My life has revolved solely around science fiction for the past few months, and it's been one of the most educational and enjoyable phases through which I have ever gone. I'd have to say it started with a week or so in which at least a dozen Star Trek references were thrown at me in an academic setting; I felt inferior for not totally catching the references and therefore not being able to participate fully in discussions in which the reference came up, but I took this as a sign from the universe telling me to watch Star Trek. As all things should be done, I started from the very very beginning and am still working my way through the Original Series. But of course I couldn't just limit my exploration of this fascinating genre to one TV series. I expanded out into books, short stories, movies and other TV shows recommended to me by fellow fans of Sci-Fi. To this day, The Transall Saga - a book I read in fifth grade for a book report - is one of my favorite books of all time. Combined with stories from H.P. Lovecraft (thanks to John and Josiah for the recommendation), Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the two sci-fi stories we read for this short story unit (Brave New World and Welcome to The Monkey House), I finally feel like I am building up a decent understanding for the sci-fi genre of literature. I'm no expert by any means, but there's something to be said for a little dedication to the genre.
I've learned a few things about the purpose of the genre from observing themes and effects tied to each of the works I listed above. I'm a strong believer in the concept of fiction being fact; what makes any kind of fiction worth reading (or writing in the first place) is taking realistic, modern life as we know it and blowing some of its aspects out of proportion. By doing this, we are able to look at parts of the realistic world and either observe ourselves as we are currently, or we can project what we might be capable of in the future. For example, there's an episode of Star Trek ("The Squire of Gothos") in which a man named Trelane is living alone on a planet and lives his life based on his complete infatuation with Napoleon. At one point in the episode, he tells Captain Kirk that "humans are one of the few species who prey upon themselves." This line hit me hard when I was watching the episode. But take the situation in its full context: an alien who receives information from Earth 500 years after the history has happened traps a few humans and a vulcan on his planet where he dwells in solitude and plays the harpsichord all day. Complete and utter buffoonery, and yet we can take away a deeper understanding of very real human aspects-- our lack of remorse for killing members of our own species-- from this surface-level hogwash. (PSA: if you want real military commentary from a sci-fi source, watch Battlestar Gallactica-- essentially a militarized Star Trek.)
The two stories we read in class that touched on the topic of science did a particularly good job of mentioning the ethical aspect of science. Having written papers on the ethics of cloning and biological terrorism, I'm no stranger to looking at the critical side of science that people are afraid to observe. In class, a very interesting idea was brought up: what's the difference between science and ethics in relation to science. This baffled me, as I kind of figured the two were relatively synonymous. I still don't have a full comprehension of this distinction, but I'd say ethics surrounds the contribution (good or bad) of a scientific practice in relation to society or a community, while morality is more related to the soundness of science in relation to the individual. This difference is seen in Huxley's Brave New World; the creation of many identical people is ethical in that society can benefit from it and it eases many concerns in the futuristic world, but it may not be moral in terms of how the individual is living out their life more like a robot than a human. This is a topic that I will be actively looking out for when reading/watching science fiction material from now on.
There's so much more to say about the validity and importance of sci-fi in literature, but this is a nice dosage for one day.
I myself haven't gotten into science fiction that much, but from your blog post, it seems like it's a lot more applicable to all kinds of readers than the stereotype that has been engrained into our brains since we were young - that it was for "geeks" and "nerds." I really think that you would enjoy reading all of *Brave New World* I don't personally consider it science fiction so much as dystopian lit, but that begs the question as to where we draw that line. Anyways, I think you would really enjoy it based on our discussion in class and how it relates to morality and ethics in science and the differentiation between the two. I also really liked Jurassic Park, no not the movie, the actual book. That was another one that really brought into question the necessity of ethics and morals in science and the extent to which we alter our world. Nice post!
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