Regressive Plot



INTRODUCTION
Every story needs a pattern of some sort to align its scenes according to its timeline. This is called a plot. A plot is a series of events and character actions that relate to the central conflict. The term plot can refer to a character planning future actions in the story. In Jules Verne’s “In The Year 2889”, you can see how he wrote the “future”. Verne wrote this short story in 1889, exactly 1000 years from its published date. He wrote about space, air, and underwater travel before air travel and practical submarines were invented. This type of plot is called Foreshadowing.
Foreshadowing, is a plot that is arranged specifically to predict an important plot point that is mentioned in the early story. Basically it is used to arouse the reader as to what they can expect from the story. When a story has a foreshadowing plot, it means that the readers can predict what the outcome will be to avoid disappointment. This type of plot shows the reader the conflict vividly and blurly at the same time, again, to arouse their interest.




CONTENT
On his first part of his story, that is set in 2889, Verne described how it felt like in the future compared to the past. This part of the story shows the part where the narrator is experiencing a flashback in the future. He then continued by introducing one character where the author mentioned all the technologies in the year 2889.
Verne described an alternative to newspaper in his story, “Instead of being printed, the Earth Chronicle is every morning spoken to subscribers, who, from interesting conversations with reporters, statesmen, and scientist, learn the news of the day”. This is known as television news broadcast today. The first time TV broadcast happened would be another 28 years after Verne predicted it.
Another prediction that was foreshadowed by Verne is Skywriting. In “In the year 2889” Verne described “atmospheric advertisements” what we know now as skywriting. “Everyone has noticed those enormous advertisements reflected from the clouds”, He wrote, “so large they may be seen by the populations of the whole cities or even the entire countries.”
He also introduced mass media telecommunication, video telephones, or most commonly known nowadays as Video Call, that he called “phonotelephote”. “The phonotelephote allowed the transmission of images by means of sensitive mirrors connected by wires.” He wrote. His phonotelephote is one of the earliest, if not the first, reference to a videocall in fiction writing.
 The main technology he describes, using a tube for transporting people or materials 1000 miles per hour, is not yet realized today. Though we do have aircraft that travels at this speed, but land transport is still far behind. His home has an automatic dresser that not only dresses him but also tubes him to his office. Much like in the movie Ironman where Tony Stark’s iron armor automatically come to him when he’s suiting up.
The last ,and quite disturbing in my opinion, foreshadowing in his story would probably when he mentioned how when a chemist came to the main character to refund his research, he described that flesh and blood could be manufactured artificially. Today, that would be called cloning.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, Jules Verne has predicted almost half of the technology we have as of today. He foreshadowed TV, video call, space travelling, etc. This is what someone would call “future history”. It’s a matter of who came first, the chicken or the egg. It is now up to the readers whether all the technologies we have now are based on his predictions? Or if he truly can predict the future.


RYAN DANIEL GUNAWAN
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