Escaping Cascadia

Portland State University PDXScholar University Honors Theses University Honors College 2015 Escaping Cascadia Todd Albertson Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/honorstheses Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Albertson, Todd, "Escaping Cascadia" (2015). University Honors Theses. Paper 158. https://doi.org/10.15760/honors.150 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in University Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Escaping Cascadia by Todd Albertson An undergraduate honors thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in University Honors and Geography Thesis Adviser: Dan DeWeese Portland State University 2015 Copyright © 2015 by Todd Albertson Albertson i Abstract The preface, “Dualism and Narrative Mode,” details the development of realist techniques and then looks to current research to address the question, “In what other ways can realism be maximized within fiction?” It proposes a style combining second- person imperative narration for the viewpoint character’s actions and third-person free indirect discourse for description and internalization. The introduction, “The Geography of the Future,” explores prediction within select works, examines mitigation reactions to such predictions, and details current geographical projections to build a picture of what the future may look like and how humans will interact with their environment. Escaping Cascadia is a novel written in the style proposed by the preface, with the intent to maximize psychological realism and reader immersion, and to minimize the voice of a narrator and the reader’s awareness of an author. The story takes place within a world informed by the geographical exploration in the introduction. Albertson ii Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ i Preface: Dualism and Narrative Mode Regarding Dualism ..................................................................................................... iii Free Indirect Style and Stream of Consciousness ....................................................... iv Immersion and Narrative Transportation .................................................................... vi Dualism and Narrative Mode .................................................................................... vii Conclusion ................................................................................................................ viii References ................................................................................................................... x Introduction: The Geography of the Future ...................................................................... xi Dedication ......................................................................................................................... xx Escaping Cascadia Implant ......................................................................................................................... 1 One ....................................................................................................................... 2 Two ...................................................................................................................... 6 Three .................................................................................................................. 16 Four .................................................................................................................... 25 Five ..................................................................................................................... 47 Six ...................................................................................................................... 73 Seven .................................................................................................................. 89 Eight ................................................................................................................. 117 Vacation ................................................................................................................... 137 Nine .................................................................................................................. 138 Ten .................................................................................................................... 154 Eleven ............................................................................................................... 158 Twelve .............................................................................................................. 179 Evasion .................................................................................................................... 194 Thirteen ............................................................................................................ 195 Fourteen ............................................................................................................ 209 Escape ...................................................................................................................... 216 Fifteen .............................................................................................................. 217 Epilogue .................................................................................................................. 237 Appendix Map of the North American Coalition ..................................................................... 239 Bibliography and Notes .................................................................................................. 240 Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... 252 Albertson iii Preface: Dualism and Narrative Mode Regarding Dualism An article was released late last year that said if you’re facing a difficult event, then you should give yourself a pep talk in the second person, and that those who gave themselves the same pep talk in the first person were much less likely to succeed (Dolcos and Albarracin). So, when you give yourself that pep talk, it’s you can do it, not I can do it. I can do it reminds me of The Little Engine That Could. And what was it The Little Engine That Could said? “I think I can” (Piper 17). Right? I think I can, I think I can, I think I can… But, following Dolcos and Albarracin, if we wanted to change this to the second person, how would we accomplish that? Do we just change the Is to yous? “You think you can.” Doesn’t quite work, does it? Sounds more like a challenge than a pep talk—a challenge coming from outside the self. But even worse is this one: “You think I can.” Indeed, we are now speaking from inside the self, so that’s good. Only it sounds defensive, like it should have a but afterward, like this: You think I can, but I—I’m not so sure, just leave me out of this. So, that fails to properly transform the sentence. Maybe the last one will. Let’s try it out: Albertson iv “I think you can.” Sounds good. Let’s try it a few more times: “I think you got this.” “I think you can do it.” “I think you can knock this out of the ballpark!” These sound right, and it goes to show there’s two of us within each one of us—a subject, an object; an I, a you; the mind, the body. This concept is known as Cartesian Dualism. I wondered if there could be a way to write a character in this manner. Free Indirect Style and Stream of Consciousness Two narrative modes, mostly developed in the modernist period, have an effect of letting characterization “come through the minds and eyes of the characters themselves,” allowing the author to sit “behind the scenes, apparently disinterested” (O’Connor 74). One of these is known as free indirect style1, and the other as stream of consciousness. Free indirect style utilizes aspects of the first person (specifically, the access the first person has to a character’s thoughts) and substitutes the third person nouns and pronouns. Consider King: “Morrison nodded in perfect understanding. Non-smokers could afford to be smug. He looked at his own cigarette with distaste and stubbed it out, knowing he would be lighting another in five minutes” (326). Here, the line “Non- smokers could afford to be smug” is not a statement by the author, but a thought by the character Morrison. In direct style, it would be put in this way: “‘Non-smokers could 1 Speech and discourse are also used instead of style. Albertson v afford to be smug,’ Morrison thought.” The tag at the end (“Morrison thought”) is a statement by the author, and by leaving this out, the author calls less attention to his- or herself. In contrast, had this been written in reported dialogue (or regular indirect style), it would be put this way: “Morrison thought that non-smokers could afford to be smug.” Again, the author is imposing, telling the reader what Morrison thinks. If an author wants the reader to stay in the eyes and minds of the character, clearly free indirect style beats both direct style and reported dialogue. The other narrative mode I wish to discuss is stream of consciousness. This was most famously used by Joyce, and it amounts to no more than a transcription of a character’s thoughts. Consider Ulysses, where Molly Bloom lies in bed beside her husband,

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