After reading many science fiction stories, articles, essays, and so on, I’ve come to appreciate what language can do for the story. It plays such an important role in setting mood, characterization. Each word has a meaning, either direct, or the mere use of the word implies something. The words used can tell you about the author or even the time it was written. The matter of fact writing of Solaris, or the deep introspection of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep fill in key holes in the writing. Overall the words chosen can mean more than what they string together to say. Definitely brought to attention by Delany, who argued language was the bread and butter of science fiction, language ended being most valuable not when it’s jumbled scientific jargon, but when it’s descriptive language used on what would normally be a short piece in another work. It’s not the lasers or rockets that Delany says makes science fiction, but the descriptions of what’s different from our world.
Nearly as important as the word choice would be the main character chosen for a science fiction story. Sometimes, the main character represents the societal norm of the time. Solaris, Electric Sheep, and Roadside Picnic are all unabashedly straight white men because they chose not to explore that aspect of their futuristic society, preferring to investigate other problems plaguing the world. The Dispossessed and Trouble on Triton however, choose to explore their world through a different lens. The Dispossessed follows a character from a society with no real gender norms, he rejects the organized society and its gender roles with it. Trouble on Triton chooses to reject the common protagonist by making him essentially a villain, causing havoc wherever he goes. It paints him as this uncaring, selfish thing, essentially making fun of stories that use this basic protagonist.
A surprisingly arbitrary part of science fiction, the technology used to reach the ends of the universe is often pretty easy to remove from the plot. A spaceship taking mankind to the stars could just be a boat taking pilgrims to a new land. The boat is unimportant, the new land they reach is what’s important. A space station used to study a living planet could be a church used to someone with angels. The explanation of the subject is irrelevant so long as the characters have to face a higher power, and struggle with their powerlessness. A society infiltrated by androids could just be a different minority. Machine parts make a good allegory for skin color. A planet run on anarchy could just as easily be an island secluded from the world. A new and foreign society will always fascinate. And Bron would be unlikeable in any time period. The stories told are timeless beneath the polished exterior, you just have to find the message it sends, it’s guaranteed to apply to your modern life regardless.
The only real important part of a science fiction novel is the exploration of the other. No matter what, the language will be slightly different than ours, the technology will make one thing more advanced than another, and one society will be different than the other. so long as their is a difference to be explored, science fiction will live on to explore what that difference means.
The differences between people will always lead to conflict, no matter how small that difference might be. So science fiction acts as a way to critique petty people from doing these things without reflection. Their superficial differences give no credence to superiority, and that’s demonstrated by the best science fiction works. I’m sure the first man on Earth wrote science fiction, exploring the other that he saw when he looked in the water, unaware that there was no difference between him and his reflection. It will be the same for the last man on Earth, who’s run out of enemies, tries desperately to find something to hate. Science fiction is the pretty vanity holding the mirror humans use for self reflection, an appealing exterior for a very necessary tool.
The writings I’m using are all examples of strong world building or development of the story/characters. Each story has certain moments that so thoroughly encapsulate the story’s main idea, it could be read on its own and still give adequate information about the plot, setting, or characters.
1: (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep) The sentence I analyzed was “It runs and runs, the wheel spins, but the squirrel stays in the same spot.”(page 128) The context of the sentence is Rick Deckard is talking to Phil Resch, a fellow bounty hunter and suspected android. Phil is describing his pet, a real squirrel, that he owns. Phil insists that because he cares for an animal, he has empathy and must be human. Deckard says it’s not impossible for an android to own and care for an animal, just unlikely. Deckard administers a test and concludes Resch is human, and his behavior is more normal than Deckard’s, who has begun empathizing with the androids. Rick, realizing he can no longer do his job because of this, says he wants to quit, saying androids can hunt androids, and he can live a peaceful life in an unassuming job.
