8th+grade+-+Golden+Age+of+SF+-+Social+Commentary

The social commentaries found in the stories of the Golden Age of Science Fiction.

Carmina A.M. Escalante No matter what period of time you exist in, there is one thing that has never and will never change, and that is the issue of society. However many ways the rules of society change, the mere fact that there are rules that society implements upon us will never change. Because of this ridiculous "human" fact, many factors, particularly in the genre of science fiction, have found ways of exposing the "crappy"-ness, for lack of a better word, of this type of system. This can be seen in the writings of a variety of science fiction writers such as [|Kurt Vonnegut], [|John W. Campbell], and [|C.L. Moore]In the example of Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, “Harrison Bergeron”, published in the 1960’s, this story and many others similar to it have shown a discreet mockery towards the issue of authority. In “Harrison Bergeron,” the stories setting is in a futuristic society where people look, feel, and act exactly the same and the ones who are extra-ordinary, such as those amazingly beautiful, smart, or strong, are handicapped so that the people of normal beauty, intelligence, and strength feel as if they are equal to those with above average skills and features. However, one man who is extremely above the rest rebels and ends up being shot for his rebellion. Especially in the sixties with the emergence of the hippie movement, and seventies, anti-authoritarianism (//see also Politics)// became one of the biggest issues the United States had to deal with. It was in this time that many people began rebelling against the government perhaps because of the events that occurred such as the Vietnam War. It could be for this reason alone that Vonnegut decided to write “Harrison Bergeron,” perhaps to expose all of the faulty mistakes the government had been making. Another social issue present in most science fiction writings were human related issues which we can see in the short story, “Who Goes There” by John W. Campbell. Campbell’s short story displayed how hypocritical human nature may be and how we, as humans do not notice the simple pleasures in life such as privacy, until we are stripped of our right to have it. However, though we long for such privacy, once we have gone for a long period without human interaction, it is then that we yearn for people to surround us once again, eliminating our privacy once more. Campbell’s story shows us how much we as humans need balance in our lives and how hypocritical and wasteful we are. His story also displayed the three biggest human fears, fear of the unknown, fear of death, and fear of the different. As we saw in the example of the crew members, we fear things we know nothing about, such as the crew members feared the Thing, the alien that was invading their camp. Once they knew what this thing could do, the crew members began fearing death, what if the Thing ate them? Lastly, they feared the different. The crew member’s first instinct was to fear the Thing just because it was different, and alien. All three are completely based on human nature. During the 1930’s, 1940’s, and 1950’s which can also be known as the Golden Age of Science Fiction and the Beat Generation, a group of influential writers of this time period that wrote pieces that rebelled against varying social issues, gender roles and gender dominance were the most significant. Men and women could easily be told apart aside from their biological features. The men were usually the rugged ones, dressing in pant suits, the ones working and bringing home “the bacon” and men held the highest seat in the household. On the other hand, women were expected to be submissive to their husband, quiet and respectful to the man of the house. Women were the ones performing the domestic chores such as cooking, cleaning, washing the dishes and laundry, wearing dresses and always looking beautiful, whatever that was. Because of the evident gender dominance, many women science fiction writers such as C.L. Moore’s “No Woman Born” used their writings in order to display the wrongs of gender dominance. As you can see, throughout the years, a variety of science fiction writers have used their writings in order to expose the faulty errors in the society’s way whether on purpose or not.
 * __Social Commentary in Science Fiction__**

__EXTERNAL RESOURCES:__ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_commentary

http://www.rooknet.com/beatpage/

Moore, C.L. __No Woman Born__ pages 269-312 19 March 2007 Vonnegut, Kurt. __Harrison Bergeron__ (whole story) 19 March 2007 Campbell, John W. __Who Goes There?__ (Whole Story) 19 March 2007

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