Amy’s Task 12

I enjoyed reading Amy’s scenario based on her prompt. Her scenario was more uplifting from mine, as she aimed to elicit feelings of cheer, whereas mine was the feeling of dread. However, it was interesting comparing our thoughts on the future based on these scenarios. There is definitely a commonality of a sense of disorder as the organizations and structures that establish our ways of life within our societies have fallen apart. 

In the Chronicles of Now podcast by Ashley C. Ford, she has authors explore future scenarios based on current events. The podcast features a story from a boy’s perspective about going back to school after COVID. The author was able to elicit valid feelings from the boy, as he had knowledge on the current event and general feelings that the public had about returning to normal activities after COVID (2020). We have the benefit of listening to this story and the fears over two years after the release of the podcast, so many listeners may find connections to this story as they may have felt similar about returning to school. 

I think that part of the inspiration from my scenario is from movies and media. As we are depleting our natural resources on earth, it is predicted that we won’t have raw materials, which would lead to a political landscape in disarray. From my imagination, our world will become a dystopian society, where this is mass chaos and disorder present. Gathering my thoughts from these two ideas, we ultimately cannot write about things we do not know about. It is easy to draw inspiration from things that are familiar to us, even if we are prompted to create a scenario that is foreign to us or requires imagination. There has to be some root in our imagination or beliefs that serve as a cause in the speculative futures that we created. In other words, there has to be an influence that propels the trajectory of our stories.

Ford, A. C. (Host). (2020, September 2). Tommy Orange: Reopening. [Audio podcast episode]. In The Chronicles of Now. Pushkin Industries.