Along the way, the science fiction stories I'd been writing since I was 13 began to grow more believable. With my BS in biology and a fascination with genetics, I started to use more science in my fiction.
After reading hard SF for the past 50 years, and writing hard SF successfully for the past 20, I've started to dig deeper into what it takes to create realistic alien life forms. In the following series, I'll be sharing some of what I've learned. I've had some of those stories published, some not...I teach a class to GT young people every summer called ALIEN WORLDS. I've learned a lot preparing for that class for the past 25 years...so...I have the opportunity to share with you what I've learned thus far. Take what you can use, leave the rest. Let me know what YOU'VE learned. Without further ado...
What could be a more iconic battle between Human and Alien than Batman vs Superman?
I’ve never been a big fan of the movie versions of the DC universe, preferring to get my super hero fix in the Marvel universe. That being said, I HAVE enjoyed some of the DC movies: “Shazam!”, “Wonder Woman 1984”, and “Green Lantern”.
According to the TARGET website, the plot of “Batman vs Superman” is as follows, “Fearing the actions of a god-like Super Hero left unchecked, Gotham City’s own formidable, forceful vigilante takes on Metropolis’s most revered, modern-day savior, while the world wrestles with what sort of hero it really needs. And with Batman and Superman at war with one another, a new threat quickly arises, putting mankind in greater danger than it’s ever known before.”
IMDb summarizes the movie as follows: “The general public is concerned over having Superman on their planet and letting the ‘Dark Knight’ - Batman - pursue the streets of Gotham. While this is happening, a power-phobic Batman tries to attack Superman. Meanwhile, Superman tries to settle on a decision, and Lex Luthor, the criminal mastermind and millionaire, tries to use his own advantages to fight the ‘Man of Steel’”.
That other threat isn’t mentioned in either one of these synopses, but IS in the Wikipedia entry: “…unleashing a monster genetically engineered from DNA from both Zod's body and his own…” So, somehow, the ultimate horror is a Human/alien hybrid? Zod/Luthor’s hybrid is worse than the half-breed Human/Vulcan, STAR TREK’s Spock?
Hmm….can you say “double standard”?
At any rate, “Batman vs Superman” lays out a major problem we as Humans face – we respond negatively when faced with the alien. From the Online Etymology Dictionary: “alien (adj.) c. 1300, ‘strange, foreign,’ from Old French alien ‘strange, foreign;’ as a noun, ‘an alien, stranger, foreigner,’ from Latin alienus ‘of or belonging to another, not one's own, foreign, strange,’ also, as a noun, ‘a stranger, foreigner,’ adjective from alius (adv.) ‘another, other, different,’ from PIE root *al- (1) ‘beyond.’
“Meaning ‘residing in a country not of one's birth’ is from mid-15c. Sense of ‘wholly different in nature’ is from 1670s. Meaning ‘not of this Earth’ first recorded 1920. An alien priory (mid 15c.) is one owing obedience to a religious jurisdiction in a foreign country.” (Now THERE’S a story idea!)
I could look at any number of conflicts in the US and abroad, but I think I’ll keep this more academic than personal.
How about the current conflict between the Great Empires? NO! Not the US and Russia! Both of those are waning, though one of them doesn’t realize it yet. The current major conflict is between China and the United States with India waiting patiently in the shadows. The maneuvering between these empires are probably as close as we’ve come to a conflict between Humans and Interstellar Aliens. It also highlights the difficulty SF writers have had in creating truly alien peoples rather than just “Humans in funny masks and makeup”.
Let’s start with China first – and we no longer have to wonder what an alien society would be like…let’s start with naming TEN ways China and the US are different (and if you’re really brave, name TEN ways India is different from the US and different from China (20 things in total)…you start, I'll be back with my lists next week...
I’ve never been a big fan of the movie versions of the DC universe, preferring to get my super hero fix in the Marvel universe. That being said, I HAVE enjoyed some of the DC movies: “Shazam!”, “Wonder Woman 1984”, and “Green Lantern”.
According to the TARGET website, the plot of “Batman vs Superman” is as follows, “Fearing the actions of a god-like Super Hero left unchecked, Gotham City’s own formidable, forceful vigilante takes on Metropolis’s most revered, modern-day savior, while the world wrestles with what sort of hero it really needs. And with Batman and Superman at war with one another, a new threat quickly arises, putting mankind in greater danger than it’s ever known before.”
IMDb summarizes the movie as follows: “The general public is concerned over having Superman on their planet and letting the ‘Dark Knight’ - Batman - pursue the streets of Gotham. While this is happening, a power-phobic Batman tries to attack Superman. Meanwhile, Superman tries to settle on a decision, and Lex Luthor, the criminal mastermind and millionaire, tries to use his own advantages to fight the ‘Man of Steel’”.
That other threat isn’t mentioned in either one of these synopses, but IS in the Wikipedia entry: “…unleashing a monster genetically engineered from DNA from both Zod's body and his own…” So, somehow, the ultimate horror is a Human/alien hybrid? Zod/Luthor’s hybrid is worse than the half-breed Human/Vulcan, STAR TREK’s Spock?
Hmm….can you say “double standard”?
At any rate, “Batman vs Superman” lays out a major problem we as Humans face – we respond negatively when faced with the alien. From the Online Etymology Dictionary: “alien (adj.) c. 1300, ‘strange, foreign,’ from Old French alien ‘strange, foreign;’ as a noun, ‘an alien, stranger, foreigner,’ from Latin alienus ‘of or belonging to another, not one's own, foreign, strange,’ also, as a noun, ‘a stranger, foreigner,’ adjective from alius (adv.) ‘another, other, different,’ from PIE root *al- (1) ‘beyond.’
“Meaning ‘residing in a country not of one's birth’ is from mid-15c. Sense of ‘wholly different in nature’ is from 1670s. Meaning ‘not of this Earth’ first recorded 1920. An alien priory (mid 15c.) is one owing obedience to a religious jurisdiction in a foreign country.” (Now THERE’S a story idea!)
I could look at any number of conflicts in the US and abroad, but I think I’ll keep this more academic than personal.
How about the current conflict between the Great Empires? NO! Not the US and Russia! Both of those are waning, though one of them doesn’t realize it yet. The current major conflict is between China and the United States with India waiting patiently in the shadows. The maneuvering between these empires are probably as close as we’ve come to a conflict between Humans and Interstellar Aliens. It also highlights the difficulty SF writers have had in creating truly alien peoples rather than just “Humans in funny masks and makeup”.
Let’s start with China first – and we no longer have to wonder what an alien society would be like…let’s start with naming TEN ways China and the US are different (and if you’re really brave, name TEN ways India is different from the US and different from China (20 things in total)…you start, I'll be back with my lists next week...
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