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The Visions of H. M. Hoover

1985; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 10; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/chq.0.0377

1553-1201

Janice Antczak,

Utopian, Dystopian, and Speculative Fiction

The Visions of H. M. Hoover Janice Antczak (bio) While the novels of H. M. Hoover are filled with fantastic images of the future, she does not sacrifice authenticity or scientific possibility. In Language Arts, Hoover declares, "There is currently a great deal called science fiction that includes no science. Chemistry, biology, the most elementary physics are ignored. . . . I like some science in my science fiction" (426). The subterranean complex LIFESPAN in Treasures of Morrow, the robot tractors of The Delikon, and the observatory staff awaiting a supernova in The Lost Star all reflect scientific and technological developments. Yet Hoover is not an author of the "hardware" variety of science fiction. In Language Arts, she says, "Technology, like slang, ages very quickly. What seems very smart today will be passé tomorrow. The story that relies on state-of-the-art technology is doomed to a very short shelf life—and to boring the bulk of its readers" (426). Hoover does not bore her readers in this way; she takes them beyond the elements of science by creating characters who must deal with situations which are very human indeed. Often these situations are extrapolations from current issues and events which require readers to do some thinking about science and .society. While tilled with visions of the future, her science fiction often tells more about the present. In her books about Morrow, Hoover asks us to look at the descendants of the survivors of "the decade known as The Death of the Seas" (Treasures of Morrow 1). She postulates for her readers a scenario that could actually be the consequence of unbridled pollution on our planet: ". . . seas turning gray, then brown and thick with scum . . . , bizarre climatic changes . . . , ugly clouds of smog over the cities, endlessly drizzling dirty rain but failing to clear the atmosphere" (Treasures of Morrow 1). Tire suffocation of life on earth began as the ecological chain began to snap when "the oceans' enormous masses of plankton slowly died from the filth man continuously spewed into the water." (Treasures of Morrow 1). Not all people were fortunate enough to have access to underground shelters like those at LIFESPAN and Base; among the general population, rioting, starvation, disease, murder, and suicide claimed many lives, but "over 93 percent of all living creatures on the earth's surface and under the seas died by simple suffocation." (Treasures of Morrow 1). It is a rather grim description of a series of events that could well result from present practices. Although our world is doomed in this literary vision, there is hope for the future in the characters of Tia and Rabbit. While they are children of Base, they are outcasts there, for they [End Page 73] possess telepathic powers, a result of illegal genetic experiments done at Base by Martib Sandlis while he was a member of LIFESPAN'S Expedition #44. The clash of the two cultures—the repressed, militaristic Base and the enlightened, cultured LIFESPAN—with Tia and Rabbit as pawns caught between, form the real core of the novels. But it is the issue of uncontrolled pollution that sets the stage for the action of the stories. While Hoover's novels are not diatribes against pollution, they provide young readers with images of the consequences of pollution that will promote thought and concern about the issue. In The Delikon, alien invasion and subsequent domination of Earth result from human attempts to journey among the stars. Earthlings attempts to visit other planets caused damage to these worlds. The aliens retaliated, in a one-day war in which Earth's starfleet was destroyed and random cities were annihilated. The new rulers, the Delikon, arrived one week later. They ruled as benign dictators who restructured life on Earth—changing laws and customs and destroying Earth's technology. The alien rulers attempt to educate those earthlings who show the most promise. The novel follows the path of some of these students and their teacher Varina, a Delikon who loves the earthlings and finds it hard to remain objective and distant in her dealings with them. Her devotion to her charges is not matched by their loyalty. Earthlings stage a revolution to overthrow the alien...