The End of Science Fiction

The speaker in “The End of Science Fiction” reveals their opinion about technological achievement early in the poem: “We are the characters / who have invaded the moon” (Lines 2-3). The word “invading” draws attention to a boundary that the speaker feels humans have crossed. The speaker does not say “landed” on the moon, or “visited” the moon, or even “reached” the moon; earthlings, via technology, went where they were not asked to go and possibly are not wanted. Now, the speaker points out, the technology that enables such invasions runs ahead of humans uncontained, as humans “cannot stop their computers” (Line 4). When the speaker tells the reader, “We are the gods who can unmake / the world in seven days” (Lines 5-6), “gods” (Line 5) is in lower case, indicating a loss of respect that accompanies the capitalization of a proper noun. The speaker suggests that modern humans have the capability to destroy what another, upper-case deity, like the God of the Book of Genesis in the Bible, is credited with doing in a week’s time.

In the second stanza, the speaker says, “Both hands are stopped at noon” (Line 7). The image of an analog clock with both dials pointing straight up, plus the use of the word “hands” (Line 7) suggests a kind of bondage, whereby some force is holding the passage of time captive.