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Alien Psychology. What do our aliens say about us?. Lisa Brenan. Why do we choose to use aliens in our fiction?. What can our representations of aliens help us to understand about ourselves?. Could our stories of aliens help us to understand an - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Lisa Brenan
Alien Psychology
What do our aliens say about us?
What can our representations of aliens help us to understand about ourselves?
Why do we choose to use aliens in our fiction?
Could our stories of aliens help us to understand an extraterrestrial species, should we ever meet one?
But first, an introduction!
Tales of the Lost Formicans
The abduction project
Aliens can help give us a better understanding of ourselves by acting as mirrors or foils to the humans in the story.
So, why write about aliens?
Using aliens allows us to tell a story offering social criticism without sounding preachy.
Aliens can personify people and things we fear.
Aliens can help us to understand the human condition by interacting with humans.
In this time of political correctness, aliens are a universal enemy that it’s okay to hate an fear.
Social Criticism
Harry Turtledove: The World War and Colonization Sagas
Begins in the midst of WWII
Whole planet is taken over by a race of reptilian aliens
All countries are forced to unite to overthrow the aliens
Everyone must work together for the people of the planet to survive.
Personification of Fears
Dracula
Not subject to natural laws
Extremely powerful
Seduces women
Kills without rhyme or reason
Human Condition
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (and countless others)
Arthur Dent is out of place
New, sometimes frightening experiences
Learning from his friends
Trillian may actually be the one revealing Arthur’s humanity.
Home destroyed; orphaned
Define Ourselves
Star Trek
Vulcans give us greater identity as humans by showing us what we would be without emotion.
Universal Enemy
Harry Turtledove Sagas War of the Worlds
Independence Day
Could our stories of aliens help us to understand an extraterrestrial species,
should we ever meet one?
Well, yes and no.
One school of thought is that anything conceived by the humanmind can never truly be alien, and therefore any creatures wemay meet in the future will probably be even stranger than anything we can imagine.
But...
Just because we can’t predict what aliens might be like doesnot mean that our stories couldn’t be applied. If they tell
us something about humans, and humans are the only exampleof intelligent life that we have, then it is not so inconceivable that intelligent extraterrestrial life might have something in common with us. Our stories might give us a place to start.
watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/A P.html
cms.psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php?term=PTO-20030527-000002
www.centerchange.org/passport/abduction.html
www.rfreitas.com/Astro/Xenopsychology.htm
www.writing-world.com/columns/sf/edge01.shtml
skepdic.com/aliens.html
astro.wsu.edu/worthey/astro/html/lec-ufo.html
www.homestead.com/flowstate/branding.html
www.collisionproject.org/ap.html
Cartmel, Deborah ed., Hunter, I.Q. ed., Kaye, Heidi ed., Whelehan, Imelda ed.,Alien Identities: Exploring Differences in Film and Fiction. Pluto Press;London 1999.