This is where the importance of the sentence comes in. Deckard says he wants to quit, get a calmer job, and maybe even emigrate to Mars, but he never will. He’ll never make the change in his life that he wants, and he’ll always be in misery. The promise of a higher income for his bounties opened the opportunity for him to improve his home life, and help his wife be happy. But instead of looking to improve the necessary aspects of his life, he instead wants to buy an exotic animal. His need for superficial social acceptance will keep him in a loop of poverty for the rest of his life. If he bought the ostrich, it would no doubt die, the same as his sheep. But he still wants it, wasting his money without making significant changes, reflected by the squirrel running in its wheel. All of the effort Deckard puts in will amount to nothing, because he never makes any progress without wasting his chances at improvement. This comparison accuses Deckard of being no more than an animal, while the androids, who leave their planet and try to improve, are the truly human ones.
2: (Solaris) The passage I went over was “This body, seemingly so slender and frail – in fact indestructible – at its deepest level had turned out to be made of nothingness?” on page 77.
This line occurs when Kelvin is examining Harey’s blood, and finds it to not be made of atoms. This quote acts as such a good microcosm for the story as a whole because of the uncertainty it produces. The concept of the story is subversive of the human idea of convergent evolution. We all seem to think that life progresses towards the same end goal, regardless of its starting point. This is overturned in the earliest chapters, as the only life on Solaris is an amorphous goo, coating nearly the entire planet. From there, the story subverts more expectations by saying the sea is intelligent, and practically omniscient. At that point, the reader is losing grasp on the reality they had. They might question what life is, or intelligence. But the story goes further, showing physical beings that are not made of matter. To properly alienate the planet from the readers, it defies the most basic principles of our understanding of the universe. From this point, there’s nothing left for the characters or audience to rely on. Characters can no longer trust their own perception of the world around them, signaled by Kelvin treating “Harey” like he normally would. He accepts his inability to control reality and yields to the higher power of the sea, letting it decide what’s real or not. This reflects the time it was written, as the height of propaganda was during the Cold War, and many people couldn’t discern what was actually reality, and had to rely on what the state told them. It acts as a commentary on how people cope with true hopelessness in dire times of life threatening circumstances.
3: (The Dispossessed) Upon his arrival to Urras, Shevek has to familiarize himself with the new culture, which is very different from his own. Just on the spaceship ride over, his physician harasses him for his culture’s view on women in men’s line of work. He asks how women can do a man’s job, when men are “bigger and stronger.” Shevek replies that physical differences are irrelevant when people are using machines to work, and that the workers are valued based on their competence rather than their physical features. This catches the doctor off guard, who tries to defend his statement by talking about how many intelligent women he knows. It’s fairly apparent who the author wants the reader to agree with, by making the doctor a bumbling inarticulate bigot. Shevek seems to be a vehicle for an, at the time, progressive idea. The equalizing power of technology is treated like an obvious answer that no one has thought of on Urras. This idea suggests that the society of Urras, which sees itself as superior to Shevek’s people, is actually inferior, and limited by its cultural beliefs. It also promotes the anarchist, disassembled society of Shevek’s home world as a superior system for efficiency.
