A Scientific Romance by Ronald Wright - Essay Example

How Allusions Add to Reader Understanding in A Scientific Romance A Scientific Romance by Ronald Wright is anovel that has successfully taken an abstract concept and crafted a spell biding narrative. The writer gives an interesting insight to a futuristic climate condition and its impact to the human race. The story is told through David Lambert the main character and his search for a cure of a strange disease. He journeys into the future via a time machine and arrives in Britain in 2500. He encounters an inhabitable environment courtesy of the climatic change. The writer has interwoven the aspect of time, romance, disease and civilization to captivate the reader. Though it is a science fiction set in the future, familiar themes such death and love helps the reader to understand the message. The novel uses the theme of death as a consequence of human action and the subsequent climate change. As David ventures 500 years into the future he discovers the devastating effects of climate change. The entire civilization as he knew it has been wiped out. The climatic change is by itself a result of the same civilization. As human being strives to make life more comfortable through inventions they exploit the earth’s resources in unsustainable manner. This fact is clearly captured in the novel as Anita equates civilization to a pyramid scheme where human beings live beyond their means (Wright 66-67). The novel correctly predicts the destiny of the current civilization if unchecked. The global warming phenomenon that is associated with pollution is a real threat to the world survival. Emission of obnoxious gases into the atmosphere have caused increase in temperature, rise in sea level, outbreak of strange diseases and extreme and erratic weather conditions. Civilization is a two sided sword; the perceived progress also comes with dire consequences. In the book Bird understands this very well and tells David about the growth of a smart ship, in stature, grace and hue, but warns about the growth of an iceberg in an equal measure in the shadowy distance (Wright 98). Civilization behaves exactly the same; human beings are obsessed with gains that come with scientific breakthroughs, development of skyscrapers, gigantic machines and factories. Meanwhile danger associate is larking somewhere in the shadowy distance and few seems to notice. The current data obtained from research done have painted a grim picture of the future akin to what the novel have alluded. An education system is one among the most important instruments that shapes a society. The novel A Scientific Romance is divided into four parts, every part is quite distinct from the other. The book opens in late 1999 with The Wells Device and the main character of the Lambert who is a specialist in the field of Victorian machines at a museum in London. Lambert receives a copy of a document sent to him by a fellow scholar allegedly from H.G. Wells. This document gives an account of a love affair the novelist experience with one Tania Cherenkova who was a young scientist. The use of this document in Ronald Wright's A Scientific Romance is a clear use of allusion from a protege of the renowned Tesla. According to the document that Lambert receives Tania the young scientist helped advice wells regarding his novel the time machine. The young scientist wanted the love affair to continue and the only way should could have made this possible was by constructing a time machine using her own principles. Tania did actually construct the time machine and it worked as she had intended it to work, Wells in the document claims that he watched Tania disappear in the time machine she had constructed in 1899. The importance of the document received by Lambert is to advise that Tania the young scientist who disappeared in the time machine will reappear with it probably, a century later which was 1999, at a particular flat that Wells describes. David Lambert, the main character in a Scientific Romance, skeptical, burns with a desire to confirm what the veracity of the story. He sets out to locate the flat at the middle of the night which was the New Year eve of 2000. Surprisingly, Lambert discovers the Wells device in the appointed place, a functioning time machine. The machine however does not have Tania, and the only thing Lambert finds were scraps clothing which had a whiff of Tania’s perfume. Ronald Wright in the book A Scientific Romance has used an allusion of disaster to enable the readers understand the concept of global warming. Before global warming existed, the enemy that people would have feared most was things such as the German Nazis, Atomic wars, and stock market crunches. The uses of allusions in wrights work helps the reader’s to understand that nobody would have really expected that our natural and indeed greatest enemy was within our very own city environs. “… for thou hast made a city and heap; of a defenced city a ruin” (Wright 228). The use of such an illusion by Wright is a clear indication that the only persons to blame for our predicaments of global warming is ourselves, as the inventors, consumers , our society built on non-living objects that rule the universe, telemarketers, and great entrepreneur. These brought about capitalism or the world market. In this regard Wright states that: “Everything was sacrificed: the happiness of the workman...in short his life”...meant nothing to our “necessity of 'cheap production' of things not even worth producing”... “Our whole community was cast into the jaws of this ravening monster, the World- Market” (Wright 256). The desire of human beings to reduce the cost of production is what the author cites as the cause of the devastating predicament of global warming. This means that the things that were thought by human beings to be glamorous or proof of their greatness that is the ability to invent and create our surroundings was just an illusion. According to Wright, “Nature didn't clobber us, except in self-defense. There was no deus ex machina, no cosmic foot” (Wright 288). This brings the readers to understand the fact that even though we may cast the blame on nature for our predicament