Meme and short essay

[kippurbird]

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next three sentences in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

As a species, humans are physically, culturally, and politically diverse. Hardy or fine, light-skined or dark, humans remain one of the most dominant species through out all eras of play. Personality: Human personality runs the gamut of possibilities, though members of this species tend to be highly adaptable, tenacious, and willing to keep striving no matter the odds.


~Star Wars, Saga Edition, RPG manual.

On a side note, since this is what came up. I've read a lot of RPG manuals and in regards to humans they always say that they're very adaptable and diverse etc. Other species, every individual is all the same. They're all "calm, peaceful, tranquil and gentle" (Ithorians) or "Violent, tenacious and dedicated" (Rodains) which doesn't make any sense, since when is an entire race of millions or billions of people definable in three words?

And now that I think about it why do all non-human races have only one society, one culture, one way of doing things? All the Klingons are a warrior race bent on Honor. All Vulcans embrace logic. There's an entire planet of these people and they're all the same. They don't have different countries or religions. They're all one society. And those that do happen to have different beliefs are heretics or rebels or different from the norm.

I suppose it's because it's rather difficult to come up with one alien culture, much less five or six. But at least they could be indicated, or hinted at even if they aren't shown.

I now must do this for my own races.

Bugger.

Comments

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Or lazy writers. XD

But it seems like most Science Fiction aliens are like that.

[christinaathena.livejournal.com]

One really annoying thing is, most alien species basically behave like human cultures, or at most, exagerations of stereotypes of human cultures or subcultures! Aliens rarely behave as though they have actual neurological differences. Honestly, most sci-fi aliens would lose nothing by changing them into just different human cultures. Klingons are honor-obsessed warriors. Gee, how alien *eyeroll* Oh, wait, wasn't that the SAMURAI?

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

This is true. Everything seems to be cribbed from other human cultures.

[christinaathena.livejournal.com]

Most criticisms of sci-fi have to do with bad physics and the like, like complaining about the sounds and sights of space battles (of course, a truely realistic space battle would be extremely boring to watch ^_^), but honestly, biology/sociology/psychology is far worse. And even human culutures rarely are anything more than modern society with some of its ideals realized. Is there really anything different about Star Trek humans than modern American society minus some of its prejudices and religious biases?

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

I imagine that they don't mind that so much because if the alien culture was too alien they wouldn't be able to relate to iy.

[christinaathena.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is true. *nods* There's a practical limit to how alien you can make a culture, but you can still do better than your average Sci-Fi writer. Heck, just get inspiration from different human psychologies! Imagine a species whose normal neurology resembles autism, or a species whose normal neurology is a form of multiplicity. How about a species that lacks pair-bonding, but instead has powerful group-bonding, such that monogamy would be seen as deviant (perhaps deemed a form of OCD ^_^) and polyamory normal and healthy? There's a lot of differences you could do while still remaining human enough to relate to.

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

If you're looking for some alien cultures that actually come across as alien-yet-comprehensible, you might try Alan Dean Foster's "Nor Crystal Tears" or Eric Flint's "Mother of Demons".

*hopes she remembered right about ADF, knows she's right about Flint*

[christinaathena.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'll have to check those out. ^_^

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

No problem. That was one of the things that struck me in both books - it was a little jolt that really caught my attention first time I read them.

[anarchicq.livejournal.com]

Species 8472.
I will now fangirl.

[gjohnsonkoehn.livejournal.com]

Klingons are honor-obsessed warriors. Gee, how alien *eyeroll* Oh, wait, wasn't that the SAMURAI?

Not really. I mean, they've got the honour thing down, sure, but I don't really recall much about samurai quaffing from huge kegs of strong liquor, engaging in wild parties and possessing table manners that would make a starving hobo look refined. They're really much more Viking-like than samurai, honour or no.

[christinaathena.livejournal.com]

Well, true enough. *nods* Still, my point stands that there's nothing un-human about them. ^_^

[gjohnsonkoehn.livejournal.com]

True, but could any attribute truly be un-human if it's created by and marketted towards human beings?

[christinaathena.livejournal.com]

See my comments above (http://kippurbird.livejournal.com/187861.html?thread=1836245#t1836245). Yes, there's a limit to how alien a fictitious species can be, both by the limits of the author's imagination ane the limits of the reader's ability to empathize, but there's plenty of room to work within that frame. Just looking at differences in human psychology is a good start. Imagine how a society might work where people's standard psychology was different.