Theme: Dystopian Concepts – Environmental Concerns

Text: Extract from Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison (1966)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was the sound of running footsteps in the hall and someone rattled the knob so loudly that the door shook. Sol quietly slipped open the table drawer and took out a large meat cleaver.

"Sol, are you there?" Andy called from the hall, shaking the handle again. "Open up."

Sol threw the cleaver onto the table and hurried over to unlock the door. Andy pushed in, sweating and breathing hard, closing the door behind him and talking in a low voice despite his urgency.

"Listen, fill the water tanks and all the jerry cans. And fill whatever else we have that will hold water. Maybe you can plug the sink, then you can put water in that too. Fill as many jerry cans as you can at our water point, but if they begin to notice you coming back too often, go to the other one on Twenty‑eighth Street. But get going. Sol ‑ Shirl will help you."

"What's it all about?"

"Christ, don't ask questions, just do it! I shouldn't be telling you this much‑and don't let on I did or we'll all be in trouble. I have to get back before they find me missing." He went out as fast as he came in, the slammed door an echo to his receding footsteps.

"What was all that about?" Shirl asked.

"We'll find out later," Sol said, kicking into his sandals. "Right now we get moving. This is the first time Andy has ever pulled anything like this and I'm an old man ‑ scare easy. There's another jerry can in your room."

They were the only ones who appeared concerned in any way and Shirl wondered what Andy could have possibly meant. There were only two women waiting in line at the corner water point, and one of them only wanted to fill a quart bottle. Sol helped to carry the filled jerry cans, but Shirl insisted on taking them up the stairs. "Work some of the fat off my hips," she said. "I'll bring down the empties and you can get back in line while I pour out the others."

The line was a little longer now, but there was nothing unusual about it, this was the time when most people started to show up to make sure they had their water before the point closed at noon.

"You must be thirsty, Pop," the patrolman on duty said when they reached the head of the line again. "Ain't you been around before?"

"So what's your trouble?" Sol snapped, pointing his beard at the cop. "All of a sudden you're being paid to count the house? Maybe I like to take a bath once in a while so I don't stink like some people I could mention, but I won't . . . ."

"Take it easy, grandpa."

[...] Sol filled the containers, still grumbling, and Shirl helped carry them to one side to screw the lids back on. They had just finished when a police sergeant pulled up on a sputtering motorbike.

"Lock this point up," he said. "It's closed for the day."

The women who were waiting to fill their containers screamed at him and pushed forward around the spigot, getting in each other's way and trying to get some water before it was closed down. The patrolman fought his way through the shouting crowd to turn the valve handle. Even before he touched it the water hiccoughed, died to a thin trickle, then stopped ..... 577w

Annotations:

Explanatory remark: Andy Rush, a New York detective, is the protagonist of Harrison's 1966 dystopia. Sol is his elderly subtenant, Shirl his girlfriend.

7 jerry can – a petrol can (captured from Germans (nickname Jerries) in WW II 17 pull – (slang) do 37 spigot – faucet 39 hiccough - hiccup

Assignments:

1.      As a first approach to the text, explain the urgency of Andy Rush's call at home. [Orientation/Contents]

2.      Work on elements of extrapolation in the text in order to describe the changes that have taken place in New York. (Bear in mind that the action is set in 1999.) [Analysis]