Cold Readings #2
I’ve been reading lots of first contact stories recently to get a handle on how this trope has been approached in the past and how I want to approach it in the book I’m writing. I’ve researched actual historic accounts of first contacts among different cultures in the past but since I’m writing SF I wanted to see it in action, how the speculative element alters things or doesn’t. First, let me say that growing up in Hawaii and being kanaka maoli made me especially allergic to first contact stories where (1) the natives perceive the visitors as gods, (2) the visitors are superior either morally or technologically, or (3) the natives are, for some reason, innately and mindlessly savage. To engage in these imperialist cliches without any sort of interrogation is usually the mark of an unimaginative writer and more often than not, if any of these pop up I kneejerk close the book. Who has the time!
So what am I after? I‘ve been looking for a story that is something like Left Hand of Darkness but kinder, deeper. Left Hand is a book that I find immensely interesting but because its delivered in such an emotionally distant and dry way that I found it nearly impossible to connect with. Same goes for Rendezvous With Rama, The Gods Themselves and The Three-Body Problem. A favorite of mine like Peter Watts’ Blindsight, which has an absolutely incredible premise and killer execution, is on the opposite end of the spectrum in regard to the tone and dynamic I was searching for. Something like Nor Crystal Tears by Alan Dean Foster came somewhat close to what I was after but not close enough.
Finally after slogging through book after book I hit a string of good luck. I found what I’d been grasping after, stories that were thorough and compassionate both in their world and character building and their emotional depth. The Xenogenesis trilogy by Octavia Butler came early in my life and cemented its place within my personal canon of speculative greatness and then came The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russel, The Color of Distance by Amy Thomson and A Woman of the Iron People (ft. a Chinese-Hawaiian lead from a future sovereign Hawaiian nation wow!) by Eleanor Arnason.
They are all anthropological first contact stories meaning it follows a futuristic human/s who then meet and learn about an alien species. It’s usually told from the humans perspective but these offer up the alien’s perspective as well. The common threads that run through these stories and make them such a triumph to me are many: both the human and alien cultures are unique and extensively developed. No sociological, historical, technological or biological aspect is left untouched or unexplored. Humans and aliens have dissent within each others respective species and vastly varied goals, values and cultures within those. Characterizations are fraught, complex and there are no clear moral leads. The authors don’t positions a culture or species as superior, nor their traditions. There is allegory but it is subtle and not didactic. And, finally, there is an intent focus on how the main characters forge an emotional bond and how its built and sometimes broken. There is a tenderness present for these alien characters, a dignity allowed to these them that is not always about humanizing them but understanding and accepting what and who they are, an aspect that I find severely lacking in a lot of speculative fiction.
If you’re in the market for some great emotionally intense, simmering scifi, give these a try! And if you have recommendations on good first contact books or stories that explore aliens, leave a comment, I’m always looking for more to read!