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TITLE (EDIT)
The Literary Cold War |
DESCRIPTION
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[714 words] |
AUTHOR
Riot |
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
I write as often as I can make myself. Hopefully, it will lead me somewhere someday.
[April 2007] |
AUTHOR'S E-MAIL ADDRESS
JustCallMeSuperman@gmail.com |
AUTHOR'S OTHER TITLES (13)
Ashley (Short Stories) - [180 words]
Catching Stars (Short Stories) - [185 words]
Hunger Pains (Short Stories) "She was fat..." [495 words]
Losing The Sun (Short Stories) A story of a suicide and its reprecussions. [1,288 words]
Midnight Ride (Poetry) - [52 words]
Samantha Jane (Short Stories) - [465 words]
The Christmas Present (Short Stories) - [926 words]
The Little Fisherman (Short Stories) - [652 words]
The Old Woman, The Little Girl (Poetry) - [80 words]
The Sob Story (Short Stories) Alchohol does not equate responsibility. [1,116 words]
The Teen Girl Suicide Story (Short Stories) This is satire. Keep that in mind. [575 words]
Travels (Non-Fiction) - [257 words]
Zestfully Clean (Poetry) - [47 words]
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The Literary Cold War
Riot
When two nations as prominent as the U.S. and the Soviet Union are locked in a stale mate spanning decades, it is inevitable that our hopes and fears will be present in the literature of that era. With our hopes turned toward scientific greatness, our fears toward imminent nuclear destruction, the literary genre of science fiction would seem the perfect outlet to embrace this.
After World War two, after the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the threat of totalitarianism was seemingly wiped out, four countries occupied former Nazi Germany. Learning from their past mistakes, the U.S., Great Britain, and France stayed in Germany until it was a sure bet that democracy would take hold. At the end of an eight-year residence, the Allies left Germany to its own devices. Only The U.S.S.R remained, unwilling to relinquish control over its section of the country, inflexible in its aspiration to turn it into a communist nation like itself. In 1961, the U.S.S.R. constructed the Berlin wall, dividing east and west Berlin---to "stop the hostile activities of the revanchist and militaristic forces of West Germany.” The Soviets hid behind a proverbial “iron curtain”, all the while ensnaring new satellite nations and making them over in their communist image. This sparked a race of sorts between the U.S. and the Soviet Union that lasted until the early nineties; a race to achieve technological and militaristic
superiority. And with both sides aiming newly developed nuclear weapons at each other, a devastating nuclear war seemed imminent.
As scientists on both sides churned out more powerful weapons, authors created their own fictional versions of the conflict between the two powerhouse nations. The stories escaped from the industrial limitations of the current time period and climbed to the stars themselves. In one story by Isaac Asimov, written during the mid fifties, two nameless and equally powerful countries stared each other down, trying vainly to surpass the other in strength. Set in the not-too-distant future, Asimov seems to be making a prediction about the longevity of the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Another author to reflect in his writings the atmosphere of the Cold War was Ray Bradbury. McCarthyism and censorship were prevalent during the Cold War and his book Fahrenheit 451 Bradbury satires these in the form of book burning. Reading has become taboo and gaining knowledge through this medium has as well, and it is the job of the “fire men” to do away with any and all literature. This is much like reality, where everyone is a spy handing over secrets to opposing governments and communism is a threat to the American way. Just like books are a threat in Fahrenheit 451, manipulative things that go against the carefully structured society planned by the government. Books, like communists, are to be contained or eradicated at all cost.
But what of more contemporary science fiction? Now that the pressure of the Cold War is over, have we anything left to aspire to? It would seem where once we dreamed of climbing into the heavens and exploring new frontiers, we now content ourselves with rearranging our past and sticking to our roots as humble colonists, or journeying to simpler---and sometimes prehistoric---times with the aid of time travel. There are stories supposedly set in the future, but are brimming with connections to the past; such as games we play today or social practices seemingly preserved from an earlier era. It would seem that the science fiction of the Golden Age in which we dreamed of the future of technology is over, and a sort of ‘millennium mind frame’ has been adopted, one in which our fears of the future prevent us from reaching with our imaginations to the stars. What will become of science fiction as we know it? Will it slowly fade from human interest, until it is only humored by the few who still ask the question of ‘what if’? Or will it evolve to the point where we no longer focus on what the future will hold for us, but rather on picking apart our past and creating a new history for ourselves? It is up to the younger generations to decide how we will dream, and what form these dreams will take in literature.
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READER'S REVIEWS (3)
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"The common fear of the future is always great to hear about, but it's a total original story when you write about the imagination of 50 years ago, compared to today's 2 second attention span society. What does the past mean to the new generation? More importantly as you stated where will the future of literature end up? Everything including word's even now seem to be getting smaller, and less appreciated. " -- sasu.
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COPYRIGHT NOTICE
© 2005 Riot |
STORYMANIA PUBLICATION DATE
February 2005 |
NUMBER OF TIMES TITLE VIEWED
3089
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