Silly Science Fiction Conversations

Firstly, Ouch. I am full of disappoint.

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I read the first 5 chapters of War of the Worlds for Science Fiction class, and thoroughly enjoyed it!  Martian invaders with ray guns and all that. Classic.

So I walk into scifi class, sit down. The teacher asks "What can we know about these aliens?" (we're comparing Wellsian aliens to Bradbury's beasts, see.)

We know they're ugly.

We know they're way more technologically advanced than we are.

We know they're from Mars.

What else...

It's early in the semester, still time to establish a positive relationship with the prof. I raise my hand, partly for class participation, partly to smugly expound objectivity (I'm a big proponent of objectivity) and say "We know they're EVIL."

Professor X cocks his head and says, "are they?"

"Are they really evil?"

Now I promised myself I would not take this class too seriously. It's a science fiction course at community college. We are discussing the philosophy of fictional 19th century aliens at 1 pm on a Friday for crying out loud.  But to say that everything's relative when big gray aliens are obliterating every human in sight is simply not right.  It's NOT!  Seriously, what do you call big gray aliens that obliterate every human in sight? You call them BAD GUYS. Bad guys who are trying to kill you and take over the world and look super creepy doing it. That is the extent of the story. That is all.

This is starting to remind me of my Art Appreciation course last semester.