This question stems from a recent comment made by Guillermo del Toro, regarding his creation process: "A lot of people, when they design creatures, they reference [other] creatures. And that's the worst thing you can do, because then you're going to regurgitate somebody else's process and that's it." (on Vice News, Dec. 5 2017). This comment got me thinking about whether or not the same thing could be said about the creation of fictional societies and cultures. More often than not, they reference existing or historical cultures and societies. This practice has sparked many debates over the years, touching on the politics of representation, cultural appropriation, historical revisionism, or the 'right to dream' of other places and other times. But what are the alternatives? For the sake of argument, let's explore other avenues, other non-human sources of inspirations that have, or could, serve as templates for creating fictional societies and/or cultures. Animal behavior is an obvious candidate here, and we could think of a number of examples in which they have served as inspiration for authors. But machines too ; the movies "Tron", for instance present a society inspired by the workings of a computer. Can you think of other examples?
Then we may also ask ourselves if our own (non-fictional) societies were not partially built upon animal behaviors as well. In ancient societies sigils and totems were often symbolizing a certain type of animal behavior that was deemed as virtuous by the societies/families that used them. But it is interesting to observe the virtues/values represented in societies that chose non-living or at least non-animal objects as their sacred symbols. What behaviors are inspired by such things as mountains or trees ? Our societies often personified/deified those objects. There is a projection of the human on the object, but there is also an observational inspiration that is drawn from the object. This exchange process gives us good insights on fictional societies building, imagining the "behavior" of the natural environment of a society can maybe help us to imagine and shape a culture that may spring from that imaginary environment. It is probably a longer process than drawing direct inspiration from human societies, but may lead to things that feel just as plausible, while being fresh and uncommon.
I think that these alien cultures are often created as a metaphor for some element or controvercy in current human culture, which then allows the author to explore that element or controvercy. By reaching conclusions about the alien culture, we are also reaching conclusions about the same element in our current human culture.
In a way you've got all figured out. I mean, what else is there besides animal inspiration? Even a machine-like inspired society would be inspired by something humans already created. Maybe the term "animal" should be replaced in your analysis by "other biological species" but that's it. I'm thinking about micro-organisms, for exemple, in order to not exclude any species besides the animal reign. Of course this should include insects, plants, and even virus. The truth is, even if Guillermo del Toro said that, a ton of his work is inspired by Lovecraft whos work was heavily inspired by ancient human cultures and animal-like deities.
Consider Stephen King's The Tommyknockers and The Langoliers, which involve metaphysical rather than biological forces and thus new cultures.
Literary ‘anthropomorphism’ or metamorphosis stories such as God or animals attributing to human behaviour or distinctive human qualities .The animal symbolism used in many fictions highlight the experience of animals in the real world who in a way become the voiceless victims.
Our human limitations constrain our interpretations and vainly ascribe our 'image and likeness' to a 'God' of our creation. We still seek for inspiration in fiction, yet we ignore the reconcilable elements of the structured poverty of the masses whose reality may as well be fictive. It's the irony of advancement.
The octopus is an extraordinarily intelligent creature... One cannot help wondering if, under other circumstances, evolution might have followed a different path - such that they turned out to be the dominant species on this planet?
An interesting source of such inspiration are societies of para-humans of fantasy - not quite sci fi but close, I.e.,, humans with altered abilities but in worlds very much like ours but different in essential areas. I am thinking of China Mieville (my ipad is not currently co-operating to allow proper diacritical) and Perdido Street Station. Also Embassytown. With interests that are primarily ethical and sociological and individuals’ relationship to principles, he deftly constructs societies that are like ours but with accentuated differences highlighting society’s values of freedom, creativity and interpersonal relationships. I think of Perdido Street Station almost weekly and highly recommend it. Thanks for such an interesting question!
Another thought: Flatland by Abbott, curious story about two dimensional “people”.
Isaac Asimov was criticized for having too human ETs. His novel The Gods Themselves was based upon a gelatinous creature with sexual phases between three sexes. That's my contribution.
The Ents (tree-like creatures) in J.R. R.Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. The harmoniums in Vonnegut's The Sirens of Titan, who feed on sound vibrations.
I do think there can be human and non-human inspirations for fictional works. The imagination of and acceptance of God or even a higher power imposes a particular belief in the ordering of social relations and the belief even in non-human, non-natural experiences, mysteries, metaphysics, magical realness. Also, the binary conception of good and evil institute a particular mode of reasoning and conceptions even in science fiction of good, evil, the power of evil and the ubiquitous nature of evil and good. I must also say that this reduces some of the prominent science fictional works to a basic struggle between good and evil and a near fable outline.
i like jim drummond's ideas: octopi ARE amazing and intelligent. Read Hugo's Toilers of the Sea. Also, the tree like creatures he references reminds me of similar cactus-like beings in Miéville's Perdido Street Station.
Science fiction is often used to comment on social issues of today, by setting them in a futuristic or alien setting.
If you want to comment on war by depicting a war among aliens on another planet, your message might resonate with your audience better if your aliens are biped, looking vaguely human, as opposed to war among the gelatinous creatures that Gloria mentioned above.
What's stopping anybody from reading the work in exobiology among the astronomers and astrobiologists? It is within that discourse community, with a bit of transference and extrapolation of ideas, that more interesting combinations may be found. Usually innovation involves synthesis to some degree, digesting phenomena and also previous ways of categorizing and theorizing.
What helped the film Arrival to be innovative was wandering off the usual scientific and film community paths into the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis about language as creating reality and the broader field of Linguistics. How well these ideas were digested and communicated is yet another "rating" problem. Arrival was at least a start. Creatures are not only physical appearance but mental function.
Creatures' minds may often determine their physical appearance, as with chameleons in nature, or more fictively, as with the Keanu Reeves character in the Phillip K. Dick film A Scanner Darkly, whose face was masked by a continuing programmed chain of alternating faces. In Bradbury's The Illustrated Man, the tattoos come to live and are portals into other worlds and experiences of an imaginative nature. If we have androids, they are designed along mental lines. What is fascinating is the sophistication of the consciousness that creates and is reflected in the forms. SO we like Blade Runner better than The Blob. Ironically, diversifying the physical appearance so that it is more alien diminishes the capacity to create and relate mentally and emotionally, as Asimov probably discovered in responses to The Gods Themselves (I have not read it). I am among the physics weirdos who believe that consciousness preceded and generated The Big Bang and all that came after. I am not trained in physics; linear education only gets in the way of truth and imagination, right? :)
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