I have yet to read a novel involving human first contact that works for me. It seems so simple, right? Humans are visited or contacted by an alien race. Changes occur. But the sheer magnitude of those changes – the ripples throughout all of society from what you think when you open your refrigerator to what you feel when your preacher opens his mouth on Sunday morning *will* forever be altered. To be blunt, because we haven’t experience first contact as a species, we are fundamentally unequipped to write about it. We limit ourselves to what we’ve seen in movies, on television and in novels. We *think* we know but we simply can’t.
One ripple I often muse about is the way we see one another. Would the introduction of a new species eliminate our disgusting need to segregate and categorize each other by our race? To an alien race, we’re all just human. I really don’t think they’d care what color, height, attitude or flavor we are. We’re all human. The ultimate equalizer. Us. Them.
History, of course, repeats itself. In America (and elsewhere) various non-majority groups fight for the same darn rights in turn. They rarely band together or share past experiences or resources. Us/Them is in full force. Differences can be found more easily than bellies with stars when the Us/Them evolves (de-volves?) into the Haves/Have-Nots. “We deserved our rights. You don’t.” Wow. The Oxford English Dictionary needs to change the definition of the word “equal.” At least so it matches what the State courts are doing coast to coast.
I saw a bumper sticker today: If you aren’t angry, you don’t know the truth.
Emails I get from players and authors casually say, “I understand that you’re trying to bring religion to the masses.” I’m not. I’m a designer who simply folds more of what she is into her games. I’m not as interested in a complete departure from reality. I can play for escapism and still feel like my moral core is kicking butt with me. Like all good SF, I can comment on society from the safe confines of make-believe.
There is no race in Mardi Gras 3000. There is species. Human. Terrapyre. Celestial. Angel. No black, white, brown, red, yellow, etc. The rainbow has been reconfigured to categorize only by base genetics.
Dear God, I wish it were true.
I went to see friends last night (a twelve-year “married” couple who can’t be legally married). We drank Green Tea with ginger and spoke quietly while their two children (who are unbelievably beautiful, intelligent, well-behaved and Christian) watched “Cinderella.” I wasn’t really paying much attention to the musical until the four year old girl said to her six year old brother, “The real Cinderella is so much prettier than the cartoon one.” He agreed and I looked over. They were watching the musical version of the fairytale where the actress and singer Brady plays Cinderella.
I stopped mid-conversation with my adult friends and just watched with the kids. What a difference one film can make. What if the media showed as many brown-skinned princesses as there are “pink-skinned” (as the kids say) ones? Living in an area that is primarily inhabited by “pink” people, these kids might equate an African American young woman with Brady’s tough and honest Cinderella or an Asian young woman with smart and brave Mulan. Since their parents have several brown-skinned friends, they have real world examples, too, but if you ask them to draw a princess or a girl warrior, her skin color will wind up pink as often as brown as often as blue. Are they color blind? No. They just see race like hair color or cultural tradition. These kids see humans as a species. The only Us/Them in their lives are Humans and Spiders... which, to be honest, they aren’t very fond of.
Wouldn’t that be a great world? Humans. Terrapyres. Celestials. Angels. And Spiders. I could live with that.
E.J.
