In September of 2007, I started this blog with a bit of writing advice. A little over a year later, I discovered how little I knew about writing after hearing children’s writer, Lin Oliver speak at a convention hosted by the Minnesota Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Since then, I have shared (with their permission) and applied the writing wisdom of Lin Oliver, Jack McDevitt, Nathan Bransford, Mike Duran, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, SL Veihl, Bruce Bethke, and Julie Czerneda. Together they write in genres broad and deep, and have acted as agents, editors, publishers, columnists, and teachers. Since then, I figured I’ve got enough publications now that I can share some of the things I did “right”.
While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do all of the professional writers above...someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. When I started this blog, that was NOT true, so I may have reached a point where my own advice is reasonably good. We shall see! Hemingway’s quote above will now remain unchanged as I work to increase my writing output and sales! As always, your comments are welcome!
Part 1: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/01/slice-of-pie-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 2: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/02/slice-of-pie-creating-alien-aliens-part.html
Part 3: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/02/slice-of-pie-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 4: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/04/slice-of-pie-creating-alien-aliens-part.html
Part 5: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/09/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 6: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/02/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 7: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/04/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 8: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/05/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 9: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/08/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 10: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/09/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 11: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/10/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
What could be a more iconic battle between Human and Alien than Batman vs Superman?
]
I’ve never been a big fan of the movie versions of the DC universe, preferring to get my super hero fix in the Marvel universe. That being said, I HAVE enjoyed some of the DC movies: “Shazam!”, “Wonder Woman 1984”, and “Green Lantern”.
According to the TARGET website, the plot of “Batman vs Superman” is as follows, “Fearing the actions of a god-like Super Hero left unchecked, Gotham City’s own formidable, forceful vigilante takes on Metropolis’s most revered, modern-day savior, while the world wrestles with what sort of hero it really needs. And with Batman and Superman at war with one another, a new threat quickly arises, putting mankind in greater danger than it’s ever known before.”
IMDb summarizes the movie as follows: “The general public is concerned over having Superman on their planet and letting the ‘Dark Knight’ - Batman - pursue the streets of Gotham. While this is happening, a power-phobic Batman tries to attack Superman. Meanwhile, Superman tries to settle on a decision, and Lex Luthor, the criminal mastermind and millionaire, tries to use his own advantages to fight the ‘Man of Steel’”.
That other threat isn’t mentioned in either one of these synopses, but IS in the Wikipedia entry: “…unleashing a monster genetically engineered from DNA from both Zod's body and his own…” So, somehow, the ultimate horror is a Human/alien hybrid? Zod/Luthor’s hybrid is worse than the half-breed Human/Vulcan, STAR TREK’s Spock?
Hmm….can you say “double standard”?
At any rate, “Batman vs Superman” lays out a major problem we as Humans face – we respond negatively when faced with the alien. From the Online Etymology Dictionary: “alien (adj.) c. 1300, ‘strange, foreign,’ from Old French alien ‘strange, foreign;’ as a noun, ‘an alien, stranger, foreigner,’ from Latin alienus ‘of or belonging to another, not one's own, foreign, strange,’ also, as a noun, ‘a stranger, foreigner,’ adjective from alius (adv.) ‘another, other, different,’ from PIE root *al- (1) ‘beyond.’
“Meaning ‘residing in a country not of one's birth’ is from mid-15c. Sense of ‘wholly different in nature’ is from 1670s. Meaning ‘not of this Earth’ first recorded 1920. An alien priory (mid 15c.) is one owing obedience to a religious jurisdiction in a foreign country.”
I could look at any number of conflicts in the US and abroad, but I think I’ll keep this more academic than personal.
How about the current conflict between the Great Empires? NO! Not the US and Russia! Both of those are waning, though one of them doesn’t realize it is. The current major conflict between China and the United States. These two empires are probably as close as we’ve come to a conflict between Humans and Interstellar Aliens. It also highlights the difficulty SF writers have had in creating truly alien peoples rather than just “Humans in funny masks and makeup”.
Culturally China and the US are as different as they can get. For example, the US believes (at least it’s working toward being a culture that “celebrates diversity” and we continue to move in that direction.
