<![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees - io9 Comments]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees - io9 Comments]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> More Heinlein-- all the Lazarus Long books had to do with being a refugee.

musie

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> Interesting points. In contrast with the portrait of Superman as refugee, I'd speculate on Batman as an example of Joyce's prescription for the artist (as a young, or any sort of, man): "silence [his secrets: origin and identity], exile [he removes himself from home for an indeterminate time and, upon his return, remains alienated by his strange habits, questionable methods and occult purposes] and cunning [the world's greatest detective, saying little, seeing everything and everything behind everything]."

Rasselas

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> It's worth noting that a lot of these SF tropes about fleeing and refugees have even older literary and historical traditions that they're redressing. For instance, Galactica is essentially (And deliberately) a re-telling of the Biblical story of the Exodus. The Modern Galactica has re-spun it again to be an extended 9-11/War on Terror allegory. Neat stuff.

NolanLionel

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> I have to say it's simple as this:

1.) Refugees are on the run = underdog champ
2.) Refugees have something to rally against to bring about change = revolution necessitating bravery / heroism
3.) Refugee protagonist usually succeeds = gets cool outfit, gets girl, finds identity as leader of new world order

Pretty cool story considering that in reality, the majority of us feel helpless as an exposed grub in an open field of hungry songbirds.

Darfur, earthquakes, government, unaffordable health care, expensive college, terrorism, crazy wars - shit, how can you not want to be that hero who rises up and saves the world?

ShoplifterOfTheWorld

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.

PadreFaustus

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> Parenthetically, I much preferred Rachael Grey-Summers aka Phoenix II with the butch haircut (plus the braid) and the spiked fetish outfit. Between her and The Hellfire Club you get the impression Claremont or Byrne were into some kinky shit. That version above is so family-friendly I want to ralph, if the presence of Omega Red didn't already do the trick.

LicenseFarm

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> I'm not sure if this also fits into refugee theme but there is a lot of stories about outcasts, pariahs, and people who are escaping from an antagonistic authority.

Signal

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> Best refugee movie moment: In "Day after Tomorrow", the scene of American refugees flooding across Mexico border to escape the cold. Ohh the irony!

Signal

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> Gotta agree, an astute analysis, Charlie. Thanks.

Perhaps its a theme that resonates so well because displacement - migration - diaspora has been a strong factor in the human experience or condition, probably since there was such a thing as a human condition.

Just think, how many generations do you need to go back into your heritage before you find ancestors who were refugees? I'm only 1 gen away, how about you?

Dug

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> Eh... conflict is the essence of drama, and who is more conflicted than refugees? You're talking about people who (1) have other people that want to kill them, (2) have to battle the elements simply to survive, (3) each have their own agendas vis-a-vis where they're fleeing TO, and (4) are forced to take on the universe with little more than a spork and bad attitude.

It's little wonder that so much fiction revolves around such people, sci-fi or otherwise. I don't think science fiction has a special monopoly on this genre.

That being said, it's arguable that science fiction does it better, simply on the scale that it portrays. The more to be won or lost, the more important the conflict.

Palliard

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> As everyone is noting, there are indeed many books featuring refugees, diaspora, or cultural dispersion in space (or occasionally time). Eric Frank Russel's The Great Explosion is one older example.

Mathmos

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> You did miss one of my favorites among these types of Sci Fi, AC Clark's "Songs of Distant Earth," but its an understandable omission given that the "refugee" situation there is a bit less dramatic than most of your examples.

Also, you might want to mention the Iliad and the Aeneid, given that they more or less created and gave archetypes to the type of fiction you're describing here, but thats just a contextualization nit, not a major problem.

All in all, excellent read and you've given me a couple of things to check out, thanks!

DaiMacculate

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> @RAHfanboy: Oh, you beat me to it! Also, Lazarus Long might have said in Time Enough for Love that eventually all cultures schism and the best way to deal with people you don't get along with is to find your own planet. Or something like that. Heinlein seems to have had a deep appreciation for privacy. I think human sprawl throughout the Universe will simply be a result of our intense dislike for members of our own species. Go figure.

Jeff-Minor

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> @TheAlmanac: @galatea2.2: Thanks, I'm glad you liked it! That made my evening!

Charlie Jane Anders

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> @Evil Tortie's Mom: D'oh! I meant to check that, but my internet connection was acting up. Thanks for the save!

Charlie Jane Anders

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> Heinlein also gave us "Methuselahs Children," where the very long lived "Howard Families" escaped in the first interstellar colonization craft, to avoid being imprisoned and tortured so the normals could find out their secret of long life.

I think Lexx would qualify, as well. Nor should we forget Mel Brooks' "Jews in Space!" from "History of the World Pt. 1." OK, that one's a stretch.

RAHfanboy for one, welcomes his Marxist overlords.

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> Nitpick: in "Logan's Run" the movie, you got whacked at 30, not 35. In the book, it was 21(!)

Evil Tortie's Mom

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> I really like the Second Life nod too! Great intro image; intriguingly, if I'm not mistaken, the blue-cast skin that avatar is wearing is a *Drow* one, modified to look more alien. So perhaps there's hope for an AD&D-DC (almost sounds like a classic rock band ;) ) crossover after all.

Torley

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> This is a very good post, but I would raise the Postman as a perennial example of refugee sci-fi. He not only comes from a distant, ruined place, but he uses his origins to... well, that would be spoiling, but suffice to say it's important.

Mister Adequate

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> And don't forget the colony worlds founded by refugees from Earth from Andre Norton's Peacemen of Pax (those were the bad guys) to all of Vance's myriad lost and found colonies, including whole sectors of space. I don't know of anyone who had more fun with the idea than Vance.

The most recent one i have read was "Hunter's Run," by George R.R. Martin, Gardner Dozois and Daniel Abraham. Elizabeth Bear's Carnival had worlds settled by political refugees, if i remember correctly.

You mention Varley, it might have been a more common meme in older stuff, with the post-WWII examples of the Jews in Israel and the Displaced Persons in America as constant reminders.

Pretty much a standard way of populating a given world with an identifiable out-group, very useful in political satire.

codydog

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> I think these types of stories might be very popular with SF fans and writers because so many of us feel alienated (ugh, a pun) maybe even persecuted by whatever passes for the mainstream.
I would never equate the horrors of Darfur with getting stuffed into a school locker in Middle School* but it may make some of us pathetic types more sympathetic to people who are Really living as outsiders. Just a thought.
Anyhoo, I'm signing off to quaff some brews with my nerdy bretheren. Cheers!

*eight times for me. I still get a bit nervous around lockers

Grey_Area

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> Anyone remember a book by Andrew J. Offutt called The Galactic Rejects? The protagonists are running from a war. They were being used by their regime for their various powers of telepathy, telekinesis, and teleportation and go into hiding on a relatively low-tech world where they, if I remember correctly, join a carnival...

Also, good post indeed, Charlie.

galatea2.2

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> This is a great post, but the the note about Second Life might be my favourite part...real life, imagination, and science fiction all intersecting around the refugee.

TheAlmanac

]]> <![CDATA[Science Fiction Is The Literature Of Refugees]]> How about folks with special abilities who have to run and hide from the scientists who would turn them into lab rats, or from a government (or criminal agency) who would use them against their will for nefarious ends. Various incarnations of the X-Men. Witch Mountain, anyone?

I'm reminded of the Nancy Kress Beggars trilogy...though perhaps the super-sleepless are not refugees so much as exiles of the self-imposed variety...

galatea2.2

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