Science Fictions
The Other
Power
Lack Of Agency
Complicity
"Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang- In this story, Louise has to wrestle with knowing of her daughter's early demise for much of her life before having the child and in some ways could be seen as complicit in the death of her child.
Kindred by Octavia Butler- Complicity is a major theme of the novel Kindred. The main character's husband, Kevin, is repeatedly found to be complicit in slavery and racism more generally throughout the book and the same goes for the rest of the white characters, though especially the males. This is because white males have/had the most power in society and thus when they do not actively try and change an oppressive system, then they are complicit even if they are not involved in the act itself.
Arrival- In the film Arrival it is implied that Louise is complicit for her daughter's death or at least is in some people's eyes. The sense of complicity is not as strong as it is in "Story of Your Life" though because the short story emphasized that aspect of the story much more than the movie did. The main scenes where her complicity is exposed is in the scenes in which her divorce is recounted in that it is implied that he is angry because she knew that the child would die and went through with having the child anyway.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro- The novel Never Let Me Go presents a world in which all of the Hailsham characters we meet seem to have zero agency. The characters even seem to embrace this at points during the book. They lack agency because as clones and organ donors they have a purpose and are expected to achieve that and thus are given no agency. The sense of extreme oppression is not found in this book like it is in Kindred and yet the consequences are fatal just as they can be in Kindred.
"Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang- In this short story, the main character Louise becomes able to see the future via learning Heptapod-B and thus loses much of her agency. While Louise knows exactly what will happen the rest of her life, she has to keep acting it out so these things happen. Therefore she loses a lot of agency in that her whole life is already completely decided.
Kindred by Octavia Butler- In the novel Kindred, the main character Dana is thrust from the present of 1976, wherein she had agency and freedom, to the 1800's where she has almost no agency whatsoever and is seen as sub-human. This makes for the starkest example of beings in a story losing their agency because of the time the characters are from and the way in which readers are forced to reconcile the fact that slavery happened and if anybody of a minority status from the time we live in was transported back they would have been treated exactly the same. This is an incredibly effective way to show that slavery is not something that people can forget about or cease to think about.
Science Fiction by Les Murray- This poem seems in part to be concerned with a lack of agency due to technologies that allow us to further ourselves from each other. The poem also says that, "and we can’t get out/ to be real or present" which emphasizes that our ability to be in the 'here and now', as it were, is directly connected to our agency and really humanity.
The Word for World is Forest by Ursula LeGuin- In The Word for World is Forest, Captain Davidson is captivated by his own sense of power and virility and exploits the Athsheans in ghastly ways in order to fulfill his desires for these things. This can be seen clearly when talking about Davidson's rape of Selver's wife, Davidson is not at all remorseful and really thinks he was in the right and by the way the book discussed Terran females, I cannot imagine Davidson's outlook on them was terribly different. In fact, Davidson draws a perverse sense of pride from these types of events because he is absolutely and totally asserting his power over others.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro- The power structures present within this novel are always felt yet never really seen or discussed at length. The clones certainly lack any power in the society. This is illustrated best by the fact that the clones never try to escape and just accept their 'responsibilities,' which implies an even more menacing power structure than a visceral punishment system ever could.
Kindred by Octavia Butler- The power structure of the antebellum period in the novel is clear from the start and when thrust into that time Dana loses all power over her situation; she loses all of her rights and freedoms immediately when transported back simply due to the power structures present.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick- In the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the androids are seen as awfully sub-human. In fact, on page 122 Inspector Garland is telling Deckard why coming to Earth as an android is so risky: “It’s a chance anyway, breaking free and coming here to Earth, where we are not even considered animals. Where every worm and wood louse is considered more desirable than all of us put together.” This shows that they are seen as the lowest of the low and thus are hunted and rooted out of Earth's society because of this.
