Bloodchild

Octavia Butler's BloodChild follows a society of humans on a preserve who are governed and watched over by a superior insect-alien race, The T'lic. The T'lic use the humans to host and give birth to their young in a blood ritual. The story focuses on the love story between a young male who is the future host of T'Gatoi's offspring. T'Gatoi is a powerful T'Lic with political influences.

Questions:1. The general "deal"is for each human family to offer at least one son to the T'Lic to breed their young. Apparently The T'Lic prefer women but leave them free to bear more children (more future hosts). Do you believe that this tradition or the story exhibits forms of sexual discrimination towards both genders that can be paralleled to our society?

2. Bloodchild exhibits reversal of gender roles when the T'Lic use mostly men to "birth" their young, and T'Gatoi is a powerful T'lic whose a female political figure. What roles in society that are dominated by one gender are beginning to welcome the other gender?

The Lottery

The story "The Lottery" is one that I have read many different times during middle school and high school. Everytime I have read it the story has struck a major chord, but for different reasons each time. The title in itself depicts a clear image in my mind that is an obvious reflection of our society. The lottery, to us, is a way to win MONEY. It is a chance to win hundreds, thousands, even millions at the cost of a few dollars. But this is not the case in this story. It is a device used to cast out one member of a group. Whoever is lucky enough to draw the slip of paper with the black dot wins that opportunity of being stoned to death by their peers. This black dot is a symbol of the end and a mark for death. Given the story, some of the things that America values don't seem so valuable after all . For example, the idea of "tradition" and "beliefs". The two concepts are extremely important to the American value system and many people do not want change them and those who do are frowned upon or seen as radicals. Nobody likes a stray. Also, the idea that these traditions are instilled in children from the time they are young, in this case "old enough to throw a stone", is somewhat scary but can explain many things in today's society. The fact that no one, not even the family of the woman being stoned, stood up or tried to save her is ridiculous because we see ourselves as individuals who stand up for what we believe in and those we care about, not sheep following the rest of the flock. To end, I want to throw it out there that just because we have a belief or tradition does not mean that is is right or the right way and only way to do something. Also, many of our mistakes as humans were based on these very belief.

Discussion Questions:

1. Name a few parallels of today's society found in "The Lottery" and explain how they reflect society.

2. Give some examples of "traditions/beliefs" that are instilled in us as children that aren't necessarily "a good thing".

3. Discuss other symbols that have been used as marks for death by a society and the beliefs behind these symbols.

Fringe

Martians, Democrats & Republicans

"What social science is properly about is the human variety, which consists of all the social worlds in which men have lived, are living, and might live." -- C. Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination (1959)
And there you have it. Sociology and science fiction out of the mind of one of our most prolific theorists. Just because science fiction is the domain of nerds and geeks doesn't mean that it doesn't have social significance. Sociology is the study of groups and group interaction and it influnces science fiction because the genre posits the interactions of group in future social realms given the impact of certain social factors (destroyed environments, lack of human reproduction, or the advent of sentient machines).

"Science Fiction is really sociological studies of the future, things that the writer believes are going to happen by putting two and two together." -- Ray Bradbury (1950s)
Most often, the discussion centers on utopias, or their antitheses, dystopias. The fact that much of science fiction plays upon this dichotomy is commentary on society. As with most of socialized human thinking we fall into an "either/or" schema. Some view the society as so poor that they conjure a society in which all is perfect, but in these utopias, there is usually a catch. Authors, and filmmakers posit that the perfect society usually sacrifices something of our humanity. Posing the question, "Is it really perfect if we are no longer human?" Others view societies as hurtling down the path of destruction and imagine the worst of that destruction.

"I found that it was all right to have Martians saying things Democrats and Republicans could never say." -- Rod Serling
In my personal nerd, geek story, the current incarnation of the television series Battlestar Galactica is one of my favorite shows, ever. It was revived 5 years ago and the vision of creators Eick & Moore took the premise of the 70's show and molded into a social morality tale for the modern era. It isn't the best science fiction show on television. It's the best show on television because it examines the social conventions, ideologies and values of U.S. society in forthright ways. During a time in this country when our military officials and intelligence officers were torturing people percieved to be enemies of the U.S. (against moral and legal conventions) those who spoke up about these acts were silenced, punished and/or roundly criticized. Even most other elected officials were cowed into silence. Battlestar Galactica, in the most direct way, dealt with this issue and others surrounding it. Martians indeed.

Discussion Questions

1. What impact does the sociological perspective have on the genre of science fiction & vice versa?

2. Discuss the importance of projecting the future of a society to the study of sociology.