''The Man Who Awoke'' is a 1933
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
novel
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...
by Canadian writer
Laurence Manning
Laurence Manning (July 20, 1899 – April 10, 1972) was a Canadian science fiction author.
Manning was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, and attended Kings College in Halifax, Nova Scotia. As did his two older brothers, Manning signed up to ...
. It was initially serialized in five parts during 1933 in ''
Wonder Stories
''Wonder Stories'' was an early American science fiction magazine which was published under several titles from 1929 to 1955. It was founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1929 after he had lost control of his first science fiction magazine, ''Amazing Stor ...
''
magazine
A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
. In 1975 it was published by Ballantine Books as one complete novel.
Norman Winters puts himself into
suspended animation
Suspended animation is the temporary (short- or long-term) slowing or stopping of biological function so that physiological capabilities are preserved. It may be either hypometabolic or ametabolic in nature. It may be induced by either endogen ...
for 5,000 years at a time. The stories detail his ensuing adventures as he tries to make sense of the societies he encounters each time he wakes.
Plot summary
Part 1 of the series describes Norman Winters’ previous life and his process of suspended animation.
After the disappearance of Norman Winters, his son, Vincent, questions the servants working on his New York estate. After receiving a suspicious answer from the groundskeeper Carstairs, one of his father's most loyal workers, Vincent threatens to turn him in to the police. Preserving his freedom, Carstairs presents Vincent with a letter from his father detailing his whereabouts.
In the letter, Norman explains his collaborations with various scientists to determine how to build a chamber which will shield him from cosmic rays and a coma-inducing drug. Norman constructs an underground chamber with six-foot leaden walls impervious to the outside radiation's influence on his cells. Once in the chamber, Norman will use the sleep-drug to fall into a coma where he “shall not awake until
e is
E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plura ...
again subjected to radiation,” which will be provided by an X-ray lamp (similar to what one finds next to any dentist's chair) set to power on after five thousand years. In hopes of awaking to a
Utopian
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...
future, Norman encourages Vincent to live his life in the absence of his father.
Upon waking up, Norman discovers that he had lain dormant for five thousand years. Realizing the success of his time travelling system, Norman explores the futuristic world briefly, and then returns to suspended animation, planning to wake again after another 5,000 years. He repeats this several times, giving the reader a brief view of various social results.
* 5000 AD. Humanity staggers to save itself amid the world's littered, stagnant wreckage after what has become known as the great ''Age of Waste''. There is a political rivalry between the younger generation opposing the older generation's proposed waste of resources that they (the younger generation) assert that they are entitled to.
* 10,000 AD. The world is dominated by ''the Brain'' – the immovable in purpose
super computer
A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instructions p ...
that knows all, sees all, and feels nothing. Thanks to its cradle-to-grave supervision, human life is easy and comfortable, but what will happen when The Brain realizes people are superfluous?
* 15,000 AD. People can now program their choice of dreams and
sleep
Sleep is a sedentary state of mind and body. It is characterized by altered consciousness, relatively inhibited sensory activity, reduced muscle activity and reduced interactions with surroundings. It is distinguished from wakefulness by a de ...
their lives away. Winters awakes to find the sleeping outnumber the living. He cannot stop the implosion of civilization by himself.
* 20,000 AD. After an abused Age of Freedom came an Age of License. Genetic experiment heralded the terrifying ''Age of Anarchy''. Each Individual had his own mobile "City" that provided for all his needs, resulting in a society where people had no need for each other and were incapable of cooperating, resulting in nearly all interpersonal encounters being small wars.
* 25,000 AD. Scientists discover the secret sought through the centuries –
immortality
Immortality is the concept of eternal life. Some modern species may possess biological immortality.
Some scientists, futurists, and philosophers have theorized about the immortality of the human body, with some suggesting that human immorta ...
. But is Mankind ready for it? Immortality is frightfully boring without a purpose. Humanity scatters to the far corners of the cosmos seeking knowledge and experience, leading to a quest toward "the meaning of it all."
The novel might be easily dismissed as standard pulp fare if it had not presaged concepts popularized decades later: the
sexual revolution
The sexual revolution, also known as the sexual liberation, was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the United States and the developed world from the 1 ...
, green consumerism,
strong AI, full-immersion
virtual reality
Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...
as a surgical procedure (like
The Matrix
''The Matrix'' is a 1999 science fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis. It is the first installment in ''The Matrix'' film series, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantolia ...
), desktop
molecular manufacturing
A molecular assembler, as defined by K. Eric Drexler, is a "proposed device able to guide chemical reactions by positioning reactive molecules with atomic precision". A molecular assembler is a kind of molecular machine. Some biological molecu ...
,
global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
, and
stem cell
In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type o ...
therapies. Many of these have only appeared in most peoples' worldview in the 21st century.
Notes
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Man Who Awoke, The
1933 Canadian novels
1933 science fiction novels
Canadian science fiction novels
Works originally published in Wonder Stories
Novels first published in serial form
Future history