Steampunk Novels

technology. Six decades later, this prediction is coming true. The similarities are uncanny. In Fahrenheit 451, society is chock-full of civilians who are ignorant of political affairs and elect officials based on their looks. Likewise, many people today in America don't vote, and many learn bad habits from television. Bradbury's perception of the culture in Fahrenheit 451 can be compared to modern society because people watch too much television, people don't always benefit from technology, and people don't value education anymore.

For example the house that the story takes place in, is all machines. It does everything for the humans that used to live there. Such as make breakfast, clean dishes, and clean the house, just to name a few. Bradbury wanted to show you that you shouldn’t rely too much on technology to the point it ends mankind.

Projections that have been made about how today’s society and culture will look in the coming years, decades, and centuries, all have yet to be seen in how valid they are. If you look in any sort of media: television, social media, or radio/music, you will see people giving their interpretations of what will become of our world down the road. Yet, few people look to see how our the current state of culture and society reflect the projections made by people in previous years, decades, and centuries. In looking at the visions of the future presented by both novelas, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, and The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster, each story presents aspects of society that prominently appear today. Written during the Industrial Revolution, a time where technology and human innovation was at one of its highest points in recent history, both stories explore the possible effects of the machinery that was becoming evermore present. Both authors present aspects such as omnipotent technology, decaying human independence, and destruction of real communication, to create the artistic statement that complacency is rising within the human race, and that complacency will eventually lead to the fall of mankind. In both stories, the authors speak against human complacency and deference to technology, warning that it will lead to the creation of weaker people and society that will ultimately destroy the human race, yet that complacency is present in today’s culture and due to the

Here readers can see how Bradbury feared that people might begin to form close relationships with technology, “The house stood alone in a city of rubble and ashes. This was the one house left standing. At night the ruined city gave off a radioactive glow which could be seen for miles.”. This shows readers how perhaps Bradbury wanted to prove that just because you love your phone or tablet, that does not automatically mean that the phone or tablet feels the same about you. Finally a final problem Bradbury predicts might happen is visible in "A sound of thunder”. In this story readers can see how Bradbury fears that we, as humans, will not be able to see the possible damage we are causing through our technological advancements. While he illustrated this through time travel, readers can apply the same concept to modern technological advancements that impact society and/or the environment. All in all, Bradbury sees multiple technology based problems that we should be aware of and try our utmost to prevent from becoming a

Do you think that living in a technical world would destroy society? Well, in Bradbury's novel, Fahrenheit 451, technology is very advanced and seems to get people's attention. "You're not important. You're not anything" (Bradbury 163). Fahrenheit 451 is explained as a dystopian literature. Such literature portrays an imaginary world where misguided attempts to create a utopia, or a socially and politically perfect place, results in “large scale human misery." (Critique by Michael M. Levy) This quote makes you realize that technology is taking over humans and the world has to do something about it. By creating an “utopia”, Fahrenheit 451 requires the government to take away citizen’s rights and freedoms to create the perfect society.

In the 1950s, Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 with the intent to warn society about the dangers of technology and censorship. The 1950s however, did not present most of the technology that we today. Television was not created in the 50s, but this is when it became very popular for the average person to buy one. The first video recorder what created in the early 1950s. In 1954, the transistor radio become one of the most popular electronic communication devices in history. Little did Ray Bradbury and the people of the 50s know that in 2017 we were going to be able to have all three of these things combined into one small handheld device and that most people would own one of these devices. Already in the 1950s, Ray Bradbury saw something in technology and the way that it affected people that concerned him. That was over 60 years ago and technology has sprung forward in advancements since that time. Bradbury already noticed a trend in people’s need to be entertained and numbed through the things that they did and watched in the 1950s and he used his ideas of what the future would be like to serve as a warning for readers.

Time is a very cautious thing, and in many stories, the littlest actions can result in mass problems and chaos. These dilemmas can be caused by one thing in particular: the use of technology by humans in ways that are not necessary and only done for pleasure. Even today, this issue causes major problems everyday all around the world. Technology is very helpful in certain situations, but often times, it is used in circumstances when it is not essential. In the short story “A Sound of Thunder”, Ray Bradbury uses the life of a small butterfly and the effect it had on future times to convey the idea that technology, when misused, is not always the best and safest option.

