Abstract
At first sight, Denis Villeneuve’s 2016 Arrival seems to provide a fairly standard science fiction narrative about the landing of aliens on earth and the panic that ensues, featuring aggressive soldiers, a suspicious CIA man, brilliant scientists and rioting populaces. The film could be read as propaganda for the humanities as it is a linguist rather than a natural scientist who saves the world. The second narrative is more important, as acknowledged by the director: the main character Dr. Louise Banks’s mourning for her deceased daughter, Hannah. In contact with the aliens, she learns how to cope with this disastrous event, by acquiring a different perspective on how life proceeds and how time works. This is also where the film, subtly, tells a deeply spiritual narrative, in which Louise acquires tender competence to deal with what life brings, including Hannah’s death.
Highlights
Phrases like “the dark side” are as common as “an offer he could not refuse” or “the usual suspects” and are used by people, who did and who did not watch the films in which these expressions originated
Mainstream, science fiction ranges from pulp to critically appreciated works
Science fiction acts as a mouthpiece for the supporters of the secularization thesis, who predict the same scenario as scientific knowledge and technical possibilities expand (Schluchter 2009, pp. 7–17; Weber 1968, p. 433)
Summary
The captain is horrified when he finds out that the inhabitants of a remote planet have come to regard him as a god, the Picard (Star Trek: The Generation 1989; 3: 4) In such narratives, science fiction acts as a mouthpiece for the supporters of the secularization thesis, who predict the same scenario as scientific knowledge and technical possibilities expand The French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, based his 2016 film on a novella by the Chinese-American author Ted Chiang entitled The story of your life, which was published in 1998 His film features a classic science fiction plot about the landing of extraterrestrials on Earth and what happens afterwards. A learning process, most often aimed at the formation of the self, is a part of it (Waaijman 2000, pp. 305–7)
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