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Roncallo-Dow, S., Uribe Jongbloed, E., & Aguilar Rodríguez, D. . (2021). We come in Peace! (Well, do they?): Human Communicative Fears in Films of an Extra-terrestrial Nature. Kepes, 18(23), 273–313. https://doi.org/10.17151/kepes.2021.18.23.10
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Authors
Sergio Roncallo-Dow
Perfil Google Scholar
Enrique Uribe Jongbloed
Daniel Aguilar Rodríguez
Abstract
Extra-terrestrial beings always have the potential to alter ‘the world as we know it.’ Whenever they appear in film or television, there is a debate about the possibility that we have, as human beings, to communicate with them. Linguistics and semiotics become keyelements in our attempt to bridge the cultural gap. Be it through mathematics, music or technological gadgets, these films only mimic the uncertainty that arises from all types of intercultural
contact. The fear is always the misinterpretation that can turn a ‘We come in peace’ into a fully-fledged war.
This article starts from a general review of 138 films from the decade 2007-2017 to recognize the main points present in their narrative, which shows that hostile conflict remains the main theme. Then it provides an interpretive analysis of the films to describe the type of communication fears that exist in
contemporary films, taking a special look at Avatar (Cameron, 2009), Arrival (Villeneuve, 2016) and District 9 (Blomkamp, 2009) as the main representations of our current understanding of communication difficulties. The humanization of extra-terrestrial beings to establish communication with them becomes an inverse representation of the dehumanization of the other, the enemy, as depicted by certain sectors of society and a few recently elected governments, with whom it is difficult to establish mechanisms of communication and dialogue.
Keywords:
References
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Kracher, A. (2006). Meta-humans and metanoia: the moral dimension of extreterrestrials. Zygon, 41 (2), 329–46. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9744.2005.00741.x
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Mayer, S. (2017). Girl power: Back to the future of feminist science fiction with into the forest and arrival. Film Quarterly, 70(3), 32-42. https://doi.org/10.1525/FQ.2017.70.3.32
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Merton, R. (2002). Teoría y Estructura Sociales [Theory and Social Structure]. Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Miller, R. (2017). Aliens. Past, Present, Future. London: Watkins.
Mills, J. (2003). Lacan on Paranoiac Knowledge. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 20 (1), 30–51. https://doi.org/10.1037/0736-9735.20.1.30
Moffitt, J. (2006). Alienígenas. Iconografía de los extraterrestres. Siruela.
Moulton Howe, L.. (2016). The Rosswell Files. In Ancient Aliens. The Official Companion Book. K. Burns, editor, pp.163-76. HarperCollins.
Narusawa, S, Aota, T, and Kishimoto, R. (2018). Which colors would extraterrestrial civilizations use to transmit signals?: The ‘magic wavelengths’ for optical seti. New Astronomy, 60,61–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newast.2017.10.003.
Patchett, T. & Fusco, P. (Creators). (1986). Alf [TV series]. NBC.
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Peters, T. (2018). Does extra-terrestrial life have intrinsic value? An exploration in responsibility ethics. International Journal of Astrobiology, 1-7.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S147355041700057X
Pheasant-Kelly, F. (2016). Towards a structure of feeling: abjection and allegories of disease in science fiction ‘mutation’ films. Medical Humanities 42 (4), 238–45. https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2016-010970
Pincio, T. (2009). Aliens ¿Hay alguien ahí afuera? 451 Ediciones.
Plato. (1997a). Republic. Plato Complete Works, edited by J. M. Cooper. Hackett Publishing Company.
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Ricoeur, P. (2005). The Course of recognition. Harvard University Press.
Roncallo-Dow, S., Goyeneche-Gómez, E. & Uribe-Jongbloed, E. (2016). Volver a los clásicos: Teorías de la comunicación y cultura pop [Back to the classics: Communication Theory and Pop Culture]. Uniediciones.
Rutherford, A. (2017). It Came from beyond the silver screen! aliens in the movies. In Aliens. The world’s leading scientists on the search for extraterrestrial life,
edited by Jim Al-Khalili, pp.169–77. Picador.
