Curiosity in Sci Fi

Curiosity is part of the foundation of the human psyche; without it, we would not be where we are today. In a world without this emotion invention would never have occurred; man would not have fire, clothes or tools. We would be little more than animals. While curiosity was obviously extremely important to our evolution, like everything else, when taken to the extremes the consequences can be damning. In the face of overwhelming curiosity, the desire to know more takes over and can lead to ignorance that in turn can lead to downfall. This degradation from simple scientific inquisitiveness to your “mad-scientist” type is a very common theme in the science fiction genre, illustrated extremely well in H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Music of Erich Zann”, HG Wells’ “The Time Machine” and Mary Shelly’s “Frankenstein”. In all three works, the main character’s charged ahead in attempt to satiate their desire for knowledge, ignoring all warnings and ignorantly bringing about their downfall.

In “The Music of Erich Zann” the plot is solely driven by curiosity and ignorance. The narrator spends the majority of the story attempting to learn more about Erich Zann and hear the music emanating from the upper floor in person. When the narrator finally does meet Zann the introduction is ominous and most in their right mind would have left and never looked back. Instead, curiosity took over; Zann’s desire to be alone stoked the narrator’s need to know more and led him to a second meeting that ended much worse. This situation alone is enough to show the vast ignorance portrayed by the main character but even in the face of the utterly indescribable the Narrator is still trying to return to the “Rue d’Auseil”.

Much like the previous work, the storyline of HG Wells’ “The Time Machine” is driven by the Time Traveler’s all-consuming curiosity and ignorance. In the very distant future the Traveler’s encounter with the two evolutions of humanity illustrates this excellent. His...