One of my favorite ideas for stories, especially science - fiction stories, are things written from the point of view, and as if by, aliens. That is, non - humans. The most usual one is through literature, but alien - made documents, laws, and other such things are also good. It is harder to write than human fiction, as it requires one to think like an alien, and so they must first understand an alien mind. I did it, too. So, I want to ask you: what do you think? What do you think about writing something from an alien point of view? How would you do it and can you provide a sample of something written by an alien species known or original?
Writing fiction from alien point of view
- Thread starter BohandiAnsoid
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I recall a short story about first contact written, I think, by Friedrich Pohl. The aliens were similar to kangaroos and one of them, on figuring out the sex differences among their human visitors, killed a pregnant human by kicking her. This after several weeks of wondering desperately why her own mate was not killing her and eventually deciding he must be mentally ill.
The human scientists immediately retreated to their ships and made no further contact and the alien scientist was wondering why the humans appeared so upset. It later killed its own mate, thereby allowing her to give birth to a swarm of young.
I haven't read any fanfic here that goes that far into an alien POV, but both Gibraltar and CeJay have written some excellent segments from cardassian, ferengi, and bajoran POV.
In the Star Beagle Adventures, Episode 9 has a number of scenes involving an alien secret agent escaping first from a compound where she was gathering intelligence, then from her own secret police agency.
Those specific scenes are 9.2, 9.5, 9.9, and 9.12 and begin on this page:
Star Beagle Adventures, Episode 9
The human scientists immediately retreated to their ships and made no further contact and the alien scientist was wondering why the humans appeared so upset. It later killed its own mate, thereby allowing her to give birth to a swarm of young.
I haven't read any fanfic here that goes that far into an alien POV, but both Gibraltar and CeJay have written some excellent segments from cardassian, ferengi, and bajoran POV.
In the Star Beagle Adventures, Episode 9 has a number of scenes involving an alien secret agent escaping first from a compound where she was gathering intelligence, then from her own secret police agency.
Those specific scenes are 9.2, 9.5, 9.9, and 9.12 and begin on this page:
Star Beagle Adventures, Episode 9
“Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death” by James Tiptree, Jr.
www.lightspeedmagazine.com
I like Star Trek aliens as much as anyone else, but as others have pointed out, most of them aren’t really alien in outlook, just foreign — I.e. either they just exaggerate some human trait, or they -don’t- and are basically just Americans with funny noses (or sometimes not even that).
Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death - Lightspeed Magazine
—I am hugely black and hopeful, I bounce on six legs along the mountains in the new warm! . . . Sing the changer, Sing the stranger! Will the changes change forever? . . . All my hums have words now. Another change!
www.lightspeedmagazine.com
I like Star Trek aliens as much as anyone else, but as others have pointed out, most of them aren’t really alien in outlook, just foreign — I.e. either they just exaggerate some human trait, or they -don’t- and are basically just Americans with funny noses (or sometimes not even that).
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My series, Vulcan, was intended to highlight the non-earthling perspective, but as has been said, aside from a few cultural variations in ST cannon, Vulcans and other humanoid Star Trek aliens aren't that much different.
One thing that has always felt off about sci-fi, especially in Star Trek, is the standard of referring to an alien species by their planet moniker, Vulcans, Romulans, Binars, Tiburonian, Coridanite, Human... wait. "Human"?
Earthlings don't call themselves Earthlings. All creatures from Earth, and there are a lot of them, are Earthlings. What do Vulcans, for example, call themselves to distinguish themselves from Sehlats? Sehlats are also Vulcans. I tried to do this in episode 8, where Vulcan and her crew travel to Epsilon-Hydra and meet the dominant species there, on the seventh planet, named Ken'tsen
"H'Popattapi is the name of the dominant species of Ken'tsen. They do not have ears or a nose, since their aural crest, as it is called, performs those functions."
But again, minor adjustments to the Human/ humanoid perspective. I still haven't worked out Vulcan family names or if they use them. I did do an episode where the different species aboard Vulcan talked about how they dream.
