Kobold King he/him Posted July 13, 2014 Report Share Posted July 13, 2014 Inhuman. Funny word, isn't it? In an age in which the concept of animal rights is quickly gaining traction and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence slowly gets off the ground, it seems odd that we still use the word "inhuman" as a synonym for "cruel" or "evil". One of my favorite concepts in speculative fiction is the idea of inhuman life--and by that I mean, intelligent lifeforms which are just as precious and remarkable as human beings, but are also different in fundamental ways. However, many works of speculative fiction attempt to do this, but fall victim to the strong temptation of anthropomorphism. Vampires, for instance, are often portrayed as something alien and mysterious, but are anthropomorphized with more human traits such as romantic love. The recent Star Trek movies aim towards making Spock more sympathetic by emphasizing his more human traits, in contrast to the classic series which appears to embrace the character's alien nature. There are comparatively few works of fiction which portray other sapient lifeforms as beings very different from humanity, but nonetheless valuable and precious creatures in their own right. There are few works which seem to say "this creature isn't human at all, and doesn't even act like it, but he's a pretty cool guy anyway." What few there are take their rightful places as my favorite stories. Brandon Sanderson (you may have heard of him, his name's on our logo) has written what are in my opinion genius representations of this concept. The kandra of Mistborn come across as brilliantly alien and difficult to understand, but somehow still manage to be sympathetic. The spren and Parshendi of the Stormlight Archive similarly display very little in common with humans, but are still intriguing enough to be just as sympathetic as the human characters they share the novels with. The question I pose to 17th Sharders is as follows: what works of fiction have made you sympathize with something that is completely inhuman? I speak not of anthropomorphized animals from cartoons, or similar "non-humans" that act like the guy down the street. This variety of fictional nonhuman can be easily identified when you realize that replacing them with human characters would make no difference towards the general plot or their characterization. I speak specifically of characters whose thoughts and behaviors could never be mistaken for those of human beings, yet are not depicted as monstrous or as somehow less than Homo sapiens. I know 17th Sharders are a fictionally literate lot, so I expect a lot of answers. At least, I hope for a lot of answers--I'm always looking for more stories about inhuman creatures. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Joe in the Bush Posted July 13, 2014 Report Share Posted July 13, 2014 Well, there's the Buggers (Sorry, Formics) from the Ender's Game Series. That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Upvote for an excellently thought out and worded post. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmingly he/him Posted July 13, 2014 Report Share Posted July 13, 2014 The packs from Vernor Vince's Zones of Thought series are remarkably inhuman - composed of a composite soul, mortal in every way but duration, unable to mingle without losing their minds. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Left he/him Posted July 13, 2014 Report Share Posted July 13, 2014 The Peiquino's from the later Ender books. There are a couple races in the Pellucidar series by Edgar Rice Burroughs that I thought could have been nice if the author had decided to make them so. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delightful Posted July 13, 2014 Report Share Posted July 13, 2014 Dan Well's Partials. They do act human in many ways, but they also clearly think and operate very differently than we do, especially in Fragments when they have a mutual "wait, how do you communicate exactly?" discussion. Also Death from The Book Thief. It/he actively avoids becoming emotionally evolved in humans who it/he finds strange and fascinating, but it's exactly that observer insight that rings so true which makes Death so sympathetic. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kobold King he/him Posted July 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2014 Thanks for all the suggestions, people! I'll take a look at Zones of Thought, Pellucidar, The Book Thief, etc. I've read Ender's Game through Xenocide--I haven't read Children of the Mind or any of the Shadow books. Part of this is because of a spoiler I heard about the latest book which completely put me off the series. Spoilers for Shadows in Flight, if what I heard is true: I heard that there was a plot twist in which the hive mind of the Formics was revealed to be a ruse. Supposedly, it's revealed that all Formics actually possess individuality, but the Queens suppress it in the worker caste. If this is accurate, and as bad as I've heard, then this would make Shadows in Flight one of the most despicable installments in a good series ever written. One of the beautiful things about the Formics in Ender's Game is that they are depicted as such different intelligences than us, and the great tragedy of the novel was how humans misunderstood and hated them for these differences. A plot twist that makes these differences inherently evil would negate all of that. It would make humanity's previous xenophobia right and proper. It would say to the readers "if a species is different than humans, it's because they're sinister monsters that are hiding things from you." What kind of message is that? For the sake of my respect for Orson Scott Card, I hope either this is untrue or that it isn't depicted nearly as badly as I've heard. One of my favorite series for favorable depictions of nonhumans is James White's Sector General series. It's about an enormous hospital space station at the edge of the galaxy, where medical practitioners of a thousand species work together. The species range from teddy bear-esque mammals to enormous shark like predators. Their behaviors are depicted as non-human and utterly bizarre, but the series constantly stresses their unifying desire to help others who are in pain and distress. I love the species shown in the stories, and the Educator tapes they use for administering medicine to alien patients are my favorite fictional technologies of all time. It is extremely idealistic, but that's one of the reasons I love it so much. