Science Fiction Genre Unit Test

1. To dismiss science fiction as a genre, would be to keep yourself from a genre of beautiful, deep worlds. Through these stories, we observe the future, allowing ourselves to create opinions and thoughts on a situation. For instance: One may say that genetically engineering masses of humans to create the perfect society, is immoral. We realize that only through dystopia may we find utopia. Science fiction creates philosophical conversations, meaningful debates, and an overall understanding of the world that is around us. See, only through observation of our worst fears do we understand what we believe, and form an opinion. Science fiction helps in the creation of these opinions, opinions held by men and women with the to make decisions and shape our world as we know it on these principles. Anything that is able to create an opinion and mold the way we see our world has the ability to be great, and should not be cast away or dismissed.

To further strengthen this point, I would like to analyze Brave New World by Aldous Huxley as an example. Huxley uses a classic theme to portray his view, savagery meets civilization. John is the savage, the closest portrayal of modern day ethics and views. Civilization at this point in the books history represents almost a reflected universe to our own, the morals and values of which are completely opposite of those that we now hold. Morals between people will always be different, leading to thought-provoking and ultimately self-fulfilling debates and conversations. Anything that has the capability of provoking thought and reason should not be dismissed but rather embraced.

2.

One of the most interesting probabilities to question is that of a humans free will. In

Brave New World, each and every human being is not only born in to a specific social class, but they are conditioned to enjoy certain things, giving a misrepresentation of free will. It is easy to see conditioning and infringements on free will when it is blown up as it is in the novel, but when correlated in the real world, its not so easy. I stand on the assumption that free will is a completely natural idea of existence. However, I would argue that while in nature free will is plausible, it is fairly impossible to hold true to in a human society. We go throughout our daily lives making seemingly our own choices, but how many of these choices do we honestly believe is of our own doing. In the society that we inhabit, murder is of the highest offense. For this reason, I dont only refrain from the act of killing someone, but I abhor the thought of it alone. On the other hand, if I lived in a society that had no moral principles in place, I would be more accepting of killing, maybe even embracing the act. So from this I state that conditioning isnt just a theme in Science Fiction, but a universal constant where sentience exists. When we use the word stereotypical, we often use it as a critique, a problem in a character. This would hold true to most books, but for Science Fiction I disagree. By the end of the book, my group and I concluded that Brave New World is a satire more than anything. One very important aspect of a satire is to portray a relatable situation, often through characterization. When we say stereotypical, we are concluding that a character is boring or too comparable to a large majority. However, I would say that the ability to make stereotypical characters allows for the focus to mainly be on the characters surroundings, arguably the most important part of science fiction. Through these flat characters we are able to see a world through the eyes of a normal archetype whether it be good or bad.

In Brave New World, all children are born in a lab. This is one of the major details of the setting of the book. The concept was probably terrifying and unrealistic in the 1930s, but today it is not only plausible, but used, although not to the same scale. If a pregnant mother is killed and her unborn child survives, it is possible to artificially grow the fetus into an infant, although it may be hindered in some way. Realism is very important to Science Fiction and its amazing to see that some books were able to prophesize modern day technologies. Aldous Huxley uses a very articulate style of writing. Although action and large events are told through a relatively simple perspective, he details landscape and settings in an almost Dickens-esque way, making even small, minor details appear to hold weight. In this same sense, he uses very large words in his descriptions, causing a bit of uncertainty of the meaning. I will, however, attribute this to the fact that the book was written in the early 1930s, knowing that an appreciation of the English has since then diminished.