Stories of the Past and Future
Stories of the Past and Future
Date of publication [A logarithmic scale running horizontally, from 3000 BCE to past 2015 CE.] Years in the future [A logarithmic scale running vertically, from 1 billion down to 0.] Stories set in the future (science fiction, prediction) Stories set in 2015 [A line divides this region into two. The upper side is labelled "still possible"; the lower side is labelled "obsolete".] [From left to right.] Memoirs of the Twentieth Century [1700, 265 years in the future] Looking Backward [1888, 112 years in the future] Golf in the Year 2000 [1892, 108 years in the future] The Time Machine [1895, 800 thousand to 30 million years in the future] Enoch Soames [1916, circa 60 years in the future] 1984 [1949, 35 years in the future] A Week in the Wales of the Future [1957, 76 years in the future] The Jetsons [1962-63, 100 years in the future] Star Trek [1966-69, 300 years in the future] 2001: A Space Odyssey [1968, 33 years in the future] Space: 1999 [1975-77, 24 years in the future] 2010: Odyssey Two [1982, 28 years in the future] Transformers (TV series) [1984-87, 20 years in the future] 2061: Odyssey Three [1987, 74 years in the future] Star Trek: The Next Generation [1987-94, circa 500 years in the future] Back to the Future Part II [1989, 26 years in the future] Zero Wing [1989, 112 years in the future] Terminator 2 (1995 portion) [1991, 4 years in the future] 3001: The Final Odyssey [1997, 1004 years in the future] Enterprise [2001-2005, 150 years in the future] This chart [2015, 0 years in the future] Years in the past [A logarithmic scale running vertically, from 0 down past 1 billion to "Big Bang"] Stories set in the past (History, Period Fiction) Stories written X years ago and set 2X years ago [A line divides this region into two. The upper side is labelled as follows.] Former period pieces Stories set in the past, but created long enough ago that they were published closer to their setting than to today. Modern audiences may not recognize which parts were supposed to sound old. [From left to right.] The Epic of Gilgamesh [ circa 2100 BCE, 600 years in the past] The Iliad [ circa 800 BCE, 450 years in the past] History of the Peloponnesian War [ circa 390 BCE, 10 years in the past] Book of Genesis [ circa 500 BCE, 4000 years in the past] Ashokavadana [ circa 100 BCE, 300 years in the past] Gospels (various estimates) [ circa 250 CE, 24 to 75 years in the past] The Pillow Book [1000 CE, 5 years in the past] Water Margin [ circa 1300, 195 years in the past] Richard III [ circa 1590, 115 years in the past] Julius Caesar [1599, 1650 years in the past] King John [ circa 1600, 500 years in the past] Henry IV [ circa 1600, 190 years in the past] King Lear [ circa 1606, 3000 years in the past] Henry VIII [ circa 1612, 105 years in the past] The Last of the Mohicans [1826, 69 years in the past] Rip Van Winkel [1819, 31-51 years in the past] A Tale of Two Cities [1859, 60 years in the past] Moby-Dick [1851, anywhere from 4 to 14 years ago] "Some years ago--never mind how long precisely..." Les Miserábles [1862, 30 years in the past] Treasure Island [1883, 130 years in the past] A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court [1889, 2000 years in the past] Gone with the Wind [1936, 70 years in the past] Lest Darkness Fall [1939, 550 years in the past] Casablanca [1942, 1 year in the past] Oklahoma! [1943, 37 years in the past] The Ten Commandments [1956, 1400 years in the past] The Bridge on the River Kwai [1957, 13 years in the past] Gunsmoke [1952-61, 80 years in the past] The Flintstones [1960-66, 100,000 years in the past] Catch-22 (book) [1961, 18 years in the past] The Great Escape [1963, 20 years in the past] Asterix Lawrence of Arabia The Music Man Bonnie and Clyde 2001: A Space Odyssey (prologue) American Graffiti Patton Catch-22 (movie) [1970, 27 years in the past] Chinatown Blazing Saddles Apocalypse Now Happy Days Grease M*A*S*H Annie (play) Roots Chariots of Fire Star Wars (IV-VI) Annie (movie) The Right Stuff Back to the Future Gandhi Platoon Dirty Dancing Back to the Future Part III The Wonder Years JFK The Sandlot Schindler's List Raptor Red Apollo 13 Star Wars (I-III) The Big Lebowski Evita Saving Private Ryan The Prince of Egypt Freaks and Geeks Hotel Rwanda I Love the '80s That '70s Show Pearl Harbor Ice Age I Love the '90s United 93 300 10,000 BC Year One The Wolf of Wall Street I Love the 2000s Mad Men Downton Abbey Star Wars (VII-IX)

It's long been common for narrative works to be set in the past, and this tendency goes back to ancient mythology. The opposite approach, setting a work in a speculative future, has been less common prior to modern times. The oldest example Randall presents is from 1733, but it didn't really become a trend until well into the 19th century, and didn't become really common until the 20th century.
