If nostalgia is looking wistfully at the past, the opposite is looking towards the future, although not necessarily wistfully – i.e. science fiction. We’ve all heard of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, the most famous late 19th century science fiction writers. Here’s a new entry: Albert Robida, author of The Twentieth Century, which has only recently been translated into English (from French). This is Robida’s depiction, from the point of view of 1882, of what France (and the world) will look like in 1952. Robida not only wrote the book, he also illustrated it. I found it…fascinating (arching single eyebrow).
Telephonoscopes. This is one thing which Robida got close: video phones. Voice, picture, music all come over the transmission lines – even full performances of operas and concerts. Of course, these modern versions are interspersed with all sorts of modern adaptations to wake up the audience and keep it relevant and not boring. Almost without exception, all of Robida’s 1950 technology was in existence, in some form, in 1882. Even Edgar Rice Burroughs came up with technology which was nonexistent at his time – through the sheer imagination of simply making it up with no explanation as to how it worked. Step by step….
Style. Indistinguishable from the late 19th century, and completely different from what actually wound up in 1952. I suppose the steampunk people might find it curious. Heinlein, in For Us, The Living, at least predicted that in the 21st century nudity taboos would be gone and we could wear anything at all – or nothing at all. Ahead of his time, alas!
Catering. Food, wine, soup – all delivered to your home from a central plant by means of pipes! Turn the faucet, and your dinner emerges! Voila! It’s so simple. Well, there are still some bugs. Two wealthy men, comparing each other’s catering companies:
Ponto: “…not to mention the steam choppers for vegetables, or the power hammer to mash potatoes…”
Gontran: “Let me stop you right there with your power hammer. This is precisely one of the reasons why I did not become a subscriber to your Great Company. Surely, you remember that cook who was pureed along with this vegetables by that power hammer of yours.”
Ponto: “I do indeed, but that was a suicide.”
Gontran: “Granted, it was, but the incident was not discovered until after dinner. Your subscribers had the cook for supper!”
Journalists. L’Epoque is the top newspaper in France, delivered daily by telephonoscope to its subscribers. The “defamation”/”corrections” department works by having aggrieved parties challenge the responsible journalist to a duel – the winner’s position prevails. L’Epoque has a fencing instructor and weapons master on retainer to train its writers.
Travel. Not a single airplane! Ground-based travel is a series of electro-pneumatic high speed tubes (an underground TGV), whereas air-based travel is through rapidly accelerating balloons: privately operated airships, intra city transport, and even intercontinental traffic. The means of acceleration is not explained, but the balloons themselves, particularly the smaller ones for individual craft, are often fish-shaped. Much of Paris is built up into the air for docking with airships, and almost 100% of this upward docking is festooned with advertisements of all types (similar to the opening credits of “Futurama”). Italy, by the way, has successfully been converted into a theme park – the entire country. A transatlantic tunnel is being built between America and Europe.
Prison. The enlightened criminologists of 1952 decided to coddle inmates in luxurious garden parks hoping to rehabilitate them with kindness and compassion. The results? A mixture of Alex’s smarmy, insincere promises of remorse (“A Clockwork Orange”) and the Daumier thief stealing from his own attorney.
Decennial Revolutions. France has reached the point of institutionalizing revolution: every ten years the government automatically changes amidst faux revolutionary festivities: muskets with blanks, a barricade competition (you can’t have a revolution without barricades, can you?), and all the pomp and glory of the revolutions of old with none of the unpleasantness or bloodshed.
Women have complete equality in all professions, and there is even a very powerful Feminist Party and a Ladies’ Stock Exchange. In fact, female attorneys are particularly well esteemed, particularly for criminal law, as their emotions are considered apt for provoking similar responses, eliciting sympathy for criminal defendants.
Politicians are accompanied at all times by monitors, who are simply ordinary citizens charged with the responsibility of babysitting their elected representatives to make sure no illegal, unethical, or immoral activity occurs.
America Divided, Mormon England. Similar to The Man in the High Castle (Philip K. Dick): west coast US is taken over by China, the capital being San Francisco, aka New Nanking, the east coast is a German America (with the original Deutschland becoming the colony), capital New Berlin (New York City) and the rest of America squeezed into the middle. The American Indians have all adopted modern clothing and have completely phased into 1950s style; their civilization is modern and thriving (no mention of casinos, though). The Japanese, too, have completely adopted Western dress and culture to the exclusion of their own.
The Mormons, for their part, left en masse for England, which they took over from the English, who for their part had all left for India. But polygamy is so rife in England now, that bachelors visiting the country are in danger of forced into marriages or thrown in prison.
Robida correctly predicted a civil war in China in the 1940s, but missed the boat on fascism and communism.
Robida injects a heavy dose of humor to the mix, which makes the book that much more enjoyable; fortunately it had annotations, as much of the text refers to matters more familiar to late 19th century readers than myself. Technologically, he isn’t really visionary; his virtues lie more in politics and society, extrapolating from what he perceived to be late 19th century trends.
That's really interesting! Thanks, Chris!
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