-Will
One thing that has always felt off about sci-fi, especially in Star Trek, is the standard of referring to an alien species by their planet moniker, Vulcans, Romulans, Binars, Tiburonian, Coridanite, Human... wait. "Human"?
Earthlings don't call themselves Earthlings. All creatures from Earth, and there are a lot of them, are Earthlings. What do Vulcans, for example, call themselves to distinguish themselves from Sehlats? Sehlats are also Vulcans. I tried to do this in episode 8, where Vulcan and her crew travel to Epsilon-Hydra and meet the dominant species there, on the seventh planet, named Ken'tsen
"H'Popattapi is the name of the dominant species of Ken'tsen. They do not have ears or a nose, since their aural crest, as it is called, performs those functions."
But again, minor adjustments to the Human/ humanoid perspective. I still haven't worked out Vulcan family names or if they use them. I did do an episode where the different species aboard Vulcan talked about how they dream.
-Will
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Personally, I often have slightly diffrent names of species and their planets, such as Bohandi (from planet Bohus) and Ansoids (from planet Andosia).
My favourite is a Gorn Captain I wrote in the Star Trek Online canon who, for some reason, obsessed over Sherlock Holmes while coming to terms with his people being marginalized in the Klingon Empire.
From Episode 3 of The Star Beagle Adventures:
The People blamed the Not-People because on their side of the Bor...
If Star Fleet had encountered this world and these people, the unimaginative Star Fleet Xenoanthropology Division would have given both the People and the Not-People the name "Boreans" - or something even less imaginative.
Place the blame squarely where it belongs...
Paraphrased from the works of Joseph Campbell, most people's name for themselves translates to "the people."
They are often the only perspective of a dominant species with language when their language was developing, so they are, by default, the one people, of god(s), or nature, or the trickster who created them despite the natural/divine law against doing so.
The Orville did a more thorough job of exploring the alien perspective of their various crew members. Especially Lt. Commander Bortus and his people.
I enjoyed this movie many years ago in a galaxy not so far away
-Will
I am making some science ficiton writing for free for some time. I do want to improve myself, though, and this is why I would like to ask for help and to start a discussion.
I made some aliens species/civilizations over the years. This is one that has the most extensive backstory, Bohandi. This is a link to their backstory document:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xjKhBBZxcN3CVy9OVcdr9CZykWTIlwZVZ4yNpNPj3XQ/edit?usp=sharing
What I would like to ask you is: how to propaganda of alien civilziations, against humans, specific aliens and others that are not them (humans included). Especially for the Bohandi, but also in general. And also anti - alien human propaganda. This is not very hard specnce ficiton, as it assumes human/aliens can cummunicate normally and fly/communicate to each other.
I would like to mark I don't want you to do my work for me, but to give me advice, help and discuss. Samples of propaganda (including of my own species and any othert) are welcome to illustrate a technique or to prove a point, but I will not use them in any way.
Any critique is also welcome.
I made some aliens species/civilizations over the years. This is one that has the most extensive backstory, Bohandi. This is a link to their backstory document:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xjKhBBZxcN3CVy9OVcdr9CZykWTIlwZVZ4yNpNPj3XQ/edit?usp=sharing
What I would like to ask you is: how to propaganda of alien civilziations, against humans, specific aliens and others that are not them (humans included). Especially for the Bohandi, but also in general. And also anti - alien human propaganda. This is not very hard specnce ficiton, as it assumes human/aliens can cummunicate normally and fly/communicate to each other.
I would like to mark I don't want you to do my work for me, but to give me advice, help and discuss. Samples of propaganda (including of my own species and any othert) are welcome to illustrate a technique or to prove a point, but I will not use them in any way.
Any critique is also welcome.
Likewise for bodies of water.
I've read several threads on geeksaresexy.net showing story prompts about aliens' observations of ordinary human qualities. The mental exercise of looking at something from an alien POV can cause you to call into question things people do.
There are certain sci-fi story tropes that just don't track. A civilization of aliens advanced enough to travel across light years of space to enslave a planet's people, is one. Did they not have high tech robotics with advanced AI to work more efficiently, with lower cost of resources and generally less hassle? Food and water are a another.