4: (Solaris) This sequence is the liquid oxygen chapter in the book. Where Hari tries to kill herself with a tank of liquid oxygen. She does it because she learns she is not the real person she thinks she is. In the novel, the death is very slow and drawn out, Hari suffering through the pain for its entire duration. In the movie, we see her after she has “died”, a much less emotionally tense scene. Kris sees her body, and waits for her to wake up. As opposed to the novel, where he tries to help, but is unable to end her suffering, being with her in her “final moments,” watching the woman he loved and lost die all over again. I can’t tell why this change would be made, as the original is so much more impactful. The length of the scene is gut wrenching, and the detail is gory. It couldn’t have been a budgetary issue, because there weren’t any effects in the novel’s version. Was the director intentionally making the scene less dramatic? Did he feel that it was too much for audiences to handle? I’m not sure what was intended. It may have been a commentary on how the humans were initially unwilling to see the guests as equals. Despite their nearly identical appearance to humans, the guests were fundamentally built different, and so could not be treated as the same in the humans’ eyes. But they did feel the same, and were cognitive beings, with emotions and rationality. So was it right to treat them all so coldly? Kris sent the first Hari into space in a day, because he didn’t see her as conscious. Even after Kris says he loves the new Hari, he just coldly watches her as she reanimates, only stepping in when she starts looking for him. This soulless reimagining of a dramatic scene really represents the adaptation as a whole
5: I read Joanna Russ’ “the Image of Women in Science Fiction.” It had a very interesting interaction with “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” in that it claims that a fairly deep novel is ultimately superficial because of the home life it depicts. She argues that Science Fiction uses a basic house structure to have their fantastical world revolve around. The stereotypes she outlines certainly apply to the novel, but it doesn’t devalue the story it tells. Russ gives the example that women in SF are passive, certainly demonstrated by Deckard’s wife, who need technology just to feel emotion. She has no thoughts on her husband, none that come from her mind at least. Her day consists of waiting for the next mood shift. The other woman in the story is Rachel Rosen, a secret android and love interest to the main character. One could argue against Russ and say she has agency, but of her actions, it is hard to discern what are her own and what are part of a larger scheme to control Deckard. She supposedly isn’t aware of her true nature until Deckard points it out, so she hardly has agency in her life. These two reductive and basic female characters may seem to bog down the story as a whole, but there’s much more to the story than the writer’s thoughts on equality of the sexes. The novel focuses on what we consider human, the topic of religion, and the morality of law enforcement’s mistreatment of civilians. There’s more than enough discussion to be had about these questions, why add another? The real world parallels in the story only help to ground us in it, while the questions explored estrange out consciousness from our reality. To expect a text to ask every question would be too much, and it becomes reductive of analysis to always bring each question back to the askers personal wants and desires. The basic relationship in the novel is a strength, not a weakness
6: (Trouble on Triton) I’m choosing to do a close reading of a passage off of page 186. It goes “‘What’s the point of having a sun so close if you can’t enjoy it?’ But Sam only laughed. They walked up the rise. Somewhere in last night’s conversation among the ruins, there had been discussion about when he would see her again. The Spike had given several answers, all negative, all evasive, and most beyond his comprehension.” This passage is about a conversation between Bron and Sam, where Bron’s mind keeps drifting back to Spike. Bron is spending time on Earth as a diplomat, helping sam maintain the peace among worlds. He rarely actually is trying to do this, as is seen in this example. Sam spends the entire story trying to introduce Bron to aspects of Earth culture and customs, only for Bron to seek his own entertainment at the cost of Sam’s mission. Spike represents the surface level amusement Bron finds in Earth culture, a passing fling that he can’t relive, but that doesn’t stop him from trying. Much like his aversion to deeply understanding others cultures, Bron also hates deeply understanding himself, constantly distracting himself so he doesn’t have to reflect. Spike also accidentally helps with this unhealthy behavior too. Sam’s facts about Earth culture could also be a lighthearted prod to get Bron talking. But instead of playing along with the gesture, Bron shuts it down to think of what he wants, completely unaware of what he’s even doing. Bron’s reaction to the decimation of Earth is indicative of this, as he’s once again more concerned with his distraction of Spike than anything logical. Ultimately, Bron’s really only aware of what’s directly in front of him, and he uses his time with Spike to justify his wandering mind taking him away from deeper thoughts. I’m sure without Spike’s interaction, Bron would still find a way to distract himself from the significant.
Other writers:
Masato Hirakata, on Trouble on Triton close read:
“It’s funny,” one of the guards said to nobody in particular. “The moonies always sit in the center of the wall as soon as you leave them alone. Marsies and Earthmen always take the corners,” (Delaney, 138).
