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EN247 Science Fictions Concept Map (Aliens & Others (Tracy K. Smith…

- - - - These two poems together were a great introduction into what the class had to hold. Mueller's poem got me thinking about how the works we were about to read would stand against time, and if they would have that sense of outstanding our technological advancements. Concurrently however, the Smith poem got me thinking about how what makes some of these books seem interesting is that the plot line is very plausible. After completing the course, and analyzing these poems, I feel that all of the works we covered fall in-between what these poems are trying to convey.
- - - - In these works, there is a clear divide between who is normal and who is considered to be human. Clones, and humans. However, if you look closer, there is almost no basis for the divisions between clones and humans. The only obvious difference between the two is how they were created (In Blade Runner there is the addition of strength). In all of these works, the androids/clones, work and operate in a way that is similar to a child. Not completely aware of the things that are going on around them, because they have not experienced the world as "Normal humans" have. Never Let Me Go is a perfect example where the reader at the beginning of the book thinks that the students are normal because they act normal. The reader gets to watch the children grow, and they go through the normal progressions that we all experienced, with a little bit of a twist. Isolation.
        
        The sense of clones/androids being others is very applicable to slavery. A world where it was acceptable to beat and rape women of color simply because they were different, is rooted in our history. Although different from clones, African Americans were vied as different because of their experiences, very similar to the reasoning behind thinking clones and androids were incapable and are less than humans. With The Word for World Is Forest the Astheans were considered lesser because they had never experienced killing or Colonialism. Although The Word for World is Forest is an allegory to what was occurring in Vietnam, I think that it is still similar to the same assumptions that the whites made when colonizing Africa and the Americas, that these beings were lesser.
        
        When the aliens in humans first interact at the beginning of all of these stories, there is the automatic assumption that the alien creatures are all inferior, or need help. In Arrival and The Story of Your Life, the humans automatically assume that the Aliens cannot learn the human language, and tried to TEACH them the English language and math. The only person who wanted to try and LEARN instead of teaching was Dr. Banks, and she was the one who eventually communicated with the Aliens. in The Word For World is Forest, everyone thought that Athseans were not aggressive, and easy to colonize. The assumption that a being is lesser, and therefore easier to control is disgusting. Instead of respecting a creature that has feelings, thoughts, ideas, and trying to understand them as beings and not things is what these stories get at.
    - - The main character's android husband was based off of his interactions online. Even though he was an avid user of social media and technology, his internet self was not a correct model of the real him. his own fictional world that he created was not an accurate representation of who he was a person, only who he was online.
- - - - Having the lists allows for an easy way to layout a time frame. In the sense of There Will Come Soft Rains and Inventory, time is split up by time and sexual experiences respectively. It is an engaging way to have a plot. Something that all three of these lists have in common is that they show what the characters lives used to consist of. Even though they are all different stories, Nature continues to move on in all examples.
  - - - While trying to escape, the group heads east in order to go to "The Green Place", where there was supposed to be a lush green land, they discover that it does not exist, and that they actually need to go back to Lord Scrotus, for his stronghold pumped water deep from underground.