Reading Longer Fiction: Introduction
To this point in the unit, you have read some unusual choices. Typically, you would not have guessed that the selections so far would have even been in the unit.
Many students would have assumed that a unit called Past and Future would have contained primarily Science Fiction literature. It is true that in this genre many titles naturally lend themselves to the theme of Past and Future.
You are familiar with Science Fiction through movies like Star Wars, Back to the Future, The Golden Compass and television shows like Star Trek and Battlestar Gallactica. Films like these try to give us a sneak peek into the future and provide an imaginative glimpse of what our world might become. Some authors have a particularly dystopian view of our world while others are more optimistic about what we might become. In any case, you are certainly familiar with this genre of literature.