Engl 421sf Midterm Essay

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Grecia Martinez Professor Wexler ENGL 421SF April 1, 2019

The Inhumanity of Humans Science Fiction has been an influential part of not only popular culture, but society with its often thought-provoking messages hidden beneath the surface. Through both literature as well as film, the sci-fi genre serves as an allegory for societal issues of the time in which it was created, whether it be political, economical or cultural. Within these categories, one contemporary issue that has surfaced a multitude of times within the genre is the decreasing humanity within the modern society. The issue is just as much political as it is cultural, with the questioning of what it means to be human, and if we as a society fit that definition anymore. Many authors and filmmakers have addressed their thoughts on the subject through their work. Although vastly different through plot, what these stories share is the declining of humanity in each of their counterpart societies. Each author and filmmaker use classic Sci-Fi tropes to disguise the embedded criticism of cultural and societal conformities and censorship which has taken away the individuality of people, begging to question whether we as humans are actually living as we should be, or if we are now merely a shell of a race. Literature has served for many years as the primary source of storytelling and getting across influential ideas and conceptions that have shaped the way we think and view the world today. Through the science fiction genre, most, if not all literature is meant to serve a purpose to comment of societal beliefs and theories. Pierre Boulle’s 1963 Planet of the Apes rises such an

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issue in a paradoxical world in which intelligent apes rule the planet and humans have been reduced to noncoherent animals. Without the spoiler of the revelation in the end of Boulle’s story, the idea of humans no longer being at the top of the food chain is a frightening one to most, due to the ego that goes along with the identity we have formed as a race over billions of years. Not only as a race do we see ourselves superior, but within that we separate ourselves by class systems and racial demographics. In the article ‘The Utopia of Politics’, it is argued how political systems of any type have become a core part of humanity that there is no escape from it, even is a dystopian world. “For the one thing that cannot be challenged or changed is the system itself: and this is in fact the fundamental presupposition of all systems, of democracy fully as much as of communism” (Jameson). This is demonstrated with the class system between the apes, where the orangutans reign supreme as philosophers and gatekeepers of tradition, gorillas serve as the military type law enforcers who don’t question authority, and the chimpanzees representing the middle class as workers. This hierarchy criticizes our own patriarchal systems and governments, which take our freedom to think and act. In Bryan Moore’s ‘Evidences of Decadent Humanity’, he discusses the importance of humans as a species and debates the relevance of our existence. “These works suggest that humans are but one species among many, that we are not the end of nature/history, that the natural world may be better off without us, and, in some cases, that humanity is fated to go extinct, the result of its own hubris. Such views are undoubtedly pessimistic, yet these works may also be read as warnings for humans to seek a more humble view of

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ourselves as members of what Aldo Leopold calls the land community”.

With the apes serving as the dominant species and humans having no real rights, this begs to question what characteristics make us human. If those abilities are taken away and given to another species, does that make them human instead? Or does the word lose meaning all together? Novels such as, Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Orwell’s 1984, Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and Shelly’s Frankenstein each pose a similar theme in questioning the meaning of humanity, some of which involve characters who aren’t human showing more humanity than those who are.

Similar ideas are explored in classic science fiction films that further push us to really question our humanity. Films such as Blade Runner (1982), Gattaca (1997) and The Matrix (1999) each have a way of dehumanizing the human characters to the point where there is only a little of that humanity left. Gattaca addresses the vanishing humanity by taking away the natural part of creating a child. What was once a natural act between a man and a woman, has become a calculated formula for creating the perfect human. Gender, favorable genetics, health history and any other type of DNA entity is selected by scientists and created in a lab. Natural born humans are seen as a lesser part of humanity and not given as many opportunities as those who are hand crafted. In The Matrix, Neo realizes that all of humanity has been enslaved by robotic creatures who feed on our energy. The harvesting of humans is both invasive and dehumanizing, especially when Neo realizes that the world he knows is merely part of a computer-generated program. The parts of life that are supposed to be natural, from the way we are created to the way we are born are taken away.

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The identifying parts that define us as humans is put in to question when that line is blurred. The reason questioning such as this is present in science fiction is because the genre creates a space to extend the boundaries of what is real, allowing the readers and audience to ponder the messages and themes hidden underneath an outlandish world. In an article about teachings of classic literature into science fiction, Jennifer A. Rae recalls how author and scholar James E. Gunn “defines science fiction in part by what it is not rather than what it is: science fiction does not contain standard activities or locales, unlike, for example, a western or romance; nor does it seek to find traditional solutions to ordinary problems”. Many science fiction stories do not end with a solution or clear answers. They are often left to the reader’s interpretation, with the intention of garnering deep and intellectual thinking of the problems addressed. This is because a lot of issues that science fiction tends to focus on are more existential types of crises that require more than a simple solution.

This idea has transcended from the pages of literature to the screen in classic science fiction films and even the more modern. 1982’s Blade Runner, based on the Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, brings to question this idea of humanity when the androids, or better known as replicants, behave more humanlike than the human characters do. Deckard who is introduced as a human who hunts replicants and “retires” them is painted as a robotic law enforcer with a military mentality of asking no questions. He does what he is told and does not let his emotions get the best of him other than a few moments with Rachael who happens to be a replicant. The replicants who he is ordered to kill have run away to earth to find their creator in hopes of extending their life. Their desperation to survive is probably one of the most primal instincts, something that is not expected to be found in artificial creations. By the end of the film, Batty is shown to be more human than Deckard when he saves his life along with

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his beautiful speech as he himself is about to die. This also brings to question the motive for creating andriods that can harness so much emotion. These replicants look, feel, sound, and act like any other human, only distinguishable by emotional reactors, and with them film, a certain reflection in their eyes. With the later questioning of whether Deckard is a replicant himself, this further blurs the line of what defines a human, and how close these artificial creations are to not only blending in but surpassing us.

The blurring of that line which separated humans from other life forms, or non-life forms has become a reoccurring theme throughout many science fiction tropes. What started in classic novels which launched the genre along with the films that have transcended them, have challenged us as audience and readers to take a deeper look into our society and what we have become. This lesson allows us to make a change to better ourselves as individuals as well as a whole. Although vastly differentiating in subject matter, these science fiction stories share the theme of declining of humanity among humans. This Sci-Fi trope is used to disguise the underlying criticism of cultural and societal conformities and censorship. This loss of thinking and individuality has taken away what makes people human, while the evolved nature of our thinking and ability to empathize with others in society has decreased. This ideology brings to question what makes humans, human, and whether we still fit that description with our receding connection to humanity.

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Works Cited Blade Runner. Dir. Scott, R. Warner. Bros., 1982. Film Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes. Del Rey/ Ballantine Books, 1963. Jameson, Fredric. “The Politics of Utopia.” Utopia/Dystopia, 2004, pp. 35–54. (Via Canvas). Moore, Bryan L. “‘Evidences of Decadent Humanity’: Antianthropocentrism in Early Science Fiction.” Nature and Culture, vol. 9, no. 1, 2014, pp. 45–65. “From Plato to Philip K. Dick:. Teaching Classics Through Science Fiction.” The Classical Journal, vol. 105, no. 3, 2010, pp. 265–275.