Carry On #trending

An oft-quoted insight (variously attributed to Frederik Pohl, Connie Willis, and half a dozen others) holds that the job of the inventor is to imagine the horseless carriage.

The job of the futurist is to imagine the motorway.

And the job of the writer is to imagine the traffic jam.

In other words, the inventor designs the technology; the futurist imagines how that technology will be applied to improve our lives, and the writer thinks about how it will all go horribly wrong.

Indeed, there is a rich tradition of speculative fiction that essentially looks at a current trend in society, and tries to imagine what everyday life might look like if that particular trend is allowed to continue unchecked.

It is these stories that are often the most interesting to read (or watch) with the benefit of hindsight.

Writers of this particular type of fiction are asking the grand question, "What will our lives be like if this particular trend carries on?"

Sitting here in late 2023 with our social media accounts and our COVID vaccinations; our reality television programs and our preferred pronouns, we know exactly which social trends carried on, and which ones emphatically didn't. When writers of earlier generations wrote about the social trends that were keeping them up nights, we have the advantage of knowing that some of those issues are now laughably irrelevant...

while others ultimately became far worse than anyone could possibly have imagined.

Either way, these stories tell us a great deal about how exactly writers and thinkers perceived the world around them, and which trends were of the most urgent concern at any given time.

And so, without further ado, allow me to present our new film series:

The films I plan to screen for this season are not all science fiction films by any means (although one or two of them are) nor are they all full of pessimistic fatalism (again; one or two of them...).

What they all have in common is a fascination with the state of society at the time they were written. In some cases, they predict future developments with disturbing accuracy.

In other examples, they represent issues that were of burning importance at the time, but which have subsequently faded into irrelevance.

We will also screen a few present-day films that look at issues with which we are currently obsessed. 

What future generations will think about our trending obsessions is a private matter between our future, and whatever legacy we leave them.

In any event, our new film series will begin on Thursday, the 7th of September, at the Victoria Park Baptist Church. 

I look forward to seeing you!