Schofield Clark, L. (2005). From Angels to Aliens. Teenagers, the media, and the supernatural. Oxford University Press
Scolari, C. (2005). No pasarán. Las invasiones alienígenas de Wells a Spielberg. Páginas de espuma.
Scott, R. (Director). 2011 [1979]. Alien (DVD). Twentieth Century Fox.
Sutton, L. (2016). Aliens are just like us: personal names in the legion of superheroes. Names. A Journal of Onomastics 64 (2), 109–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/00277738.2016.1159446
Spielberg, S. (Director). (1982). E.T. The extra-terrestrial [Movie]. Universal Studios and Amblin Entertainment.
Szendy, P. (2013). Kant in the land of extra-terrestrials: cosmopolitical philosofictions. Fordham University Press.
Thomas, W. (2005). La definición de la situación [Social Definition of the Situation]. Cuadernos de Información y Comunicación, 10, 27–32.
Tromly, L. (2017). Race, Citizenship, and the Politics of Alien Abduction; Or, Why aliens do not abduct Asian americans. The Journal of Popular Culture 50 (2), 276–92. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.12545
Van Veuren, M. J. (2012). Tooth and nail: anxious bodies in Neill Blomkamp’s District 9. Critical Arts 26 (4), 570–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/02560046.2012.723847
Veracini, L. (2011). District 9 and Avatar: Science Fiction and Settler Colonialism. Journal of Intercultural Studies 32 (4), 355–67.
https://doi.org/10.1080/07256868.2011.584614
Verhoeven, P. (Director). (1997). Starship Troopers [Movie]. TriStar Pictures.
Villeneuve, D. (Director). (2016). Arrival [Movie]. Film Nation Entertainment.
Von Däniken, E. (1968). Erinnerungen an die Zukunft: Ungelöste Rätsel der Vergangenheit. Econ-Verlag.
Von Däniken, E. (2016). Ezekiel´s wheel. In Ancient Aliens. The official companion book, K. Burns (Ed.), pp.1-10. HarperCollins.
Wagner, K. B. (2015). District 9, race and neoliberalism in PostApartheid Johannesburg.” Race & Class 57 (2), 43–59. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306396815595800
Washbourne, K. (2015). The outer limits of otherness: ideologies of human translation in speculative fiction. Translation Studies 8 (3), 284–301. https://doi.org/10.1080/14781700.2014.931817
Wise, R. (Director). (1951). The day the earth stood still [Movie]. Brandywine production & 20th Century Fox.
Wise, R. (Director). (1979). Star Trek: The Motion Picture [Movie]. Paramount Pictures.
Wittgenstein, L. (2009). Philosophical Investigations. Wiley-Blackwell.
Wolf, T (Creator). (1985). Thundercats. [TV serie]. Rankin/Bass Productions.
Amis, M. (2015). La invasión de los marcianitos [The invasion of the martians]. Malpaso.
Blomkamp, N. (Director). (2009). District 9 [Movie]. WingNut Films.
Bohlmann, U. M., & Bürger, M. J. (2018). Anthropomorphism in the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence–The limits of cognition?.Acta Astronautica,143, 163-168.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2017.11.033.
Boyington, P. (Director). (1990). Hangar 18. Megadeath (Artist) [Music Video]. 6 min 28 sec. USA.
Burns, K. (Producer). (2009). Ancient Aliens. [TV series]. A&E Television Networks
Burton, T. (Director). (1996). Mars Attacks! [Movie]. Warner Bros.
Branagh, K. (Director). (2011). Thor [Movie]. Marvel.
Cabrol, N. (2017). “What are we looking for? An overview of the search for extraterrestrials.” In Aliens. The world’s leading scientists on the search for extraterrestrial life, Al-Khalili, J. (Ed.) pp.178–87. Picador.
Cameron, J. (Director). (2009). Avatar [BluRay]. 20th Century Fox.
Chiodo, S. (Director). (1988). Killer clowns from outer space [Movie]. Media Home Entertainment.
Cocconi, G, & Morrison, P. (1959). Searching for interstellar communications. Nature 184, 844-46. https://doi.org/10.1038/184844a0
Conrad, M. (Producer and Director). (1950). The flying saucer [Movie]. Colonial Productions, Inc.
