Cognitive Estrangement In Science Literature

Superficially, science fiction entertains the reader by recreating an imagined world separate from our own. However, science fiction includes these alternative realities to gain deeper insights into human nature. Humankind’s response to “cognitive estrangement” in the form of change and the “Other” reflect our society’s norms and values. Science fiction explores contrasting views of common preconceptions towards social constructs, such as gender, freedom, and race. By exposing readers to alternative worlds, science fiction allows one to reevaluate one’s perspective of familiar assumptions. Within Ursula K. Le Guin’s “A Woman’s Liberation, The Lathe of Heaven, and “Coming of Age in Karhide,” the alterations of gender, freedom, and race challenge …show more content…
The Gethenians can only assume a gender while in kemmer, which allows the reader to understand the perspective of not being influenced by having a set gender. Another example of cognitive estrangement within the short story proves to be the flexibility of sexuality. Once in kemmer, Gethenians do not restrict themselves to certain gendered partners and open themselves up to sexual experiences with both genders. By not limiting one’s sexual partner based to a certain gender, sexuality becomes negated within “Coming of Age in Karhide.” This open-mindedness towards sexuality appears as uncomfortable and unfamiliar to the …show more content…
Within our own society, gender roles become formed by socially constructed ideas and stereotypes for how certain genders and sexualities behave. In reality, these stereotypes influence how different people interact with one another within our society. However, in Karhide, individuals connect with one another without the preconceptions of gender and sexuality. The reader assumes this different perspective on sexual experiences and interaction, as well as imagining a world without one’s personality being influenced by associating one’s behavior to a certain