Science fiction and fantasy literature have much to offer the reader: escapism, high adventure without
personal consequence, conscious reflection on society past, present and future, and so on. The projection of a reality outside or expanded upon our own is enticing; it offers us an outlet to enjoy all the fantasies in which we want to believe. A major theme throughout the realms created by science fiction and fantasy is the existence of other species and races, an idea that excites those of us who hold any depth of conviction that we humans are not alone, that other sentient life exists out there somewhere among the stars. In this sense, science fiction/fantasy consistently feeds these believers a concept that stimulates our hope: We are allowed to make contact.

However, upon further examination, these representations are limited in their characterization of species
and race. The sentient beings created within science fiction and fantasy often are made distinct from
each other not solely by appearance and culture but through simplistic generalizations of collective personality, tendencies and/or character. For example, in the Star Wars galaxy, Han Solo’s homeworld is
Corellia; therefore, it is not surprising that the fierce independence, stubbornness and fighting spirit characteristic of Corellians surfaces in all of Han’s actions, reactions and dialogue. Bothans are a furry species hailing from the planet Bothawui, a planet notable for its Bothan Intelligence Agency, the best and most extensive spy network in the galaxy. Bothans are consistently portrayed as deceptive, politically shrewd and untrustworthy throughout the Star Wars novels; even characters that are frequently featured as intrinsic to the plot of a novel adhere to the typical Bothan profile. Conversely, Han is a human, and he is portrayed as having a more versatile and individually specific range of emotional and mental traits; in this sense, he is given much more agency to determine his personality,
his alignments and his impression upon the reader than the Bothan non-human characters are given.

This difference between fully fleshed-out human characters and static, stereotyped characters of other
species or races is pervasive throughout science fiction and fantasy literature. Terry Brooks’ Shannara
series provides a stark example. In the Four Lands, the human race has branched off into multiple Races. Gnomes are fickle, weak-minded and easily corruptible, constantly being manipulated into service by various powerful dark forces; Dwarves are strong of character and physically hardy, have excellent survival skills, are stoic and fiercely loyal; Elves, the only Race that is said not to have descended from a common human race, are wise and their culture is steeped in magic, and they are the bearers of great tradition (perhaps of civilization itself.) Men, while portrayed as susceptible to corruption and greed, have the most room for variation of any Race in the Four Lands: as characters, they can be good or evil, strong or weak, honest or tricky, leaders or deserters. The Druids, the keepers of the ancient magics and the seers who dictate the courses of the characters, are all Men.

This observation makes sense on a superficial level. As humans, science fiction and fantasy authors have
more personal material to transfer to their human characters; it is easier, as a rule, to write what one
knows than to write what one observes or imagines. As readers (and potential writers), however, we need to question this theme; does this not unconsciously reflect our society’s concept of Self and Other? The complex variety of human characters is in sharp contrast with the static sameness of non-human characters. The alienating effect created by this contrast parallels many culturally constructed divides in
American society today; indeed, we as Americans are obsessed with the identification of identity. People are categorized by their race, class, gender identity, sexuality, physical ability, intelligence, level of education, ethnic background, relationship status, political affiliation, religion, weight, height, neighborhood, state, region, and on and on and on. The American government has entire departments devoted to notating these specifics on each citizen, gathering them up into separatepiles, and publishing them in tidy statistics, which are available to the public. On a more personal level, these categories allow Americans to delineate themselves, to know where they stop and others begin. This gives individuals the illusion of separating themselves from the masses when, in reality, we are just drawing a line between our groups and other groups with which we do not identify. Individuality is, like meritocracy, a Great American Myth. The categories in which we place ourselves are socially constructed phenomena that have no deep or intrinsic meaning outside of the importance we have learned to place on them. The inaccessability of non-human characters within science fiction/fantasy mirrors the inability of individuals to extend the boundaries of our thought to encompass the possibility of a deep and complex Other who is intrinsically not unlike ourselves.

Another part of this problem of characterization in science fiction/fantasy literature lies with the prevalence of limiting dualisms within the genre. In a 2001 interview with Orbit, the late fantasy writer Robert Jordan said, “Fantasy allows the writer to exploregood and evil, right and wrong, honour and duty without having to bow to the mainstream belief that all of these things are merely two sides of a coin.” The science fiction/fantasy genre may provide its writers with an opportunity to operate outside of the traditional good-versus-evil dichotomy, but many of these writers either cannot or choose not to develop their characters and universes beyond it. In his Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien presents Middle Earth as a sunshine-filled land populated by well-intentioned, good-hearted people that is slowly being sickened by the spread of a dark and formidable evil, an evil that is actually physically represented in the form of darkness. Frodo Baggins, the Hobbit (really just a smaller Man) who is chosen as the bearer of the One Ring to its fiery fate, and his companions (a Dwarf, an Elf, two Men, a Man wizard and three other Hobbits) are intrinsically good; they may stumble occasionally under the powerful weight of the evil bearing down upon them, but they manage to recover. The evil Lord Sauron, seeking to expand his dark kingdom of Mordor into the other kingdoms of Middle Earth, does not conscript Middle Earth folk into his dark army; rather, he creates his own Orc army, saturated with evil and willing to obey his every command. While the good/evil dichotomy is not completely mutually exclusive in Lord of the Rings, there is very little crossover between the two sides that isn’t either reversed or explained by some serious character flaw. Terry Brooks’ Shannara series contains sharp dualisms of good and evil, light magic and dark magic, right and wrong, and destiny and free will. The most famous Star Wars conflict is between the valiant Rebel Alliance and the sinister Empire, but the eternal, essential conflict in the Star Wars series is between the light and dark sides of the Force, and therefore between their wielders, the Jedi and the Sith.

The polarization of characters to two extremes of a spectrum of light/dark or good/evil makes for great
heroes and monstrous villains, but it eliminates the opportunity for discourse surrounding interaction
and conflict between people who experience a full range of emotions, thoughts and urges. The absence
of this discourse strengthens the divide between Protagonist and Antagonist in the book, and equivalently strengthens the reader’s divide between Self and Other. The opening for expanded social reflection is lost and instead, readers have their comfortable social boundaries reinforced.

It is easy for eager readers to suspend their reality in order to lose themselves in the chimerical plots,
worlds and characters of well-written science fiction because we are willing to accept the author’s projection of fantasy as plausible. It is challenging to change the way we as individuals position ourselves in relation to Others because it involves our acceptance of the fantasy of our individuality. Science fiction and fantasy writers have a unique opportunity to create a new genre of thought and commentary on the concept of race and the cultural split between Self and Other in an era where Americans are looking for change. It is the duty of these writers to shoulder the responsibility of contemporary social discourse and make a deeper impact on the readers of their work.