For works set in the future, particularly in the near future, there's a real possibility that audiences will still read or watch it past the date in which is was set, allowing them to compare the real world of this era to the one the author projected. This doesn't make the work less valuable, necessarily, but it does make the limits of such speculation painfully obvious, and tends to make the future presented there look dated and quaint . Randall labels these futuristic works as "obsolete".
For works set in the past, there's an opposite and somewhat more subtle effect.  Once the work itself is old enough, audiences tend to forget that they were intended as historical fiction in the first place. If an old work is set in the past, it's often assumed that they were set in their own time, not in the still more distant past. That impacts how we experience the work, because we tend to assume that it's a faithful representation of its own time, not a later interpretation that was intended to be old (and possibly nostalgic) even in its own time.
On top of this, in a similar situation to the failed attempt at futurology , for future-facing works of fiction, even a conscientiously faithful 'historic' film can age badly. Later understanding of previously hazy historical situations can be developed between the time of the fictional work being authored and your experience of it.
To demonstrate those impacts, this chart sorts various works by the year they were created, graphed against how far in the past or future they were originally set.  Lines on the chart are added to separate when each work ceases to work as either a prediction or as a period piece . For future works, the cut-off is obvious: if it was set in a year prior to the current year, we know that the predictions are obsolete (and can easily determine how accurate or inaccurate that future is).  Hence, at the time the chart was written (in 2015), works like 1984 and 2001: A Space Odyssey are obsolete, while works like Star Trek , which take place in a more distant future, are still theoretically possible. ( Back to the Future Part II is deliberately right on the line, as it was set in 2015).
For the past works, Randall sets the cut-off as when the work itself is older than the events in question were when it was first written/made.  Hence, modern audiences are unlikely to realize that the Epic of Gilgamesh was intended to sound ancient, even when it was new, or that novels like Les Miserables were intended as historical fiction, or even that films like Chinatown or shows like Happy Days were intended as period pieces when they were made.  To modern audiences, we just see an old work set in an old time, and tend to assume that the two periods were the same.
The setup of the chart points to the reality that, in process of time, more and more works will cross those lines. Future audiences will likely assume that films like Apollo 13 and Schindler's List were made around the time of the events in question. And modern science fiction works, if they're still remembered in the future, will become just as obsolete as past works.  And Randall even indicates "this chart" on the chart, apparently acknowledging that it will become dated as time goes by.
How to read the graph:
For example, "Water Margin" was published in the 14th century (x ~= 1300) and relates events from the 12th century, about 200 years before its publication (y ~= 200 in the past). Another example: The film The Bridge on the River Kwai was released in 1957 and it was set around 14 years before (~1942-43).
Taking the "years in the past" on the y-axis to be read as negatives like in most graphs one can write
Thus it's clear that the definitions of the lines are consistent with each other as they follow similar but inverted functions.
The graph uses variable logarithmic scales , adjusting the scale in various regions to the temporal density of works being plotted. If the scale were linear, the graph would in fact represent a (bidimensional) Minkowski diagram , which depicts the moving cones of past and future in spacetime as one's present advances in time.
The title text jokes that 2001 cuts from prehistoria to the future before The Flintstones theme can become recognizable. This references the fact that, despite being primarily set in what was then the future, the film opens in the ancient past, thus appearing in both parts of the graph, with one part being very close to The Flintstones . This plays on the fact that one of these was a very serious work and the other a playful animated show that was intended as family comedy.
Differences listed in bright red are "former period pieces." Differences listed in dark red are other works set in the past. Differences listed in bright green are "obsolete" works set in the future. Differences listed in dark green are other works set in the future.
Asterisks (*) after a year of publication denote that it applies to the first installment in a series that spanned more than one year.
You can sort by a specific column in this table by clicking on its header.
