The Man in Asbestos - An Allegory of the Future
The narrator, a passionate student of social problems weary of the toil, poverty, and strife of the modern world, deliberately engineers his own sleep in imitation of other writers' futuristic dreamers. He gorges on a pork pie and doughnuts, reads comic papers, and finally stares at the editorial page of the London Weekly Times until an "awful lethargy" overtakes him — a sleep he himself calls "clear, straight suicide." He wakes in a dim, dilapidated museum, seated beside a hairless, ageless man dressed in clothes resembling burnt grey paper — asbestos. The man shows mild annoyance at the narrator's excited questions and cannot say what year it is, since no one has tracked years since death was eliminated. The asbestos clothing, the man explains, lasts for centuries and is piled up in billions for anyone who wants it. Led outside onto Broadway, the narrator finds it transformed into a silent, moss-grown ruin: buildings crumbling under centuries of weather, no vehicles, no wires, only slow-moving asbestos-clad figures. The Man in Asbestos explains, step by step, how work "died out." Machinery first intensified labor until mankind turned from increasing desires to decreasing needs. Chemical Food ended agriculture and eating as the narrator knew it. Asbestos Clothes ended fashion and the labor of dress, tied to "the revolt of women and the fall of Fashion." Climate itself was conquered — the sea's chemistry altered, weather subdued into permanent greyness — eliminating the need for shelter and fuel. Transportation and communication, including telephones and railroads, were abolished as needless and "dangerous." The narrator learns that death itself was eliminated once Old Age was identified as simply another germ, like diphtheria or smallpox, and destroyed. People now live forever unless they "get broken" through accident, which is why all risk — street cars, aeroplanes, traffic — has been forbidden. War ended too, replaced by a slot machine for settling international disputes, after which foreign dealings were abandoned entirely. Newspapers vanished along with the events — wars, accidents, work, death — that once filled them. Education is now accomplished surgically: skulls are opened and "prepared brain" (originally taken from the dead, later made from moulds) is grafted in, instantly implanting knowledge such as spherical trigonometry, poetry, or history; some subjects like philosophy are lodged in the now-unused digestive apparatus. The Man in Asbestos recoils in horror on learning of marriage customs of the narrator's day — one person working for another, sharing property and a home — calling it dreadful. Women, he explains, revolted and became indistinguishable from men, now equally shrouded in the same ash-colored asbestos garb. The narrator, in anger, contrasts these "jelly-bag Equalities" with the women of his own time. He then asks about children and learns none have existed for at least a century; the Man in Asbestos describes them with disgust as hobgoblins that cried and grew like fungus. Appalled, the narrator denounces this dull, deadened civilization as a false millennium, stripped of joy along with its burdens — only to be jolted back to reality by an angry neighbor across his hotel hallway, shouting at him to stop "blatting" and come down to earth. The narrator realizes his vision has ended and he is back in his own noisy, busy present.
By Stephen Leacock · First published 1920 · Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Satire · 4,168 words
First lines
To begin with let me admit that I did it on purpose. Perhaps it was partly from jealousy.
It seemed unfair that other writers should be able at will to drop into a sleep of four or five hundred years, and to plunge head first into a distant future and be a witness of its marvels.
What this Textopian page supports
The Man in Asbestos - An Allegory of the Future is listed on Textopian as a novella by Stephen Leacock, dated 1920 CE.
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- Work type: Novella
- Author: Stephen Leacock
- Date: 1920 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Satire, Literary Fiction
- Length: 4,168 words
- Structure: 1 section, 133 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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- Work identity for The Man in Asbestos - An Allegory of the Future by Stephen Leacock
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
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Genres
- Science Fiction — The title of the book suggests a futuristic setting, and the use of allegory implies a speculative narrative.
- Fantasy — The use of allegory implies a narrative that is not necessarily rooted in reality.
- Satire — Stephen Leacock is known for his satirical writing, and the title of the book implies a humorous tone.
- Literary Fiction — Stephen Leacock is a renowned literary author, and the use of allegory implies a narrative with literary merit.
Tags
allegory · future · satire · society · technology · human condition · philosophy · dystopia · humor · critique · narrative · imagination