There was an interesting point that I wanted to bring up about 'Story of Your Life' which didn't particularly fit with the overall themes we were discussing on Wednesday, so I'm addressing it here: the character of Colonel Weber and what he represents. I felt that his role in the symbolic aspect of the story was a commentary on humanity, or at least, a less agreeable aspect of humanity: the idea of getting something for nothing, or negative reciprocity. He was incredibly reluctant to allow the linguists to teach or expose English to the heptapods, while demanding that they, in turn, learn all they could about the heptapodian language.
My question is that what does that say about us? If and when we do first interact with any kind of intellectual, extraterrestrial life, will this be the mindset we will have? Try to gain the upper hand, to know more about them than they do about us. Will we try to trick them or manipulate them? Will it be about gaining knowledge or gaining an advantage?
On the other hand, one could argue that self-preservation is instinctual and the proper response. Thoughts?
I found Colonel Weber to be the typical sci-fi military character. It's his job to protect humans and therefore he has to be suspicious of the heptapods. He's supposed to assume the worst case scenario. Compare him to the military in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. They set up a military base where the aliens are supposedly going to show up. This is because humanity has no idea if the aliens are going to pose a threat to our survival. I think these sorts of characters just act as a foil to the protagonist, with whom we're supposed to identify. We'd all like to think that if this sort of thing happened in our own lives we'd be the ones to seek a higher meaning through an exchange of knowledge. Really though I think that most of us would choose self-preservation and that the attitudes of the protagonists are just what we aspire towards.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I feel like it was actually a pretty accurate portrayal of how humans would respond to actual extraterrestrial contact. You have the main character and her husband, who want to use this opportunity to learn everything that they can from the more advanced species; the Colonel, who is trying to "know thine enemy" as much as he can to defend against a possible attack; and the diplomat who is trying to open up trade between our world and theirs, despite neither of us having anything the other wants.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis interpretation of his character is actually quite interesting. Honestly I simply read him as the 'generic army officer' you see in a lot of science fiction.
ReplyDeleteAs for what kind of mindset we would present in the face of encountering extraterrestrial life, I truly think it would be no different that meeting a group of humans you are not familiar with. The nature of the interaction depends on the nature of 'first contact'. There would be the usual throws of suspicion, distrust, etc accompanied by peaceful overtures (barring acts of aggression by the aliens ... or less hospitable human elements).