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Extraterrestrial life in popular culture
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In popular cultures, life forms--especially intelligent life forms, that are of extraterrestrial origin, i.e. not coming from the Earth--are referred to collectively as aliens, or sometimes visitors.
This usage is anthropocentric; the term is used to refer to non-human civilizations even in the context of their own native habitats. This may be seen as a reversion to the classic meaning of "alien" (see foreigner) as referring to an "other.".
e is a long history of writing about imagined meetings between aliens and humans, and poetry is no exception.
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Encyclopedia
In popular cultures, life forms--especially intelligent life forms, that are of extraterrestrial origin, i.e. not coming from the Earth--are referred to collectively as aliens, or sometimes visitors.
This usage is anthropocentric; the term is used to refer to non-human civilizations even in the context of their own native habitats. This may be seen as a reversion to the classic meaning of "alien" (see foreigner) as referring to an "other.".
Aliens in poetry
There is a long history of writing about imagined meetings between aliens and humans, and poetry is no exception. Many serious poets, including former United States of America (USA) poets laureate Stanley Kunitz and Robert Hayden, have written celebrated poems on the topic of life beyond our world. Some of these poems complicate the expectations of the reader, such as Kunitz's poem which subverts the popular notion of alien abduction by describing the event surreally and without the typical cast of characters. Other poems take on the topic as a way to offer an alternate view of humanity, or even a cultural critique. In Robert Hayden's poem an extraterrestrial describes American behavior to his superiors, and similarly, "The White Fires of Venus" by Denis Johnson, relates the observations of the inhabitants of Venus about humanity.
Historical ideas
The fictionalization of extraterrestrial life occurred before the 20th century. The didactic poet Henry More took up the classical theme of Cosmic pluralism of the Greek Democritus in "Democritus Platonissans, or an Essay Upon the Infinity of Worlds" (1647). With the new relative viewpoint that understood "our world's sunne / Becomes a starre elsewhere", More made the speculative leap to extrasolar planets,
- the frigid spheres that 'bout them fare;
- Which of themselves quite dead and barren are,
- But by the wakening warmth of kindly dayes,
- And the sweet dewie nights, in due course raise
- Long hidden shapes and life, to their great Maker's praise.
The possibility of extraterrestrial life was a commonplace of educated discourse in the 17th century, though in Paradise Lost (1667) John Milton cautiously employed the conditional when the angel suggests to Adam the possibility of life on the Moon:
- Her spots thou seest
- As clouds, and clouds may rain, and rain produce
- Fruits in her softened soil, for some to eat
- Allotted there; and other Suns, perhaps,
- With their attendant Moons, thou wilt descry,
- Communicating male and female light,
- Which two great sexes animate the World,
- Stored in each Orb perhaps with some that live
Fontanelle's "Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds" with its similar excursions on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, expanding rather than denying the creative sphere of a Maker, was translated into English in 1686. In "The Excursion" (1728) David Mallet exclaimed, "Ten thousand worlds blaze forth; each with his train/Of peopled worlds."
See also
Types of alien
UFOs
Other alien phenomena
Alien studies
Aliens in fiction
Further reading
- Roth, Christopher F., "Ufology as Anthropology: Race, Extraterrestrials, and the Occult." In E.T. Culture: Anthropology in Outerspaces, ed. by Debbora Battaglia. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2005.
- Sagan, Carl. 1996. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark: chapter 4: "Aliens"
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