend, and Sam, his teacher—who, like some of Jesus’s own first disciples, was born a Jew.

Ironically, Julian rejects Christianity, or at least the state form of it, in favor of scientific principles

and independent thinking. (Christ himself had little patience for the outward rituals of religion,

preferring to challenge religious authorities and go about things in his own way.) Julian’s rebirth, as

portrayed in the novel Julian Comstock, will bring change to his country and hope to many people.

Conclusion

In this section, we have learned that:

“Julian: A Christmas Story” is a science fiction story set in 22nd century North America.

The story uses irony and a unique future perspective to discuss science, religion, and politics.

Mini-Directed Research Topic

What are some of the major differences between theshort story and the novel Julian Comstock ? What,according to the novel, is Julian’s ultimate fate?

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Christmas is a symbol for the way things used to be: peaceful and predictable. The subtitle

“A Christmas Story” is both relevant and ironic.

 Julian, until now a protected young man, will undergo a transformation that will enable him

to try to change society. He is the Christ figure in a very unusual Christmas story.

Before closing this guide, ask yourself: How unlikely is it that we will ever be forced to give up our modern technologies?

 Who is the main character in this story?

 Why do you think so many authors choose to write about a dystopian future?

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About the Authors & EditorsKatie Noah Gibson graduated from Abilene Christian University 

in Abilene, Texas. She then left the hot, dry plains for Oxford,

England, where she consumed strong tea with scones, and became

fond of all the extra us in British English. These days, she can be

found in Boston, learning to survive Northeastern winters and still

drinking tea, despite that city’s uneasy history with her favorite

beverage. She writes and edits magazine articles, blog posts,

nonfiction essays, and anything else that comes along. She also

knits garments out of alpaca fur and bakes unhealthy things.

Tania Asnes joined the World Scholar’s Cup in the fall of 2007,

having graduated summa cum laude from Barnard College in 2005

 with a B.A. in English (Creative Writing), a minor in Russian, and

13 performances in the theaters of Columbia University under herbelt, including one in which she threw two pies in her face every 

performance. She is currently pursuing a career in film and

television, involving fewer pies but more minutes spent not

blinking. Tania is rumored to have worn the alpaca hat in which

she is pictured the entire time she worked on this resource.

Daniel Berdichevsky discovered science fiction at age 10, when

his uncle and grandfather decided it was time to wean him off the

Hardy Boys and introduce him to serious literature. They handed

him an Isaac Asimov novel. His own literary efforts since thenhave included authoring a new chapter to the Bible (in which

Moses was put on trial) and a short story involving three witches, a

speechwriter, and a meat cleaver. His non-literary efforts have

included trying to bring down a bakery with his forehead.79 He

currently travels the world with his pillow and a hefty stash of teabags and frequent flier miles. He is

pictured here with his favorite fantasy author Guy Gavriel Kay at the 2010 World Scholar’s Cup

 World Finals in Shanghai. You can email him at [email protected] or find him on Facebook at

 www.facebook.com/dan.berd.