First Contact

The thrilling thought of extraterrestrials have been a source of fascination to the human race longer than just the last few centuries. Central Asia 329 B.C.E: Alexander the Great recorded two silver disks diving towards him, his men, and their war elephants, forcing them to retreat (Mancusi). This isn’t the first recorded documentation of the possibility that aliens exist, how ever this comes from one of the most well known names of history. Similar stories have progressed throughout history, most with similar disk-like shapes that have come to be the iconic shape of an alien space craft.

Alien abduction stories have always held a strong interest among people all over the world, captivating our attention and curiosity as they propose yet another unsolved mystery of gigantic proportions and unthinkable consequences for humanity to contemplate. More so in modern times, and especially in the western world, where the media is a more significant part of culture, many science fiction novelists and screen writers brought out the issue to the public in the form of entertainment. This, due its widespread appeal, gave these stories a certain level of credulity among the masses, and sparked curiosity for closer investigation.

The story (text here, audio here) seems a little frivolous at first, but it is a good test case for the definition of science fiction as cognitive estrangement. Here the sense of wonder is induced in the hero as reader of what may well be an ordinary novel, but where he interprets literally certain habitually figurative expressions. Because the author is Philip K. Dick we are left with a certain doubt at the end: is the narrator just naive, perhaps even stupid, in taking words literally, at face value, or is he a step more "meta" than us, understanding what we have been trained to regard as second degree metaphorical discourse as in fact conveying literal truth?

Economic ideas and systems come and go. Many systems have failed and many have succeeded. The British system of mercantilism was actually quite a good system for England. They raked in profits from their colonies. The only problem was that they did not give enough economic freedom to their colonies. At almost every turn, the British tried to restrict what their colonies could do and whom they could trade with. In hindsight, I believe that the British may have been a bit more lenient on their restrictions because the constant prohibitions eventually lead to revolution…

The subject of this novel is Science Fiction and there are not many that can even compete with Wells in terms of how superior his word descriptions are. He simply does wonders with the imagination of the reader.

However, in the same way, it tries to show a new reality and meaning of the interstellar contact, and how the experiment whit humans has a specific purpose.

Going from the menacing beings on the black ship to Buck—his gill-breathing friend, the aliens are no longer the mysterious and threatening Other but agreeable beings with senses of humor(Leinster 274). Unwilling to destroy each other, neither people can figure out a peaceful solution, even with all of their knowledge and technology. It is not until readers take a closer look at the method of vision that each people uses that the solution becomes clear. Where humans are adapted to high levels of light, the aliens are extremely sensitive, having adapted to a much lowers level of light. Understanding this, it is this difference that contributes the improbability that the man and alien would fight over the same solar systems. “We’ll get along all right…since they see by infrared, the planets they’d want to make use of wouldn’t suit us. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t get along…they’re just like us,” (Leinster 279). Based on each peoples intolerance to the drastically different levels of light each, neither people would fight over the same solar systems, causing any fear of domination to collapse into hopeful collaboration. By weaving in several layers of the sense of vision, from the elements of light and dark, clarity and obscurity, and even the answer to the predicament, Leinster’s short story present the value of

Attacks from Martians, time travel, interplanetary travel and the impossible are possible within the realm of science fiction. The literary genre of science fiction houses some of the greatest pieces of literature of all time, by some of the greatest authors. Regarded among colleagues, as one of the finest is the inspirational, ingenious and influential writer H. G. Wells. Being the author of such classics as The Time Machine, The Island Of Dr. Moreau and The Invisible Man H. G. Wells is considered the father and primary developer of science fiction. A title Wells was catapulted into with the publication of the 1898 science fiction classic, The War of the Worlds.

Recently, Vancouver Park Board (VPB) passed a motion to ban the use of cetaceans for entertainment or research purposes. This motion has lead to a heated debate among animal right supporters and others who believe the ban was too harsh. Some supporters of the ban use Tom Regan’s view, a philosopher who adopts the abolitionist view of animal rights, to argue that the motion is justified. Others who favour against the ban believe that the Vancouver Aquarium is an organization that helps cetaceans by research and educating the audience. In this paper, I will examine closely and proof that the supporters of the ban who adopt Regan’s stance of not viewing animals as resources and treat them with respect is not suitable as I believe Vancouver Aquarium keeps cetaceans to lead them to a greater good.

Brave New World, written by Aldous Huxley, is a thought provoking novel set in a future of genetically engineered people, amazing technology and a misconstrued system of values. Dubliners, written by James Joyce, is a collection of short stories painting a picture of life in Dublin Ireland, near the turn of the 19th century. Though of two completely different settings and story lines, these two works can and will be compared and contrasted on the basis of the social concerns and issues raised within them.

In any story there are two types of language, figurative and literal. Language is, of course a necessary factor of any story. Without Language, an author could not tell the story. The author usually uses a combination of these two languages. Together, these languages characterize the author’s style.

Craig Raine’s 1979 poem Martian, was part of a minor literary movement in England. Rain’s poem is rich with metaphors and mystery. This is all done through defamiliarization – a literary tool Raine uses to “estrange the familiar”. Rain explores daily human life but through the perspective of a “Martian” or outsider, which creates a barrier between the reader and the poem. The imagery, symbolism and structure is true to postmodern literature.

More and more language seemed to be to be an aberration by which we had come to lose the world. Everything that is named is set at one remove from itself. Nomenclature is the very soul of secondhandness"¦. When I began to think that way I began to see the true extent of our alienation. What if there existed a dialogue among the life forms of this earth from which we had excluded ourselves so totally that we no longer even believed it to exist? Could it be that dialog which we still sense in dreams? Or in those rare moments of peace when the world seems in some sense to be revealed to us and to be proper and right? I knew that dreams were prelingual"¦. Language is a way of containing the world. A thing named becomes that named thing. It is under surveillance. We were put into a garden and we turned it into a detention center. Cormac McCarthy, "Whales and Men," (pp. 57-8).

In the short stories, “Third From The Son” by Richard Matheson and,”T o Serve Man” by Damon Knight-both witness a change on how the readers understood the story. The stories in fact did not contained humankinds as a dominant speciecs but as a puppet to the first creations. In both stories, “Third From The Son” and “To Serve Man”,one can say that the percepition of humankinds is irrelavent since, both stories had spoken about traveling to the planet earth in order to gain, find new resources.

One of humanity’s defining sentiments is a belief that our species is the culmination of millions of years of universe expansion and evolution, the epitome of intelligent life. As we begin to explore our own galaxy, how would humanity react if our findings were to indicate something to the contrary? In his stories “The Sentinel” (1951) and “Crusade” (1968), Arthur C. Clarke shares his viewpoint on this issue. Clarke illustrates his belief that when extraterrestrial intelligence is discovered, it will occur outside of the so-called ‘circumstellar habitable zone,’ that this discovery will forever change humanity’s view of our place in the universe, and that extraterrestrial intelligence will