Violent action ensues.
March 30, 2009 4:43 PM Subscribe
In Star Control II, the Mycon divide everything in the universe up into "Juffo-Wup," "Non," and "Void." More information is available about it here. My question is this: this concept of everything being divided into an autistic self-world, the hostile outside, and nothing at all— also explored in Philip K. Dick's "Null-O"— seems like a motif. Does it have a name? Where else is it explored?
There is a sci-fi series called _WarStriders_, where the alien antagonists have a similar mind set and ecology as the Mycon. A single adult alien inhabits the entire crust of a planet, and in the chapters told from the alien viewpoint, they divide the universe between the Self/planet, the Non/human obstacles on the surface, and the Void/Space. I don't remember if the aliens are fungal, but they do spread via asteroid-seeds and fight mostly with spore/nanite clouds.
posted by Balna Watya at 5:17 PM on March 30, 2009
posted by Balna Watya at 5:17 PM on March 30, 2009
Best answer: You might want to look at notions of the Other versus the Same - it's a lot of what has been driving literary theory, feminist theory, postcolonialist theory, etc. Edward Said's Orientalism is arguably one of the more famous books on this same/other opposition, and I wouldn't be surprised if various sci-fi writers absorbed the a conception of this dynamic while touching on anthropology/sociology.
Also, Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series sets off a hierarchy between species, and the distinction between ramen and varelse comes into play concerning the piggies in Speaker for the Dead.
posted by suedehead at 5:45 PM on March 30, 2009
Also, Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series sets off a hierarchy between species, and the distinction between ramen and varelse comes into play concerning the piggies in Speaker for the Dead.
posted by suedehead at 5:45 PM on March 30, 2009
Best answer: Closer to home:
Níð.
Divisions of the world in Islam.
Christendom.
posted by zamboni at 7:42 PM on March 30, 2009
Níð.
Divisions of the world in Islam.
Christendom.
posted by zamboni at 7:42 PM on March 30, 2009
You're probably aware of it since you mentioned "Null-O," but Dick's novel Martian Time-Slip gets into this a bit as well.
Also check out David Foster Wallace's The Broom of the System- the concepts of Self and Other (and characters' demented coping strategies) are a major theme of the novel.
posted by Merzbau at 8:53 PM on March 30, 2009
Also check out David Foster Wallace's The Broom of the System- the concepts of Self and Other (and characters' demented coping strategies) are a major theme of the novel.
posted by Merzbau at 8:53 PM on March 30, 2009
Quotations taken from that wiki page.
Think Freud:
the Void = the subject; consciousness
Juffo-Wup = "power of life;" it flows throughout the universe = id
Non = "impede the flow of Juffo-Wup" = superego
Mycon = "agents of Juffo-Wup;" = ego
posted by hpliferaft at 9:30 PM on March 30, 2009
Think Freud:
the Void = the subject; consciousness
Juffo-Wup = "power of life;" it flows throughout the universe = id
Non = "impede the flow of Juffo-Wup" = superego
Mycon = "agents of Juffo-Wup;" = ego
posted by hpliferaft at 9:30 PM on March 30, 2009
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Sorry if I'm mangling the retelling, but it always stuck with me as a funny type of culture shock.
posted by wfrgms at 5:00 PM on March 30, 2009