Avatar. The Avengers. Iron Man 3. Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The Dark Knight Rises.
These are five of the top ten all-time highest grossing movies. Their (arguable) inclusion in the Science Fiction canon begs a question of the genre: is it just the spectacle that we shell out to witness, or is there some more primitive itch that these kinds of events scratch?
This blog is dedicated to figuring out how it is that Science Fiction addresses the problem of defining "human."
One of the most interesting reflections that I see in Gulliver’s Travels, on real life, is that of religious and political scope in society. In Chapter IV on pages 29-32, Reldresal, the Principal Secretary of private Affairs, addresses Gulliver and explains the causes of unrest within the Lilliputian Empire as well as the cause of the war with the Brundrecal. Regarding the growing tension within the Lilliputian administration, it seems to all stem around the two struggling parties within the Empire; the Tramecksan (high-heels) and Slamecksan (low-heels). These two parties are reflections of the Tories, the high-church party (high-heels), and the Whigs which were considered the low-church party (low-heels). In the story, certain individuals in the administration wore high-heels and others low on their shoes, signifying the view that they would have held in the real world. I find it interesting that Swift simplified the issue at hand in England during the time period using this allegory. It also plays to the fact that many of the conflicts between the two parties, at least in Swift’s mind, can simply be simplified to which style of shoe one wears in public. Very similar to the case above, Swift connects the cause for the Lilliputian and Brundrecal wars to an equally trivial issue as was the case in during the time period between England and France. In the story, it is explained by Reldresal that so long as the two Empires existed, its inhabitants would crack their eggs on the larger end. After the current Emperor’s grandfather had cut his finger, when he was a boy, on an egg, an edict was established to only break eggs on the smaller end. This caused a schism in the populace and created the Little and Big-Endians. It is explained in the footnotes that These two groups are, for the most part, representations of Catholics (Big-Endians) and Protestants (Little-Endians). As similar to the situation above, Swift took the current conflict of the time and turned it on its head in such a way that revealed the ridiculousness of the problem, comparable to one’s own preference of cracking an egg.
It was mentioned in class that Gulliver’s Travels doesn’t have the typical “signposts” of sci fi. Contrary to common definitions of sci fi, the story doesn’t seem to have a “human problem” brought about by a new invention or innovation, and there aren’t any human reactions to changes in science and tech. An argument can be made that Gulliver himself embodies this “innovation”, but that seems like a stretch when considering the whole. It feels more like it’s at home with Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”; more fantasy than sci fi.
Thanks to the footnotes, I was made aware of how regularly the story is used as a commentary on British life and politics; something I would have certainly been ignorant of otherwise. If one must categorize Gulliver, it seems like this particular feature places it more in line with “Animal Farm”.
Sci fi certainly makes social commentaries too: Joe Halderman’s “Forever War” makes allusions to Vietnam in the same way Swift alludes to British war and politics. I suppose the difference is that something like Halderman’s work HAS the “signposts”: lasers, aliens, and relativity.
I guess the effort to categorize Gulliver as sci fi, (based on various contemporary definitions) depends on whether one considers Gulliver the “innovation” that inspires (ostensibly human?) Lilliputian reaction, or the other way around.
After finishing part one of Gulliver’s Travels, I couldn’t help but come back to the comments made in class on Wednesday, discussing whether or not this was a piece of science fiction. What I found most interesting was when we were discussing this work as a piece of pre-science fiction. Looking at this work and seeing what is has in common with other later science fiction motifs. I think that this piece does have a lot of the powerful sense of allegory that is popular in other works. As a side note, I think that this pieces ability to serve as allegory is a product of its simplicity. It is written in a very plain way, without dialogue, and is written mostly by what is happening, not what people are thinking. This writing style lets us look at exactly what was going on, and easily lets us look at the major players in the story as symbols for different things. Justin posted in the thread that he thinks that this work might fit more in the category that Animal Farm is in, which would be, I suppose “political satire”. I think that this is a very insightful observation, I think that the two pieces are very closely related. But I think that Animal goes to an even greater length to be blatantly allegorical and satirical. Gulliver’s travels seems to be more concerned with fleshing out every detail of the situation. though it is still simple because it is somewhat of an objective account, it is still far more in depth then animal farm is. This may seem to be splitting hairs but I think that the value the author puts in the details, and how this world functions is important. I think that this need to make sense and explain most things is what makes it a pre-science fiction work. Though I am not that familiar with the genre, in the discussion about the definition of Sci-Fi that we had, the “How” of everything seemed to be significant. Because of this I would classify Gulliver’s travels as both a pre-sci fi work, as well as a political satire.
Having little experience with science fiction, it is difficult for me to confidently determine a piece to be in or out of this category. However, I am picking up on key elements of science fiction work as class goes on. Gulliver’s Travels does not appear a perfect fit for the genre, but as mentioned in class, I see it fitting into a sort of early form of science fiction. I do believe that the story involves a sort of “human problem.” It deals with the structure of a society, its interactions with surrounding civilizations, and its reaction to a foreigner. Gulliver’s Travels also has a fantasy aspect to it, given that the majority of the story (thus far anyway) is centered about a six-inch human species. This idea of a miniature human species also fits the common science fiction feature of involving a central idea that must be accepted as true by the reader for the story to hold. What the piece is missing is a human solution to the human problem. There are neither real inventions nor innovations. There is not much of an extraordinarily futuristic idea. The mentioned direct relation to England also somewhat threw me off. As mentioned in class, the idea of the story relating rather to a sort of “reverse” alien invasion I thought was, in a strange but still true way, applicable. I think that this is a really interesting way of looking at the text.