Date of publication [A logarithmic scale running horizontally, from 3000 BCE to past 2015 CE.] Years in the future [A logarithmic scale running vertically, from 1 billion down to 0.] Stories set in the future (science fiction, prediction) Stories set in 2015 [A line divides this region into two. The upper side is labelled "still possible"; the lower side is labelled "obsolete".] [From left to right.] Memoirs of the Twentieth Century [1700, 265 years in the future] Looking Backward [1888, 112 years in the future] Golf in the Year 2000 [1892, 108 years in the future] The Time Machine [1895, 800 thousand to 30 million years in the future] Enoch Soames [1916, circa 60 years in the future] 1984 [1949, 35 years in the future] A Week in the Wales of the Future [1957, 76 years in the future] The Jetsons [1962-63, 100 years in the future] Star Trek [1966-69, 300 years in the future] 2001: A Space Odyssey [1968, 33 years in the future] Space: 1999 [1975-77, 24 years in the future] 2010: Odyssey Two [1982, 28 years in the future] Transformers (TV series) [1984-87, 20 years in the future] 2061: Odyssey Three [1987, 74 years in the future] Star Trek: The Next Generation [1987-94, circa 500 years in the future] Back to the Future Part II [1989, 26 years in the future] Zero Wing [1989, 112 years in the future] Terminator 2 (1995 portion) [1991, 4 years in the future] 3001: The Final Odyssey [1997, 1004 years in the future] Enterprise [2001-2005, 150 years in the future] This chart [2015, 0 years in the future] Years in the past [A logarithmic scale running vertically, from 0 down past 1 billion to "Big Bang"] Stories set in the past (History, Period Fiction) Stories written X years ago and set 2X years ago [A line divides this region into two. The upper side is labelled as follows.] Former period pieces Stories set in the past, but created long enough ago that they were published closer to their setting than to today. Modern audiences may not recognize which parts were supposed to sound old. [From left to right.] The Epic of Gilgamesh [ circa 2100 BCE, 600 years in the past] The Iliad [ circa 800 BCE, 450 years in the past] History of the Peloponnesian War [ circa 390 BCE, 10 years in the past] Book of Genesis [ circa 500 BCE, 4000 years in the past] Ashokavadana [ circa 100 BCE, 300 years in the past] Gospels (various estimates) [ circa 250 CE, 24 to 75 years in the past] The Pillow Book [1000 CE, 5 years in the past] Water Margin [ circa 1300, 195 years in the past] Richard III [ circa 1590, 115 years in the past] Julius Caesar [1599, 1650 years in the past] King John [ circa 1600, 500 years in the past] Henry IV [ circa 1600, 190 years in the past] King Lear [ circa 1606, 3000 years in the past] Henry VIII [ circa 1612, 105 years in the past] The Last of the Mohicans [1826, 69 years in the past] Rip Van Winkel [1819, 31-51 years in the past] A Tale of Two Cities [1859, 60 years in the past] Moby-Dick [1851, anywhere from 4 to 14 years ago] "Some years ago--never mind how long precisely..." Les Miserábles [1862, 30 years in the past] Treasure Island [1883, 130 years in the past] A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court [1889, 2000 years in the past] Gone with the Wind [1936, 70 years in the past] Lest Darkness Fall [1939, 550 years in the past] Casablanca [1942, 1 year in the past] Oklahoma! [1943, 37 years in the past] The Ten Commandments [1956, 1400 years in the past] The Bridge on the River Kwai [1957, 13 years in the past] Gunsmoke [1952-61, 80 years in the past] The Flintstones [1960-66, 100,000 years in the past] Catch-22 (book) [1961, 18 years in the past] The Great Escape [1963, 20 years in the past] Asterix Lawrence of Arabia The Music Man Bonnie and Clyde 2001: A Space Odyssey (prologue) American Graffiti Patton Catch-22 (movie) [1970, 27 years in the past] Chinatown Blazing Saddles Apocalypse Now Happy Days Grease M*A*S*H Annie (play) Roots Chariots of Fire Star Wars (IV-VI) Annie (movie) The Right Stuff Back to the Future Gandhi Platoon Dirty Dancing Back to the Future Part III The Wonder Years JFK The Sandlot Schindler's List Raptor Red Apollo 13 Star Wars (I-III) The Big Lebowski Evita Saving Private Ryan The Prince of Egypt Freaks and Geeks Hotel Rwanda I Love the '80s That '70s Show Pearl Harbor Ice Age I Love the '90s United 93 300 10,000 BC Year One The Wolf of Wall Street I Love the 2000s Mad Men Downton Abbey Star Wars (VII-IX)
