In Woman on the Edge of Time, Piercy uses language to create the idea of a climb toward knowledge and the discovery of an unknown truth that will save the present. With the help of Luciente, Connie will rise up from the dystopia, New York, to the utopia, Mattapoisett. Piercy continually alludes traveling north or ascending. “Mariana had been uprooted from a village near Namiquipa, Los Calcinados, and migrated with her family to Texas to work in the fields…When Connie was seven, they moved to Chicago…” (Piercy, 37). Ironically, this ascent toward knowledge and the future is not forward, nor is it linear. Rather, it is circular and backward. Piercy uses the names of her characters as well as the “common” language of Mattapoisett to examine the direction of the future.
Names are emphasized and are of great importance to the novel. Names like Luciente and Orion create a heavenly or cosmic tone of the novel. Luciente is Connie’s guide from the future. She is the light that leads Connie through her ascent to the future. “Me llamo luciente: shining, brilliant, full of light.” (Piercy 28). Orion, one of Jackrabbit’s art students, is also the name of a constellation. Alice Blue Bottom, one of the psychiatric patients, represents the idea that the present world is at the Bottom of the universe and that the future is above people and is linearly forward.
Secondly, the language used in the future, words like kenner, grasp, and grafted, reflects an idea of knowledge and revelation. Luciente’s “watch” is actually a kenner she consults for knowledge. The word itself is taken from a Scottish word, ken, meaning knowledge. “ ‘Encyclopedia: define two-time loser.’ This time she saw that what she had taken for a watch on Luciente’s wrist was not only that, or not that at all…. ‘My kenner. Computer link? Actually it’s a computer as well, my own memory annex.’” (Piercy 50). Secondly, Grasp is used to grab attention before explaining complicated ideas to others. “Grasp, it’s a request but we wish it was a requisition. For what we want to do scientifically this winter.” (Piercy, 268). Rather than yelling at another person to gain his or her attention, Luciente and the others say the word “grasp.”
From these names and vocabulary of Mattapoisett, the reader assumes that the direction to the future is above and ahead of him or her, rather than behind because the future is unattainable, like the locations of the stars and heaven. Piercy recognizes this stereotype about the future, that the future is above us and beyond our comprehension, and uses this notion to introduce us to her utopia, Mattapoisett. As the novel unfolds, the reader realizes that Piercy is actually saying that the future is behind us. The society in Mattapoisett focuses on serving the basic needs of people. They expend energy only for those things deemed necessary. Luxuries are few and far between. Their primary focus is survival, therefore, as a group, they decide what is absolutely essential for survival. Their technology, while advanced, is limited because of pollution. For example, Luciente and Connie ride a bike or walk rather than driving a car that will pollute the air. Connie is shocked at the lack of technology in the future. “She saw bicycles and people on foot. Clothes were hanging on lines near a long building—shirts flapping on wash lines!” (Piercy 61). The reader begins to realize that this society is primitive, not technologically advanced with robots and machines to do all of our work as most people assume.
Piercy suggests that time is circular, rather than linear. If time is cyclical, than the future has already occurred and the world will continue to function in this pattern. Her refreshing notion of time operating in a circular fashion creates irony throughout the novel by using character names and language of the novel.
