Alien encounters are something I've never really believed could occur in real life. In science fiction how ever, my mind has been blown! I always considered aliens to be green martian people who sound like they've inhaled too much helium and probably don't stand much taller than a toddler. A few pieces of work like, "Out of All Them Bright Stars" or even movies like E.T. and Alien (although this was a scarier adaptation) feature something similar to my flawed understanding of aliens. It wasn't until I started to read science fiction piece that I realized aliens could be transient invisible forces that could control your mind and utilize your body. Aliens like this are featured in the short stories "The Mouse" and "Passengers". The more I analyzed this species of alien the quicker I realized - this is absolutely terrifying - .
In "Mouse" I loved the twisted ending, and in "Passengers" it kind of has the same concept of a twist ending, it is just done in different ways. It is apparent at the end of both of these novels that society has taken a back seat and basically fallen apart at the hands of whatever these beings are controlling them. Both of these stories hint at how society was basically falling apart already and that it was inevitable. The characters kind of approach the notion of a crumbling society nonchalantly. They mention things like, 'maybe the society was falling apart anyways' or 'we've always been able to adapt to being controlled'. I think that a lot of people view society today as teetering on the edge of falling apart or crashing all together. I found it very interesting that at the years 1968, and 1949 two authors had an idea of a weak society (both time periods when this thought wasn't often expressed). In both of these novels the "aliens" mentioned were ones who moved from person to person and controlled their actions. In "Mouse" the aliens tried to cause mass havoc that would disrupt the society all together. In "Passengers" all of the humans were aware that the passengers were around and that they consumed the humans minds just to be able to have vessel to live out their own lives. Although this was less destructive it was still overwhelming that a creature could over come your mind and you'd never know otherwise.
I feel like both of the aliens and the situations portrayed in these stories could be adapted as a huge metaphor that the downfall of our society is inevitable and that at any moment we all could be controlled. I understand that this is possibly magnifying the ideas of the authors more than they intended but because of the similar aspects of the two pieces, it is what I've come to interpret.
Throughout all of these stories, a type of control was always the result. "Mouse" and "Passengers", like I said before, have very similar aspects of mind control however, "Out of All Them Bright Stars" has an aspect of control that does not include the conscious mind. In this short story the alien type is more similar to my description of the martian people other than the fact that this alien can talk like a human, seems to be the size of a normal man, and he's blue. The type of control exemplified in these stories is control by the government. It appears that the aliens are out in the open in this world and that the government offers them protection and privacy. It seems that no matter what protection they have,the public is blindly ignorant and in fear unwilling to accept the foreign being.
In all of these stories (and most alien encounter stories for that matter) the aliens are thought of as the enemy and as these terrifying creatures. Sometimes this is true, and they really do just want to hurt us, but other times they're just trying to live their lives or just be accepted. I think its really important to realize how this applies to our lives today. The way that the passengers abuse the human abilities can be compared to the same way we abuse the abilities of species smaller than us (animal testing, animal labor) and the way we do not accept others as ourselves if they are different (birth defects, disorders, nationality) . Humans often have the tendencies to think of themselves as superior and better than all of those who cannot compare. Well, it is possible that the aliens in the story "Passengers" thought the same way, or that the aliens in the story "Mouse" just believed we were a weak link that needed to be terminated. When we can take a moment to change our perspectives in all situations, I think many would be surprised at how much more they understand.
"You really ought to be looking out, Beautiful instead of lying there like a dope, This is a day, Beautiful. This may be the beginning of the end-or of something new. I wish they'd hurry up and get it open" - "Mouse" by Fredric Brown
I had a bit of a different interpretation of the 'passengers' story. I think you are correct about scifi criticizing society because that is what speculative fiction is mostly about but I didn't think silverberg was discussing the collapse of civilization just a rewiring of it. The free love movement of the late sixties spawned a revolution in freedom of thought and in the story the alien is figuratively the person's own thoughts. I felt that the story was more about your own thoughts that are repressed coming out and seizing you. thus making the person do things they wouldn't normally think of doing.
ReplyDeleteNow that you're explaining this perspective I totally understand what you mean especially after considering the history. I do agree with passengers being about your own thoughts and doubt.
DeleteI completyl agree with you and I am glad we have similar perpectives! I have to say you caught my eye when you wrote about disabilitys because society has not yet exepted people that are not as stable as other! i really enjoyed reading your blog!
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