2. Authorial Approaches

Before digging into fictional examples, it is useful to understand the process of how our featured fictional works are conceived and created. Here, we sample authors’ published views and their reflection on process around topics related to the depiction of other minds. We note how science inspires and provokes ideas, and how good ideas suggest themselves as a counter reaction to more established genre norms. We look more closely at the range of narrative styles and points of view that SF authors employ and drill into the challenges of imagining wholly alien life worlds. To achieve their effects, we examine how much work is placed on the reader as opposed to being facilitated by the author.