Homelanding and Cause and Effect

In “Homelanding” by Margret Atwood, the language is very mysterious and only describes things halfway. When describing characteristics, the author chose very unordinary words to describe the creature. For example, to describe the fur on the creature she chose to describe it as being similar to a “species of seaweed”. The last thing that Atwood does is make it seem like we are the aliens that came onto the world she described. All of these elements successfully illustrate elements found in science fiction. In the Star Trek episode that we viewed in class there was always the element of the unknown. Whether it being why the ship blew up or how the ship got stuck in the repeating time loop; we never knew what was going on until the end. Other things that were present were a robot, a brown creature that I couldn’t figure out the species, and the fact that they were on a spaceship traveling through outer space. All of things were effective elements of science fiction.

I think that you choose these pieces because they showed that yes, physical elements are important in portraying the science fiction genre; but also, things less noticeable like the unknown, description, and perspective are very important. These pieces do hold up to my definition as science fiction because there are a lot of elements of science fiction in them. I didn’t really like the short story that we read because I like to read things that have more of a storyline and more action. But, I guess it was alright. I really liked watching Star Trek. My best friend really loves the show and sometimes talks about it so I’m glad I had the chance to view an episode. I liked the storyline and it was very interesting.