Homelanding

Homelanding, by Margaret Atwood, is told from an inside point of view of Earth telling one who lives outside. As readers, we get the opportunity to see ourselves in the light of an outside source that has no knowledge of humanity and our culture as if they are looking at us for the first time. First, of course, there comes the description of our physical appearance like arms, legs, fingers, our head, and our hair. Moving forward in the story, it does not move into how unique we are or into the power of one, but rather what we tend to value as a whole including the sun. “We pride ourselves in our sunsets…in summer, we lie about in the blazing sun, almost naked”. This shows a somewhat compelling idea about our existence, along with our compel to the color red. I found that interesting as well because of our tendency to spill blood for things we desire, and for temporary luxuries.
Though it fully describes the basics of our shell as a species, I also find it interesting that this story lacks the description on how complex the body is. We as humans understand the many functions that our bodies possess, and we also understand that describing what we look like does not describe who we are, for we are individuals.
Lastly, the story talks of death as a beautiful thing that we respect greatly. We as people know that what we are respecting is the life that individual lead and the body they used through their life being left behind. It describes that we are all temporary, and we know it, so we look for ways to benefit ourselves in the time we have.
I think that this piece was a very good intro to science fiction piece because it takes humanity and looks at it with skepticism. Our day to day activities become unusual to our own eyes, and I find that to be science fiction; it is an invented story that creates controversy, skepticism, and rearranges our thoughts of the usual to make it unusual. I did like this story very much because I thought it was very well thought out.