Speculative Narrative

In what media or genres do you consume (or create) speculative narratives, and what is their appeal? What kinds of worlds do these stories build for you?

The Function of Speculative Narrative Today

Finishing up with Alexander's lecture on The Parable of the Sower, I've learned how powerful the places that surround us and the media that we consume are in creating speculative narrative and how these creations shape our own reality.

For example, throughout the novel Butler implements the problems of drug abuse and racism during her time of writing through methods such as Lauren's hyperempathy and the incompetence of the police force in finding out what actually happened to Keith. Going even further back, Butler implements Afrofuturism through the reframing of colonization by having Earthseed's destiny be "to take root among the stars" (Alexander). These experiences are used to shape the 2024 dystopian universe of California in The Parable of the Sower, some of which unfortunately still runs as a problem today.

And while the story is depressing most of the time, it gives us insight into what we can do when times are difficult and inspires us to seek out ways to build off of that hope, giving us a blueprint to endure through it all.

Creating and Consuming Speculative Media

Speculative Media and Its Relation to Music and Art

As shown by the image on the right, I spend a lot of time listening to music. I use music to get through all sorts of tasks. Drawing? Writing? Coding? All of that and more. I even accidentally fall asleep while listening to music and then wake up disoriented wondering "WHAT IS THAT MELODY?!" Needless to say, I can't function without something to listen to.

All in all, music is what inspires me to create my own speculative narrative through creating my own characters and their backstories. Similar to how Butler constructed Lauren's world (though not as intense in my case) I try to base these stories based on the mood of the music. It's the different types of music that I listen to that helps shape the type of world these characters live in.

When I create these stories, I lot of the time they are based on more somber songs because they're emotionally charged and are the easiest for me to picture in my mind. Of course, I've made art based on happier songs, but it's just more fun imagining tragedy. I'll give some examples of the scenarios I associate with different songs, usually taking their lyrics very literal:

No one has beaten my minutes listened so far >:]

"Oh, who is she?; A misty memory; A haunting face; Is she a lost embrace?"

"Who is She?" - I Monster

Someone who appears in your dreams, just barely out of reach. They feel so familiar, and yet you can't draw out a single clear feature of them...
For this song, I imagine a world based on fantasy. Maybe this person is someone who keeps watch from the shadows, like a guardian angel
Maybe in this world reincarnation is a thing, which is why the narrator keeps reaching out to something that they know they haven't experienced yet, but still feel that sense of loss

"Can't get enough; Of your love; But to save you now, I gotta give it up; Give it up, give it up"

"Regain Control" - Shirobon

For this song, I imagine that this story would take place in a futuristic setting. I imagine there would floating cars and buildings, and that robots that have gained a sense of humanity despite their origin. Maybe there's conflict between the humans and robots because of this
I imagine that the song takes place during the height of this conflict, and the narrator is one of the ones who is fighting during this war
Something goes horribly wrong during their mission, and they have no choice but to sacrifice themselves to save their partner, the one they love

"Virus" - Priest

Here I imagine this takes place in a similar, if not the exact same world as the previous song
This would be from the perspective of a seemingly cold-hearted killer, who is extremely good at what they do. Maybe they are part of the same team as the previous narrator, or maybe they've decided to take things into their own hands
I would imagine that they mess with their victims, taunting them for not being able to catch him
Another possible scenario is that they are an extremely talented hacker, continually covering their tracks while exposing their enemies' worst information to the public

"I'm inside of your system, I'm inside of your lair;To haunt you is my destiny; I'm a virus, impossible to find; I'm lurking in the shadows of your mind"

"The Moon Will Sing" - The Crane Wives

Love that fizzled out over time due to one giving too much of themselves while the other hardly does, and neither are willing to repair the relationship
With the style of this song, I'd imagine that this scenario would take place in the countryside or some other isolated place. Maybe to take it further, maybe this song takes place during a scenario that wipes out most of the population, leading them to depend on each other for survival
And while this situation is what drove them together, it's ultimately what drives them apart in the end

"The moon will sing a song for me; I loved you like the sun; Bore the shadows that you made; With no light of my own; I shine only with the light you gave me"

Reflection

This was my favorite page to work on during the Fall Quarter, and I'm glad to end the quarter by working on it. For this page I tried to make it more personal by talking about my art process and sharing some of my music, which was admittedly kind of nerve-wrecking considering that this page would more than likely be shared with everyone and I've never shared this passion to this extent with even my closest friends...so that's something! I tried my best to make this page more creatively compared to my previous two pages in order to reflect my artistic side. I think it came out pretty great! I wish I wasn't so limited by Google's element snapping feature or else I could've made something even better..

Reflecting back to the quarter as a whole, I would say that my favorite text was the Odyssey. Professor Gina made the deconstruction of the narrative very engaging, so the lectures still stick to me right now and possibly will still in the future after Hum Core! Just in general her lectures were my favorite out of the three lecturers we had. I will always wonder how much more I could've enjoyed this quarter if she was the one who gave the rest of the lectures. I didn't really vibe with the other lecturers in all honesty, which made it hard to actually retain any of the information they gave.

The most challenging thing about this quarter would be adjusting to the revising process of writing an essay. I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that usually when I finish writing an essay I just leave it as it is aside from maybe revising grammar. That draft IS the final draft and I will treat it as such, thank you very much! And while I did find it annoying having to search through the texts and actively make connections to quotes that stood out to me and to my thesis, I feel like it did make me a better writer in the end ~~(though I still think my essays suck).~~

And with that, I'm off to bed. Hope I do well on that final!

Header Image Source: Photo by Bob Ward from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/running-vehicles-on-road-3347244/

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