what makes us human?

i really like matt's idea (if i understood you correctly) that previous cultural modes and values such as the pastoral can become "emergent" when they are transposed into science fiction. if i follow your logic, it takes me to connect williams' ideas with those of, say, joseph campbell and the world of myth. myth would be a good case, actually, for studying class values. myth, maybe a lot like the pastoral, is something that crops up again and again in literature, film, art, etc., in a reassessment of its own value. think of the hero's journey in harry potter, for example. or even back to the future (such a great trilogy).

it is a fascinating connection to me, however, to think of science fiction's rising popularity coinciding really with these social and political thinkers. i had never considered the matter before but it makes so much sense. i really love science fiction and i think that part of it is for that very reason: sci fi poses the question constantly of "what if?", forcing us to think critically about the dominant values that we more or less take for granted as fact–which williams describes as "the scientific character of 'the laws of human development' is cautiously questioned or skeptically rejected" (198). what motivates us as a species? what if that were taken away, or drastically altered by some force? what would make us still human?

williams cites h.g. wells, and aldous huxley, in their terror of the possibilities of human evolution, but we know that science fiction is full of countless other such powerful narratives that caution us to question how we live: george lucas's fear of nazi imperialism in his creation of the cold, mechanical empire in star wars, or james cameron's environmentalist commentary in his creation of ruthless capitalist developers, determined to rape a planet of its natural resources in avatar.

if we want to connect this back to class…i note that williams ties a lot of these sci fi narratives to the question of communism and socialism, or at least, to questions of what kind of social structure will ensure the survival of the human race and the greatest possibility of general happiness and prosperity of that race. "socialism as the next higher stage of economic organization" (202), is how he phrases it, and indeed i think in modern science fiction, whether the world is a utopia with one corrupt element, or a total dystopia that needs to be overthrown, there is still a dominant theme wherein the protagonists/society engage in some kind of struggle for human rights.