The Daily Life Of The Future
The Daily Life Of The Future II
I have found one concrete detail of daily life in a fictional future and furthermore a detail that is common to Earth in the Solar Commonwealth and to Avalon in the Domain of Ythri.
To us, a library is a place where we go to read or borrow books. It is now possible for the contents of all books to be displayed on computer screens. In The Earth Book Of Stormgate, the historian Hloch addresses his fellow Planha-speaking Ythrians in the Stormgate Choth on Avalon. When introducing an extract from the reminiscences of the spaceman James Ching, he advises his readers:
"To screen a glossary of obscure terms, punch Library Central 254-0691."
-Poul Anderson, "Introduction: How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 175-176 AT p. 176.
Since, in this extract, Ching reminisces about his teenage years as a student while still living with his parents in San Francisco Integrate on Earth, Avalonian Ythrians are bound to find many obscure terms like:
"...the Golden Gate."
-Anderson, "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" IN The Van Rijn Method, pp. 177-197 AT p. 184;
"...the San Jose district."
-op. cit., p. 187;
Ching's sarcastic reflection that, for the Festival of Man, people with surnames like Marcantonio should dress in togas while those called Smith should paint themselves blue. (op. cit., p. 182.)
Advised to make a Chinese contribution to the Festival, Ching asks "Library Central" about the former special ethnic sections of San Francisco and is shown information about Chinatown where a Lunar New Year was celebrated with fireworks and a parade. Time-blurred photographs are accompanied by text.
Thus, "Library Central" informs Avalonians about Ching's period and Ching about ours.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
It's reasonable to think, four or five centuries from now, for formerly clearly distinguishable ethnic groups like Chinese Americans to have become entirely absorbed into the North American mainstream culture of the Solar Commonwealth. So I sympathize with James Ching's bafflement when instructed to think of some kind of Chinese contribution to the Festival.
Sean
Actually, it's pretty reasonable right now, in most instances. There's a member of my writer's group I knew for years before I learned that one of her parents was from China. (And was Muslim; she's a Mormon.)
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Oh, I agree! And I assume the lady you know has a parent who came from Sinkiang, where most Chinese Muslims live.
Sean
Well, most Uyghurs live there, and they're Muslim. But so are the Hui (Han-speaking Muslims) and they're all over.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
I thought of Sinkiang partly because of how the Peking regime has been cementing its grip on the region by settling millions of Han there. As was and is being done in Tibet.
Sean
Post a Comment