Any good stories about life after acceptance of 'the other?'

[Rxanadu]

Anyone know of any books/shows/movies/games that tackle the subject of the world after the acceptance of 'the other' (e.g. sentient robots, all races, cyborgs, what have you)? Got this spark after finishing Read Only Memories, and I kind of want to see what the world may be like if people actually got past all fears of 'the other.'

 

I think the Star Trek series is a good candidate, given the emphasis on gathering individuals from all kinds of race on the show. Aside from that, though, I can't think of anything in particular.

[Merus]

Does Farscape count? I seem to remember that the conflict in that show's more about evil empires than xenophobia.

 

I can think of some science fiction where the conflict is driven by xenophobia on the part of a minority, but most of the viewpoint characters have let go of their fear of the other.

[Rxanadu]

@Merus: Thanks for the input. I'm not particularly looking for stories where the conflict is "Not Xenophobia/Racism/etc." I'm not even looking for any stories with a form of conflict. I'm looking for a story that deals with a world without Xenophobia/racism/etc. in order to get a better grasp at what that would even look like in our own world. That is one of the ultimate goals for world peace, after all.

 

I'll check out Farscape just to be sure, but, as stated above, a story with a different form of conflict is not my main concern.

[Rxanadu]

I actually thought of another piece of media where most fear of 'the other' is quelled, if not considered: Futurama. From what I remember from over 7 years ago, the cast of the show tends to be OK with a lot of other races and cultures. All forms of life, from different races to robots and extraterrestrials, are considered important. I'm not sure how the show has changed over the years of being cancelled and reinstated, but hopefully that small piece of what I'm looking for in a story about how life is with acceptance of 'the other' is there.

 

P.S. I may be completely wrong about the series, though, so I'd appreciate any corrections on this matter.

[Twig]

I can't remember all the details of Futurama, but there's definitely, for example, discrimination against robots in a lot of cases. 

[Mawd]

The Culture Society from Ian M Banks' series is very okay with sentient AI, other races, both genders and gender transitioning.

It's citizens don't always trust the more advanced AI's because they're inscrutable tactical geniuses but most AI are likeable apart from ones that love being annoying.

Although of what I've read most of the story focus is between the Culture and other less tolerant societies so you might not get what you want out of it at times.

[tberton]

Anyone know of any books/shows/movies/games that tackle the subject of the world after the acceptance of 'the other' (e.g. sentient robots, all races, cyborgs, what have you)? Got this spark after finishing Read Only Memories, and I kind of want to see what the world may be like if people actually got past all fears of 'the other.'

 

I think the Star Trek series is a good candidate, given the emphasis on gathering individuals from all kinds of race on the show. Aside from that, though, I can't think of anything in particular.

 

I don't know, Star Trek still has plenty of feared Others: Klingons, Romulans, Borg and Cardassians all fit the bill at varying points.

[Cordeos]

I don't know, Star Trek still has plenty of feared Others: Klingons, Romulans, Borg and Cardassians all fit the bill at varying points.

But once the wars were over the Federation was perfectly happy to work with them. After TOS the Klingons became allies. Similar with the Romulans during the dominion wars. The Cardassians are no longer the enemy at the end of DS9. TNG and DS9 had several episodes i can remember talking about the difference between being enemies of the Romulan, Klingon or Cardassian government and being an enemy of each and every individual member of a species. The Undiscovered Country also dealt with this as well. The Borg are in some ways are even more culturally inclusive than the Federation, so I'm not sure someone can really other them in the same way. I do remember one species that 7 of 9 said the borg considered unworthy of assimilation. That was cold.

[Gaizokubanou]

There is this sci fi movie called "Enemy Mine" about downed human pilot in a war against this alien race and he ends up befriending another downed pilot of the said alien race... I enjoyed it when I watched it as a child but it kinda got panned by critics? :x

 

Evangelion has this theme hidden within but it's amongst dozen other stuff just scattered among its convoluted teen angst ridden mecha anime genre deconstruction :x

 

Can I fit Gundam 0080 into this theme somehow (problem is that main protagonist is neutral sandwiched between brother/sister figure who are on opposite side)?

[SuperBiasedMan]

Also Futurama has very heavy blatant mutant segregation.

[tberton]

But once the wars were over the Federation was perfectly happy to work with them. After TOS the Klingons became allies. Similar with the Romulans during the dominion wars. The Cardassians are no longer the enemy at the end of DS9. TNG and DS9 had several episodes i can remember talking about the difference between being enemies of the Romulan, Klingon or Cardassian government and being an enemy of each and every individual member of a species. The Undiscovered Country also dealt with this as well. The Borg are in some ways are even more culturally inclusive than the Federation, so I'm not sure someone can really other them in the same way. I do remember one species that 7 of 9 said the borg considered unworthy of assimilation. That was cold.

 

You may be right here, but TNG still has several episodes about Worf struggles to fit into both human and Klingon society. There are also episodes about the how the Borg are an evil menace unworthy of anything but death, and there are episodes about reconsidering that position when confronted with the selfhood of individual Borg. There are also episodes about whether or not Data or other "artificial" beings are alive and sentient.

 

Many of those have positive resolutions, but questions surrounding the Other are still very much present in all of them.

[Cordeos]

You may be right here, but TNG still has several episodes about Worf struggles to fit into both human and Klingon society. There are also episodes about the how the Borg are an evil menace unworthy of anything but death, and there are episodes about reconsidering that position when confronted with the selfhood of individual Borg. There are also episodes about whether or not Data or other "artificial" beings are alive and sentient.

 

Many of those have positive resolutions, but questions surrounding the Other are still very much present in all of them.

 

I think part of the problem with finding a post othering story is Star Trek and a lot of sci fi seek to address contemporary issues, and since we are really good at being, racist, sexist, nationalist, bigoted etc many authors/writers feel the need to address it. 

[Vasari]

I watched an episode of TNG recently where the Enterprise rescued two Ferengi whose ship was about to explode. What struck me was how they've rescued these two people on the brink of death, but they immediately raise questions about the security of the ship and how this might be a dastardly trap to steal technology from the federation. Riker is particularly bad about it; as soon as the two Ferengi are on board he says "Find quarters for the Ferengi. Not near my quarters." At that point I started mentally replacing the word "Ferengi" with "Pakistani" and it made everyone on the Enterprise seem like real fucking assholes.

 

On that note, did anyone else play Binary Domain? I thought that game had a really interesting representation of prejudice. Brendan Keogh wrote some really good articles on that game; I'm about to go to bed but I'll look them up tomorrow.