You're listening to Imaginary Worlds.

Show about how we create them and why we suspend our disbelief.

I'm Eric Mollinsky.

So I went to Westland University.

The same school is Joss Whedon, but not at the same time.

But we were in the same film program, and there was an instructor there, named Richard Slotkin.

We taught a class called Myth and Ideology.

So Slotkin's class basically focused on how Westerns, in the 50s and 60s and 70s,

were actually dealing with the issues of the day,

like cold war or civil rights, but just doing it with sort of analogies and metaphors.

And then after Westerns went out of style, the whole genre is reborn in science fiction.

And I remember for years after college, I'd be watching a sci-fi movie and I'd be like,

oh, this is another Western narrative.

Specifically, the ones where the aliens were playing the role of the Indians.

For example, and this is not just in movies, but 19th century dime-store novels.

There's always the story where the aliens abduct white settlers.

They just come out of nowhere and grab them at night.

And then the settlers have to bring in hired guns to organize a search party

to find the hostages and save them, like the searchers.

Tighten up your sentience.

We go charging in about sun-up.

And James Cameron's aliens.

...