of global warming, nature cannot be blamed for our definitive end. The allusion made by the author helps the reader to understand that nature did warn the human race of their lethal activities, nature gave its warning through several natural disasters. Yet, the human race continued killing one another through mass production of genetically modified food which poisoned the human race as well as through spreading disease to fellow human beings due to self-interests. The emergence of the capitalism or the world market propagated the poisoning of the world much easier and faster. The creator of all this which was science could not fix the mess it had done, and the as the book state euthanasia was the only option to human disaster. The author therefore brings out through his allusion an interesting perception to an aging concept of global warming. This concept cannot be overlooked, Wright insists on making the reader to understand that it is not the nature that actually destroys our world but rather it is the human race and their activities in the world. The cause of human problems emanates from the past mistakes. Conceivably it was the quick progress that mankind ventured into that blinded them from foreseeing the predicaments they were getting into. In part three of the book titled, the Scottish play, David Lambert the narrator discovers how and why human civilization came to an end. The mass diseases that were as a result of genetically engineered food that had spread throughout the world via global market and also the desire of human race to attain high living standards. This stage was seen as a new era of plague which caused the inhabitants of earth to go on rampage. The allusion used in this part depicts the devastating consequences of the so civilization and raises the question as to whether or not the human race is indeed safer existing under such civilization that is stalled. The use of science did not assist the human race to progress in the way it had expected, rather it brought with it predicaments which it could not fix. This could be demonstrated by the various predicaments the world have encounter despite the progress humankind has made in science. By choosing a form of civilization that would only help the human race obtain their necessities, then, would be no completion for merchandise as well as goods and mass production of genetically engineered food would not be of any importance. The fourth part of the book is entitled Tithonus. The name Tithonus is alluded from a Greek myth in which a man by the name Tithonus requested the gods to grant him eternal life but he forgot to ask for eternal youth in his request. The use of Tithonus in A Scientific Romance by the author enables the reader to understand that the human race has became another misplaced episode in history, nevertheless, life must go on however hard it may seem to be. It further helps the reader to understand that one should not live with regrets or remorse but rather one should accept his or her future and stop living in the past (Schellenberg 5). Indeed Wright has used allusions in A Scientific Romance to depict the ruins that civilization may bring to the human race. The author points out that Civilization is a double edged sword; the perceived progress also comes with dire consequences. The novel correctly predicts the destiny of the current civilization if unchecked. The global warming phenomenon that is associated with pollution is a real threat to the world survival. Emission of obnoxious gases into the atmosphere have caused increase in temperature, rise in sea level, outbreak of strange diseases and extreme and erratic weather conditions. Wright insists on making the reader to understand that it is not the nature that actually destroys our world but rather it is the human race and their activities in the world. The cause of human problems emanates from the past mistakes. Believably it was the quick progress that mankind ventured into that blind folded them from foreseeing the predicaments they were getting into. This is a clear indication that the only persons to blame for our predicaments of global warming is ourselves, as the inventors, consumers , our society built on non-living objects that rule the universe, telemarketers, and great entrepreneur (Schellenberg 6). These brought about capitalism or the world market. Consequently, the desire of human beings to reduce the cost of production is brought to the attention of the readers as the major cause of the devastating predicament of global warming. This means that the things that were thought by human beings to be glamorous or proof of their greatness such as the ability to invent and create our surroundings were just an illusion. Even though the novel A Scientific Romance seems to have been set many centuries away, it is actually about what is taking place in the contemporary world as well as what is likely to happen in the next few decades to come. The novel uses the theme of death as a consequence of human action and the subsequent climate change. It is a science fiction set in the future, familiar themes such death and love helps the reader to understand the message. The author uses David Lambert as the main character who is in search for a cure of a strange disease. Through a time machine the narrator David Lambert and an archaeologist travels into the future and arrives in Britain in the year 2500. The archaeologist realizes that the use of science did not assist the human race to progress in the way they had expected, rather it brought with it predicaments which science itself could not repair. Consequently, the narrator discovers how and why human civilization came to an end. The mass diseases that were as a result of genetically engineered food that had spread throughout the world via global market and also the desire of human race to attain high living standards. Works cited Challenging Destiny; Science Fiction and Fantasy Reviews, 2000. 2000. Web. 28/2/2012. http://www.challengingdestiny.com/reviews/scientificromance.htm Schellenberg, James. "A Scientific Romance." Ronald Wright, Knopf, (1997): pp 309." Wright, Ronald. A Scientific Romance. Canada: Knopf Canada, 1997. Print. Read More