Confronting the Other
BY SHELLY BRYANT I January 24, 2010
Richard Kearney. Strangers, Gods and Monsters. London: Routledge, 2003. 291 pages. ISBN: 0-415-27258-0
Richard Kearney, in his Strangers, Gods and Monsters, offers a nice analysis of representations of the Other in popular action films, with a focus on science fiction. The book makes extensive use of theory and close readings of cinematic texts ranging from Apocalypse Now Redux to the Alien series. The book's title gives a pretty clear summary of the representations of the Other we find in these films. This, of course, sheds some light on how we in our daily lives are prone to treating those who are not like us — sometimes we fear them, sometimes we worship them, and sometimes we loathe them. Kearney offers a thorough exploration of these responses, even going back to the old mythologies that are often seen to be lying behind today's works of speculative fiction.
But Kearney goes beyond looking at fictional representations of the Other. He finds parallels in the here and now, demonstrating how fiction (particularly mythopoeic types of fiction) is often used to help us work through our collective anxieties. Kearney deftly takes us on an erudite excursion through some of the great thinkers, exploring their take on the issue of Otherness, focusing the whole discussion on how this issue is at the core of the terrorism that is so often at the center of attention in contemporary rhetoric. And, best of all, Kearney doesn't stop at analysis but offers suggestions for how we might move past the fear of the Other and come to a place of understanding and acceptance that will preempt the cycle of terrorism that is so prominent today.
Kearney's scholarly approach to the problems facing us walks the whole field of contemporary criticism, covering ground that extends from Arendt to Zizek. He makes this heady stuff approachable by tying it to pop culture, hitting us right where we live and move each day. It makes for a very effective way of confronting the Other, and more importantly, he helps us face up to our own (mis)perceptions of those who are not like us.
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