Shakespeare, Smiley, Air Style

I was never a fan of science fictions. All the mad talks about aliens, robot conspiracies, fancy technological inventions, humanities being reduced to a lesser state and so on only gave me the impression that the author is over paranoid if not nuts. But Ryman’s Air was a bit different. To be honest, when my exhausted self attempted to do the assigned reading at eleven o'clock at night, the technical details of the air system naturally blurred and slipped away as soon as the words finished passing through my brain. For the most part, the twisted relationships between the heroine, Mae, and her fellow villagers kept me reading. Yet, even just casually skimming the text, I could not help but notice a striking similarity between the storyline, and after further pondering, even the theme, in Geoff Ryman's Air and that of Jane Smiley's adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear, A Thousand Acres.

First of all, both stories have similar settings. Air took place in a rural village bordering the Middle East and the village’s primary source of living comes from farming; A Thousand Acres, similarly, took place in a remote farming town. Mae and Ginny are both farm wives and obviously non-traditional ones too. Mae and Ginny were never happy with the institutions in which they lived and the system around which everything works. But their lack of exposures to new ideas and things kept them safely boxed in the accepted social norm. However, as drastic changes get brought about, and things get set off at the chaotic end, Mae and Ginny gains freedom to pursue what their heart truly desires. Under the veneer protection of change, Mae and Ginny have affairs outside of their marriage and expand their participation in “men’s business.” But they both neglected a very important thing: the chaos brought about by the change is a chain reaction, it does not stop at any point. The discovery of Mae’s affair with Mr. Ken and Mr. Shen’s constant opposition against her school to teach Air were examples of never-ending chaos.

Now, recall the source of crisis in King Lear, the King’s family, system, and everything in the kingdom falls apart when he divides his land among his daughters, which equates introducing female dominance into a patriarchic world. Air seems to be on the same track too. As Air is introduced to the folks in Kizulda, people change and bad things start happening. Friends become enemies and some individuals (Mrs. Ken) even go as far as committing suicide in resisting the change. And perhaps, as is implied in both King Lear and A Thousand Acres, changes are not good. So is Ryman trying to deliver a message that extreme technological development will in the end doom us all? That, may just be the question we readers shall ponder as we continue our reading for this book.

Huiling Pan
Oct. 2, 2009