Imagined parallel worlds of science fiction and fantasy are often artistic extensions of psychological and cultural traumas derived from technology, capitalism, and luxury superseding value in human interactions, sincerity, and labor. In The Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum, the realm of Oz is both a parallel universe that exists on earth contemporaneous to Kansas but is also Dorothy’s fantastical physiological breakdowns that represents her disjointed internalization of the bourgeoning urban world competing with the rural. Our internal need to place concepts in a single time and space is a modern struggle that existed prior to and continues to persist as much today as in the time of Marshall McLuhan’s observation that “we actually live mythically and integrally… but we continue to think in the old fragmented space and time patterns of the electric age” (4). Oz is an example of the psychological complications that result from technology adding variability to time and space, and therefore to communication, independent of a purely natural and mechanical reality.
In Neil Gaiman’s science fiction novel, Neverwhere, London Below exists as the parallel underworld that is not only home to fantastical and historical beings but also to humans who, in London Above (modern London), are of the lowest classes and are therefore physically invisible. Economic and cultural visibility corresponds to physical visibility implying that divergence in cultural ideology can separate one world into autonomous realms of time and space. In our current world, those who live physically, culturally, and psychologically underground and at the margins follow their own ideologies and patterns of problems and solutions.
The plethora of ideologies and lifestyles that encompasses such deviance derives from the assumption that we live at the fore, and therefore at the most advanced point, of one linear time. With more choices, differences, and extremes, we are blind to much more and much more exists strongly and independently of mass knowledge.
Theoretically, as long as one has access to a computer or an internet device, exposure to representations of other economic, religious, political, social, and identity realities is infinite. Our world becomes smaller and more inclusive but with the price tags of 1. privacy loss and 2. cultural fractions through consistently reinforcing self-identification. Surveillance, unknown ignorance, hierarchy, and narcissism become the evils in a world condensed into wires and code. Thus paranoia and fear are enacted in daily tasks to both maintain privacy and reinforce identity through usernames and passwords. Daily searches act as diary entries of our own thought flow. The internet allows us to live in our individual realities since survival is not dependent on adherence to one cultural narrative. We seek out people like us more easily and stay in touch while living amongst a sea of others.
The theme of technology-driven apocalyptic parallel worlds is most famously exemplified in Blade Runner from 1982 and each day becomes more relevant as evidenced by the recent popular films, Wall-E and Avatar, which are critical of our approaches to consumption and technology. We live in parallel worlds facilitated by mis-education, economic difference, and political confusion especially regarding our planet’s fate and the environmental impact of daily human creations and purchases. Even though planned-obsolescent machines are taken to recycling centers all over the US, the materials and chemicals are noxiously burning in China, causing severe health problems and possible atmospheric harm. In the Pacific Ocean, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a dystopic glimpse of a new type of landscape built from the side effects of our material decisions. These unpopular worlds exist but their sites and derivations are undervalued and therefore invisible.
Cited Works
Baum, Frank. The Wizard of Oz. London: CRW Publishing Limited, 1900.
Gaiman, Neil. Neverwhere. New York: Harpertorch, 1996.
McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extension of Man. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1994.
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