Paige O’Connor 9/14
My Introduction: Paige’s reading response is an excellent example of one of the main aspects of this course, divisions in society. Paige’s interpretation of the discrimination of androids is spot on as they truly aren’t different from humans, but humans have developed a questionable system that tests those suspicious and if the results aren’t favorable execution is likely. Her comparison to today’s society is what drew me to her post especially because I agree with her in the fact that the lack of difference, but the man-made distinction, between humans and androids is the same way humans in our society today are unjustly treated.
“Loitering on Earth potentially meant finding oneself abruptly classed as biologically unacceptable, a menace to the pristine heredity of the race” (Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, 16).
In the dystopian world Dick builds, there is a hierarchy based on genetic purity. Emigrants are at the top; they’re smart, genetically pure, and human. Androids are below; they’re smart, genetically programmed, and human-like since they can slip through the fingers of bounty hunters, like Deckard. Then, there are specials; seemingly dumb for not emigrating, genetically altered from the fallout, though still technically human. And finally, there are “chickenheads,” like John Isidore, who aren’t smart enough to pass the intellectual tests to leave Earth. In other words, he is rejected the privilege to support the survival of the human species because he is deemed as a stain on humanity. Even though chickenheads are human, they are treated with humiliation and hate. Whether an android, special, or chickenhead, society will perceive you as less than human, thus inevitably denied rights given to those regarded as superiors. Androids are “retired” (i.e. killed), specials are outcasted, chickenheads are irrelevant. In this sentence, Dick targets a prominent issue in the world of emigrants, androids, specials, and chickenheads that also plagues our realm: discrimination.
This sentence highlights how man will readily dehumanize those of their own species if they simply have different attributes or abilities. In the world Dick creates, it is genetically pure versus genetically altered/intellectually subpar, which parallels our own world of white skin versus colored skin, white collar versus blue collar, rich versus poor. These uncontrollable distinctions grant opportunities to those who have the advantage. However, it is important to note how the narrator in the novel reveals that becoming classified as “biologically unacceptable” is potential for those who loiter it. Considering that the narrator, John Isidore, is a chickenhead, it can be suggested that he can camouflage his identity. This reveals why bounty hunters, like Deckard, depend on Voigt-Kampff Empathy Test to distinguish androids from humans, thus knowing who to “retire.” But, if a test is needed to differentiate machine versus human, is there truly a difference? This sentence encapsulates how discrimination thrives in any society, but ultimately, these distinctions can be quite arbitrary and pointless when anyone can mold their shell to match the desirable and those who have everything can behave like the undesirable.
Brandon Singel 10/5
My Introduction: As someone who did not know the history of science fiction in the Soviet Union, I found “SF and the Thaw” especially interesting. Brandon did a phenomenal job outlining the transition of science fiction from the Stalin-era in the Soviet Union as described in Istvan Csicery-Ronay Jr.’s text. The ability for literature to have freedom and individuality is what science fiction thrives on and the text shows how influential the Cold War had on the genre.
In Istvan Csicery-Ronay, Jr.’s, “SF and the Thaw”, it is discussed how influenced science fiction was during the Thaw period in the Soviet Union. To give context, the Thaw period was a period of slow reworkings and straying away from the harsh censorship of the Stalin era on literature. The start of the Thaw period was in 1953, which was right after the death of Joseph Stalin, and ended in around 1972. Science fiction writers, and science fiction as a whole was heavily impacted during the Thaw because the imagination and possibilities of literature were no longer pressured as much to follow a strict set of guidelines set out during the Stalin era. A prominent figure of this period was Nikita Khrushchev, who led the Soviet Union for a large portion of this time. Once Khrushchev came into power, he knew that during the Stalin era the Soviet Union had become technologically inferior to the West, and knew restrictions on the freedom of information and access to Western sciences had to be lifted if the nation could ever catch up. On page 339 it states, “He encouraged science education, decentralized industrial and educational institutions, and opened the country to Western scientific ideas.” Because of this, the country could develop a more advanced nuclear arsenal, better space exploration technology, etc. Science fiction writers during the Thaw were tasked with describing the future that they deemed should come to be. On page 341, it explains, “It was their mandate, as it were, to imagine ‘how the future of their society was to be organized.’” This was so important for the genre and writers of the genre because now they could imagine a personal future, and even with some restrictions still being in place, writers had more of a voice and prominent standing in how the nation could move forward. Another reason this period was influential to science fiction was the target audience, being described in the text as “the scientific intelligentsia”, “young engineers, research scientists, and students”, as described on page 342. Some of the most important SF writers coming from this period were originally part of the scientific intelligentsia. The connection between the easier accessible information relating to science and the development of science fiction during the Thaw was practically direct, and opened up new and exciting works of literature.
Vinh Nguyen
My Introduction: Vinh’s analysis of Roadside Picnic in comparison to Andromeda and Solaris does an excellent job connecting how much of the literature we have worked with. The connection exists as the texts focus on a divide between humanity and itself or humanity and an alternate form of life. The stress Vinh put on the lack of understanding between humanity and alien life is something that I found key as it represents how the human desires of curiosity tend to be unpreventable whether it is at the expense of ourselves or others. A close relationship between two species so different would have been a serious challenge, but humans lack the ability to avoid interacting with and evaluating the alien life forms.
Roadside Picnic is an exploration of an alien contact that is more personal compared to Andromeda and Solaris. Humanity, in this novel, is not as technologically advanced as well. Opposite of Solaris, contact with aliens doesn’t begin with humanity discovering alien life on a planet, but aliens coming straight to our homes with malicious intent. These six ‘Visit Zones’ are the landing zones where the aliens invaded, which caused “burning neighborhoods, monsters that devoured exclusively women and children, and bloody struggles between the invincible aliens and the … Royal Armoured Corps” (Strugatsky 3). The aliens left right after, leaving behind unexplainable pieces of technology that “could completely change the course of human history” in areas of extreme danger that have perilous “graviconentrate[s]” that can crush a human into nothing. These Zones are both what humanity has feared of from aliens and the key for advancing humankind. The ‘stalkers’ are heroes when they are successful retrieving alien artifacts in the Zone. Those that are brave enough to explore the Zone are celebrated while the rest of humanity are terrified of what horrors are left in the Zone. Half the population of Harmont, one of the places hit by the alien invasion, have left the town because “it’s like living on top of a volcano” (Strugatsky 42).
The three novels explore contact with different levels of power in the relationship between humanity and alien life. Roadside Picnic is similar to Andromeda but in Andromeda humanity are the aliens that are invading and slaughtering the natives. Humanity is the advanced civilization that is exploring the universe. Solaris is the intermediate as alien life and humanity are something like mutuals. Humanity is an advanced civilization beginning their exploration of the stars. Solaris is an unfathomable being that is an ocean that encompasses a planet. Both sides are curious about the other species. Both are confused by the other. Both are so incredibly different from each other that a proper relationship between the two is most likely impossible. Roadside Picnic is at the other end of the spectrum. Humanity is powerless to the alien invaders and are slaughtered by the invincible aliens.