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Joe in the Bush Posted July 13, 2014 Report Share Posted July 13, 2014 Spoilers For Ender's Game: it's kind of true? From what I understand, When a bugger workeror male is born, they have indivituality, but seek out a queen. The queens automatticly take control of nearby uncontrolled Buggers. When the queen dies, the Workers all die, but the males regain their Individuality, and can either search out a new queen or [RAFO]. This is how I interperet it, after reading the main Quartet. I also skimmed the Wiki fo Confirmation. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Left he/him Posted July 13, 2014 Report Share Posted July 13, 2014 As I understand it, Joe is pretty much right. I would agree though that any respect I had for Card would be washed away at that point. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmurfAquamarineBodies he/him Posted July 16, 2014 Report Share Posted July 16, 2014 If you have read Animorphs K.A Applegate does a fairly decent job of making the Yeerks inhuman. When I read how they got space travel I sort of gained sympathy for their plight, but they are still read as 'evil' because they are trying to enslave the humans. She touches on some other aliens that are not that similar to humans, well as dissimilar as you can get while still being a book designed for a younger audience. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delightful Posted July 16, 2014 Report Share Posted July 16, 2014 If you have read Animorphs K.A Applegate does a fairly decent job of making the Yeerks inhuman. When I read how they got space travel I sort of gained sympathy for their plight, but they are still read as 'evil' because they are trying to enslave the humans. She touches on some other aliens that are not that similar to humans, well as dissimilar as you can get while still being a book designed for a younger audience. I'd totally forgotten about Animorphs! I used to love those! Ax was sort of non-human in not understanding human culture, but you could say his curiosity, as I remember it, was very human. Now that you mention it, there was the.....Hork-Bajir? as well? The tree people with blades on their elbows, I think? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Left he/him Posted July 16, 2014 Report Share Posted July 16, 2014 Just about all the creatures in the Edge Chronicles would mostly fall under your specifications. Especially the Shrykes and the Gloamglozers. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmurfAquamarineBodies he/him Posted July 17, 2014 Report Share Posted July 17, 2014 I'd totally forgotten about Animorphs! I used to love those! Ax was sort of non-human in not understanding human culture, but you could say his curiosity, as I remember it, was very human. Now that you mention it, there was the.....Hork-Bajir? as well? The tree people with blades on their elbows, I think? Yeah, they were the Hork-Bajir. They ( the alien races ) were as non-human as they could be while still being relateable to the audience, which were children. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reiyeka she/her Posted July 18, 2014 Report Share Posted July 18, 2014 Wow, great post. I was also intrigued by the species you mentioned from Sanderson’s works and really wish I knew some better examples that could compare.What came to mind was a book named Death and the Penguin written by Andrey Kurkov. It is an interesting example of how we as humans like to give animals/other species human traits and emotions. In the story, the main character has a pet penguin who seems to reflect his own emotions. The owner feels sad, so the penguin waddles around mopily and the owner starts to see the penguin as more than just a penguin.I also thought of the Cthaeh from Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. Although, the Cthaeh could be more akin to the Shards of the Cosmere, more of a force in the universe than a creature. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kobold King he/him Posted July 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2014 Thanks for the suggestions, everybody! I'll definitely be looking into all of these. If anyone has more suggestions, by all means keep 'em coming. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tien'sPetLurg she/her Posted July 20, 2014 Report Share Posted July 20, 2014 I wish I did have some examples for you. I'm fairly new to the genre, but you raise some interesting points. I had a soft spot in my heart for Nightblood. (creepy but true) I also felt some empathy for Human, the koloss. (Although, the way koloss are created might disqualify them from your criteria.) I am fond of Syl. However, in the case of Human, Syl and possibly Nightblood, it's the humanistic qualities that make them relatable. They come across as childlike in a way. Pattern is a little less relatable and I find myself not feeling a lot of trust toward that character. I like the Seons because they, too, reminded me of people. (How Species-ist of me! ) I could see them being ghosts or something. I thought spren were going to be like the souls of people who had passed on. But I'm never able to guess where this author is going so... The more recent versions of Spock lead me to believe he's been given the Data (Star Trek TNG) treatment. The popular entertainment industry is definitely of the "recycle ideas that worked" school of thought. (I have often said that Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory was a slight reversal of the character of Data. I enjoy both characters and actors nonetheless.) For Star Trek, maybe Worf was considered a pretty good "guy" but was sort of human adjacent. (just different enough to maintain some of his 'outsider' status)Since I really can't point you toward additional literary sources, I'll just give green arrows to everyone in here for the thread! Whee! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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