Abstract

If only half the predictions for 1984 come true, what do we have to look forward to? That question is the focus of our first day's discussion in Alternative Societies, a ten-week senior English course. Answers vary from nilhistic (We're all going to be blown up, so what does it matter?) to simplistic (I'm going to get married and live in the same way my folks do), to optimistic (If we work together, the world can be in peace with resources for all). No matter what the answers, students agree we all have the future in common, and that bond carries us though out study of utopian and dystopian novels, as we try to discover what we want, what we can change, what we must fight, and what we must endure to be ready for the future. The dystopias are the most compelling reading, not only for their horrible views of the future but because the main characters are always cultural deviates, fighting for their beliefs against a repressive government. Montag (Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451), Equality 521 (Rand's Anthem), John Savage (Huxley's Brave New World), Winston Smith (Orwell's 1984), and Chip (Levin's This Perfect Day) begin alone, against overwhelming odds, to try to understand their individual longings in a hostile environment. These novels all provide exciting and scary reading. We also do Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon, perhaps the most frightening because the nuclear war described could happen

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