What’s interesting about Gulliver’s Travels is how both the narrator and the islanders are completely alien from each other, but also live in the same exact world, all of nature being familiar to them. The story is told in the perspective of a narrator who is a regular human being living in a normal reality to until he stumbles upon an island completely foreign to what he knows. It is out of this world to him, but at the same time the islanders had no idea that creatures like him can exist, so it’s out of their world as well. I think this fits well as sci fi because there are references to the real world that anybody can relate to, yet have innovative ideas for the 1700s. Although there are the realities people can relate to, there are huge changes in the narrator’s world to how the world can be thought of now because of the new discoveries the characters made with each other.
At the end of page 30, the islanders learn from the narrator that there are other people like him living in various places around the world. They thought he fell from the moon or stars, and their religious history states nothing of the kind of creature he is, or where he is from. These people don’t know other creatures like him can exist, and never seemed to think something like that can occur or happen in their world. It’s parallel to our world that we also don’t know what could exist, like the several undiscovered areas of our ocean. Things completely alien to us can exist, and has the possibility of existing before humans came about on Earth. Even though some parts are alien, the islanders still have political indifferences just like the narrator’s world does, so I can see how the story fits into a sort of social commentary.
I watch a lot of science fiction movies and play a decent amount of science fiction video games, but Gulliver's Travels by Swift was different for me. I can see how Gulliver's Travels can be a science fiction novel, but I am so use to the more modern/futuristic science fiction things that reading part one of the novel was different. However, I do see this novel to be fitting for the early science fiction forms back then. I mean this novel was about a normal sized human who accidentally washed up onto an island where a big population of six inch people were living in. This to me sounds like science fiction to me, but like I said, more towards the early science fiction forms. I mean the six inch people thought Gulliver fell from the sky, so they must have thought that he was an alien and Gulliver thought the six inch people were aliens too. So it was like an alien invasion sort of thing. Also I do see that this novel includes a form about human problems. It shows how Gulliver's society was different from the six inch peoples, how both reacted towards each other when they met each other and how Gulliver had to adapt to this new world/rules with everything/everyone was the size of an ant from his view. I enjoyed reading the first part of Gulliver's Travel, but it wouldn't be on my favorite science fiction list. I am more into the futuristic science fiction than the non/early science fiction things.
One of the most interesting reflections that I see in Gulliver’s Travels, on real life, is that of religious and political scope in society. In Chapter IV on pages 29-32, Reldresal, the Principal Secretary of private Affairs, addresses Gulliver and explains the causes of unrest within the Lilliputian Empire as well as the cause of the war with the Brundrecal.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the growing tension within the Lilliputian administration, it seems to all stem around the two struggling parties within the Empire; the Tramecksan (high-heels) and Slamecksan (low-heels). These two parties are reflections of the Tories, the high-church party (high-heels), and the Whigs which were considered the low-church party (low-heels). In the story, certain individuals in the administration wore high-heels and others low on their shoes, signifying the view that they would have held in the real world. I find it interesting that Swift simplified the issue at hand in England during the time period using this allegory. It also plays to the fact that many of the conflicts between the two parties, at least in Swift’s mind, can simply be simplified to which style of shoe one wears in public.
Very similar to the case above, Swift connects the cause for the Lilliputian and Brundrecal wars to an equally trivial issue as was the case in during the time period between England and France. In the story, it is explained by Reldresal that so long as the two Empires existed, its inhabitants would crack their eggs on the larger end. After the current Emperor’s grandfather had cut his finger, when he was a boy, on an egg, an edict was established to only break eggs on the smaller end. This caused a schism in the populace and created the Little and Big-Endians. It is explained in the footnotes that These two groups are, for the most part, representations of Catholics (Big-Endians) and Protestants (Little-Endians). As similar to the situation above, Swift took the current conflict of the time and turned it on its head in such a way that revealed the ridiculousness of the problem, comparable to one’s own preference of cracking an egg.
It was mentioned in class that Gulliver’s Travels doesn’t have the typical “signposts” of sci fi. Contrary to common definitions of sci fi, the story doesn’t seem to have a “human problem” brought about by a new invention or innovation, and there aren’t any human reactions to changes in science and tech. An argument can be made that Gulliver himself embodies this “innovation”, but that seems like a stretch when considering the whole. It feels more like it’s at home with Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”; more fantasy than sci fi.
ReplyDeleteThanks to the footnotes, I was made aware of how regularly the story is used as a commentary on British life and politics; something I would have certainly been ignorant of otherwise. If one must categorize Gulliver, it seems like this particular feature places it more in line with “Animal Farm”.
