Oh man, don't get me even started.

Just as we all are The Other, I also think all of us are a little disabled, this way or another.

It's just that stupid structure of society which targets some as more disabled or more deviant or more you-name-it than others.

Shir: Have you met me? I EXIST in the tangentially related!

NATLBSB.

And if that's the case, we can't be that far ahead with our SF/F literature, which will only show, I vaguely guess, a very certain perception of "The Other" - yes, in the very place which should be the farthest of all, imagination speaking.

This is a discussion - sometimes an argument - I have with other fellow SF/F readers: the problem with all fiction is it's written by *humans*. We cannot conceive of the truly alien, all we can do is take a certain number of steps away from "the norm" (whatever THAT means) - and if an author came up with the TRULY alien, it would be utterly incomprehensible. In fact, discussions I've had with fans of "outsider art" sometimes turn into "are they actually postulating the truly alien?" questions. We call the artists insane because their art is so...absolutely...foreign...that it APPEARS to be insanity.

(and THAT turns into "what is sane?" and consensus-driven public policy based on statistical averages of behavior...etc....)

Whee! TooMuchCaffieneMan strikes again.

Shir, just asking the question made me very happy.

I'm speaking of the endless justification of a lesson, nut actually thinking about how to research, scaffold and present a lesson. My curriculum classes have made me a better teacher -- I do resent all of the minute, CYA, NCLB bs that is present in public secondary ed.

There are similar problems in the UK education system. Ridiculous amounts of paperwork, 'targets' that bear no relation to reality, and a massive lack of funding for the schools where it's most needed - all contributing factors in my current break from high school teaching. I loved it, but it was impossible to sustain the energy needed for teaching well.

It's just that stupid structure of society which targets some as more disabled or more deviant or more you-name-it than others.

That's very close to the social model of disability* - which is the perspective from which I work. It's more of a British thing than a US one, although a lot of US-based disability studies work focuses on the social construction/creation of disability too. I can point you to papers if you're interested.

*The main difference being my difficulty with the 'everyone's disabled' theory. I don't hold to that view, although some academics do. That's a longer conversation, though, and since it's nearly 10pm here (and I am disabled and need a lot more sleep than most people), perhaps we should address it another time...!

and since it's nearly 10pm here

What kind of crazy, alien talk is this?

(Sorry)

This is a discussion - sometimes an argument - I have with other fellow SF/F readers: the problem with all fiction is it's written by *humans*. We cannot conceive of the truly alien, all we can do is take a certain number of steps away from "the norm" (whatever THAT means) - and if an author came up with the TRULY alien, it would be utterly incomprehensible.

Yeah, that bugs me from time to time. Just about every alien I've ever seen in SciFi movies, books, etc. still seems on some level (if not many levels) to be human to me.

This is a discussion - sometimes an argument - I have with other fellow SF/F readers: the problem with all fiction is it's written by *humans*. We cannot conceive of the truly alien, all we can do is take a certain number of steps away from "the norm" (whatever THAT means) - and if an author came up with the TRULY alien, it would be utterly incomprehensible.

I don't know if alien-anything would be truly and utterly incomprehensible to us, but it's ought to be strange.

But all in all - YES, THAT and EXACTLY. Which only means that we don't really have options or choices, only variants of the Same and Sane. Just as we only have variants of The Other.

Did I mention how much I hate boxes of exact definitions? Although, all of this raise the question of how we "know" or "feel" that something is original and meaningful for us, and therefore, "true". From all of my pondering and wondering about it, I just found the name for it, as to all fandom related phenomenons: I think it's the punctum Barthes talks about in Camera Lucida [link] . But you can't have the punctum without the studium, and that's the dialectics which builds so much of out understanding of culture, politics, emotion and structure/action.

Which is why I'm trying to put aside dialectics for now, and switch to Latour, etc.. I wrote about it from another aspect a while ago: [link]

Edit: And seriously? Sometimes, after rereading my posts here, I'm just glad you can understand me despite everything. I can't understand myself when I read what I wrote!

That's a longer conversation, though, and since it's nearly 10pm here (and I am disabled and need a lot more sleep than most people), perhaps we should address it another time...!

Oh, let's do so. And yes, it's late. in fact, it's so late it's now tomorrow here.

Just about every alien I've ever seen in SciFi movies, books, etc. still seems on some level (if not many levels) to be human to me.

One of the things I liked about Farscape was that the aliens were pretty alien. They didn't all have the same culture and perceive people and the world the same way.

The Star Trek episode "Devil in the Dark" was also pretty good about making an alien actually alien. There are a few episodes where they do that, I think, although most of them are very human or near-human in their "alienness."

What kind of crazy, alien talk is this?

Being British (of Irish origin): one 'other' I'm delighted to be. Crazy timings and all.

Except when it comes to having to ahem all my TV. Or missing macaroni and cheese. Or decent mashed potatoes. Or waffles with really good syrup. Or... OK, I'm moving back to New York.

Just about every alien I've ever seen in SciFi movies, books, etc. still seems on some level (if not many levels) to be human to me.

Some shows/films/novels do better than others. Trek being among the worst, I reckon. But if we can't begin to comprehend the truly alien, as Shir points out, then should we just give up on sci-fi altogether? Is it a pointless genre?

Edit:

Oh, let's do so.

Then we shall!

But first, bedtime here.

Well, the aliens are often bipeds, with two limbs that serve the same purpose as arms. Vital organs (heart, eyes, brain) seem to be located in the general vicinity of human counterparts.