Parody and Satire in science fiction

Satire is our ability to laugh at ourselves. But where does humor come from?

Humor usually is our ability to point our relevant and incredibly realistic and bluntly obvious points about ourselves, and laugh. We laugh..because they are true, and this is usually because they are points we wouldn't usually want to put into the spotlight.

Satire in science fiction does just that - it highlights some very obvious (usually unflattering) points in our present existence and exaggerates (some might not even call it exaggeration..) them to a semi realistic future where rules and social norms run far away from where they are now.

I think this kind of ties in with Oryx and Crake, but on a lighter side of things. Though, I must say, that the ability to create humor in these things doesn't mean it isn't a very serious problem.

In Idiocracy, we find channels devoted to just getting hit in the nuts (a simplified version of Americas Funnies Home videos anyone?)

I find similarities Oryx and Crake where we have "Noodie News" and the extinct animal game.

It is interesting that really the only difference in these two genres is the ability to poke humor at the situation in one, and the bluntness of how things are in the other. Nothing too different, but the way we perceive them. This is semi terrifying because the latter is terrifying, yet they are the same things. Is it all going to end up boiling down to our own perceptions of things? Can something be OK because we end up being OK with it and brushing it off?

I would like to take the time to throw out the quote, "If you are not completely appalled, you haven't been paying attention."

Revised blogpost, The Hobbit

The Hobbit is another novel that I find intriguing for the fact that it brings a sense normalcy and perspective in a world so exotic and diverse in comparison to our own. We are able to experience this through the eyes of a fairly relatable character, Bilbo, who is quite warm and friendly. We learn his quiet backgrounds but watch him embark and discover the diverse world he lives in, so therefore we are also experiencing it through him.
This background roots and sets us up for being able to properly understand the values of family lineage and birthright.
These certain circumstances allow Tolkein somewhat of a commentary onsocial issues; I know it is very subdued, but I do feel like he is putting somewhat of an importance on it. He gives us an earth without a universal stabilized government and we are able to see oppression and evil alongside innocent races. Some are more developed than others and they are all varying in terms of priorities (some want to take over the planet, while others want second breakfast.)
I also found it interesting, but predictable, about the corruption of men.

REVISION: ADDITION

Lets elaborate on the race of men. We always seem to be the morally instable and lower scum race in a fantasy world that is full of other species and begins.

Is it because we can easily see the fault in ourselves; because we actually are ourselves, and find it easy to point our our downfalls? Or is it that we believe that with any discovery of another advanced race, we just always assume we will be lower in moral standards (because anything below us wouldn't be considered another race, it would just be an animal?)

Oryx and Crake

The certain cultural standings that existed in the world prior to the unnamed apocalyptic event were really intriguing to me. I can already see these parallels in the world today.

Having basic human feelings, emotions, and pleasures become corporate products is ever apparent in todays society. This novel struck me because it was incredibly realistic in the idea that these things will go unchecked.

The parallels of child pornography in this novel to what we have today is so similar. He searches the underbelly of the web to find asian child pornography. This is very similar to what we have today; child pornography is ever present on the hidden net with the aid of TOR browsing. TOR specific .onion sites are hidden from normal indexed parts of the internet and search engines.

Hidden trading sites and sensitive corporate information are shared (see the Silk Road).

I think this is just going to become a bigger problem with internet censorship becoming more and more pressed in our government. SOPA (stop online privacy act) and PIPA (protect IP act) are prime examples of this.

If these things become current and the internet becomes regulated, underbelly operations without any sort of social policing will evolve and we might find ourselves in a similar situation of what was above. A good comparison is the war on drugs; making it illegal just seems to egg on that sort of activity. Control of the internet will have harsh consequences; much like the ones we see in Oryx and the Crake.

Diverse Position Science Fiction

As I am getting older (I know turning 20 might be young in most books, but for me that was a milestone) has brought of the idea of what it will be like to look back on this time I am living in now (with the assumption that I won't die in some tragic crash and will live to be old). What will I use to base my assumption of relativity off of? And what will be the thing that has "changed" in terms of social status and economic patterns?

