Homogenous Alien Cultures

[linelefty]

Hi all, I've just registered and I've been doing a bit of search and reading and searching and reading.

There's one issue I'd like to raise and that is, the homogenous cultures presented in so many science fiction media - be it books or TV.

Take for example the Minbari, Centari(B5), Vulcans, Klingons, Wookies, from popular TV or the Myrmicats and Octospiders from Rama and scores of other alien 'cultures' and they all seem to be highly ritualised, structured societies.

Is this because authors/writers can more easily write aliens when their reaction to their surroundings is a direct function of a strict belief and ritual structure?

I'm not a super dedicated scifi reader so I'd be keen to hear of examples where authors have really created an alien culture that is diverse and dynamic as our own.

Sitting here writing this post I can't think of one, MAYBE Rama' octospiders.........

Basically I became a bit disenfranchised when watching Babylon 5 for the first time (up to S4) and I got a bit tired of the homogenous robes or leather battledresses, blood oaths and life debts. Emperors and royal courts. What about some alien diversity?


Thanks
Adam

[j. d. worthington]

Hi, Adam! Welcome to the Chronicles!

Well, part of this may be that the writers are introducing alien cultures to begin with, and generally from a human pov. Therefore, it's easier to get an audience to accept something monolithic, as it's easier for them to get their head around it -- at least to begin with, as with a multiple-volume series, one can then branch out and explore the differences and subcultures, perhaps. But also there's the fact that sff frequently has its roots in myth, and so often deals with things in that same fashion, rather than the more "realistic" fashion of most modern fiction. Even if it is hard SF, it generally has this aspect to it, dealing with archetypes rather than diverse cultural resonances. Whether this is a fault or no depends, I suppose, on one's point of view as well; though I think there's plenty of room for not only both of these, but several other types of storytelling.

Anyway, these are just some random thoughts off the top of my head when I saw your post -- a question which really deserves more thought. I, too, would like to hear others' ideas on this; though I would suggest some of Ursula K. LeGuin's novels and stories -- and, in fact, quite a few of the writers of the 1960s and 1970s seemed to go against this trend, perhaps because of the strong diversity of countercultures of the time.

[SteveR]

Hi there,

Interesting question...it is hard to think of a totally alien culture. As JD says there needs to be a degree of accessibility because the writer/story teller has to communicate the story itself which is explained as a function of character interactions. Character interactions can only work if the viewer/reader can recognise them.

OK, scratching my head, but some possible attempts at truly alien cultures might be:

1. Nasqueron Dwellers (The Algebraist by Ian M Banks) - big timeless creatures living in the atmospheres of gas giants.

2. The Alien (from the Alien film) - culture based on insects maybe - but the combination of their intelligence with an insect society was fairly alien IMO.

3. Ummm...you mention B5 - what about the Shadows. They are a culture that is pretty alien - very different way of doing things. Although again there is human involvement in the shape of Mr Morden giving thema voice - but I think this adds to their alieness. Not sure we ever saw much about their (the Shadows themselves) culture. Same might be said for the Vorlons.

4. Had another, sorry it's gone.

Mmmm....look forward to reading this thread.

Steve

[zorcarepublic]

One of the root things of any real SF series, be it film, book or TV, should be the analysation of the human condition. And most writers, even if they do it really badly, subconsiously do this. We have the Minbari, aggressive warriors but also very religious. The Centauri are decadent, as seen in that episode with the religious festivals. The Narn, well, they're consumed by vengeance against the Centauri. And, moving to Star Trek, we have simpler versions of the same aspects of humanity. The Romulans, always sneaking around. The Klingons, always wanting to fight. The Ferengi...well, you get the idea.

Most species are homogenous because, subconciously, the writer is trying to portray the aliens in a manner that we can understand. Some species, however, are downright strange and hardly feature in our psyches at all, which is why we always feel uncomfortable when such aliens appear on our screens, in the pages of our books, and on the silver screen.

I hope that I've answered a slightly different question from that which you were asking...

[chrispenycate]

The more convincingly alien a species is (the more it differs from us, the observers) the more it will seem homogenous to an outsider. Take (as a simplification) the view of the British empire towards the indigenous populations of the regions it conquered: all the subcultures within the indian subcontinent lumped together as "indians", all the diversity masked by the fact they were different from "us", the reference civilisation (indeed, you're lucky if all non-europeans aren't classed together as "heathen savages". This within one species, and with high levels of communication. I'm sure a sapient plant would consider al human society virtually indistinguishable, and many of our "rituals" incomprehensible (tipping water over yourself every morning, when it's obviously not essential for your well being, since lack of it causes no physiological disaster? Must be a religious ceremony)
That said, many stories portray alien societies that are not monolithic, with opposing factions (often opposed as to what to do about humans. Still, if we are to understand these factions, they must bear a fair resemblence to humans.
Take CJ Cherryh's "Chanur" series, as an example; we understand the splits in the leonine protagonists, because their "family/clan" organisation is close enough to a human model. The kif? We know they're split, but their motives are, at best, murky. The Tc'a? Monolithic, incomprehensible. For all we can tell their civilisation is split into hundreds of competing philosophies, not even ready to talk to each other; or else totally in agreement. For communication to rise above the "you go away" level, there needs to be a foundation of shared experience.
Try and put yourself into the skin of someone for whom the principal difference between a kalahari bushman and an LA gamer is the amount and wavelength of the electromagnetic radiation reflected; perhaps the narrowness of our "diverse and dynamic" culture, when reflected in an alien mirror, will become more obvious.

[Teresa Edgerton]

I was going to say, essentially, what you said, chris. But I agree with linelefty that reading about an alien race with more obviously diverse cultures is more interesting.

Cherryh is, indeed, a good example of a writer who does this well (when she has a mind to). There is a certain amount of cross-cultural conflict among the aliens in Brothers of Earth, which I reread recently. And sometimes she'll show numerous sub-cultures within a single culture.

However, there is another factor to consider: how isolated the various subgroups are. The more different cultures communicate and interact, the more homogenous they become. A species with global communications and the ability to travel easily and often, is going to show less obvious diversity than one where every ethnic group sits on its own little island and rarely talks to anyone outside.

[I, Brian]

Hi linelefty and welcome to chronicles!

And that is a very very good point - I may well need to check out the authors who make a good job of it.