Crisell, A. (2006). A study of modern television. Palgrave Macmillan.
Dengo, S. (2012, Aug, 12). El porqué de la fascinación de los terrícolas con Marte. [The why of human fascination with Mars]. Expansión Revista electrónica. https://expansion.mx/tecnologia/2012/08/07/marte-el-planetavecino-que-nos-produce-fascinacion
Deutscher, G. (2010). Through the language glass. Why the world looks different in other languages. Metropolitan Books.
Emmeric, R. (Director). (1996). Independence Day [Movie]. Centropolis Entertainment.
Carpenter, J. (Director). (1982). The Thing [Movie]. Universal Pictures Foucault, M. (2002). Defender la Sociedad. [Defending Society]. Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Garland, A. (Director). 2018. Annihilation [Movie]. Skydance Productions.
Hacyan, S. (2014). Ovnis y viajes interestelares, ¿realidad o fantasía? [UFOs and interstellar travel, reality or fiction?] Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Haskin, B. (Director). 1953. The War of the Worlds [Movie]. Paramount Pictures.
Herek, S. (Director). (1986). Critters [Movie]. New Line Cinema.
Hood, G. (Director). (2013). Ender’s Game [Movie]. Oddlot Entertainment.
Jennings, G. (Director). (2005). The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy [Movie]. Touchstone Pictures.
Jeneut, J.P. (Director). 1997. Alien: Resurrection [Movie]. Twentieth Century Fox.
Jung, C.G. (2002). Flying saucers. A modern myth of things seen in the sky. Routledge.
Kirby, D. A. (2003). Scientists on the set: science consultants and the communication of science in visual fiction. Public Understanding of Science 12 (3), 261–78. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662503123005.
Kracher, A. (2006). Meta-humans and metanoia: the moral dimension of extreterrestrials. Zygon, 41 (2), 329–46. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9744.2005.00741.x
Lempert, W. (2014). Decolonizing encounters of the third kind: alternative futuring in native science fiction film. Visual Anthropology Review, 30 (2), 164–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/var.12046
Lévinas, E. (1993). Entre nosotros. Ensayos para pensar en el otro [Amongst ourselves. Essays to think on the other]. Pre-textos.
Lovecraft, H.P. [1927]. Supernatural horror in literature. (2009, Oct, 20) http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/essays/shil.aspx
Marez, C. (2007). Aliens and Indians: science fiction, prophetic photography and near-future visions. Journal of Visual Culture, 6 (2), 255–73. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470412907078568
Martos-Núñez, E., and Martos-García, A. (2015). Remediación y patrones narratológicos de las historias de aliens en la cultura mediática. Palabra Clave 18 (3), 788–814. https://doi.org/10.5294/pacla.2015.18.3.7
Mayer, S. (2017). Girl power: Back to the future of feminist science fiction with into the forest and arrival. Film Quarterly, 70(3), 32-42. https://doi.org/10.1525/FQ.2017.70.3.32
Maylam, T. (Director). (1992). Split Second [Movie]. Challenge Film Corporation.
Méliès, G. (Producer and Director). (1902). A Trip to the moon [Movie]. Star-Film.
Merton, R. (2002). Teoría y Estructura Sociales [Theory and Social Structure]. Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Miller, R. (2017). Aliens. Past, Present, Future. London: Watkins.
Mills, J. (2003). Lacan on Paranoiac Knowledge. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 20 (1), 30–51. https://doi.org/10.1037/0736-9735.20.1.30
Moffitt, J. (2006). Alienígenas. Iconografía de los extraterrestres. Siruela.
Moulton Howe, L.. (2016). The Rosswell Files. In Ancient Aliens. The Official Companion Book. K. Burns, editor, pp.163-76. HarperCollins.
Narusawa, S, Aota, T, and Kishimoto, R. (2018). Which colors would extraterrestrial civilizations use to transmit signals?: The ‘magic wavelengths’ for optical seti. New Astronomy, 60,61–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newast.2017.10.003.
Patchett, T. & Fusco, P. (Creators). (1986). Alf [TV series]. NBC.
