Today’s reading Contact High seems like a more unlikely future than the Handmaid’s tale because it does not contain the same grounding details that the Handmaid’s Tale does. The Handmaid’s Tale seems more believable because the main character lived in a time before Gilead and throughout the whole story there are tidbits that remind you of that past life, like the location details about Harvard University. Right below the surface of Gilead traces of the old society still remain.
Contact High however looks like it takes place in a world that seems completely unfamiliar to us. The technology is unrecognizable and the characters have spent their whole lives in suits that do not allow skin-to-skin contact. It appears that these characters have never lived in the world that we know today. Because of this it seems like Contact High’s world could never happen to us, but as it was pointed out in class, the issues that are frowned upon and controlled through the suits, such as mother’s breastfeeding, and homosexuality, are also not completely accepted today. Even though the world in Contact High seems like science fiction, the attention the author brings to these topics makes the reader consider if the world of Contact High is really all that different from our own reality. With the wrong people in charge could that world become a reality? The more I think about it, the more similarities I see between The Handmaid’s Tale and Contact High and how both could become versions of reality.
I agree with your concluding point, which seems to contradict your earlier point that The Handmaid’s Tale reality seems more believable than that of “Contact High.” I think one reason that “Contact High” initially seems less believable than The Handmaid’s Tale is that we have no idea how this new reality came about, other than a supposed virus. If we got more of a transition from the past into the present like we do in The Handmaid’s Tale, perhaps this reality would seem more convincing. Nonetheless, I do agree with you that both realities are very real possibilities in today’s world, with people with their religious fervor and others yet with their fear of contact. Your post just made me recall my post about how these new realities, which may be possible, will never be perfect. In Contact High, regardless of society’s attempt to limit contact, the two men ultimately achieve it at the end of the story. These dystopian futures always freak me out, but in each case there is a character or two who is able to break free of the society; giving the reader hope.
I agree with the above comment. The Handmaids Tale seems more realistic to me, since we are shown how it came about. Also, being a novel rather than a short comic story, The Handmaids Tale has a lot more time to provide details, and get us acquainted with its world. Contact High only has time to present us with the basic premise. However, as the original post says, Contact High uses some similar techniques to The Handmaids Tale to present its dystopia as realistic. The use of familiar rhetoric and prejudices, against breast feeding and homosexuality, are similar to the religious themes, rape victim blaming, and general anti-women rhetoric in The Handmaids Tale. By providing extreme examples of issues and ideas present in the real world, these stories make their dystopias more realistic.