The Future
Nobel Prize-winning poet Wislawa Szymborska writes, “When I pronounce the word Future, / the first syllable already belongs to the past." How does our vision of the future impact the way we live now? Do we have any control over what the future holds, or is the future inherently unknowable? In this thematic collection we've gathered texts that address these questions and others as they imagine the future.
First published in 1988, A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes by British physicist Stephen Hawking is a general-audience science book that describes the basic principles of the universe as scientists have come to know them. From the beginning of everything to the fate of the cosmos—with black holes, wormholes, and time arrows in between—the book describes in non-technical language how the universe works. The 2009 edition contains a forward... Read A Brief History Of Time Summary
A Game of Thrones is a 1996 epic fantasy novel by George R. R. Martin and is the first in his long-running A Song of Ice and Fire series. The novel introduces the audience to the fictional world of Westeros, where characters become embroiled in a complicated web of plots, conspiracies, and betrayals as they pursue power. A Game of Thrones won numerous awards on publication and was adapted for television in 2011. This guide... Read A Game of Thrones Summary
Around the World in Eighty Days is from the Extraordinary Voyages series published in 1872 by French Victorian author Jules Verne. Recognized as an early example of the science fiction genre, the novel blends scientific content with artistic style. Verne is well known for writing adventure novels that accurately portray the use of complex travel-related technology developed during the Industrial Revolution such as steam engines and railways. His novels, at the same time, incorporate artistic... Read Around the World in Eighty Days Summary
Childhood’s End is Arthur C. Clarke’s first successful novel. Set in the future, the novel spans over 130 years from the arrival of the alien race known as Overlords to the completed absorption of the world’s children to the entity known as the Overmind. Clarke was a celebrated science fiction writer, commonly considered one of the “big three” science fiction authors, along with Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein. In addition to his writing, Clarke was... Read Childhood's End Summary
Cloud Atlas is a 2004 novel by British author David Mitchell. The sprawling narrative is composed of a series of nested stories, spanning centuries into the past and the future. In addition to winning numerous literary and science fiction awards, the novel was adapted into a 2012 film of the same name. This guide uses the 2014 Sceptre edition of Cloud Atlas.Content Warning: The novel and this guide depict slavery and discuss racism, death by... Read Cloud Atlas Summary
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a 1968 novel by American science fiction author Philip K. Dick. Set in a future version of San Francisco in the aftermath of a destructive world war, the novel tells the story of Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter who makes a living by tracking down and killing human-like androids. Dick was already an established science fiction author by 1968; he won the Hugo Award for The Man in... Read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep Summary
Einstein’s Dreams (1993) by Alan Lightman is a best-selling novel that explores the intersection of art and science, and the nature of time. The novel imagines the dreams of a fictionalized version of Albert Einstein to explain various theories about time, leading up to Einstein’s 1905 theory of special relativity, which he formed while working as a patent clerk and starting a family in Berne, Switzerland.Each chapter of the novel features a dream that exemplifies... Read Einstein's Dreams Summary
Endgame is a one-act, absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, first performed in 1957. The post-apocalyptic play portrays the farcical, tragic existence of four character who are caught in an unfulfilling routine. Beckett regarded the play as one of his greatest achievements. It has been adapted as an opera and as a short film.This guide uses the 2009 Faber and Faber edition. Plot SummaryThe curtain rises on a nearly bare stage: a room in Hamm’s home... Read Endgame Summary
The young adult novel Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock depicts the day 18-year-old Leonard Peacock plans to carry out a murder-suicide. Author Matthew Quick wrote this and other popular titles, including Silver Linings Playbook, adapted into the Oscar-winning film. This guide refers to the 2013 hardback first edition from Little, Brown and Company.Plot SummaryNarrator and protagonist Leonard Peacock sits alone in his home the morning of his birthday. Later that day, he plans to kill himself... Read Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock Summary
Future Home of the Living God is a 2017 speculative fiction novel by American author Louise Erdrich. Told by Cedar Hawk Songmaker, a pregnant Native American woman in her mid-twenties living in Minneapolis, the story consists of her reflections as she waits to give birth. In the novel’s pre-apocalyptic America, human evolution has reversed, meaning that the species has begun to biologically regress into an infertile state. Meanwhile, the United States government has undermined citizens’... Read Future Home of the Living God Summary
