Some intellectuals venture to say that sci-fi films and literature are fuzzily impacts of Orientalism. For some Westerners, looking at a sci-fi film or reading a sci-fi book resembles an adventure into the Orient. For the Westerner, it is the Self versus the Other. James Alexander Brown wrote his dissertation “American Science Fiction Cinema, Orientalism, Self & Other” to expound on just that sentimentality in the West.
This feeling of “Orientalism” in sci-fi cannot be universal for humanity. Japanese animés are mostly sci-fi, in the subgenre of science fantasy maybe. For Japanese, sci-fi is not about “Orientalism.” Sci-fi for Japanese is usually a spiritual endeavour, an extension of their existing Animistic and Buddhist traditions maybe. The production and effect of sci-fi are different in Japan, compared to the West. Japan is more spiritual.
I think that I am an Oriental. When I read sci-fi or watch sci-fi, it is not about “Self versus Other,” but of the “Self.”
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