Time Capsule Found on the Dead Planet

Like Atwood’s most famous novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, “Time Capsule” is an example of speculative dystopian fiction. The genres often intersect because most dystopian stories incorporate elements of fantasy or science fiction to explain the collapse of society they describe., but importantly, it. In the case of dystopian fiction, this is important because dystopian stories often utilize aspects of science fiction and fantasy to build plausible future worlds.

Speculative fiction is a complicated genre (See Further Reading & Resources), but broadly, its main thrust is to provide warnings about social problems. The genre uses fictional worlds to show how modern ideas and issues could negatively affect the future. Famous examples include: Kurt Vonnegut’s Fahrenheit 451 (1953), which focuses on censorship and the dangers of technology; George Orwell’s USSR-style communism allegory Animal Farm (1945) and his warning about the dangers of totalitarianism and groupthink, 1984 (1949); and Atwood’s own The Handmaid’s Tale, which describes as society run by Christian extremists as a nightmarish patriarchy.

The warning “Time Capsule” carries is about climate change. The story focuses on the potential consequences of inaction, and it blames capitalism, industrialization, unchecked growth, greed, and hypocrisy for the perpetuation of the problem and our eventual downfall.