ABOUT THE WRITER and CONTEXT:
“ Those of you who are more robust and individual than others will be encouraged to leave and
find ways of educating yourself- educating your own judgements. Those that stay must
remember, always, and all the time, that they are being moulded and patterned to fit into the
narrow and particular needs of this particular society.” – Doris Lessing on education.
Stories focus on people living on the fringes of society, sometimes collected in resistant
subcultures- whom she champions as the underdog.
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco and the
coast of Northern California at 5:12 am on Wed, April 18, 1906. Devastating fires broke out in
the city that lasted for several days. As a result of the quake and fires, about 3,000 people died
and over 80 % of San Francisco was destroyed.
Vietnam war, Beatles part of British invasion, change music in USA around the world.
Civil Rights Movement
R & B- breaking barriers between African-American performers.
Rock music really came into its own in the 1960s .
Surf rock began in Southern California as a type of dance music that was mostly instrumental
and it became quite popular in the early to mid sixties.
Psychedelic music was associated with the hippe counter-culture and hallucinogenic drug use
and it was created with the intention of ‘enhancing’ the experience of listeners who were using
LSD or other mind-altering substances. The lyrics were often strange and often made reference
to drugs and bands.
Due to their hard-partying lifestyles, many musicians that were a part of the hard rock scene
developed a drug and alcohol problem.
Folk music and protest music- as a reaction to social injustice, cultural changes, and new events.
Another issue protest music addressed was the war in Vietnam.
The Woodstock Music and Art Fait of 1969
Government report revealing extensive deceit mirrors release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971
SETTING:
‘ This was not easy, because the terrain is semi-desert and lightly populated.’
‘high land rising to mountains, inland from the water mass on the edge of where stands the
city.’
Concerns:
HUMAN NATURE:
Methods:
TITLE:
Report on the threatened city:
THREATENED BY WHAT- not only destruction but youth threatened by old people and people
threatened by societal norms
POINT OF VIEW
First person, aliens POV
Written in the future , report after this incident on Earth has happened
‘Since our planet discovered this city’, ‘ this past year, their time’ , rep of ‘their time’ on pg 252
‘these creatures’, ‘specimens’
‘mental structure’ , ‘mechanism’ , ‘mind streams’, ‘mind state’ , ‘thought streams’
‘gap’, ‘block’
EXPLANATION:
First conclusion- gap in human’s mind, rep of gap
Second conclusion- Don’t care, lacks will to live - pg 215
Don’t learn from mistakes- pg 251- ‘This city experienced…’ ,’ that it would be impossible for a disaster to
have occurred…’ pg 252
Aggressive- ‘except for its unique destructiveness and belligerence.’
Inability to understand some things emphasizes good qualities of humans- ‘ Our thinking is as
defective in its way as theirs is.’ , ‘ an inability to move outside our mental set’ – also human
nature (can’t understand others point of view’
Farmers- ‘We now not that they live...’ pg 252
Sickness- ‘headache and nausea’- pg 252
Effect: HUMOUR- want to take some specimens and train them
CONFLICT:
External- between aliens (inability to make humans understand) and humans (problems in their
mechanisms)
Youth with older people
STRUCTURE:
Structur
e
Feels like an official report
Has a logical, clinical organization
Further characterizes the aliens as a rational species
Headings
News Story Interruptions
Mimic or exemplify whatever the aliens have just discussed
Allow for human perspective
Symbolize the conflict between the two point of views
CONTRAST TO ALIENS:
Focus on planning- Mathematical imagery –‘ All coordinates’
Report like diction – ‘ all plans all prints cancelled’ , ‘Clear all programmes all planners all forecasters’ –
also sense of urgency (as opposed to humans who aren’t taking any action)
Long sentence on pg 250-251
‘stating of its condition’, ‘ propose’ , ‘account’, ‘step by step’ – as if a mathematical eq - pg 251
‘fact’ –pg 252
Sense of urgency- ‘top speed and pressure’
The many departments they have- Astroviewers, Commissioners for External Affairs , technicians ,
‘forecasting and assistance’, forecast rep , Technological Revolution in its Space Phase
Planning diction- the required number of personnel, ‘ But our craft landed…as planned’ (pg 215) , ‘We
landed as planned’ –REP- pg 252
Scientific diction- ‘specimens’, ‘13th in this series, is of higher concentration’- pg 252
Concerned about conserving fuel- pg 251
Clever – ‘ These crafts were visible, if at all, as strong moonlight.’
DIVIDE BETWEEN OLD AND YOUNG/ GENERATION GAP/ AGE DIFFERENCES
Methods:
HIPPE MOVEMENT-‘mating ritual that involved fire, food and strong sound’
1st group of young people- indifferent- pg 252
ALIEN’S POINT OF VIEW- Older one’s responsibility to act, younger felt excluded or didn’t feel
they needed to- pg 252
There is a disconnect between the fate of the individual and the fate of society.
Rejection of informations relating to mass destruction
Indifference to large scale loss
Death of people made into celebrities receives more
attention than a high number of mortalities
Mass suicides illustrate disparity between how humans
think about their own death and how they think about the
death of a whole group
The Youth:
Often drinking or using drugs
Recognize there's a problem, but passively accept it
More open-minded, but feel disconnected from those in
power
Elders:
Easily angered, particularly about politics
Prefer "conferences" over meaningful action
Those in power suppress information
