My Interpretations of an Alien Encounter (Blog 2)

Reading science fiction work is like escaping to another universe. Another time and place, some writers call it Earth, while others create their own planets.

A certain specific genre of science fiction that I believe really makes you, as the reader, think outside the four-sided walls of that reality box are alien encounters.

Unlike other genres of science fiction alien encounters are probably the most relatable and yet most unusual. It would mean that not only are there other life forms out there but they also have the capability to make ground onto our home planet. It can instill a lot of different emotions in the reader and the author could take the story a multitude of different ways. How many different types of other species of living beings could there be out in space? Just look up at the stars at night and count them. Then, see how many of those gasses of light have planets surrounding them in their own universe's,  existing from their gravitational pull. How many of those planets might possibly have life on it? 

I recently read two pieces of science fiction and I believe they contrast in various manners. The piece, Out Of All Them Bright Stars (1985) by Nancy Kress reflects on what happens when alien beings have made contact, though they're a rare sight; until one walks right into Sally Gourley's job. It seems as though almost everyone around Sally is scared and disparaging toward the different species just because he's blue and has weird hands. With the initial horror Sally claims to be on all of the faces of the people in the diner that she works at, you would think that these creatures would be monstrous, mean and malicious.

"Just goes on staring with her mouth open like she's thinking of screaming but forgot how. And the old couple in the corner booth, the only ones left from the crowd after the movie got out, stop chewing and stare, too. Kathy closes her mouth and opens it again," -Kress', Out of All Them Bright Stars(p. 581)

 As the narrator discovers by later taking the customers' order, he was a perfect gentleman. In fact, he turned out to be more kind than the wife-beating pig of a boss she works for.

"Maybe Kathy's husband is right. Maybe they do want to blow us all to smithereens. I don't think so, but what the hell difference does it ever make what I think? And all at once I'm furious at John(the alien), furiously mad, as furious as I've ever been in my life. Why does he have to come here, with his birdcalls and his politeness? Why can't they all go somewhere else besides here? There must be lots of other places they can go, out of all them bright stars up there behind the clouds. They don't need to come here, here where I need this job and that means I need Charlie(her boss). He's a bully," -Kress', Out of All Them Bright Stars(p. 586)

 I believe Nancy Kress is trying to portray the hardships people face because of a difference in appearance. Though, her message was loud and clear, not everyone believes an alien encounter will be quite so amiable. 

Robert Silverberg's, Passengers (1968), is set in the future, 1987, and is about what it will be like when aliens take over. Though you can't see them, they can take over a humans body and mind for hours, days, or weeks at a time. Most humans don't have much recollection of what occurred in the time they were "ridden" as the main character, Charles Roth, calls it. The story is a brilliant joint of two concepts, possession and otherworldly experiences. This piece differs in Nancy Kress' in various ways. For one, instead of the aliens being physical beings, they're more like evil entities that cause chaos and result in a lot of premarital, casual sex. I believe it represents the fear in how the future will become, even without the evil entities. Another example of how the pieces differ is the outlook on humans versus aliens. Kress' piece takes an equality stance on how to treat the aliens, whereas in Silverberg's piece the humans are the ones in need of some equality change; seeing as how they're all thrown in the passenger seat of their own bodies and used as pawns for sex slave adventures. 

"But Passengers, I am told, take wry amusement in controverting our skills. So would it have given my rider a kind of delight to find me a woman and force me to fail repeatedly with her?" -Silverberg's, Passengers(p. 433)

Unfortunately for Silverberg, his nightmares of the future have sadly become a reality. At least in America, where casual sex and random hookup apps are the norm. Whereas Kress' piece of her stance against inequality has become more of a reality over the past thirty years. 

"sf(science fiction) is constantly reinventing itself, responding to contemporary scientific and cultural concerns and adapting or challenging prevailing narrative conventions. Polish Stanislaw Lem's Solaris (1961; trans. 1970), for instance, gains much of its impact from how it revises the assumptions of earlier first-contact stories," -The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction (p. xiii)

In addition, I believe there are many differences in these two pieces. What the alien beings looked like, something as preternatural as aliens hiding in the clouds, swooping down to take over humans bodies and minds (Robert Silverberg's 1968 Passengers), and then twenty years later something as mundane and repetitive as a blue guy in a suit (Nancy Kress' Out of All Them Bright Stars 1985). Although I like Kress' writing, ideas behind the piece, and perspective I can't help but notice that it's just like every other alien story I've heard of. I think this point relates to the sf megatext which I've learned about through the Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction

"Like all complex cultural forms, sf is rooted in past practices and shared protocols, tropes, and traditions-all of which contribute to what is often called the sf megatext. A fictive universe that includes all the sf stories that have ever been told, the sf megatext is a place of shared images, situations, plots, characters, settings, and themes generated across a multiplicity of media, including centuries of diverse literary fictions and, more recently, video and computer games, graphic novels, big-budget films, and even advertising. Readers and viewers apply their own prior experience of science fiction-their own of knowledge of the sf megatext-to each new story or film they encounter." -The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction (p. xiii)

In conclusion, I believe that both pieces represented great, although very different interpretations of what could possibly happen if an alien race were to somehow make contact with us.


UPDATE:
Not too much has changed on my outlook of both stories. I feel as though most of the class was in agreement on a lot of things. Though, for Kress' short story "Out of All Them Bright Stars", the group I was in had to come up with some other explanation for the theme or besides racism. I believe that having to do things you aren't necessarily morally okay with for the better of your survival was another message hidden in text. A lot of people, myself included, get almost angry when they hear of a story or see something where someone is getting bullied and people around that person do nothing. It was interesting and insightful to read a story from a perspective where the girl couldn't do anything. As much as I would like to think I would stand up for someone against bullying as well, I wouldn't risk my own survival to do so.

Also, in Silverberg's "Passengers", I was able to think of another way it is unique in its' own story by a way of critical thinking and I've come to the conclusion that where most alien encounter stories, the country(humanity) is fighting back (a particular that comes to my mind is the 1996 movie Mars Attacks!), whereas in "Passengers" it seems as though everyone is willing to roll over and accept their fate.