In a singular number of Press dating from 1905, an Indian mage called Papou-Gaba-Abidos predicted the future of Montreal, a century later. Street heaters and aircraft were part of the picture. Out of pure pleasure, we asked the professor of anticipatory literature, Jean-François Chassay, to take part in such a projection exercise.
Inspired by this unusual article, we sought, in 2021, to re-erect the face of a futuristic Montreal, but by soliciting to do so various personalities more credible than a clairvoyant. Among these, the professor of literature and author Jean-François Chassay has probably pushed the frontiers of fiction the furthest. Here is his vision of the metropolis, as he imagines it in a hundred years, in a sketch worthy of a novel of anticipation.
Montreal, submerged city
Greek mythology has it that Zeus caused the island of Atlantis to be engulfed as a punishment. In the Montreal of 2121 imagined by Jean-François Chassay, it is not the wrath of a god, but rather the melting of the ice that causes the total submersion of the city. The latter already wore an air of North American Venice from the middle of the century, with Montrealers’ feet bathing in water. “We are trying to stem the situation, the richest are starting to organize themselves, but it is too late”, conceives the author, very versed in literary stories of anticipation – he notably co-signed The novel of possibilities – Anticipation in the French-speaking media space.
At the dawn of the XXIIe century, “Montreal is a place where humanity has adapted and learned to live largely underwater”, projects Mr. Chassay. Its inhabitants live in large freighters acting as HLMs or in the heart of private pavilions, all perfectly watertight. They put on aquatic suits and move by means of underwater bikes, or borrow collective vehicles similar to that of The Life Aquatic.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Jean-Francois Chassay
The city is submerged, but still exists, become a kind of hologram of itself, like a relief image that peels. It is a palimpsest Montreal, where maritime corridors reproduce the equivalent of the streets of the old days.
Jean-François Chassay, writer and professor of literature at UQAM
At the corner of these corridors, statues in synthetic material serve as cultural memory, as do museums of a new kind; because “just as digital technology has transformed our relationship with culture in a few decades, underwater life has produced new forms of art and a new imagination,” he explains. Underwater life is reshaping human physiognomy and social relationships, speech and hearing withering away, while new technological tools make it possible to communicate in ways “for which we still have no words today. “.
“But life does not take place entirely underwater, there are footbridges that allow access to the surface, there are places to relax, it would be like swimming pools upside down, to go and relax. in the sun, ”continues the author.
Shaken by climate change, the planet is cut in two: on one side, the water, on the other, the desert. Montreal is not cut off from the world, however: hybrid vehicles capable of flying as much as of diving make it possible to establish links with the outside, says Mr. Chassay, hoping that this scenario with the pretenses of dystopia remains confined to the field of fiction!
Check out the mage’s predictions in the 1905 issue