As crazy or weird as it sounds, science fiction does reflect on humanity in more ways than one. Many (but not all) authors use a futuristic approach when it comes to their writing. Authors also use the theme of aliens, and in the story "Passenger" written by author Robert Silverberg, he uses both the futuristic and alien theme. For instance, around the third or fourth paragraph he talks to a compter and asks "her" what time and year it is. The year "Passenger" was written was in the year 1968, but the computer tells the narrator that it is the year 1987. Here is a clear use of the futuristic theme. I find it interesting because in today's world some people have Siri on their phones, and if you ask Siri was the date, time and weather are she will dictate it to you much like the computer told the narrator the date, time and the weather, and to me that is amazing because that technology that was being described in the story was nowhere near existent. In the next couple of paragraphs you see the theme of the future being used a lot. The computer makes a concoction in the kitchen for the hungover narrator and clearly in the 1960's this automated kitchen idea was not in existence either. Another theme that was used in "Passenger" was the aliens. What i noticed in the story was that the aliens took over the humans body as if the aliens where playing pretend, much like you do when you are a child. So these aliens posses these bodies and are free to do anything with them, which some find it to be a frightening idea; not be able to control your own thoughts or actions of the body.
In the story "Out Of All them Bright Stars", by author Nancy Kress uses the same alien but takes place in present 1985, except the alien in this story is friendly and does not have any harmful intentions onto the human race. The alien names "John" was a mild mannered, soft spoken, sweet alien who had nothing but good coming from him. He faced adversity and discrimination because of the fact that he was blue. Many where mean to "John" except for Sally Gourley, who saw the human essence in him unlike her boss and co-worker. This surely reflects onto humanity in the sense of racism or being a unique individual; because he was blue and didn't quite fit in. The fact that he was being threatened by the owner of the diner, in my perspective was wrong. Also reading the introduction was a great help and made me understand the essentials of science fiction writing, as well as how this genre slowly paved its path onto being one of the many popular genres to date.
With "Passengers," as you said, the story was based out of 1987, but was written in 1968. I,too, feel that science fiction does bring a lot of attention in terms of what "is of the future?" Sometimes, I wonder if Science-Fiction is some_what_a way to give ideas when it comes to technology and its advances. Also, do you think that some of these authors reminisce of the future through their dreams?
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