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Keeping Hope Alive
Keeping Hope Alive
By Laslow Poke
Consider this, there is a future for mankind and life is not intolerable. Though this may not seem like a very good starting point for a paper on hope, it is where this paper will begin. If a person simply looks at the bleak world on the horizon presented in most cyber punk literature, it becomes difficult to see any good in the world. However, there is a future and humanity has adapted to make existence possible. As such, with life being tolerable, there can start to be hope for humanity. Within existence lies the possibility of change, the possibility of being able to make a better. In cyber punk, there must always be existence, and from that fact, the possibility of a better tomorrow is always an option. The problem lies in that these hopes can become dashed if the society manages to stop its inhabitants from aspiring for a better tomorrow. It is due to the individuals in the stories that the reader can have hope for the future.
A strong example of hope springing from a bleak world lies within “Pretty Boy Crossover”. The protagonist, though shallow, lives an idolized life according to those around him. He is attractive, naïve, and most importantly, sought after. Much like his best friend, Bobby, he is seen as a beneficial edition to an electronic collective. If he were merely to give up his physical self, he could have immortality as a machine, or at least, that's the way it is presented. He has the opportunity to become a deus ex machine with life eternal.
The protagonist, though, turns it down.
He is able to recognize this as a cage to the freedom he currently has in his world. The supposed immortality and limitless freedom he would attain is, in reality, a life dependant on those that maintain the machine. Should his benefactors decide to pull the plug, he would cease to be. It is immortality within a cage, dancing for clients till the next fad comes along. By choosing natural life, he gives credence to the innate desire to be, to have free will, to live and die as one chooses, not to live by the whims of another. The way in which “He's lightheaded with joy-he doesn't know what's going to happen.” (556) gives the reader a reason to be positive. By turning down what would be seen as his nirvana, the narrator shows a hope for humanity. While he may be killed the next day, it is by his own choice, not that of a man operating the keyboard of a supercomputer. Just as people strive to make the world we live in today a better place, there is hope in the fact that the narrator does not merely give up on humanity, he chooses to remain a human, for better or for worse.
An even bleaker society is painted in the junk filled world of “The Winter Market”. In the jobi society of the story, a woman discarded by the world due to her physical infirmity (Lise) houses a mind that can bring joy to the world. Though seen as a broken being, Lise has a mind that is capable of bringing joy to all those around her. However, how can the suffering that Lise has endured be seen as a good thing? In fact, in the end of the story, Lise actually turns her back upon humanity, something that would seem less then hopeful and contradictory to the positive message that was presented in “Pretty Boy Crossover.”
The fact of the matter is that the choice and conditions are not the same. While the protagonist of “Pretty” led a life within which he was young, nubile, and free, Lise's existence is one where she is confined to a life support system at all times. It is one in which she is completely dependant upon others. As well, the assimilation with the machine presented within the story is different. Rather than being at the whim of a single individual or company, Lise will maintain a freedom she was incapable of in her physical body. She will be able to move about freely in the computer system of her world. If Lise had been born in any other world, she would not have these options. Being able to get an exoskeleton to help her walk around would be impossible. More than likely, she would have died or been killed as a child. Within her world, she is able to achieve a greatness that is unparalleled as noted by her smash hit Kings of Sleep (587-588).
Though Lise's situation is bleak, a person most take into account that most joy a person finds is measured in contrast to their pain. Had Lise been born normal, there is a high probability her talent would have gone unnoticed. Due to her infirmity, though, a chain of events occurs that allows her to obtain what would be seen in her world as happiness. It is due to the tragic circumstances she grew up in that her freedom in the end of the story is such an uplifting triumph. She overcomes an astronomical handicap and succeeds. Therein lays the positive triumph for humanity.
Yet another instance of how hopeful the genre can be is the book Blade Runner. While many see the book as a depressing trip into the future, throughout the story are sprinkled several ideas and concepts that actually give some sense of a better tomorrow. Though seeming like something of a comic device, the mood organ that is presented within the story helps to show the adaptive nature of humanity. The organ, presenting a fake sense of peace, tranquility, or what have you, is empty in so much as Iran and others often turn it off to feel depressed. Despite the fact that the mood organ offers an easy fix, people turn against it. People still desire to hold unto their emotions, their humanity as it were. The characters within the story acknowledge the emptiness of the device. Even a strong proponent of the device, Rick Deckard, refuses to use it at the end of the story when his depression peaks (214). By not using the device at all times, the characters show that they are still in touch with their humanity.
Furthermore, the planet of earth itself is a symbol for hope. Despite the fallout that occurs frequently on the planet and the desolate conditions, people still refuse to migrate to outer space. Though a far better life is apparently presented on other worlds, a good portion of humanity stays on Earth to stick things out. By using devices such as the mood organ and the religion of Mercer, the inhabitants of Earth make their lives, if not pleasant, at least tolerable, and as stated earlier, that is enough. With humanity refusing to abandon the earth, it can be accepted that things can eventually get better.
The main thing that must be kept in mind is that the hope and ideals that are set forth within cyber punk are not resounding victories that will lead to a Utopian future. Rather, the hope lies in the individuals who are striving to create a better world. Despite all the obstacles that are put into people's ways, they do not simply give up. Each of the individuals in the story exploits some small idea, and through it, attempts to make themselves, and sometimes their world, a better place. In a way, this is far more satisfying then an ecstatically happy story. While a perfect future world could be created, the people who would inhabit that society would be alien to readers in so much that people would be unable to relate to them. The world that people currently inhabit is not perfect, and as such, the reader is able to relate to the heroes of cyber punk literature and get a feeling of satisfaction when they see the protagonists succeed in some small way in their stories. Not every victory changes the world, and cyber punk shows this with each minor victory their characters achieve.
At the end of Blade Runner, the reader does not cheer for the fact that Deckard kills all the androids, rather, the joy springs from the realization he comes to about his line of work. When he is able to recognize that despite electronics, everything has life, the reader watches a feeling of tranquility come across Deckard. His recognition of all thing's having life is what gives the reader a final feeling of satisfaction. While not a world shattering victory that will fix Earth, it is the individual victories that make these stories so compelling.
It is not the big victories in life that lead people to the most hopeful conclusions. Rather, it is the victories of the individuals that gives hope for the future. While the worlds that the characters inhabit in cyber punk are most often destitute and cold it is not the world itself that the reader is thinking about in the end. Instead, the reader is focused upon the individuals who populate the world. Whether or not the world will collapse the next day is unimportant, all that matters is that the character is able to persevere in some way. The narrator of “Pretty Boy Crossover” does not change anything in his world, however, what the reader takes away from it is that he is able to turn away from temptation and cling to his humanity. Within “The Winter Market”, the reader feels good for the fact that Lise is able to attain a freedom she was incapable of attaining in her physical body. The fact that she survives at all is more then enough reason for rejoicing. As for Deckard, his world begins in turmoil, and ends in very much the same way. However, unlike in his stories beginning, he no longer must cling to an electric sheep in order to be happy, he is able to find tranquility on his own.
Despite the overall bleakness of the worlds of cyber punk, there is hope in the people that inhabit it. Paralleling modern society, it'd be impossible to say that every character in cyber punk, or the real world, is a good person. However, within each person is the possibility of making their world or life a better place, and that is what makes cyber punk so uplifting. It is not the world present, but rather, the people. It is the victories over societies and personal restrictions that leave the reader with a sense of well being after these stories are done, not the fact that there is hell on earth. The feeling of contentment merely arises from the fact that like the real world, these characters have completed some small victory, and in the end that is more than enough.
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