Underpinning Aldous Huxley’s dystopic representation of a totalitarian consumerist technocracy Brave New World and Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” is a more subtle and nuanced mimesis of a restrained society where individuality, human instincts and social cohesion are dominated by the repressive nature of politics. Both composers are skeptical of the political acts enforced by each bureaucracy and draw attention to the fact that by suppressing individuality, a society is robbed of artistic and intellectual innovation. Huxley and Vonnegut convey the people-power relationship through indirection, using characterisation and symbolism to mimeticise subversion and repression – political stances unveiled by the use of counterpoint. One set of movements represents the

In this section, a possible theme that is being developed has to with society’s fear of something or someone that is different. In Bradbury’s fictional universe, the people fear books and the knowledge that can be gained from reading. They are content with being robotic copies of one another and know that books can challenge the mind and lead to individualized personalities. Instead of embracing the differences that make its citizens unique, the government brainwashes them, leading them to think that they are forever destined to be at the mercy of technology. It arrests individuals who show the smallest indication that they are different. It is so heavily controlled by its fear of a civilization with exceptional individuals that it threatens

The directive of a text is the product of the context, exposing issues and values relevant to the time period and composer. George Orwell’s fiction novel 1984 and Fritz Lang’s silent film Metropolis both provide the perspective upon the restriction of individualism through the manipulation of technology. The texts provide insight to the uses of technology and its common nature to have the ability to strip away identity and human expression in the wrong hands of authority. However despite similar concepts, Fritz lang showcases a hopeful outcome and change of society whereas Orwell distincts to the facet of hope and communicates no escape.

Relying on technology becomes associated with this utopian society, and certain problems such as laziness can arise because of this. Laziness as a result of dependency on technology proves to be fatal. An example of this would be when one thinks about the Sphinx’s riddle. At first, society finds the answer to the riddle through one specific way of thinking and arriving at that answer, but because of technology anything originally learned can then be referenced so that eliminates the need to remember it. Now if someone who comes from a society that is dependent on technology is asked this riddle, he will have no way of answering the question because he would first need to look at technology for the answer. Wells suggests that this shows that after arriving to a utopian state, a society dependent on technology can have a reduced ability to think.

H.G. Wells took 5 pounds and moved to London in 1888. Wells traveled back and forth from France during the Wars. (Abrams 13+; Hall 310+; “Herbert George Wells-Biography”; Kunitz 1492; O’neal 1630; “Wells, H. G.” 122). The idea of the future of humanity greatly fascinated Wells. People refer to Wells as the father of modern science fiction. One of Wells best known novels “The Time Machine” was his first

impressed by the world he finds, he is lost for words as is he is

The theme in The Time Machine is that things aren’t always as they seem. First, the text points out that the world was too perfect to The Time Traveller. According to The Time Machine by H.G. Wells it states, “The too-perfect security of the Upper-worlders had led them to a slow movement of degeneration, to a general dwindling in size, strength, and intelligence.” This is when The Time Traveller is describing the world to his audience. This supports that the world up there was too perfect. This supports the theme because it shows

The Time Machine by H.G Wells is a classic novel that everyone has been exposed to directly or indirectly. This book has been adapted into many movies. The book begins with a regular gathering of gentlemen and their host, whose name was never been disclosed, claims to have made a machine that can travel through the realms of time and produces a small proto-type of the time machine. The gentlemen were asked to leave and return later to see the result of the experiment only to be met with an empty room as their host was nowhere to be seen. The gentlemen sit and speculate about the whereabouts of the host, when he returns, injured, dishevelled back into the room and begins to tell is story about his travel into the year 802,701. The story is very much classic with a mix of observational details and attention to the specific surroundings that mark the story as science fiction. While there are several dramatic moments and close escape from death, the focus of the story remains on exploring,