Peters, J. D. (1999). Speaking into the air: a history of the idea of communication. University of Chicago Press.
Peters, T. (2018). Does extra-terrestrial life have intrinsic value? An exploration in responsibility ethics. International Journal of Astrobiology, 1-7.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S147355041700057X
Pheasant-Kelly, F. (2016). Towards a structure of feeling: abjection and allegories of disease in science fiction ‘mutation’ films. Medical Humanities 42 (4), 238–45. https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2016-010970
Pincio, T. (2009). Aliens ¿Hay alguien ahí afuera? 451 Ediciones.
Plato. (1997a). Republic. Plato Complete Works, edited by J. M. Cooper. Hackett Publishing Company.
Plato. (1997b). Thaetetus. Plato Complete Works, edited by J. M. Cooper, pp.157-234. Hackett Publishing Company.
Ricoeur, P. (2005). The Course of recognition. Harvard University Press.
Roncallo-Dow, S., Goyeneche-Gómez, E. & Uribe-Jongbloed, E. (2016). Volver a los clásicos: Teorías de la comunicación y cultura pop [Back to the classics: Communication Theory and Pop Culture]. Uniediciones.
Rutherford, A. (2017). It Came from beyond the silver screen! aliens in the movies. In Aliens. The world’s leading scientists on the search for extraterrestrial life,
edited by Jim Al-Khalili, pp.169–77. Picador.
Schofield Clark, L. (2005). From Angels to Aliens. Teenagers, the media, and the supernatural. Oxford University Press
Scolari, C. (2005). No pasarán. Las invasiones alienígenas de Wells a Spielberg. Páginas de espuma.
Scott, R. (Director). 2011 [1979]. Alien (DVD). Twentieth Century Fox.
Sutton, L. (2016). Aliens are just like us: personal names in the legion of superheroes. Names. A Journal of Onomastics 64 (2), 109–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/00277738.2016.1159446
Spielberg, S. (Director). (1982). E.T. The extra-terrestrial [Movie]. Universal Studios and Amblin Entertainment.
Szendy, P. (2013). Kant in the land of extra-terrestrials: cosmopolitical philosofictions. Fordham University Press.
Thomas, W. (2005). La definición de la situación [Social Definition of the Situation]. Cuadernos de Información y Comunicación, 10, 27–32.
Tromly, L. (2017). Race, Citizenship, and the Politics of Alien Abduction; Or, Why aliens do not abduct Asian americans. The Journal of Popular Culture 50 (2), 276–92. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.12545
Van Veuren, M. J. (2012). Tooth and nail: anxious bodies in Neill Blomkamp’s District 9. Critical Arts 26 (4), 570–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/02560046.2012.723847
Veracini, L. (2011). District 9 and Avatar: Science Fiction and Settler Colonialism. Journal of Intercultural Studies 32 (4), 355–67.
https://doi.org/10.1080/07256868.2011.584614
Verhoeven, P. (Director). (1997). Starship Troopers [Movie]. TriStar Pictures.
Villeneuve, D. (Director). (2016). Arrival [Movie]. Film Nation Entertainment.
Von Däniken, E. (1968). Erinnerungen an die Zukunft: Ungelöste Rätsel der Vergangenheit. Econ-Verlag.
Von Däniken, E. (2016). Ezekiel´s wheel. In Ancient Aliens. The official companion book, K. Burns (Ed.), pp.1-10. HarperCollins.
Wagner, K. B. (2015). District 9, race and neoliberalism in PostApartheid Johannesburg.” Race & Class 57 (2), 43–59. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306396815595800
Washbourne, K. (2015). The outer limits of otherness: ideologies of human translation in speculative fiction. Translation Studies 8 (3), 284–301. https://doi.org/10.1080/14781700.2014.931817
Wise, R. (Director). (1951). The day the earth stood still [Movie]. Brandywine production & 20th Century Fox.
Wise, R. (Director). (1979). Star Trek: The Motion Picture [Movie]. Paramount Pictures.
Wittgenstein, L. (2009). Philosophical Investigations. Wiley-Blackwell.
Wolf, T (Creator). (1985). Thundercats. [TV serie]. Rankin/Bass Productions.
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