Class Day Notes On Aliens

The Self vs The Other
Timeline of Alien Representation in Science Fiction
Bibliography

The Self vs The Other
Humans tend to polarize into groups of Us against Them (The Other). The Idea of Us contains a single person or the group that embodies similarities that would bring together allies; while the Them, will contain everything else. This is a basic premise of the philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre of the separate enities of the Subject (mind) and the Object (everything outside consciousness).

In this polarization the group that is Us will project upon the Other characteristics that people wish to disassociate from ourselves. Such characteristics are easily seen in war propaganda. Sam Keen has created a compliation of war posters and found the common shadowy strains of an enemy personality in his book Faces of the Enemy: Reflections of the Hostile Imagination.

  • 1. Enemy as Agressor
  • 2. The Faceless Enemy
  • 3. The Enemy as an Enemy to God
  • 4. The Enemy as Barbarian
  • 5. The Greedy Enemy
  • 6. The Enemy as Criminal
  • 7. The Enemy as Torturer
  • 8. The Enemy as Rapist, Desecrator of Women and Children
  • 9. The Enemy as Beast, Insect, Germ
  • 10. The Enemy as Death

    These characteristics are also confered onto groups within a population. For example, the Native American during the push westward of the United States.

    The shadow aspects of human personality have also been placed on women. Simone deBeauvoir analyzed these aspects in The Second Sex. These characteristics tend to become contradictory when so many are placed on one group. The idea of women as nurturers but also as cruel and petty illustrates this point.

    An extention of this habit is seen in the characterization of aliens within the genre of science fiction. Aliens are generally seen as emboding all the typical traits of the enemy as listed above. A classic example of this is seen in Heinlein's Starship Troopers. The alien race is a hive-minded and insectoid (faceless and animal). The Bugs are a threat to human culture (enemy as barbarian) and an agressor.

    It would not be until the 1950's until aliens find a more postive representation in literature.

    Timeline of Alien Representation in Science Fiction

    Prior to 1890's (Well's and the Beginning of Science Fiction)


  • 1864-The first idea of an alien is presented by Camille Flammarion in his nonfiction work Real and Imaginary Worlds.

    1890's to 1920's (Age Of Wonder)


  • Aliens are seen as Darwinian Competitors.
  • The idea of invasion is supreme.
  • The view of the releationship between aliens and humans is similar to cowboys and Indians.
  • Aliens are not realistic; they are seen mostly as grotesque.
  • Specistic- The benevolent aliens are mamalian or avian while the malevolent aliens are reptilian or insectoid

    1930's to 1940's (Golden Age of Science Fiction)


  • Aliens become more complicated.
  • Pulp writers create even more horrifying alien creatures, for example "Who Goes There" by John Campbell Jr.
  • Aliens are given a positive comsic view in works such as Raymond Z. Gallun's "Old Faithful" and "Liquid Life" by Ralph Milne Farley

    1950's


  • Alien Boom
  • Science Fiction enters film with a focus on invasion and disaster.
  • McCarthyism stirs fears of invasions from Russians and is reflected in view on Aliens.
  • Relation with aliens become metaphor for relations with other countries and races.
  • Aliens develop into three catagories:
    1. Aliens as Invaders
    2. Aliens as Us
    3. Aliens as Gods

    1960's and 1970's


  • Alien biology more extensively described and more subject to reality.
  • Alien culture expanded on as well.
  • Communication and sex with aliens, this is a real intimacy with differences.

    1980's on


  • There are some holdovers of invasion fear from Reagan's Star Wars Defense Program.
  • Intergration of complex alien biology and culture.
  • The universe is seen as a more complex place and the idea of galatic politics rises in an expanded version of the United Nations.

    Bibliography
    Sam Keen. Faces of the Enemy: Reflections of the Hostile Imagination. San Fransico: Harper Collins, 1988.

    The Encylopedia of Science Fiction. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1993.
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    Page Last Updated: 2/20/01