Miller.pasa@Xerox.ARPA (09/10/85)
From: Miller.pasa@Xerox.ARPA >Here's a tangential question for you all: In a galaxy >with such a diverse population of sentients, why were >most of the Imperials and Rebels human, while >non-humans were mostly scum and villainy? And >as a story teller, how could Lucas justify this? 'As a story teller' the answer is easy: There seems to be a common Hollywood myth (that I find difficult to buy) that since Hollywood audiences consist of human beings (primarily, at least,) Hollywood movies should consist primarily of human beings. While there may be some truth to the fact that the normal human has more difficulty sympathizing with the plight of a giant sentient slug than with Harrison Ford, there would certainly seem to have been enough examples (from Chewbacca and the Ewoks to the bald armadillo in The Last Starfighter) in recent years to contradict that Hollywood mandate. And remember, they airbrushed Spock's ears in the first Star Trek posters, too. Within the 'historical' context that Lucas establishes in the films, I would imagine that the predominance of humans could be easily explained by resort to any of a number of rationals which lump together to form what is a disturbing undercurrent running through much of the science fiction that I have seen and read. That is, that in some way, humans are 'special.' In Lucas' universe, it may be that humans did the colonizing first, are more vigorous and versatile, are more driven to 'spread out', contain some intellectual/psychological mental quirk which makes them 'superior', or whatever, to end up (apparently) in control of things. In other scifi sources, the same tricks apply. Even in stories where humanity is inferior, it still seems to come out as different and valuable. There is always something that seems to set us apart. Maybe it is the fact that we die, or have no form of universal consciousness, or that we make war on ourselves (that seems to be a well-used one) or that we have a kind of hybrid vigour, etc. Niven says it's limits, Saberhagen says its warmongering, (and I can't think of any more examples amidst the flames here), etc. Now all this makes for interesting reading, and it's bound to be good for our racial self-image, and it may well be (as I would like to believe in my more rational moments) that EVERY sentient species is distinctive enough to warrant having novels written about it, but just once (deep breath,) I'd like to see a story written where man gets his come-uppance-- where an alien race finds us and is bored because we're just like everybody else. How would THAT affect our collective psyches, I ask you??!!?? Anybody seen an interesting story about a boring race (i.e. us) ? (Actually, come to think of it, the one reason I liked Rondevousz with Rama was that it was close to this kind of story. Earth was immensely excited about the first contact with a race that had come all that way just to seek out man, and was left standing with it's hand out as the ship sped off towards more interesting climes.) I'm sure I wouldn't like a steady diet of these stories, but one would sure feed my cynicism mightily. Skeptically yours, --Chris Miller.pasa@Xerox.ARPA
judith@proper.UUCP (Judith Abrahms) (09/12/85)
>Anybody seen an interesting story about a boring race (i.e. us) ?
Margaret St. Clair wrote a story in the '50s or so about a boring race. It,
and they, were called "Prott." They did nothing but bore humans. They were
not humanoid (sorry, I can't think of a boring-race/us story offhand), but
looked like gigantic spacegoing fried eggs. The story begins with a Prott
discovering a human in a spaceship; the Prott enthusiastically begins telling
the human everything it can think of about "--ing the --." However, the man
can't make out what the noun and verb in the telepathically transmitted phrase
mean, so the Prott explains some more... and more... and brings equally
enthusiastic friends, all of whom are eager to clarify the human's ideas about
this supremely important activity. And won't stop... I feel a spoiler coming
on so I'll stop summarizing here.
Does anyone know where this story appeared, or whether it's still available
somewhere?
Judith Abrahms
{ucbvax, ihnp4}!dual!proper!judith