Strange Horizons Review: The Pleasures of a Futuroscope By Lord Dunsany

by Greg Beatty

The Pleasures of a Futuroscope is an odd and lovely book. Its author, Lord Dunsany, wrote countless fantasy stories, many of them quiet, timeless gems. The Pleasures of a Futuroscope was not published during Dunsany's lifetime -- indeed, it remained unpublished until this Hippocampus Press edition. This novel is not so well-written as much of Dunsany's work, nor it is as well-structured. Given Dunsany's stature, that means it is merely better written than the vast majority of books out there. It is science fiction, rather than fantasy. As the title suggests, the futuroscope, a device that allows one to see through time, is the science fictional device at the center of the book. Unlike much of Dunsany's work, Futuroscope feels old-fashioned, even dated in some ways. It is a philosophical reflection on the future and nature of humanity, with a leisurely pace. The plot ambles and the main character is fairly passive: the narrator is a journalist, a fairly ordinary man who stumbles into possession of a futuroscope through a fairly casual acquaintance with the inventor.

He sets it up in his home, like one of the new televisions then spreading through British society, and he begins to watch the future. The draw is somewhat like that of reality shows, since the first allure is that what he's watching is real. There, however, the similarity ends, for instead of watching some exotic locale, he watches locally, and instead of watching beautiful strangers, he watches the aftermath of a (presumably nuclear) holocaust, and then the eventual recovery of the human race.

Dunsany's journalist focuses his attention on a single family, and, though he has the ability to skip ahead in time, to find out what happens, he becomes so involved in their struggles that he becomes synchronized with them across the years, sleeping when they sleep, rising when they rise. Their life becomes his, and more importantly, their attempts to find their way in the post-apocalyptic world quickly come to stand in for all humanity's negotiation between the forces of love and duty, science and mystery, technology and humanity.

The characters are a little schematic. Dunsany does name them (Bert, Joe) but they could be anyman. In fact, though the family is living by hunting and gathering, with some farming and limited crafts, Dunsany even provides a character called The Wild Man who embodies mankind's pure savagery. The narrative becomes openly allegorical as the family is threatened on one side by the Wild Man, and on the other by gypsies, who are seeking to revive metal-working, which stands in for all the lost technologies that destroyed the world.

The plot of this book could be told in a few pages. Dunsany takes 200. Clearly, action is not his goal. This is a late, reflective book, and not Dunsany's best -- but oh, it is lovely at times. When a master fabulist like Dunsany reflects on time, he is hypnotic. When he evokes the old practices of England that predate Christianity, his love of them, and of England, ring out. And when a mind like this reflects on the nature of man, it is worth reading -- and absorbing, to boot. Pick it up if you get the chance.