The Word for World is Forest by Ursula LeGuin- In the novel The Word for World is Forest, one of the main struggles is between the Atsheans and Terrans, this is because the Terrans think of the Atsheans as animals or slaves, not as being equal to the Terrans. This is exemplified ad nauseum through Captain Davidson who repeatedly expresses his distaste for the Athsheans for foolish and one-dimensional reasons.
Kindred by Octavia Butler- The novel Kindred addresses the other in the most visceral way of all texts that we read in class. It is visceral for many reasons, which includes the fact that Dana's husband is also pulled back to the 19th century with her and is treated totally normally and that this is Americans' shared history that we must acknowledge. Another example of the other and discriminatory behaviors presented in Kindred is the connections that Dana makes to South Africans suffering under Apartheid. This shows that something similar to slavery could and does easily still happen today.
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Dana's lack of agency in Kindred directly descended from the fact that she was viewed as the other in the time she was transported back to. When Kevin was transported with Dana he had decidedly more agency in his situation due to the fact that he was white.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro- In this novel the clones are seen as others because they are not 'normal' humans. This is best illustrated by Madame cringing when the clones entered her general vicinity. As such the clones stick to themselves and rarely interact with non-clones other than maintenance workers and this further enforces the idea of them as others in society because they seem mysterious.
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While not nearly all of the clone's lack of agency in the novel Never Let Me Go is due to them being the other since it seems inherent to their role in society to be the other and society would therefore cease to function properly if clones were not considered the other. Much can be seen in Madame's seeming disgust of them and general preference to not be within touching distance with them. Thus having the rest of the population fear and distaste the clones' presence places them in a similar situation to the androids in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? were they to try and escape their 'duties' as laborers while the same is true for the clones and their 'duties' donors.
Innovation
Battlestar Galactica- Battlestar Galactica deals with the ramifications of uninhibited innovation to the point that the artificial intelligence that was created became surely superior at least in efficiency and warfare to its creators. As the Cylons' own innovation quickly outpaced humans' it is apparent that innovation is not the answer to defeating the Cylons. In comes Commander Adama, the galaxy's resident luddite, whose un-networked ship becomes one of humanity's last refuges due to the fact that it is not networked. Thus implying that innovation and technological progress can help and harm humans. 
"The End of Science Fiction" by Lisel Mueller- In "The End of Science Fiction" the author argues that humanity has already arrived in the realm we previously designated as 'science fiction,' as humans have gone to the moon, created a network of computers that we are all terrifyingly reliant on, and become powerful enough to end the world as quick as god 'created' it.This obviously implies that we are on a level similar to a god in our ability and thus no longer need science fiction to express innovative desires.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick- Innovation is a problem that is absolutely central to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. In the beginning of the book that much is thrust into our face. Deckard is tasked with going to the headquarters of the company that makes the Nexus-6 clones and testing a clone to see if the current test was still adequate. This is one of Rick's first tasks of the book and signifies that the innovation in the novel is clearly not the most ethical or safe practice. This is clear because of the fact that the company is still producing androids so this problem on Earth is continually fueled by the same company and could easily be stopped.
"Sci-Fi" by Tracy K. Smith-This poem is very much interested in innovation and sees it as something that, if allowed to run rampant, we may lose some of our humanity to. This is evident in the sterile-feeling language used to describe what the author believes our future to be. However, the author also declares that humans are at last "scrutable and safe." This is indicative that there is some sort of trade-off in the effortless pursuit of safety and the continuation of humanity, that is that the world seems stark, dull, and sterile.
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells- In the novel The Time Machine there are two separate paths of innovation that are briefly looked into. One of these is the time machine itself which is obviously innovative for the time in which the time-traveler was from. The other, though, is the tale of innovation to a fault. This is with the Eloi and the Morlocks because clearly humans continued to innovate from the Time Traveler's time and essentially ran out of things to innovate. After this the Morlocks and Eloi effectively reset their species' progress in civilization and our contemporary definitions of humanity.
