Believability in Science Fiction: Bradbury and Beyond

In an attempt to convince readers of the sincerity of its stories’ messages, science fiction writers will create a believable plot, making their fictional world seem just plausible enough. Firstly, in the Ray Bradbury story, “The Last Night of the World”, it described what the family did before going to bed on “The Last Night of the World”, they treated the night as it wasn’t really the last night, but as it was an ordinary one at that. Bradbury wrote, “They washed the dishes and stack them away with special neatness. At eight-thirty the girls were put to bed and kissed good night and the little lights by their beds turned on and the door left open just a trifle” (Bradbury2). Next, in the movie The Island there is a “lottery” to be won and

the movie script states, “The glass wall switches from the love feed to a jumbotron of flashing text; --DAILY SPIN!...GET READY TO WIN!...DAILY SPIN!--” (The Island).

This relates to people’s everyday lives because it could remind them of our lottery, and how we view it on a large or small screen waiting for the “daily spin”. Finally, in the story “The Vedlt” Lydia Hadley said, “ ‘Why don’t we shut the whole house off for a few days and take a vacation?’ ” (Bradbury3). This relates to our world today because just a simple question a wife asks her husband in times when they are stressed out. In conclusion, these three stories support science fiction writers on how they try to relate the story to our own world today.

Science fiction stories will often times stress that technology is mindless, lacking empathy and understanding and so therefore, should not take the place of human thought. Firstly, in the story “There will come soft rains” the house doesn't help the starving, shivering dog, but when

it dies it is gone the house cleans it up as it was not a living thing and does not matter. Bradbury wrote, “A dog whined, shivering, on the front porch. The front door recognized the dog voice and opened. The dog, once large and fleshy, but now gone to bone and covered with sores… The dog frothed at the mouth,... and died...The dog was gone” (Bradbury4). Secondly, in “The Veldt” a room for the children doesn’t recognize that the children do not want their parents around, so they imagine the parents being killed and it comes to life, but the house doesn’t stop the madness. Bradbury wrote, “The door closed loudly… ‘Open the door!’... And then they heard the sounds. The lions were on three sides of them in the yellow vedlt grass… The lions! Mr. and Mrs. Hadley screamed. And suddenly they realized why those other screams had sounded familiar” (Bradbury3). Lastly, some technology can be used in terrible ways by people in order to hurt others or make things “even” in a story like “Harrison Bergeron”, but the technology is taking control of the thoughts of humans and taking some of their emotions away. Vonnegut wrote, “And George, while his intelligence was way above normal,... Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains” (Vonnegut). In conclusion, science fiction stories can have technology with no emotion or stopping point in order to help a living being.
Science fiction writers clearly find that controlling governments can be dangerous and that these governments attempt to control by limiting information and knowledge.

First off, in “The Obsolete Man” Mr. Wordsworth is put on trial for being “obsolete” to the State and that the knowledge he believes in isn’t true knowledge. The Chancellor says, “ ‘Since there are no more books, Mr. Wordsworth, there are no more libraries, and of course, as it follows, there is very little call for the services of a librarian… And since it follows that since The State has proven that there is no God,...’ ” (The Obsolete Man). Then Mr. Wordsworth replies, “ ‘There IS a God!!’ ”(The Obsolete Man). Next, in the story “Harrison Bergeron” the government is trying to make everyone equal and to control the people in ways that are not truly equal. Vonnegut wrote, “Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else” (Vonnegut). Lastly, also from “Harrison Bergeron” the government tries to control the people with their technology available, but these ways they are using are not really making things more equal because some of these ways are taking away a man’s natural rights. Vonnegut also wrote, “It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains” (Vonnegut). In conclusion, science

fiction stories have a running theme of having controlling governments trying to keep everyone in line and getting rid of the “obsolete”.