LITR 4632: Literature of the Future

Student Future-Vision Presentation 2011

What literary techniques make you understand and care?

How does outer-space sf change our view of humanity on earth? What do the aliens reveal about us?

How successfully do the stories get beyond the "War of the Worlds" model seen in Independence Day in which aliens are automatically apocalyptic terrorists?

2. The relevancy and applicability of the stories helped me to understand and care about the futures posed. The fact that our NASA astronauts explore new areas and live on the space station for months at a time is similar to Toby in “Hinterlands.” The idea of our men and women disappearing and returning either dead or insane is terrifying because it hits a little too close to home. If we were nowhere near space exploration or if the story were not fairly realistic, perhaps the reaction would be different. However, seeing as how it works on a personal level, the author’s technique really extends to the empathy of the reader. Similarly, in “Poplar Street,” we are left with the notion that this could happen to us at any given time. These were seemingly ordinary people with ordinary quirks, thus motivating the reader to give a little more concern to their outcome. Even though these were stories of alien encounters, I found them more believable and relatable than some of the high-tech stories we have read, which in turn made me care about them more.  

3. I think outer-space sci-fi proves that we are not as perfect as we like to pretend we are. The aliens in “Poplar Street” come to equalize and take care of everyone because the humans were solely focused on the superficial. The aliens readjusted the community’s ideas of leadership, portraying the children as more adept at evolving and the black man as a possible Messiah. “Meat” shows how egocentric and heartless we can be by refusing to acknowledge that which we cannot understand. Even though the humans admit how awful life would be if we were alone, they purposefully ignore the rules and leave the meat-people completely alone. The aliens in these stories, in my opinion, really pointed out the flaws in humanity with the purpose of trying to mend the identified issues.  

4. Instead of apocalyptic terrorists, these stories seem to embrace a level of civility to the aliens not typically displayed. For example, in “Poplar Street,” the reader is immediately led to believe these are evil aliens on Earth to destroy this population of people. However, they make themselves abundantly clear that they have no intention of hurting anyone. I was convinced they were going to kill Mr. Anderson when they took him from the “control group,” but instead they brought him to live with them. They meant no malice at all. Similarly, in “Belonging Kind,” Coretti and the alien woman seem to have no ulterior motives other than simply trying to fit into society and continue their lives.