The Future is Nao: A Present-Day Apocalypse in Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being
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The topic of the apocalypse has recently come to the forefront in both literary and cultural intrigue. Whether this curiosity is within our genetic makeup or related to past experiences with disaster-ridden futures, one thing is for certain: the concept of total annihilation has been ever-present within society, I surmise, since its inception. Glancing across the annals of human cultures, one can find stories of a meteorite bringing extinction to the dinosaurs; and even across cultures, strikingly parallel tales, and even evidence, of apocalyptic floods. More recently however, the question of a looming apocalypse hovers ever more pertinently, only further exacerbated by the contemporary slew of popular culture, such as video games (Horizon Zero Dawn) and films (Mad Max: Fury Road), focused on an apocalyptic world. However, on the forefront, as ever since the dawn of societal and popular culture, novels such as David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, lead the charge. While many of these novels are focused on a future disaster, perhaps of some unforeseen nuclear disaster or epidemic that brings about the demise of humanity, Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being presents readers with a present day apocalypse. However, not only is Ozeki concerned about the present, but the past and future as well. Primarily using time as a guide and as a representation of the bonds that reach across lives, Ozeki depicts our world as being one that has been plagued by seemingly isolated, but global issues throughout history. Through time and the environmental degradation so pertinent around human society in conjunction with the 2011 tsunami in Japan that led to the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Ozeki constructs a tale in which this issue of the apocalypse is as synonymous to the world as time is to our daily lives. But what is this present-day apocalypse? Is the world truly going to end? How are we mired in it already? These are some of the questions Ozeki seeks to answer through A Tale for the Time Being.
Abstract
The topic of the apocalypse has recently come to the forefront in both literary and cultural intrigue. Whether this curiosity is within our genetic makeup or related to past experiences with disaster-ridden futures, one thing is for certain: the concept of total annihilation has been ever-present within society, I surmise, since its inception. Glancing across the annals of human cultures, one can find stories of a meteorite bringing extinction to the dinosaurs; and even across cultures, strikingly parallel tales, and even evidence, of apocalyptic floods. More recently however, the question of a looming apocalypse hovers ever more pertinently, only further exacerbated by the contemporary slew of popular culture, such as video games (Horizon Zero Dawn) and films (Mad Max: Fury Road), focused on an apocalyptic world. However, on the forefront, as ever since the dawn of societal and popular culture, novels such as David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, lead the charge. While many of these novels are focused on a future disaster, perhaps of some unforeseen nuclear disaster or epidemic that brings about the demise of humanity, Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being presents readers with a present day apocalypse. However, not only is Ozeki concerned about the present, but the past and future as well. Primarily using time as a guide and as a representation of the bonds that reach across lives, Ozeki depicts our world as being one that has been plagued by seemingly isolated, but global issues throughout history. Through time and the environmental degradation so pertinent around human society in conjunction with the 2011 tsunami in Japan that led to the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Ozeki constructs a tale in which this issue of the apocalypse is as synonymous to the world as time is to our daily lives. But what is this present-day apocalypse? Is the world truly going to end? How are we mired in it already? These are some of the questions Ozeki seeks to answer through A Tale for the Time Being.
참고문헌 (16)
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