In Marge Piercy's novel, "Woman on the Edge of Time" the main character is a Puerto Rican woman who flips back and forth from her present, ugly reality in the Bronx with a future time. She is also sent to Bellevue for being crazy. If I recall correctly, her abusive boyfriend also pressures her to prostitute herself to support him. But, for me, at least, the novel flips from the protagonist's present (the novel came out in late seventies or early eighties and I haven't read it in 20 years so deets are fuzzy for me), set in late 20th Century poverty nyc and set in a future time in which she is welcomed, loved and embraced, one of her guides when she flips past the edge of time into the future, says "Oh yes, you came from a time when humans polluted their home, their rivers, their planet, we have not been able to understand why humans would ever have done that." Just one line out of a prescient novel.
Great novelists often write fiction that really is a seer's ability to see the future. Orwell comes to mind. Ursula LeQuin. And the greatest masterpiece set in the human future, Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" -- although I don't remember garbage coming up in the books I have listed here.
I don't particularly like Ms. Piercy's work but "Woman on the Edge of Time" still penetrates me. "Oh yes, you come from a time when humans trashed their home, rivers, planet. . .. ." Unfortunately I come from such a time. We all do.
No comments:
Post a Comment