Sci fi certainly makes social commentaries too: Joe Halderman’s “Forever War” makes allusions to Vietnam in the same way Swift alludes to British war and politics. I suppose the difference is that something like Halderman’s work HAS the “signposts”: lasers, aliens, and relativity.
I guess the effort to categorize Gulliver as sci fi, (based on various contemporary definitions) depends on whether one considers Gulliver the “innovation” that inspires (ostensibly human?) Lilliputian reaction, or the other way around.
After finishing part one of Gulliver’s Travels, I couldn’t help but come back to the comments made in class on Wednesday, discussing whether or not this was a piece of science fiction. What I found most interesting was when we were discussing this work as a piece of pre-science fiction. Looking at this work and seeing what is has in common with other later science fiction motifs. I think that this piece does have a lot of the powerful sense of allegory that is popular in other works.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note, I think that this pieces ability to serve as allegory is a product of its simplicity. It is written in a very plain way, without dialogue, and is written mostly by what is happening, not what people are thinking. This writing style lets us look at exactly what was going on, and easily lets us look at the major players in the story as symbols for different things.
Justin posted in the thread that he thinks that this work might fit more in the category that Animal Farm is in, which would be, I suppose “political satire”. I think that this is a very insightful observation, I think that the two pieces are very closely related. But I think that Animal goes to an even greater length to be blatantly allegorical and satirical. Gulliver’s travels seems to be more concerned with fleshing out every detail of the situation. though it is still simple because it is somewhat of an objective account, it is still far more in depth then animal farm is. This may seem to be splitting hairs but I think that the value the author puts in the details, and how this world functions is important. I think that this need to make sense and explain most things is what makes it a pre-science fiction work. Though I am not that familiar with the genre, in the discussion about the definition of Sci-Fi that we had, the “How” of everything seemed to be significant. Because of this I would classify Gulliver’s travels as both a pre-sci fi work, as well as a political satire.
Having little experience with science fiction, it is difficult for me to confidently determine a piece to be in or out of this category. However, I am picking up on key elements of science fiction work as class goes on. Gulliver’s Travels does not appear a perfect fit for the genre, but as mentioned in class, I see it fitting into a sort of early form of science fiction.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that the story involves a sort of “human problem.” It deals with the structure of a society, its interactions with surrounding civilizations, and its reaction to a foreigner. Gulliver’s Travels also has a fantasy aspect to it, given that the majority of the story (thus far anyway) is centered about a six-inch human species. This idea of a miniature human species also fits the common science fiction feature of involving a central idea that must be accepted as true by the reader for the story to hold.
What the piece is missing is a human solution to the human problem. There are neither real inventions nor innovations. There is not much of an extraordinarily futuristic idea. The mentioned direct relation to England also somewhat threw me off.
As mentioned in class, the idea of the story relating rather to a sort of “reverse” alien invasion I thought was, in a strange but still true way, applicable. I think that this is a really interesting way of looking at the text.
What’s interesting about Gulliver’s Travels is how both the narrator and the islanders are completely alien from each other, but also live in the same exact world, all of nature being familiar to them. The story is told in the perspective of a narrator who is a regular human being living in a normal reality to until he stumbles upon an island completely foreign to what he knows. It is out of this world to him, but at the same time the islanders had no idea that creatures like him can exist, so it’s out of their world as well. I think this fits well as sci fi because there are references to the real world that anybody can relate to, yet have innovative ideas for the 1700s. Although there are the realities people can relate to, there are huge changes in the narrator’s world to how the world can be thought of now because of the new discoveries the characters made with each other.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of page 30, the islanders learn from the narrator that there are other people like him living in various places around the world. They thought he fell from the moon or stars, and their religious history states nothing of the kind of creature he is, or where he is from. These people don’t know other creatures like him can exist, and never seemed to think something like that can occur or happen in their world. It’s parallel to our world that we also don’t know what could exist, like the several undiscovered areas of our ocean. Things completely alien to us can exist, and has the possibility of existing before humans came about on Earth. Even though some parts are alien, the islanders still have political indifferences just like the narrator’s world does, so I can see how the story fits into a sort of social commentary.
I watch a lot of science fiction movies and play a decent amount of science fiction video games, but Gulliver's Travels by Swift was different for me. I can see how Gulliver's Travels can be a science fiction novel, but I am so use to the more modern/futuristic science fiction things that reading part one of the novel was different. However, I do see this novel to be fitting for the early science fiction forms back then. I mean this novel was about a normal sized human who accidentally washed up onto an island where a big population of six inch people were living in. This to me sounds like science fiction to me, but like I said, more towards the early science fiction forms. I mean the six inch people thought Gulliver fell from the sky, so they must have thought that he was an alien and Gulliver thought the six inch people were aliens too. So it was like an alien invasion sort of thing. Also I do see that this novel includes a form about human problems. It shows how Gulliver's society was different from the six inch peoples, how both reacted towards each other when they met each other and how Gulliver had to adapt to this new world/rules with everything/everyone was the size of an ant from his view. I enjoyed reading the first part of Gulliver's Travel, but it wouldn't be on my favorite science fiction list. I am more into the futuristic science fiction than the non/early science fiction things.
ReplyDelete