Our movement toward diversity is the polar opposite of Chinese culture, which values and honors conformity. China’s mantra might as well be “Everyone the same, difference is not only abhorrent, but incomprehensible. It’s one of the reasons China has become militant about Hong Kong and Taiwan.
China long ago gave up any connection with other Asian cultures – Japan, and the Koreas, as well as driving out the intractable Hmong culture and the current campaign to eradicate the Uyghurs. My son was stationed in South Korea for four years WITH HIS FAMILY. His children attended KOREAN SCHOOLS from kindergarten onward and both spoke fluent Korean; my grandson was an excellent interpreter between his parents and anyone else they interacted with (living off base in a Korean apartment complex). In the course of writing a short story, I discovered why China is loathe to provoke a conflict with either Korea: such a war would mean that refugees would flee to China – and to the Chinese there ARE no other cultures; there ARE no other languages. The Chinese consider Koreans, essentially inhuman which is the same thing as “not Chinese”. Citizens of Hong Kong and Taiwan are also NOT Chinese, perceived as more Western than Chinese.
A former student of mine taught in China for almost ten years – he and his Chinese wife have to children. Neither would ever be considered Chinese in any way, and if he and his wife died, the children would likely be abandoned, effectively executed because they are aliens.
China is an alien civilization in everything except that they look Human.
They neatly fit the definition of ‘alien’ above. They have an incomprehensible language which has an entirely alien way of spoken communication: a single Chinese word can have at least three different meanings dependent entirely on the TONE with which it is spoken – not just an “angry” or “sweet” or “indifferent” tone; rather a high, middle, and low tone. Traditional Chinese is written top to bottom, right to left, while modern Chinese is typed and read left to right, as English is.
The philosophy of today’s China: “Chinese philosophy never developed the concept of human rights, By the time of the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, there were many calls…to completely abolish the old imperial institutions and practices…incorporate[ing] democracy, republicanism, and industrialism…Mao added Marxism, Stalinism, Chinese Marxist Philosophy...the Chinese Communist Party [denounced] previous schools of thought…as backward, and later even purged during the Cultural Revolution…
Religion…Spiritual and philosophical institutions [were] re-established, as long they are not perceived to be a threat to the power of the CPC [and] are heavily monitored.”
The Chinese are aliens as far as Western thought and behavior exist on Earth. Chinese Communism is entirely different than Russian Communism because of the alien world view of the Chinese mind.
So, what does this mean to me as a writer?
I’ve rarely read truly science fiction that presents a totally different culture. All of Space Opera can be eliminated as a source of alien aliens, as can STAR TREK, STAR WARS, FIRELFY, and any “big screen” alien civilization – even “Independence Day” is boring and predictable. In fact, if you can even understand a science fiction novel that deals with aliens or an alien society, then the writer failed. The plethora of Chinese SF writers – who have become popular in the US recently – is not true Chinese SF. Because we as Westerners can make sense of it. If we encounter SF that is incomprehensible to us, we scoff and say the writer’s not making any sense!
Alien aliens should NOT MAKE SENSE TO US. If they do, then perhaps the writer has failed. And by not making sense to us, I don’t mean writing gibberish! SOLARIS is mostly gibberish with the alien Solaris communicating in dreams – we seem to think that an alien communicating telepathically with us will use symbolism we will somehow magically understand (as in Spock communicating with the Horta in TOS, “Devil In The Dark”). It will NOT be that easy. Even David Brin’s cool aliens are comprehensible to me. I get them and they behave in ways I understand.
That spells instant failure. If I can understand what’s going on in an alien’s mind without any effort on my own, then the writer has failed.
I HAVE FAILED…”Batman vs Superman” has failed, because Superman loves his adoptive mom, Martha. How can I possibly understand an alien? Maybe Kal-el and Bruce’s conflict comes out of them not understanding anything about each other? Now THAT would be success in writing! Maybe if Hal Jordan had had more trouble understand what it meant to be a Green Lantern instead of acting like he was a fourteen year old who discovered, I dunno, a box of his favorite candy under his bed and stuffing his face…then “Green Lantern” might have become significant. Maybe us not having any clue why Mar-Vel doesn’t come back to Earth for years and years means that Marvel Pictures actually created a GOOD alien out of her?