In Newbery medalist Louis Sachar’s sci-fi thriller Fuzzy Mud (2015), Tamaya and Marshall cut through the restricted woods behind their school to avoid a bully—but encounter a strange mud that has the potential to destroy nearly all life on Earth. While Marshall struggles with the emotional effects of being bullied, Tamaya develops an unusually aggressive rash from the mud and worries that in protecting Marshall she has gravely injured Chad. Each character faces difficult ethical... Read Fuzzy Mud Summary
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2015) is a work of popular science by Israeli writer, professor, and futurist Yuval Noah Harari. Published in multiple languages, it is a continuation of the work of Harari’s previous book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. While Sapiens contextualized the advents of modernity within humans’ evolutionary legacy, Homo Deus speculates about what lies in wait for humanity in the distant future. Harari grounds his discussion in an... Read Homo Deus Summary
Hyperion (1989) is Dan Simmons’s first novel in his four-part science fiction series, Hyperion Cantos. Set several hundred years in the future, Hyperion follows seven people, who have been selected to make the final pilgrimage to the terrifying Shrike creature on the mysterious Outback world of Hyperion before the Ouster invasion. On the voyage to the planet, the pilgrims tell their stories about their connection to Hyperion. This frame-story structure is based on Geoffrey Chaucer’s... Read Hyperion Summary
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream'' speech is one of the most celebrated oratory pieces in American history. King delivered the speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963 as the final speech of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Ruston organized the march to advocate for civil and economic rights for Black Americans, which was among the... Read I Have A Dream Speech Summary
Inferno by Dan Brown is the fourth installment in Brown’s Robert Langdon series of mystery/thriller novels, following (in order) Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code, and The Lost Symbol, and preceding Origin. Each edition covers a self-contained story, so readers need not follow the series in order, and often includes themes centered on European and Christian history and cultural traditions. The title character, Robert Langdon, is the only recurring character. Inferno won the Goodreads... Read Inferno Summary
In Praise of Shadows
by Jun’Ichirō Tanizaki, Transl. Thomas J. Harper, Transl. Edward G. Seidensticker
The essay “In Praise of Shadows” was originally published in 1933 in Japan and was written by the Japanese author Jun’ichirō Tanizaki (1886-1965). His work spanned a wide array of subjects, including the cultural impact of World War II, sexuality, and family relationships. He was especially interested in exploring the cultural differences between Japan and the West. Tanizaki was awarded Japan’s Imperial Prize in Literature in 1949 and wrote novels, short stories, essays, plays, and... Read In Praise of Shadows Summary
In the Country We Love: My Family Divided (2016) is a memoir by American actress Diane Guerrero (with Michelle Burford). The narrative chronicles how the US government deported Guerrero’s undocumented parents to Colombia when she was 14 years old. The title emphasizes the author’s patriotism, which she projects onto her parents and the undocumented community more broadly with the use of the plural. Guerrero writes in simple prose and organizes the material chronologically, relying on... Read In the Country We Love Summary
Invitation to the Game is a young adult science fiction novel by Canadian writer Monica Hughes. It received the Hal Clement Award in 1992. Originally published in 1990, it was rereleased under the title The Game in 2010. This study guide refers to the Simon & Schuster 2010 print edition.Plot SummaryThe novel tells the story of Lisse, a teenager in 2154. She lives in a dystopian world where robots have taken a majority of the... Read Invitation To The Game Summary
Jesus’ Son (1992) is a collection of short fiction by American writer Denis Johnson, published by Farrar, Strauss, & Giroux. It explores themes of The Slipperiness of Time, Substance Use Disorder, and Violence as Inevitability. In the form of a short story cycle, each of the 11 stories of Jesus’ Son is narrated by the same protagonist, who has a substance use disorder and is referred to in the narrative as “Fuckhead”. The book takes... Read Jesus' Son Summary
Longbourn (2013) is a work of fiction by British author Jo Baker, who is the author of several other novels of historical fiction and literary suspense. Longbourn depicts what life is like for the servants of the Bennet family of Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice. While events in Austen’s book frame this novel, Longbourn follows the inner lives of housemaid Sarah, housekeeper Mrs. Hill, and James Smith, the mysterious footman who shows up... Read Longbourn Summary
Margaret Atwood’s novel MaddAddam, published in 2013, completes her post-apocalyptic MaddAddam trilogy that begins with Oryx and Crake (2003) and continues with The Year of the Flood (2009). The trilogy takes place in the aftermath of a destroyed technological dystopia, a world in which corporations have totalitarian control. Atwood, an award-winning Canadian author, has been a prolific writer of poetry, short stories, novels, and many other forms since the early 1960s. She is known for... Read MaddAddam Summary