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Monk, Patricia. Alien Theory: The Alien as Archetype in the Science Fiction Short Story. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2006. 387 pp. Paper. ISBN 13: 978-0-8108-5746-9. $ 49.95.
Patricia Monk clearly articulates her intent in the introduction to this useful examination of aliens in short science fiction: to understand the popularity of aliens by examining them from a Jungian archetypal perspective. She argues that aliens persist as one of the most active tropes in science fiction because they function to help humans understand themselves by seeing themselves in other beings. She feels that psychological and literary discussions of aliens have not adequately explained why aliens are so popular and varied in science fiction. In order to begin to address this topic, she distinguishes what she refers to as "OtherSelfness" or "Alterity" from the concept of "Otherness." By "Alter ity" she means readers can see an alien as a believable sentient person despite its strangeness (somewhat like Martin Buber's "I and Thou" concept) as opposed to the alien seen as a strange and horrifying Other. The book is unique and useful in referring to science and how-to -write essays and fan letters as well as fiction.
After the introduction, the book has four sections: Conceiving the Alien (two chapters), Writing the Alien (three chapters), Reading the Alien (two chapters) , and a conclusion. Each chapter has clear definitions and categories of various uses of aliens. Her first chapter examines concepts of aliens in folklore and ancient tales as well as how aliens and the search for extra-terrestrials have been presented in science publications. She focuses on stories and non-fiction articles dealing with two scientific problems that face science fiction authors - interstellar travel and interspecies communication. The rest of the first chapter shows how psychological theories have been used to examine alien presentation in science fiction.
The second chapter examines various literary critical approaches, including ones that see the alien as a metaphor for humans or for the unconscious. She believes treating the alien simply as metaphor "can be reductive in the extreme, since it may ignore or exclude or blur much of what makes the Alien strange and fascinating" (45). Treating an alien simply as a metaphor for human problems suggests an author has...