As a gay African American, Samuel R. Delaney was probably highly conscious of racial tensions and segregation in society, as well as issues of sexuality and identity. Trouble in Triton, published in 1976, deals heavily with gender and identity in the advanced society that Delaney creates, but on page 138 it is shown by Delaney that racial discrimination has not been stamped out, and has never really gone away, even as people are free to modify their bodies freely as one might change clothes. The excerpt above describes the guard’s observations of the “moonies,” “Marsies” and “Earthmen” that she has encountered and imprisoned. It is clear that the security guard uses these terms in a derogatory fashion. The humor she finds in the behavior of the imprisoned humans are classified by her into the distinctions of their origin, that being whether they are from Triton, Mars, or Earth. Each of these terms already bear resemblance to racial slurs that exist in real life, alongside all of their unpleasant connotations.
However, beyond these newly developed terms, the liberal use of the N word is striking. None of the characters show any reaction to it, and the word takes on a quality of being commonplace in the world of Trouble on Triton. Bron himself uses the word in his inner monologues, and does not bat an eyelash. For all the freedoms and advances that have been made, it is made apparent that only certain kinds of deviancy have become acceptable to the norm. The deviancy that is acceptable are those that profit the system. Through these kinds of language that Delaney employs, we as the reader come to understand the ugly truths of the world that Bron inhabits. Ultimately, the N word has become the same kind of racial descriptor as is the currently accepted words of “white” or “black” or “asian.” Sam himself accepts the use of the N word as a reference to himself, which makes the fact that Bron is released into his custody all the more indicative of the normalized nature of the use of the N word and its presence in the day to day vernacular of the people in Trouble on Triton.
I found this writing useful because when I read that passage, I knew nothing about the author, only learning it at the end of the novel. It certainly recontextualizes the passage, now it comes from an inside perspective, and holds more meaning coming from someone who was most likely a victim of discrimination.
Michael Krawec on characterization in Roadside Picnic:
2. Characterization
Redrick Schuhart initially shown to the reader to be cold and calculated, yet also friendly and sarcastic at times. We are told that Redrick is a single, 23 year old male who works as a lab assistant in the Harmont branch of the International Institute of Extraterrestrial Studies (7). The first time we are introduced to his character is on this same page of the book, and he is already thinking about booze and going to the Borscht after work. He also complains that he hasn’t smoked in two hours, so perhaps he is a man of habit and impulse. He seems to be friends with Kirill and even tries to cheer up the latter when he is feeling down. However, Red is shown to be less than friendly to anyone who has wronged him or anyone he associates himself with. We see this in his interaction with the security guard, where Red reprimands the guard for calling him “Red” instead of “Redrick” (11). We see more into Red and his character when we learn than he is an orphan, which may explain his behavior and self-serving attitude (12). It is possible that his upbringing has also affected his habits, such as smoking and drinking. I think of Red as quite cold and indifferent initially because of how he speaks of the inhabitants of the Zone before it was the Zone. He elaborates on how they died but he really does not have any pity or empathy in the way he describes it (21). The only thing that Red seems to value is his own life, not the lives of others, and money. After all, the reader is shown how demanding and abusive he is when interacting with Tender, who he smacks and gives a swollen nose (23). However, Redrick’s attitude seems to change once he is informed that Kirill has died, most likely from his contact with the “cobweb” in the Zone (50-51). Red has been drinking heavily at this point and he cannot think of anything but the cobweb and the Zone. He even goes as far as trying to give the young man from Malta enough money to fly back home, just so that he won’t attempt to find treasure in the Zone but perish in the process. This moment in the novel seems to be a turning point for Red, precisely because it was Kirill, not some nameless Stalker, who had died due to Red’s insistence that they could find a full empty in the Zone.
