Reading Journal #3: Garvey, Bulgarin, and Griffith

For the third week of our History of the Future class we have two future fiction stories and one promotional pamphlet. Both Bulgarin and Griffith provide their own special visions of a future society. In Bulgarin’s story, Plausible Fantasies or a Journey in the 29^th Century, the main character falls off a boat and wakes up on September 15^th, 2824 in Hope City, Siberia. In this Hope City the value of the materials of the future have completely changed. Gold and silver is now considered commonplace and wood is a rare luxury. The reason for this reversal in value is due to a massive climate change that made all the Polar Regions warm and the tropics cold. Thus we see the main focus of Bulgarin’s story is not the amazing dreamed utopia of the present, but rather the new standards of the future. Bulgarin goes into great detail to demonstrate that the values of objects are relative to their supply. The scarcer a material is the more valuable it is. In a way Bulgarin was quite right about the relative nature of material worth. As times change the value of certain luxuries and commodities fluctuate. In our present times we take for granted spices, meat, and clean water. In the past each of these were worth their weight in gold (Unfortunately for Bulgarin, we still value gold as a precious metal).

Griffith’s narrative is also unique in her vision of a future America where women are equal to men. Her story, Three Hundred Years Hence, opens up like a typical futuristic story. The main character, Edgar Hastings is brought into the future where he comes in contract with his descendants. Hastings then proceeds to view the future world with its scientific achievements. Suddenly on page 18 the Griffith drops the feminist bomb with the statement “we owe the improved condition of our people entirely to the improvement in the education of the female poor; blessed be the name of that man.” From then on the narrative turns towards how the new educated women in American society helped to push for new social policies. Apparently in this future women helped to produce a new non-steam power, abolish foot binding in China, and end war. Sprinkled into the narrative are progressive era reform ideals such as cleanliness in the public markets, standardize weights for measuring meat, and progressive income tax. Her story is, in a sense, her dream of a successful women’s rights movement in America.

Whereas both Bulgarin and Griffith break from the usual narrative of Whig history, Garvey’s pamphlet is more of what we are typically used to. In his Silent Revolution, he goes on and on describing the wonderful achievements of mankind. He parades the accomplishments of science, while bashing the humanities as unpractical. Nevertheless he is genuinely excited about the recent technological advances and believes that human mental capacity is quite capable of propelling society to a brighter tomorrow.

Garvey, Bulgarin, and Griffith all place the future as a brighter land of promise scientifically. However, all three differ in their imagination of the future. Bulgarin notes the possible changes in the relative value of certain goods and customs. Griffith pictures a women’s emancipation movement that will bring about a better world. Garvey believes in mankind’s constant road of progress via the amazing capabilities of the human mind.