Language in Use 125-126
This unit is concerned with the degree to which our sense of what is natural'
or 'real' or 'the truth' about the world is bound up with the way in which our
language has enabled us to store our experience of that world. It explores
the way in which science fiction can disturb our sense of reality by altering
the attributes that we habitually ascribe to living things.
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[1] Ask for a list of living things and select some of these to Put in a Column on the board. Draw a grid in which this list provides labels for the horizontal columns. Ask for characteristics which are common to most of the creatures in tire list, such as four-legged, two-eyed, feathered and webfooted, and use a few of these as headings for the vertical columns. The class now fill tip the grid, offering a plus or a minus as to whether or not a given attribute is possessed by the particular I living thing. Now add the heading 'touchable' to the list of attributes and ask the class to complete the entries. Then do the same with 'edible'. With attributes such as these there is likely to be real disagreement.
The final stage of the session is to ask the class to change ge some of the Pluses for particular living things and to look at the possibilities this opens Lip: trees that move; edible snakes; and so on. Other attributes which can be explored here include 'safe', 'intelligent', 'venomous', 'carnivorous', 'aggressive', 'articulate'.
[2] The focus of this session is upon the consequences that follow when we alter the expected attributes that a creature has. Ask the class to work individually and choose one living thing. Without naming it, each student lists a set of + and - attributes for it, and passes the list to his neighbour to see whether it can be identified from the attributes alone. Difficult cases can be put tip to the class for discussion. This will emphasise the degree to which our interpretations depend for their success upon our being presented with what we regard as 'normal'. Ask each member of the class to write about a creature as we would expect it to be, except for one vital attribute.
[3] Circulate these pieces for comment and discussion, asking the class
to choose the most disturbing cases. Explore with the class why the conceptions
so selected are disturbing, and ask for other examples of similar patterns from
SF writing. In each example, the class should work out the relevant attributes
to see which have been made abnormal and what the consequences are for the action
of the story. Points to consider include:
(a) is the disturbance greater if the attribute is basic (plants that move;
rats as big as elephants)?
(b) what happens when attributes are switched between mammals, humans, reptiles
and plants?
(c) are the changes cumulative and is this more disturbing than one major change
in an otherwise 'normal' set of attributes?
(d) does a point come when the changes are so many that the effect is lost,
because we cease to regard the creature as relating
to anything we know?
(e) is altering the scale of creatures or their potential power in relation
to human beings particularly disturbing,
and if so, why?
An alternative approach to [2] is to make use of Anglo-Saxon riddles: good versions are available in The Earliest English Poetry (Penguin). There are similar poems in the Celtic tradition (Penguin Books of Welsh and Irish Verse).
The procedure of this unit can be used also with fiction written for children, such as the speaking animals in Beatrix Potter; Ferdinand the Bull, The Reluctant Dragon, the Moomins, and many kinds of fantastical beings from The Borrowers to giants. This approach can also lead to the discussion of writers like Alan Garner, C. S. Lewis, and J. R. R. Tolkien.
Related work can be explored in Fl.