Notions
January 12, 2013 / You Should See the World You Live In
Many years ago, I read a short science fiction story, and I have never forgotten its images.
Post-apocalypse, a man and his young son live with other survivors in the forests. The day comes when the boy is old enough to be shown the Domes, outside the forest. Father and son venture out into an open place, and there on the horizon is a gigantic Dome. The man explains to the boy that within the Dome are what humans have become: slug-like pale unmoving beings, tethered to devices which provide all needed nourishment and stimulation. [Note: the film Wall-E presents a startlingly similar vision.]
Only the man and boy, and the few others like them, actually see the real world in which they live. The Dome-dwellers see nothing—neither trees, nor rocks, nor sky, nor any other living things.
I like my devices a lot—my smartphone, my computer, and all the rest. But I will resist with all my might mistaking their mechanical exactness for the organic messiness of reality. I want to see the world I share with moist worms, fallen palm fronds, blooded hyenas, dry winter grass, and mighty, strong boa constrictors. Folios of shattered shale and ruffled whitecaps. I want to see the world I live in. Choose your sight and go to see it.