: Well, you could argue one stems from the other. Which is which : would depend on your point of view.
Well, humanocentricity (wow, I'm inventing cool words) would certainly stem from xenophobia, but not the other way around,a s I see it. : The level of focus on the virtues of our culture and the tendency : to depict all others as possessed with some obsessive vice could : be looked at either way. For instance, what logic is for the : Vulcans, what wrath is for the Klingons, what gluttony for the First, I wouldn't see logic as a vice, per se. The overabundance of any trait can be seen as a flaw, but that doesn't make it a vice. Looking at the history of Star Trek in particular, I see many races with both good and bad sides, including humans. Humans are frequently portrayed as stubborn, territorial, and meddling. All of which are true. Klingons are violent, but typically honest and honorable. Cardassians are kinda mean, but very intelligent. Pherengis are greedy but ugly. Wait, that last didn't work. But you get the idea. : Gamorillian Guards in Star Wars, all of these things are : indicators of how authors are unable, for whatever reason, to : envision cultural conditions besides and beyond our own. The : theme of distopias as envisioned in other races is certainly : prevalent in Science Fiction. But what really concerns me is how But you don't see human distopias or alien utopias? I think we aren't reading the same stuff. As far as our apparent inability to think about cultures other than our own, I think we first have to define "ours". If you mean "human" cultures, then I would simply argue that we aren't capable of defining new types of cultures, simply because there's a limit to how far we've been able to stretch the human mind. Seriously, give me a working example of a truly alien culture. I'm sure I'll be able to find at least some roots in a human culture, or at least point out why it shouldn't be able to work. If you mean "eurocentric" or "american" or (more generally) "whatever culture the author comes from" as different, then there are a number of really great examples of this. Klingons are one -- how Shogun era Japanese are they? I mean, the militaristic side is exaggerated to the point of absurdity, but they are a militaristic honor-bound society where rank is how society measures your worth. Their religion borrows heavily from the Norse. Etc, etc, etc. There are also stories which are reflections, or reversals of cultures we are familiar with. Someone (I can't remember who offhand) wrote a series of really great stories about an alien race (with footnotes to explain the translation -- how cute) where homosexuality is the norm, and being hetero is a social nono. Really good stuff. : authors are unable to see members of other races as individuals, : and how they must stress these 'alien' qualities to the point : where they rely upon them as the essence of the characters. There : are few heroes in SF novels who are not identifably human, : despite whatever alien race they are supposed to belong to - : isn't this supposed to be escapism at some level, not just a : restating of old stories in new settings? I would argue that the heroes are human-like because we as readers want to identify with them. Of course, human-like is relative. When you say identifiably human, to me the most important connectors are motives. For example, in /The Gods Themselves/ by Asimov, one of the heroes is a photosynthetic alien blob from another universe. However, "he" has motivations that are much like humans. And how would you escape if you can't get into the characters? If you don't identify with them, or recognize traits like those in people around you? People talk about "the human condition" because unless you speak to people's feelings, they don't connect with the work. It just becomes uninteresting. : The perfect science fiction novel, for me, would probably be : about something so bizarre and removed from the human experience : no one would really be able to understand most of what is : happening. Life on another planet, beings made of ether, machine : life, I find it hard to see any of these things in tranditional : contexts and would not want them presented to me that way. There's a novel by Vernor Vinge -- I can't remember which one -- Fire in the Sky, maybe? Anyway, the main characters are dog-like pack aliens. I had so much trouble identifying that I didn't make it past 50 pages. : I look at it as xenophobia. I think authors have the vision to : 'see' other forms of life, they are just too hung up on their own : to care and write an interesting story about it and so they heap : all these qualities and conditions - culture, for instance, which : is distinctly a human experience - upon what's out there and that's that. I agree that things like ST & SW tend to mainstream the alien cultures, in order to make the works more palatable to the public. However, I don't think that's a result of xenophobia. I think that we can't come up with anything really xeno without losing what's truly interesting about the story. There's not a fear, per se, of the unusual. Just a failure to identify with it. --BenD ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=5 Your ad could be here. Monies from ads go to support these lists and provide more resources for the community. http://www.fusionauthority.com/ads.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