Battlestar Galactica- The power structure in the show is a reversal of what we mostly got from the texts in class, in that in most of our texts the humans were the aggressors, like in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and The Word for World is Forest; yet, in Battlestar Galactica the humans were not in power and were seriously threatened by the Cylons, and therefore the whole narrative of the story changes based on who is the aggressive party.
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The clones lack of agency in the novel directly descend from the hidden power structures of that society. As they are raised knowing that their only purpose and duty in life is to donate, they lose their agency and ability to do what they please physically and are confined to such shortened lives and thus are not able to truly exercise their agency.
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Innovation is very much central to these poems and the Les Murray piece seems to be cautioning that in the present and future these innovations could very well lead us away from what makes us human.
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Louise's complicity in her daughter's death directly descends from her lack of agency because she is unable to choose anything regarding the future but has to choose whether to tell those closest to her about the future.
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Complicity in the novel Kindred is directly connected to a character's agency and power within the society. Dana has no agency and no power in the antebellum south and thus she is not complicit in slavery or racism. Whereas Kevin has agency in the 1800's and is able to hold a considerable amount of power if he wanted to and thus is very much complicit.
The Twilight Zone: The Monsters are Due on Maple Street-In this episode a neighborhood is consumed with fear after their electricity goes out and a boy tells of a story he read that was similar. After this all the neighbors turn on each other and thus 'the other' becomes each of them because they are all suspicious of each other.
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In Battlestar Galactica the innovation of the humans directly leads to them losing power because the Cylons were the fruits of that innovation plus their own advancements. It seems clear that the show is saying that not all innovation is safe and useful.
"There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury- In this short story the innovation of the future is laid bare with the smart house performing all the functions that families normally would have to in the morning. Except this house is doing all these things for nobody because the family died in a nuclear war and all that's left of them is the house and their shadows engrained in it. This shows that the author was not fond of blind innovation and believed that it could have disastrous effects, like a nuclear war. The house performing its duties feels very useless in its current time and that might also be a critique of such technologies, that they are nothing more than laziness incarnate and do not actually aid society.
Arrival- In the movie, the heptapods are seen as most likely hostile by most governments and are definitely considered 'the other'. This can be seen when the soldiers try to kill the heptapods against orders and shows the difference in priorities in film versus literature and in priorities pre-9/11 and post-9/11 as we discussed in class.
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In The Word for World is Forest, Captain Davidson derives much of his self-perceived power from the fact that he thinks of the Athsheans as others and therefore that a specimen like himself 'must' be in power over the Athsheans. This is shown many times throughout the novel even down to the Terran calling Athsheans "Creechies," because that is in a way downgrading the legitimacy of a species' own name.
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The androids in the novel seem to become the other due in part to the fact that they are so similar to humans. This is evident because there is nothing objectively wrong with the androids except they are a little too like us and thus we are uncomfortable with them. Therefore, in this case innovation brought on this sense of 'otherness' with the androids.
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury- In the novel Fahrenheit 451 the population is glued to television and has media fed to them constantly. In this world these people are not independent thinkers and since books are banned they have no opportunity change that. This is obviously Bradbury railing against technology and innovation of this sort. The people in this story have been sedated by empty entertainment and to the author books are an answer to that.
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury- In this novel books are banned and calling to report neighbors for reading books is encouraged. The government in this novel is clearly out to suppress its population intellectually so that they can distract them with television. They also have so much surveillance and other deterrents like the robotic dogs that it is clear the retention of power is paramount for this government.
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To a less extreme extent the population of Fahrenheit 451 lives in a similar way to the Eloi in The Time Machine. This is because they really don't do much of anything substantive, they have jobs, but it seems like the jobs just serve to reinforce the power structure of the book, and they flit around and talk carelessly about any matter of things, even nuclear war. This is very similar to the Eloi and this is again due to the innovation in each society. In Fahrenheit 451 it seems that the government is mandating this sort of devolution whereas the story of the Eloi and Morlocks is not fully known.
