Not just science fiction and aliens either. Nearly all popular and successful fiction is based around what are effectively modern characters in whatever setting. I remember a paper I read back around the mid-eighties pointing out that Louis L’Amour’s characters were basically just modern Americans with the appropriate historical technology and locations.
As I wrote, I read it in something in the 1980s. Probably, but I ’m not sure, in Olander and Greenberg’s “Robert A Heinlein” or in Franklin’s “Robert A Heinlein: America as Science Fiction”.
Not just science fiction and aliens either. Nearly all popular and successful fiction is based around what are effectively modern characters in whatever setting. I remember a paper I read back around the mid-eighties pointing out that Louis L’Amour’s characters were basically just modern Americans with the appropriate historical technology and locations.
I’ve found that Umberto Eco’s novels do the best job I’ve seen at avoiding this.
I’d love to see an essay-length expansion on this theme.
As I wrote, I read it in something in the 1980s. Probably, but I ’m not sure, in Olander and Greenberg’s “Robert A Heinlein” or in Franklin’s “Robert A Heinlein: America as Science Fiction”.