Speech Sounds

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What do you think sets science fiction apart from other types of fiction? As a genre, what themes do you think science fiction emphasizes? Can you name any female science fiction writers? Do you know of any Black science fiction writers?

Teaching Suggestion: Traditionally, the science fiction genre has been dominated by white male authors, such as H.G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, and Isaac Asimov. (Indeed, “Speech Sounds” was originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine.) Conflict between humans and alien species—including xenophobia—is a common theme in classic science fiction, as is the colonization of other planets and the development of the male protagonist into a world-saving hero. Ask students to think about what a more diverse field of science fiction writers might mean in terms of the themes and issues with which the genre wrestles.

• Briefly introduce Afrofuturism and discuss why Octavia Butler has been called the “mother of Afrofuturism.”
• For additional information about Afrofuturism, see  An Exploration of Afrofuturism.

2. The 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes believed that selfishness drives human behavior, so life in a “state of nature”—without the law and order a social contract imposes—would be “nasty” and “brutish.” Do you agree that people are essentially selfish and, without the civilizing effects of society, would behave savagely toward one another? Or, do you think human beings are naturally peaceful and altruistic, and thus life in a state of nature would be serene? Explain your answers.

Teaching Suggestion: Using information gleaned from the links below, introduce students to social contract theory, or the idea that people in a society agree to surrender some of their individual freedoms to a higher authority which, in return, maintains peace and security for all. While Thomas Hobbes viewed people as naturally selfish, the 18th-century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed humans living in a state of nature would be peaceful and generally kind. Ask students what implications Hobbes’s and Rousseau’s conflicting beliefs about human nature have for political systems. For example, if human beings are fundamentally selfish, how can “rule by the people” in a democratic society be successful?

• In Postapocalyptic Fiction and the Social Contract, Claire Curtis, a professor of political science, considers how dystopian fictions like “Speech Sounds” reimagine political community in ways that both recall and revise the thinking of classic social contract theorists like Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau.
• Ethics Explainer: Social Contract surveys the social contract theories of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, and explains how more recent philosophers have challenged the assumptions of these theories and expanded the discussion to include questions about systemic inequality and oppression.