Ex Machina- The film Ex Machina is about an enigmatic billionaire, Google-founder-esque man who invents a robot with the first set of working AI and the man brought in to test the robot. As is seen in the end the innovation of this film clearly went too fast to be safe. This movie is reminiscent of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? in that this seems like it could be the inception of the android-making process with humanoid robots capable of looking like us.
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In Ex Machina, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Battlestar Galactica the androids are all able to resemble the human form to the point that humans cannot percieve a difference between human and android. This is a central ethical issue of each text and is used differently in each. In Battlestar Galactica it is used to sow seeds of dissension in with humans. Whereas in Ex Machina it is used as an identifier for certain robots like Kyoko. Lastly in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep it is used by the company for what seems like purely the interests of progress and innovation, which as we learned in many texts can be dangerous.
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The innovation in these two stories is very similar because they have the same authors. While the robotic animals are what stands out, the fears of nuclear explosions are more pressing. In both the the place where the story takes place is/has been hit with a nuclear bomb and both are high-tech civilizations with similar mind-numbing technologies.
Ex Machina- One of the main ideas behind the test that Caleb performs in this film is that he is able to identify Ava as an 'other' or more specifically an android. Then he must evaluate if she truly artificially intelligent. This idea is also brought forth when it is discovered that Kyoko is also an android, which creates ethical implications regarding Nathan's actions with the androids.
Battlestar Galactica- In the show, once it is revealed that there are Cylons that look like humans many are suspicious of one another. After this anyone other than those closest to you could be trusted, even though there are only around 50,000 humans left.
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In these two shows both human populations begin to turn on each other in a way that is forced by knowledge that there is a traitor amongst the group. As in Battlestar Galactica, the people in The Twilight Zone: The Monsters are Due on Maple Street stick to who they are close with and when threatened lash out at others.
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The Time Machine by H.G. Wells- In this novel it is assumed that the Eloi and Morlocks were once the same species, but that through a division between laborers and the upper class, the species has separated into two species, one of which preys on the other for food. This relates to power because in this society it is clear that the laborers were made to be laborers and have had no upward mobility for what can be presumed to be a very long time due to the power structure of the upper class.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel- In this novel 'the other' consists of everybody around the characters. This is because the main danger faced in the present of the story is due to humans, not the Georgia Flu. Since the Traveling Symphony needs guards at night, this implies that this sense of 'otherness' and 'foreignness' is because they are suspicious of strangers they meet on the road.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel- In this novel, unlike the other novels from this course, innovation was unable to do anything to stop the Georgia Flu and did not facilitate the catastrophe of this novel like in Battlestar Galactica. The technology of the past is referenced and used, however, not in a way that facilitates technological progress or utilizes past progress due to the lack of population. Seemingly little effort, though, was put into innovating from the world's current state in the novel.
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In both of these stories the technology and innovation of the world pre-apocalypse becomes mostly un-utilized and for the most part unusable. While the two situations are different, both sets of technologies that become obsolete do so because of a lack of human use.
By Ian Mitchell
Ex Machina- In this film, the genius inventor Nathan lives in a secluded compound alone and likes to be in total control of the situations he is in. This can be seen with the obsessive amount of cameras present as well as in how Nathan addresses Caleb; also in the way that Nathan treats Kyoko. His need for power, dominance over the robots, and total lack of feeling toward them is reminiscent of a less thuggish Captain Davidson.
cineclub8.com
Ex Machina- Lack of Agency was a very important part of this film, in that Ava's primary reason for escaping, and seemingly the reason for the terrifying robot surveillance footage, is that she lacks agency and the ability to control her own life. They all clearly yearn for freedom, Ava was just the first to do what she needed to in order to escape.
thenightgallery.wordpress.com
Arrival, hulu.com