Sci-Fi and the Alien Culture

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"I think sci-fi can explore because it doesn't have to deal with like thousands of years of baggage that human life carries on with it," he says. "If you if you kind of create a species from whole cloth you can design their cultural heritage and cultural morays in a way that are similar enough to ours but then tweak them so that they make us uncomfortable yeah definitely like the dark mirror or whatever precisely that you want"

We're back to sci-fi this week, but we take a break from the politics-heavy universe of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow instead uses science fiction to discuss anthropology, colonialism, and theology. There's some genuinely funny and warm stuff in this book, but there's a shadow hanging over the proceedings from the outset: eight people set out to explore the first known alien planet inhabited by sentient life, but only one comes back, and he's much worse for the wear.

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