Later on in the book, we are told that 5 years has passed. Red is shown to now be married and he has a young daughter. He still goes to the Zone and he sells whatever he finds on the black market. However, his motivation for money now is fueled more by his desire to help his family, not just himself. This can be clearly seen when, at the end of chapter 2, he calls his business associate to tell him where he stashed the goods from the Zone. Red tells this associate to not worry about hiring a lawyer, instead telling him to give “All the money, to the last penny” to his wife. He then walks off and it is assumed that he surrenders to the police and spends some time in prison (104). All in all, I see this older Redrick as a far departure from the Redrick we are introduced to in the beginning of the novel. From a writing perspective, the first chapter is told by Red himself, but the second chapter is told by a third person narrator and focuses around Red. I am not quite sure why the style of narration changed between these two chapters, but it does make for a more interesting narrative.
I hadn’t initially noticed this change in writing style, but can now see it plainly going back to the text. It seems to be changing along with the character, and not just an arbitrary decision by the author, so it definitely helps immerse the reader in Red’s mind. I am now impressed by the change and how subtly it was done.
Quinn Hughes writes on the Solaris novel:
“Since we know they’re not human…” “In a certain subjective sense, they are human. They know nothing whatsoever about their origins. You must have noticed that?” (74)
After reading the first nine chapters of “Solaris”, I can give a variety of examples that demonstrate how this novel is about “the limits of human cognition”. However, I’d like to focus on the short passage above as it does a great job of sharing parallels with this week’s blog question. For one, the experiences that Kris and Gibarian endure appear to be quite similar, however, their responses are entirely different. Gibarian appeared to of been caught off guard, and as stated within the text, “He was doing his damnedest to solve the problem, to get to the bottom of it. He worked day and night…” (68) In other words, Gibarian was so disturbed and confused as to why he encountered another “human-like” being that his response as one with a Ph.D. was to figure out who and what he was interacting with. Even so, his expertise is what drove him to his eventual demise. He was unable to surpass the finite limit of human cognition or in other words, lacking comprehension to recognize the possibility of alien life that was strikingly akin to humans, and even people that he knew/known. This phenomenon is so utterly extreme and incomprehensible that Gibarian had to take his own life; ending such preposterous comprehension and cognition that defied every intellectual thought and study. Gibarian probably knew or thought of the human-like creature to be some form of Alien as it had magically appeared in the first place. Moreover, we can assume that he had an incredibly hard time acknowledging that this presumably living thing that looks and acts human, is not human. What makes this fascinating is the difference in how Kris handles a similar situation. Rheya, who tragically committed suicide after he left the relationship, suddenly returns after he gets a night’s rest. Unlike Gibarian, Kris understands how delusionally insane the situation is that he is experiencing, and takes action to temporarily end the chaos by essentially launching Rheya into orbit around Solaris. There are a few reasons as to why Kris’s cognition of the situation was so strikingly different than Gibarian’s. For one, Kris knew from nearly the moment he landed that something was wrong, and was aware that Gibarian had been involved in an incident that led to his death. We can assume that with being aware of this incident, along with shockingly witnessing a random woman while looking through Gibarian’s locker, that Kris had encountered multiple logic-defying or confusing encounters in his short time since arriving on Solaris. Furthermore, these moments act as preparation for the experience that he encounters with Rheya and results in the differing response in contrast to Gibarian when witnessing a form of “alien life” that pushes intellectual cognition to its brink as the phenomenon shares the look, voice, and more of someone that Kris at one point loved.
Quinn’s perspective on Gibarian’s death is interesting. It’s almost Lovecraftian, how a man of great intellect couldn’t handle something so much greater than he could perceive. He seems to hint at the idea that Gibarian knew more about Solaris than the book lets on, more than any of the other scientists. Thinking about it, it does seem that the more intense scientists were more distraught by the guests. Kris is a psychologist, arguably the least appropriate study for a planet of goo. Snaut rarely talks about technology, suggesting he might not be a very detail oriented scientist. Sartorious is constantly in his lab working on way to study or otherwise deal with the guests, and is no doubt the most upset by his visitor besides Gibarian.