Lisa Brenan

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Alien Psychology
What do our aliens say about us?
Lisa Brenan
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Why do we choose to use aliens in our fiction?
What can our representations of aliens help us to
understand about ourselves?
Could our stories of aliens help us to understand
an extraterrestrial species, should we ever meet
one?
But first, an introduction!
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Tales of the Lost Formicans
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The abduction project
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So, why write about aliens?

• Using aliens allows us to tell a story offering
  social criticism
• without sounding preachy.

• Aliens can personify people and things we fear.

• Aliens can help us to understand the human
  condition by
• interacting with humans.

• Aliens can help give us a better understanding of
  ourselves by
• acting as mirrors or foils to the humans in
  the story.

• In this time of political correctness, aliens are
  a universal enemy
• that its okay to hate an fear.

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Social Criticism
Harry Turtledove The World War and Colonization
Sagas
Begins in the midst of WWII
Whole planet is taken over by a race of reptilian
aliens
All countries are forced to unite to overthrow
the aliens
Everyone must work together for the people of
the planet to survive.
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Personification of Fears
Dracula
Not subject to natural laws
Extremely powerful
Seduces women
Kills without rhyme or reason
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Human Condition
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (and countless
others)
Arthur Dent is out of place
Home destroyed orphaned
New, sometimes frightening experiences
Learning from his friends
Trillian may actually be the one revealing
Arthurs humanity.
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Define Ourselves
Star Trek
Vulcans give us greater identity as humans by
showing us what we would be without emotion.
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Universal Enemy
Harry Turtledove Sagas
War of the Worlds
Independence Day
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Could our stories of aliens help us to understand
an extraterrestrial species, should we ever meet
one?
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Well, yes and no.
One school of thought is that anything conceived
by the human mind can never truly be alien, and
therefore any creatures we may meet in the future
will probably be even stranger than anything we
can imagine.
But...
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Just because we cant predict what aliens might
be like does not mean that our stories couldnt
be applied. If they tell us something about
humans, and humans are the only example of
intelligent life that we have, then it is not so
inconceivable that intelligent extraterrestrial
life might have something in common with us. Our
stories might give us a place to start.
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watarts.uwaterloo.ca/acheyne/A P.html
cms.psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php?termPT
O-20030527-000002
www.centerchange.org/passport/abduction.html
www.rfreitas.com/Astro/Xenopsychology.htm
www.writing-world.com/columns/sf/edge01.shtml
www.collisionproject.org/ap.html
skepdic.com/aliens.html
astro.wsu.edu/worthey/astro/html/lec-ufo.html
www.homestead.com/flowstate/branding.html
Cartmel, Deborah ed., Hunter, I.Q. ed., Kaye,
Heidi ed., Whelehan, Imelda ed., Alien
Identities Exploring Differences in Film and
Fiction. Pluto Press London 1999.