Extraterrestrials in fiction
Other name(s) | Aliens, space aliens |
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An extraterrestrial or alien is any
Extraterrestrials are a common theme in modern
History
The 2nd century writer of satires, Lucian, in his
Antiquity
The way people have thought about extraterrestrials is tied to the development of actual sciences. One of the first steps in the
This was changed by the 1859 book
Modern times
The Barney and Betty Hill incident took place in 1961 when the couple claimed that they were abducted by aliens and subjected to invasive experiments. It was the first recorded claim of an alien abduction, soon followed by others. The description of the aliens made by the Hills, with oversized heads, big eyes, pale grey skin, and small noses captivated the public imagination and was later used by TV shows and films. This started the grey alien archetype. According to Wade Roush, a science and technology writer, "The standard depiction of aliens at that point became the little grey man. So, when Steven Spielberg came along and made probably what are the two most influential movies about aliens – Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and ET the Extra-Terrestrial – the aliens and those movies were both basically variations on the 1950s and 1960s little green or little grey man image".[5]
The advent of TV and films, with extraterrestrials played by actors, toned down the fantasy. For budget reasons, humanlike aliens with just some specific non-human body features became the new standard. This is especially noticeable in the Star Trek franchise. This changed again since the 1990s with the advent of computer-generated imagery (CGI), and later on as CGI became more effective and less expensive, as it allows to generate bizarre lifeforms without being constrained to actors with costumes or mechanical effects.[5]
See also
- History of science fiction
- Alien invasion
- Parasites in fiction
- List of fictional extraterrestrials
- List of films featuring extraterrestrials
- List of humanoid aliens
- Mars in fiction
- First contact (science fiction)
References
- ^ Harper, Douglas. "extraterrestrial". Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ISBN 0-8135-2168-8, retrieved December 16, 2020
- ISBN 978-0-19-983747-2.
- S2CID 171048588.
- ^ a b c d Zaria Gorvett (October 22, 2023). "The weird aliens of early science fiction". BBC. Retrieved January 25, 2024.
- ^ "Alien encounters". Britannica. Retrieved January 28, 2024.
Further reading
- ISBN 978-3-642-13196-7.
- Killheffer, Robert K. J.; Stableford, Brian; Langford, David (2023). "Aliens". In Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2023-12-15.
- 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".
- ISBN 978-0-415-97460-8.
- ISBN 978-0-313-32951-7.
- ISBN 978-0-313-32951-7.
- ISBN 978-1-4408-6617-3.
- ISBN 978-1-4766-8659-2.