Aliens and My Short Story

For many years, I watched science fiction movies and didn't question the look of humanoid aliens. Then, I read a book by Carl Sagan, and it became clear that our idea of life was incredibly bias. It wasn't that hard to realize why television and movies depicted aliens like this. They were played by people, and it was a matter of being practical. However, Sagan's tale about aliens got me thinking, and, as an aspiring author, this influenced my first short story. A short tale of aliens visiting Earth in a search for intelligent life (no, it's not a satire, but that might be another idea).

Sagan's opinion about the destruction of mankind also influenced this tale about aliens visiting Earth. The aliens are far from humanoid and are, in fact, spheres who communicate by changing color and humming. It could be that this tale was also influenced by an episode of Futurama where Earth wars against balls (hehe).

While Sagan's tale of alien contact, titled simply "Contact" is ingenius, I wanted to show it from the alien perspective simply because I thought it would be cool. While the nature of the short story is bleak, "Alien Contact" is a meager ten pages of reading. I know that it can never compare to the work of Sagan, but I also can't ignore his impression on it.

Recommended reading and gratuitous self promotion below:

From the Earth to the Moon

My first real exposure to man's exploration of space started with "From the Earth to the Moon", a documentary produced by Ron Howard and Tom Hanks made for HBO. In ten parts, it documents man's effort to reach the moon in a ten year time frame. Throughout the mini-series, NASA experiences joy, anxiety, tradegy, and, eventually, triumph.

The mini-series begins with Kennedy's proclaimation that this country (the United States) will land a man on the moon before this decade is out. This speech was made in April of 1961 because a man had even flown into space. Then, the mini-series catalogues the Apollo 1 disaster, creation of the lunar module, the first landing on the moon and the last. It is a great documentary that is worth checking out.

This documentary was based on the book "A Man on the Moon" by Andrew Chaikin.