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Extraterrestrials in fiction

Martian controlled Tripod, from H. G. Wells' 1898 novel The War of the Worlds
Grouping	Science fiction
Similar entities	Cryptids
Other name(s)	Aliens, space aliens

An extraterrestrial or alien is any extraterrestrial lifeform: a lifeform that did not originate on Earth. The word extraterrestrial means "outside Earth". The first published use of extraterrestrial as a noun occurred in 1956, during the Golden Age of Science Fiction.

Extraterrestrials are a common theme in modern science-fiction, and also appeared in much earlier works such as the second-century parody True History by Lucian of Samosata.

History

The 2nd century writer of satires, Lucian, in his True History claims to have visited the Moon when his ship was sent up by a fountain, which was peopled and at war with the people of the Sun over colonisation of the Morning Star.

Modern times

The Barney and Betty Hill incident took place in 1961, when the couple claimed that they were abducted by aliens and subjected to invasive experiments. It was the first recorded claim of an Alien abduction, soon followed by others. The description of the aliens made by the Hills, with oversized heads, big eyes, pale grey skin and small noses captivated the public imagination and was later used by TV shows and films. This started the grey alien archetype. According to Wade Roush, science and technology writer, "The standard depiction of aliens at that point became the little grey man. So, when Steven Spielberg came along and made probably what are the two most influential movies about aliens – Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and ET the Extra-Terrestrial – the aliens and those movies were both basically variations on the 1950s and 1960s little green or little grey man image".

See also

Articles related to the phenomenon of extraterrestrials in fiction and popular culture:

• History of science fiction
• Alien invasion
• Parasites in fiction
• List of fictional extraterrestrials
• List of films featuring extraterrestrials
• List of humanoid aliens
• Mars in fiction

Articles related to the purported or theorized existence of extraterrestrials:

• Grey alien, frequently reported alien in field of ufology, now with some usage in fiction and popular culture

See also

• First contact (science fiction)

References

1. Harper, Douglas. "extraterrestrial". Online Etymology Dictionary.
2. Doody, Margaret Anne (1996), A True Story of the Novel, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, p. 26, ISBN 0-8135-2168-8, retrieved December 16, 2020
3. Richter, Daniel S. (2017). "Chapter 21: Lucian of Samosata". In Richter, Daniel S.; Johnson, William A. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of the Second Sophistic. Vol. 1. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. pp. 328–329. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199837472.013.26. ISBN 978-0-19-983747-2.
4. Grewell, Greg (2001). "Colonizing the Universe: Science Fictions Then, Now, and in the (Imagined) Future". Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature. 55 (2): 25–47. doi:10.2307/1348255. JSTOR 1348255. S2CID 171048588.
5. Zaria Gorvett (October 22, 2023). "The weird aliens of early science fiction". BBC. Retrieved January 25, 2024.

Further reading

• Baxter, Stephen (2011). "SETI in Science Fiction". In Shuch, H. Paul (ed.). Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: SETI Past, Present, and Future. The Frontiers Collection. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 351–372. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-13196-7_19. ISBN 978-3-642-13196-7.
• Killheffer, Robert K. J.; Stableford, Brian; Langford, David (2023). "Aliens". In Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2023-12-15.
• Roth, Christopher F., "Ufology as Anthropology: Race, Extraterrestrials, and the Occult." In E.T. Culture: Anthropology in Outerspaces, ed. by Debbora Battaglia. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2005.
• Sagan, Carl. 1996. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark: chapter 4: "Aliens".
• Stableford, Brian (2006). "Alien". Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 13–16. ISBN 978-0-415-97460-8.
• Westfahl, Gary (2005). "Aliens in Space". In Westfahl, Gary (ed.). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 14–16. ISBN 978-0-313-32951-7.
• Westfahl, Gary (2005). "Aliens on Earth". In Westfahl, Gary (ed.). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 16–18. ISBN 978-0-313-32951-7.
• Westfahl, Gary (2021). "Aliens". Science Fiction Literature through History: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-4408-6617-3.
• Westfahl, Gary (2022). "Aliens—The Company We Seek: Aliens in Fact and Fiction". The Stuff of Science Fiction: Hardware, Settings, Characters. McFarland. pp. 227–234. ISBN 978-1-4766-8659-2.

External links

• Best Use of Aliens As Metaphor

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Fictional species	Arthropods in film Bug-eyed monster Extraterrestrials in fiction Triffid
Related	Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction Artificial intelligence in fiction Living things in culture Science fiction

• 1950s neologisms
• Fiction about outer space
• Science fiction themes
• Fiction about unidentified flying objects
• Fictional extraterrestrial characters
• Biology in fiction