Alien Encounters

     The stories "out of all them bright stars" by Nancy Kress and "Passengers" by Robert Silverberg showcase two different perspectives concerning the hypothetical alien. In "Passengers," the alien is depicted as an unseen invader that latches onto a person's brain and causes the person to act against common social norms. In this story the alien is just a physical manifestation of the rejection of social norms. This idea of casting aside social norms was quite prevalent in the late sixties when this short story was written. The same ideas about refusing to conform to societies standards can be found in the novel "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert A. Heinlein. In "Stranger in a Strange Land" Heinlein explores the concept of free love and nonviolence using a child who was born on mars and raised by martians. The novel became very successful and helped start the hippie counterculture of the late sixties; Much to the Chagrin of Heinlein.
    "out of all them bright stars " by Nancy Kress is an entirely different perspective on the alien. The story is an allegory for racism which can be seen in many short stories and novels in scifi. The idea that the alien will experience discrimination and hatred by us has almost become cliche in science fiction. However, Nancy Kress took it a step further and discussed those who aren't hateful and angry but refuse to do anything about the people who are. That aspect of the story kept it from being mundane and made it memorable.
      It is impossible to write an accurate story about an alien of course because we haven't made contact with an alien race as of yet. Nor do we have any real evidence that there is life out there in the first place. No matter how painful it may be we must accept the possibility that space is dead and that this planet is the only one in the universe that supports life. This may not be true and there may be other worlds out there capable of maintaining life but that life is bound to be very different than the life on this planet. We look out into the stars searching for ourselves and I don't believe we're going to find ourselves out there. In the words of J.B.S. Haldane "The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, it is queerer than we can suppose." However science fiction is two words and not one. That last part is fiction and that allows us to speculate on ourselves and create alien worlds that are but mirrors into the recesses of the human soul.

Update:

There are a few things that changed my perspectives about the stories above. One thing that altered my perspective about "Out Of All of Them Bright Stars" was the realization that the main character was a woman. Somehow I had read the entire story without picking up on the main character's gender. I read all of her dialogue assuming that the main character was meant to be androgynous. Knowing now that the character is female makes it clearer as to her feelings about the situation i the diner. My perspective hasn't really changed about "Passengers" Though. I still feel that the passengers represent innate sexual desires within the human psyche. I subscribe to the ideas put forth by Freud and believe that these ideas were represented by Silverberg.