Title:

Rhetorical Science Fiction


People have been writing and dreaming about the unknown for as long as humankind has existed. We are intrigued by the unknown, and mesmerized by the future. Stories of ghosts and monsters have filled the shelves of many libraries, and looking ahead with our creativity and imagination has been a favorite pastime for many. Often the future is seen as a dystopia. An idyllic world on the surface but with closer inspection many flaws can be found. Yet it has come to pass that these many futuristic stories, can be warnings about our own time, and the direction in which we tend to follow. I will attempt to look at a few different works, and show how they are really a product of their current society, a satirical reflection of the real societal flaws during the time each work was written, and then look at where we have come from. Did we follow the path set out for us, how close are we to the dystopia's described, and how does our present society deal with the truths and projections of the past, when dealing with current technology, government, and society.

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Copyright Vicki Zigmont 1997 - zigmont@vsl.ist.ucf.edu
Last Updated 3/17/97



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