Science Fiction Analysis - Essay Example

Utopia is defined in two ways in Webster's dictionary.The first definition describes Utopia as a place of ideal order. This means in every sense, politics and society. It is a dream of an ideal. The second definition presents Utopia as an impossible dream. The exploration of the differences between these two definitions of Utopia is a common theme in science fiction literature. In HG Wells The time machine, the narrator of the story travels to a future time and sees many changes, which he at first believes is an Utopia. Later he learns otherwise. The same exploration of the idea of Utopia is seen in Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End. In this story, however, the concept of Utopia is far more complicated. Clark is a more modern author and therefore his understanding of the world is more complex. This is seen reflected in his themes. It is interesting to explore the differences between the approaches of Clark and Wells toward the idea of Utopia in their books Time machine and Childhood's End. Wells lived in between the 19th and 20th centuries.His idea of Utopia was a product of his time.The idea of class differences was very important at the time. The theory of Marxism argued that there would be a class warfare, or the working classes, would one day overthrow the capitalist class and take control of the means of production. This was a dream of Utopia and yet so many people believed it. Wells played on the idea of this dream of Utopia . In Time Machine, the narrator travels to a future time, through a means of a time machine. When he arrives in this far-flung future. He sees the world is completely changed.”So far as I could see, all the world displayed the same exuberant richness as the Thames valley. From every hill I climbed I saw the same abundance of splendid buildings, endlessly varied in material and style, the same clustering thickets of evergreens, the same blossom-laden trees and tree-ferns. Here and there water shone like silver, and beyond, the land rose into blue undulating hills, and so faded into the serenity of the sky.”( Wells,p.45) The new world is inhabited by small friendly creatures, the Eloi, like human beings, but far more primitive. He is astounded by these people. They appear to live an idealized life. There is no war. There is no conflict in and there does not seem to be any want. He is immediately seduced by this new world. It seems like a biblical paradise. “The several big palaces I had explored were mere living places, great dining-halls and sleeping apartments. I could find no machinery, no appliances of any kind. Yet these people were clothed in pleasant fabrics that must at times need renewal, and their sandals, though undecorated, were fairly complex specimens of metalwork. Somehow such things must be made. And the little people displayed no vestige of a creative tendency. There were no shops, no workshops, no sign of importations among them. They spent all their time in playing gently, in bathing in the river, in making love in a half-playful fashion, in eating fruit and sleeping.”( Wells, p.67) At this point in the story there does not seem to be much political commentary. This appears to be the first definition of Utopia defined here:a place of ideal order in every sense. The ideal dream is quickly smashed when the Morlocks arrive on the scene. These are underground dwellers who come up to the surface to feed upon the Eloi. The narrator suddenly understands how the surface world is sustained. He comes to the awful realization that the underground dwellers produce everything and in a way are simply farming the Eloi for a food source. At this point in the story there is a clear political commentary. Well's has made an allegory of Marx's theory. “At first, proceeding from the problems of our own age, it seemed clear as daylight to me that the gradual widening of the present merely temporary and social difference between the Capitalist and the Labourer, was the key to the whole position.”( Wells,p.81) He has divided the idea of upper and lower classes, of capitalist and working-class into surface dweller and underground dweller and projected that idea to a future stage of development, which he exaggerates for effect. The Eloi have descended from the upper class and because they became entirely reliant on the labor of the working-class, they lost all their intelligence and skills. The Upper-world people might once have been the favoured aristocracy, and the Morlocks their mechanical servants: but that had long since passed away. The two species that had resulted from the evolution of man were sliding down towards, or had already arrived at, an altogether new relationship. The Eloi, like the Carolingian kings, had decayed to a mere beautiful futility. They still possessed the earth on sufferance: since the Morlocks, subterranean for innumerable generations, had come at last to find the daylit surface intolerable. And the Morlocks made their garments, I inferred, and maintained them in their habitual needs, perhaps through the survival of an old habit of service. They did it as a standing horse paws with his foot, or as a man enjoys killing animals in sport: because ancient and departed necessities had impressed it on the organism. But, clearly, the old order was already in part reversed. The Nemesis of the delicate ones was creeping on apace. Ages ago, thousands of generations ago,( Wells,p.90) The Morlocks on the other hand, represent the working-class now live in an underground world, which is a commentary on the factories of industry. They produce everything and they now control the upperclass. The story appears to argue, Marxist theory but there is still a reservation since the Morlocks are presented in such a brutal way. Arthur C. Clarke Childhood's End presents a different utopian vision. In this story there is more complicated commentary, then in Wells allegory.In this story, a new idea of Utopia is brought to earth by aliens of another planet. The aliens are known as the Overlords. The Overlords come to earth to tell the people of the planet, of an impending change. They tell the people of the planet that they come in peace, and they provide proof of this by ending all wars and putting an end to the arms race. They promise to return in several decades, and they assure the people of the planet that they will be ready for all they have to offer.In the interim 50 years while they're away the world experiences a time of great prosperity and peace. This is in a sense an early Utopia, but it is not without its complications. Without strife there is little creative production of any significance. This idea of Utopia is somewhat like the one that Wells offers: apparent peace and prosperity at the cost of any creative output. There are many competing sub- themes in Clarke's book and therefore it is important to focus on his idea of Utopia. His idea of Utopia was a paternal one where the aliens change mankind's destiny forever. In a question to the overlord Karellen about mankinds capacity to understand the aliens in logical terms Karellen's reply is , "Are you quite sure of that?" ( Clarke, p.29)The Overlord's are servants of the Overmind, a singular force with whom mankind is one day destined to merge. The merger is not what mankind envisions. It is a group of children with special telepathic powers who become to descendents of mankind, and join with the Overmind. The rest of humanity, dies out."For reasons which the Overlords could not explain, but which Jan suspected were largely psychological, there had been no children to replace those who had gone. Homo sapiens was extinct “( Clarke, p.208) The idea of Utopia is a fixture in the human mind. Maybe this is because this part is that many religious. The belief that after we die, we will go to heaven or some such place. It seems like there's a need are or a wish to have that here and now to the material world. HG Wells time machine explores the theme of Utopia in the early 20th century, political theory of Marxism. His Eloi and Morlocks are metaphors for the upper and lower classes. He made an ironical comment about the future outcome of this division. Arthur C. Clarke book childhoods end presents a more paternalistic idea of Utopia. Aliens who represented an outside force, will one day impose a different idea of Utopia where most of the world will be excluded. Both these ideas of Utopia, a political commentary, and they are a reflection of their times and the author's beliefs. References Clarke, Arthur C.Childhood's End. New York: Ballantine, 22nd printing, 1972) Parrinder, Patrick, and H. G. Wells. H.G. Wells: The Critical Heritage. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1997. Reid, Robin Anne. Arthur C. Clarke: A Critical Companion. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997. Wells,H.G The Time Machine. New York: Tom Doherty and associates.1986. Read More