It is interesting to think that when my grandmom was alive (born in the year 1919) segregation was normal. It was at the point where it was just what it was; those people who we consider to be "ignorant assholes" weren't even considered that, they were just normal. Now look where we have come now. There is obviously still opposition to minority freedom, but not so much in my generation.

This is why I consider diverse position science fiction to be very accurate in terms of the future. We really only seem to find white people dominating most scenarios of the future, but that is just because it was written today.

It is also interesting that not only will there be more domination by minorities, but I believe the way they interact (or the way we all do as a whole) will change. I think we will become more of a soup. The thought of "wow, that is a successful minority and i'm happy for him" will change to "wow,that is a successful person."

I also like considering where those "3rd world" countries will be, especially with the aid of technology. How their governments will develop and how in turn they will mix with other countries.

What was interesting about Dawn, was an aliens need to interbreed with us to create more of a genetic diversity. It is very plausible for our race to become too mixed in the future; to a point where our lack of genetic diversity becomes a biological downfall.

Cyberpunk

When reading of viewing anything from this genre, I constantly in an internal debate about what parts of this envision of the future will actually come to exist, and at what intervals they began to show themselves. It is obvious that most of these things will come into existence, but for me the question is at what point do they become too exaggerated by our excited 20-21st century selves to be applicable in a futuristic standing?

Take Johnny Mnemonic for example. This is a classical representation of human biology merging with our most up to date technology. Our result is a half human half machine being that can go above and beyond to answer the call of duty (we are assuming that he was made for good work...this is not always so). Our intentions with this merging (in this case, secure data storage) are usually for the best, but it never seems to work out that way, does it?

What usually gets in the way of this half human half machine working to our intended desires, is the uncontrollable element of the human or bionic aspect. What was different with this particular story was that the data seemed to function separately from his own brain. Usually we see them merge and the human inhibitions slowly become influenced. In this case, it was just the mere presence of priceless stolen data existing in human flesh that caused a problem.

I feel like the merging of humans and artificial intellegence is unavoidable and it is the vital part of this genre that creates validity in its own predictions. It is obvious that we will want to improve ourselves and judging by our own course of history, we will only slightly hesitate to do so.

Multi-Verse

One of my favorite things about this genre is how I get the feeling that it is the earth (in terms of social, political, and environmental problems) applied to the universe.

When humans gain the ability to space travel efficiently, we encounter the same problems we did on earth. Space travel was often looked at as a glamorous futuristic endeavor; clean spaceships and perfectly colonized worlds exist outside of humanity. Outer space seemed to be that place where we could finally achieve perfection.

But it becomes obvious in this genre that this is not the case. In reality, the openness and unconquered vastness of space just enable humans to do "their own thing," which we all know is never that bright. It becomes painfully obvious that we will never escape our problems and our own human tendencies; even when we try to emulate the planet we once were. Having the ability to "start over" and create another world really can make us understand how unrealistic our ideas for a perfect society are.

In Babel-17 we are presented with the expanding world that is suffering through intolerable differences. I found it interesting how with the expanse of beyond earth, we lose a sense of what is considered normal. I liked how language became a huge part of this book; and it had a large impact of how each character thought of their own situation and changed each interaction. In an almost 1984 way, language controlled the outcomes of each relationship.

The Stars My Destination

Though this has been somewhat of a common theme in some of my blog posts, I am just going to go for it. One of the things that was the most alluring about The Stars My Destination was the background concept for the main character, Gulliver Foyle Once again, we find ourselves with the average man.

The only thing that really motivated him to do anything extraordinary was the fact that his life really depended on his ability to un maroon himself in space. I (and I believe most others as well) find this very relatable to my own procrastination. I will stop at nothing to push things off for more time to do nothing, even if it is costing me success. It is also interesting that I am completely aware of this predicament, yet I continue to hurt myself in this way. It becomes such an apparent human trait especially when represented in the character in such an extreme situation.

I also find it funny that the tipping point was not so much at the fact that he was stuck, it was more when he became angry at being "passed up" at rescue by passing ships. His selfish behavior is so relatable, especially to my inner demon child.