Fusion? Bio-manipulation, atomic level reconstruction? They can cross the Van Allen Belt without a care, but constructing Atomic particles from protons, neutrons, and electrons is beyond their abilities. They can't even grow their own food hydroponically?
Maybe they just need a whole planet to themselves? They all fit on a space ship or two or three or four hundred... but there's no room on a whole planet for the "native" fauna and their small enclave, even if they had no ability to terraform mars or one of the Many moons available.
It is the human perspective that our science advances along with our socio-political- philosophical perspective. By the time we have reached another planet to colonize, our environmental conscience would make us pause before stepping in to annihilate an entire planet's population. Not that humanity isn't capable of committing the same sins over and over. But, we are slowly adding new laws to protect that which we have learned not to abuse the hard way. By the time we have FTL flight, we should be pretty well ladened with rules of conduct towards aliens. Aliens, with their highly advanced technology would also advance in other areas, like philosophy, ethics, even pragmatism that should have taught them not to get involved.
-Will
Fusion? Bio-manipulation, atomic level reconstruction? They can cross the Van Allen Belt without a care, but constructing Atomic particles from protons, neutrons, and electrons is beyond their abilities. They can't even grow their own food hydroponically?
Maybe they just need a whole planet to themselves? They all fit on a space ship or two or three or four hundred... but there's no room on a whole planet for the "native" fauna and their small enclave, even if they had no ability to terraform mars or one of the Many moons available.
It is the human perspective that our science advances along with our socio-political- philosophical perspective. By the time we have reached another planet to colonize, our environmental conscience would make us pause before stepping in to annihilate an entire planet's population. Not that humanity isn't capable of committing the same sins over and over. But, we are slowly adding new laws to protect that which we have learned not to abuse the hard way. By the time we have FTL flight, we should be pretty well ladened with rules of conduct towards aliens. Aliens, with their highly advanced technology would also advance in other areas, like philosophy, ethics, even pragmatism that should have taught them not to get involved.
-Will
Drengin Empire from Galactic Civilizaitons game series does the "enslave" thing well. Because, of course, Drengin COULD just use robots and do other thing... But they don't want it. They claim slavery is a part of their culture and see using robots as dishonorable... Then again, they are a species of sadists that directly take pleasure from suffering of others (via some sort of telepathy) and have no problems with allying themsleves with a species of menelovent, robotic Yor.
As I was creating my Bohandi species, I thought about space combat involving them. The Bohandi are aquatic beings that are militaristic and expansionistic. They also have one person fighters. In justifying it, I wrote that they can use their natural, underwater instics in space flight as both underwater and space ois a 3d space, and so Bohandi would insticcively move in 3d space, as opposed to humans, who have to be teached to use the third dimmension. Would it really work that way? And would it be enough to justify them using one man fighters (also, they use directl link to the briain in these fighters, so fighters can nmove at the speed of thought, although they are auxilary manual systems)?
This is something that ADF does extremely well. Just read his first Humanx Commonwealth prologue novel, Nor Crystal Tears. The story of First Contact between Humans and Thranx, told entirely from the Thranx point of view. Or his standalone novel Quozl: anthropomorphic leporids (i.e., they look -- and breed -- like rabbits.)
I haven't really done this sort of thing myself (although I have written characters of rather odd species: in my "First Contact Corps" short stories, I've postulated the Lozadians, who rather resemble a cross between Diane Duane's Sulamids, and the unseen natural form of the Kelvans, and in another short story, the nightmare-inspired "Reduvius Ferox," I've postulated the Reduvians, a very aggressive species of large insects with very long stingers that cause an excruciatingly painful death).
I haven't really done this sort of thing myself (although I have written characters of rather odd species: in my "First Contact Corps" short stories, I've postulated the Lozadians, who rather resemble a cross between Diane Duane's Sulamids, and the unseen natural form of the Kelvans, and in another short story, the nightmare-inspired "Reduvius Ferox," I've postulated the Reduvians, a very aggressive species of large insects with very long stingers that cause an excruciatingly painful death).
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