Assignment #4- Midterm Practice

Prompt #1: The Vision of the Future in the New York's Worlds Fair of 1939: Utopia vs Reality


When looking at the worlds fair that occurred during 1939, the vision that was being portrayed to the people was a "perfect" tomorrow, where the advances of technology will heavily impact the future which was to happen in the next 20 years. The worlds fair portrayed this picture to the public of a perfect lifestyle with superhighways, advances in technology and suburbia a perfect tomorrow. The two text which I will be referring to are: The Gm "Futurama" and David Gelernters 1939: The Lost Worlds Fair. Even though the Worlds Fair portrayed this vision of the future being "perfect",I do agree with this vision because myself living during the 21st century I have eye witnessed these advances.

Taking a look at the 'Futurama" text the main message from this text was simply all about General Motors and them persuading the public with their idea of increasing car sales which will benefit them as a company but also the public since the future was going to consist of superhighways and suburbia. General Motors made superhighways the answer to all the problems of the future which was to occur. Things such as traffic, people rushing to and from work seeing that people were going to be living in the suburbs which meant people were going to live in one place and commute to another. Mutilates on highways which will allow people to travel faster and get to where there going as quick as possible. Looking at this text, it backs up my agreement because in todays world we now have suburbia areas, superhighways/ expressways and a advances within technology on a daily basis.

Now looking at 1939: The Lost Worlds Fair by Gelernter, this story basically is told through diary entries and is describing ones experience of the Worlds Fair. The building of the Futurama exhibit was to show the public the promised tomorrow.