Otherness in First Contact Science Fiction Films Essay

Otherness is mostly seen in science fiction and can even be related to humans wanting to belong to different social groups in real life as well. Because this is such a broad topic it can be approached in many different ways. First the reader needs to fully understand what the concept of Otherness is. In the graphic novel The Vision written by Tom King, Vision who is a robotic synthezoid (meaning synthetic humanoid which was a term first coined by a fictional Doctor Hank Pym in Visions universe) wants to belong to his new town where his family are the only robotic beings and look and act differently than the humans he is surrounded by. Because of this, Vision lets his ego and insecurity cloud his judgement and allows his children to become aware of this and become insecure themselves on their identity as synthezoids. Throughout the graphic novel, Vision, his wife Virginia, and his two children Vin and Viv struggle to fit in and find where they belong in the dull boring town, they live in. Otherness described in Ingvil Hellstrand's article called “Almost the same, but not quite” is defined as “the other is often figures as both acting and looking like a human” Hellstrand (252). Now to add onto that idea how can this robotic being become more human? Ontological is a word that is defined as dealing with the nature of being. The existential question both authors attempt to answer is: why do the robots want to be human?

In the graphic novel The Vision, one example of how Visions family displays their insecurity to belong is in the first few pages of the book, two characters George and Nora visit the Visions right after they appear to move in. Nora brings the Visions cookies on a platter, trying to be neighborly and George gets visibly and audibly upset at her for doing so. George then says “Honey, I love you but they’re toasters. Fancy, red toasters. They’re not like you and me. They don’t eat cookies you know?” Then the Visons answer the door, gladly accept the cookies but when George and Nora leave, Virginia immediately throws away the cookies indicating that the Visions in fact do not eat. But if you gaze into the background of this scene, they are standing in a full kitchen with a stove and refrigerator. This is unusual because even though the entire family does not consume food, they still want to live in a regular house with a kitchen, in order to feel normal. This also happens a little later on in the book when Vin is at his school during lunchtime and proceeds to sit at a table with a full lunch plate and he just stares at it while a child bullies him. But why would Vin get food in the first place if he was not planning on eating it? Perhaps to look like everyone else, therefore making him feel like everyone else in the lunchroom. Later in the book, Vin and Viv are outside their house playing with a football from their school, then Vision comes out to join them and his son Vin wants to fly while playing football insisting that it will be more fun. Vision then says “fun or not, we are here to achieve normalcy. Flying all about is not-” and then is interrupted by his daughter who says “father just throw the ball! We will achieve normalcy tomorrow!” And he reluctantly agrees and says they will need to learn someday. This shows how relentless Vision is on being seen as normal, because even though playing a sport is just about the most human thing they can do, Vision persists on making them act completely normal and not at all like their robotic selves. The last example that will be explained is when Victor, Visions brother comes to town and Vision takes Victor and his family out to dinner and none of them eat any food. Vision is interrupted by the waitress who asks if they want the food that Vision ordered, but he denies it and just says to bill him without receiving any food.

The second example that will be explained is from Ingvil Hellstrand's essay called “Almost the same, but not quite.” In this essay Hellstrand utilizes critical thinker Homi K. Bhabha to describe identity as the Other. Bhabha claims that recognition is tied to a person's identity. This idea of recognition, and its connection to identity, he claims, can be demonstrated in colonialism. The Other is not the same as the colonizers, and the colonizers are depicted as the normative in a colonized model. There are three trajectories that Hellstrand demonstrates. The first trajectory being “ontological mimicry…the ways in which the non-human attempts to be like the human” Hellstrand (252), the second trajectory “addresses a noticeable shift in representation with characters that are almost indistinguishable from a ‘real’ human” Hellstrand (253), and lastly the third and final trajectory “discusses what is at stake in contemporary ontological politics of recognition” Hellstrand (253). The first trajectory can be seen in the novel, which was then adapted into a film, called The Bicentennial Man (book 1976, film 1999) who portrays Andrew, an android who achieves civil rights by his unwavering ambition to imitate humans. One example of this is when he decides to start wearing clothes over his robot body shortly after gaining rights. There was reference of this film making comparisons to black Americans during the civil rights movement and how even though they gained rights, they were still not seen as equal or even normal. This then raised questions of political and ethical issues concerning personal freedom and societal rights. The second trajectory can be seen in the film Alien: Resurrection (1997) where Hellstrand argues that the portrayal of mimicry in science fiction reflects the potential to produce human-like robots called performance humanness. Hellstrand says that “the result is uncanny: they invoke a sense of familiarity at the same time as there is something unfamiliar, something ‘not quite’ at play” Hellstrand (258).

Therefore, this idea of Otherness is mostly seen in science fiction and can even be related to humans wanting to belong to different social groups in real life as well. Because this is such a broad topic it can be approached in many different ways. Otherness described in the graphic novel The Vision written by Tom King, Vision who is a robotic synthezoid wants to belong to his new town where his family are the only robotic beings and look and act differently than the humans he is surrounded by. The reader then realizes why Vision feels this way and can begin to empathize with Vision and his family. Otherness described in Ingvil Hellstrand's article called “Almost the same, but not quite” is defined as “the other is often figures as both acting and looking like a human” Hellstrand (252). Then through the examples of the novel and film The Bicentennial Man and Alien: Resurrection as well as the use of the three trajectories, the reader can fully conceptualize the ideals and perspectives of the non-humanoid robots whose one and only desire is to be seen as human. Now to answer the questions above: how can this robotic being become more human? Firstly, through both King and Hellstrands works, the reader can comprehend that acting and looking like humans is one part, the next step is being accepted by their human peers. The final existential question both authors answer is: why do the robots want to be human? To which the reader acquires the knowledge that every non-human in fiction writing and film wants to belong and become like the others it is entrapped with. They accept this truth by finishing what they started and continuing to have the need to belong- which is a human trait they have adapted. Humans connect to this sense of belonging as a protective layer which helps issues and stress in their lives, emotionally or otherwise not percieveable by a robotic creature who was not intended to live the same way as a human. This makes the non-human therefore more human by adapting to the humans way of life, which makes it human.