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In popular cultures, life forms--especially intelligent life forms, that are of extraterrestrial origin, i.e. not coming from the Earth--are referred to collectively as aliens, or sometimes visitors.

This usage is clearly anthropocentric: when humans in fictional accounts accomplish interstellar travel and land on a planet elsewhere in the universe, the local inhabitants of these other planets are usually still referred to as "alien," even though they are the native life form and the humans are the intruders. In general they are seen as unfriendly life forms. This may be seen as a reversion to the classic meaning of "alien" (see foreigner) as referring to "other," in contrast to "us" in the context of the writer's frame of reference.

Aliens in poetry

There is a long history of writing about imagined meetings between aliens and humans, and poetry is no exception. Many serious poets, including former US poets laureate Stanley Kunitz and Robert Hayden, have written celebrated poems on the topic of life beyond our world. Some these poems complicate the expectations of the reader, such as Kunitz's poem "The Abduction" which subverts the popular notion of alien abduction by describing the event surreally and without the typical cast of characters. Other poems take on the topic as a way to offer an alternate view of humanity, or even a cultural critique. In Robert Hayden's poem "American Journal," an extraterrestrial describes American behavior to his superiors, and similarly, "The White Fires of Venus" by Denis Johnson, relates the observations of the inhabitants of Venus about humanity.

Historical ideas

The fictionalization of extraterrestrial life occurred before the 20th century. The didactic poet Henry More took up the classical theme of Cosmic pluralism of the Greek Democritus in "Democritus Platonissans, or an Essay Upon the Infinity of Worlds" (1647). With the new relative viewpoint that understood "our world's sunne / Becomes a starre elsewhere", More made the speculative leap to extrasolar planets,

the frigid spheres that 'bout them fare;

Which of themselves quite dead and barren are,

But by the wakening warmth of kindly dayes,

And the sweet dewie nights, in due course raise

Long hidden shapes and life, to their great Maker's praise.

The possibility of extraterrestrial life was a commonplace of educated discourse in the 17th century, though in Paradise Lost (1667) John Milton cautiously employed the conditional when the angel suggests to Adam the possibility of life on the Moon:

Her spots thou seest

As clouds, and clouds may rain, and rain produce

Fruits in her softened soil, for some to eat

Allotted there; and other Suns, perhaps,

With their attendant Moons, thou wilt descry,

Communicating male and female light,

Which two great sexes animate the World,

Stored in each Orb perhaps with some that live

Ancient stories and texts about demons, as in the Bible, may also have some connection to modern stories about alien abductions, mind control, and so on.

Fontanelle's "Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds" with its similar excursions on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, expanding rather than denying the creative sphere of a Maker, was translated into English in 1686. In "The Excursion" (1728) David Mallet exclaimed, "Ten thousand worlds blaze forth; each with his train/Of peopled worlds."

See also

Types of alien

• Aleshenkan
• Babbu
• Cat-like aliens
• Dropa
• Elder race
• Energy being
• Grey alien
• Jovian
• Martian
• Nordics
• Reptilian humanoid
• Roswell rods
• Venusian
• Xenomorph (Alien)
• Predator (alien)
• Arons

UFOs

• UFOs
• Black triangle (UFO)
• Military flying saucers
• UFO (Unidentified Flying Object)
• UFO conspiracy theory
• Ufology

Other alien phenomena

• List of magazines of anomalous phenomena
• Abduction phenomenon
• Crop circle
• First contact
• Starchild skull

Alien studies

• Ancient astronaut theory
• Are We Alone?
• The Disclosure Project
• Hollow earth
• Scientology
• Ummo
• Xenobiology

Aliens in fiction

• List of films featuring extraterrestrials
• List of extraterrestrials in fiction
• List of extraterrestrials in fiction by type
• Alien invasion
• Alien sidekick

References

1. Democritus (1647). Democritus Platonissans, or an Essay Upon the Infinity of Worlds.
2. Milton, John (1667). Paradise Lost.
3. Fontenelle, Bernard le Bovier de (1686). Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds.
4. Mallet, David (1728). The Excursion.

Further reading

• 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"

External links

• UFO occupants - grey and reptilian alien pictures
• ufologie.net - The Filiberto Caponi close encounter of the 3rd kind, 1993
• ufocasebook.com - Filiberto Caponi Close Encounter 1993
• The Ilkley Moor encounter of the 3rd kind, 1987
• UFO Magazine UK and Discussion Forum

• Extraterrestrial life
• Fictional extraterrestrials
• In popular culture
• Science fiction themes
• UFO culture