Yes, you should watch Red Dwarf (how the hell have you not already??). Especially the first two series. (They beefed up the budget/effects after that and I never liked it as much afterwards.)
The Left Hand of Darkness is great for alien cultures--the details and mythology she uses to build/back them up/foreshadow are amazing (and were the subject of my long paper last summer).
I've only read two Philip K. Dick novels but they both deal pretty heavily with the idea of reality/unreality. I think I liked Ubik slightly better, but The Man in the High Castle is about a world in which we didn't win WWII, and what happens to the US culturally (we get broken into several pieces that are ruled by the assorted winners, sort of like Berlin was after the war)
How about Brave New World? Not alien culture so to speak, but if future = alien, it could work, especially since it contrasts that future with the "present" so nicely.
I've only just started A Canticle For Leibowitz, but the basic premise is that there's been a nuclear holocaust, and centuries later, someone comes upon this shopping list left by a guy named Leibowitz, and it becomes the central/founding document of this monk-like religious brotherhood. Definitely the basis for some commentary that couldn't be done otherwise, along with some history of the 1950s ("Fallout Shelters and the Fears That Created Them" or some such!).
How about A Wrinkle in Time? Very much a product of its time (Cold War), but short and a commentary on human nature that probably wouldn't work any other way.
Hmm. Not sure if The Golden Compass would work, though elements of it sure are alien. And it definitely contrasts with our own society, if you want to emphasize that. (If you think I'm looking through my grad school bibliography for things that might work, you'd be right!)
Zelazny? Lord of Light? Humans who have figured out how to "reincarnate" into new bodies (Cylons, anyone?) and take on the roles and attributes (via technology) of the Hindu pantheon, re-creating that culture and limiting the growth of technology for their followers because "they're not ready for it"--read: they might steal our power. Until the Buddha comes along... lots of great myth stuff, especially because Sam, aka the Buddha, is such a fabulous trickster hero. And yes, it's QUITE funny.
Well, I seem to be at the end of my list. Dunno how much of that might really apply, but there it is for whatever it's worth.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2009-03-06 03:26 pm (UTC)Yes, you should watch Red Dwarf (how the hell have you not already??). Especially the first two series. (They beefed up the budget/effects after that and I never liked it as much afterwards.)
The Left Hand of Darkness is great for alien cultures--the details and mythology she uses to build/back them up/foreshadow are amazing (and were the subject of my long paper last summer).
I've only read two Philip K. Dick novels but they both deal pretty heavily with the idea of reality/unreality. I think I liked Ubik slightly better, but The Man in the High Castle is about a world in which we didn't win WWII, and what happens to the US culturally (we get broken into several pieces that are ruled by the assorted winners, sort of like Berlin was after the war)
How about Brave New World? Not alien culture so to speak, but if future = alien, it could work, especially since it contrasts that future with the "present" so nicely.
I've only just started A Canticle For Leibowitz, but the basic premise is that there's been a nuclear holocaust, and centuries later, someone comes upon this shopping list left by a guy named Leibowitz, and it becomes the central/founding document of this monk-like religious brotherhood. Definitely the basis for some commentary that couldn't be done otherwise, along with some history of the 1950s ("Fallout Shelters and the Fears That Created Them" or some such!).
How about A Wrinkle in Time? Very much a product of its time (Cold War), but short and a commentary on human nature that probably wouldn't work any other way.
Hmm. Not sure if The Golden Compass would work, though elements of it sure are alien. And it definitely contrasts with our own society, if you want to emphasize that. (If you think I'm looking through my grad school bibliography for things that might work, you'd be right!)
Zelazny? Lord of Light? Humans who have figured out how to "reincarnate" into new bodies (Cylons, anyone?) and take on the roles and attributes (via technology) of the Hindu pantheon, re-creating that culture and limiting the growth of technology for their followers because "they're not ready for it"--read: they might steal our power. Until the Buddha comes along... lots of great myth stuff, especially because Sam, aka the Buddha, is such a fabulous trickster hero. And yes, it's QUITE funny.
Well, I seem to be at the end of my list. Dunno how much of that might really apply, but there it is for whatever it's worth.