Xenofiction: Difference between revisions

A good rule of thumb for figuring out if something's in this genre or not: if you can replace the non-humans with (maybe superpowered) humans without too much trouble, it's probably not [[Xenofiction]]: [[Beast Fable|Beast Fables]] and works about [[Funny Animal|Funny Animals]] are, in general, not examples. If it's taking place under the nose of humans, we [[Mouse World|may or may not]] have a [[Masquerade]], and [[Humans Through Alien Eyes|humans]] will probably either be [[Humans Are Bastards|bastards]] or [[Humans Are Cthulhu|eldritch abominations]]. If humans are taking place under the nose of it, you may have [[Humans Are Interesting]]. Contrast [[Most Writers Are Human]]. Do not confuse with [[Xenafication]], or [[Xenogears (Video Game)|the]] [[Xenosaga (Video Game)|Xeno]] [[Xenoblade (Video Game)|series]].

 

 

== Anime & Manga ==

** Assumptions about how dinosaurs would act aside, Gon has a bizarre tendency to mimic other animals, often to hilariously destructive effect. Other times he prefers to just nonchalantly leave a trail of destruction across the land for no better reason than finding something tasty to eat.

* ''[[Ginga Nagareboshi Gin]]''/''[[Silver Fang]]'' and its sequel ''[[Ginga Densetsu Weed]]'' start out as typical [[A Boy and His X|A Boy And His Dog]] shows... but they quickly become more about the lives (and deaths; lots of deaths) of non-anthropomorphic dogs.

* The ''[[Ghost in The Shell]]'' anime series ''[[Ghost in The Shell Stand Alone Complex|Stand Alone Complex]]'' frequently has side plots that focus on the Tachikoma, who combine the shape and combat power of [[Spider Tank|Spider Tanks]] with the behavior of [[Ridiculously Human Robots]]. Human nature and society is a mystery to them, so they usually keep to themselves when discussing the wonders of the strange world they exist in and the meaning of their own existance. The irony perhaps is, that the humans in their world have become so mechanical and withdrawn, that nobody notices that these robots have become far more human than themselves. But nobody wants to bother giving a reply to a machine that wants you to explain God to them.

* Stories about androids tend to either ask [[Do Androids Dream]], or play up the androids' inhuman qualities. ''[[Yuria 100 Shiki]]'' is one of the few works that does both, portraying a protagonist who wants--sometimes desperately--to live like a human, but is repeatedly tripped up by everything from face blindness to an inability to count past a hundred.

* The ''[[Warrior Cats (Literature)|Warrior Cats]]'' series is about feral cats living in a forest near a human city. The series follows several generations, including a grand exodus and is all through the eyes of cats who see humans only as giant "Twolegs", and automobiles as "monsters". They face horrors such as badgers, dogs, foxes, humans, starvation, disease, and of course rival cat clans for which each kitten is trained to be a warrior in order to defend his clan.

* The ''[[Animorphs (Literature)|Animorphs]]'' series has some xenofictional aspects. Whenever the Animorphs morph into a new animal, they have to learn to gain control over its instincts. Also several of the books are told from the perspective of either an alien or [[Shapeshifter Mode Lock|a nothlit]], someone who is stuck in an animal morph and thus has to either learn to deal with that animal's instincts or give in to them.

* ''[[Raptor Red]]'' is a book about a year in the life of an average female ''Utahraptor''. She may or may not be sapient, but she definitely doesn't look at the world as humans do; her thought processes are a movie reel of images, smells, sounds and tastes, and her kind communicates through birdlike gestures and calls. There's also a few chapters from the viewpoints of other creatures, including a small insect-eating mammal, at least two ''Acrocanthosaurs'', and a pterosaur.

* Long before ''Raptor Red'' (in fact, long before the first Utahraptor skeleton was discovered), there was ''The Year of the Dinosaur'' by Edwin H. Colbert. Now probably overtaken by [[Science Marches On]], but an enjoyable story about a ''Brontosaurus'' nonetheless.

** It half fits this trope. While the author goes into great deal about owl biology and incorporating aspects of that into their culture, there's still some stuff going on that's unambiguously human--forges, a giant colony of owls of various species ruled by a monarchy. Plus the first half of the series is a pretty blatant [[Beast Fable]] about [[World War II]].

* ''Kavik the Wolf Dog''. The book's told from the POV of the title dog. He was abandoned, then adopted by a pack of wolves. It goes to great lengths to explain canine behavior and the pecking order of a wolf pack.

* [[Jack London]] loved this trope. ''[[The Call of the Wild]]'' featured Buck, who was thrown from the city into the Yukon. And ''[[White Fang]]'' features the title wolfdog, who started independently but grew to know humans.

* ''[[Black Beauty]]'' did this with horses. Narrated by the title character, it described the process of breaking horses to saddle and carriage, while detailing the horrors and triumphs within his life. The author, in fact, wrote it as an extended [[Author Tract]] to inform the public of the ill-treatment of horses.

* [[Duncton Wood]] by William Horwood told a story of a colony of moles. In the book moles are portrayed of moving and behaving like moles, but they had a very advanced society, where moles lived in underground colonies and they knew how to write. ''Callanish'' by the same author is told from the point of view of a young Golden Eagle.

* ''Cold Moons'' by Aeron Clement was about a group of badgers on a exodus towards the promised land of Elysia where they could live safe from humans. The badgers very portrayed sapient and they had a society with a cadre of elders, but it wasn't that advanced as in Duncton Wood.

* It's not a major theme, but occasionally crops up in ''[[Discworld]]'', most prominently in the Witches books which deal with 'Borrowing' (a sort of light possession) of animal minds. They are described in synaesthetic terms: herbivore minds are coiled silver springs, always cautious and ready to flee; predator minds are purple arrowheads of directed purpose; human minds are complicated silver clouds that are impossible to Borrow, but may narrow down to an arrowhead when for example a hunter focuses his attention on his kill; and bees are a literal [[Hive Mind]] also considered impossible to Borrow. Because [[The Mind Is a Plaything of The Body]], any human who tries to ''fully'' possess an animal is drawn into that animal's different and limited perceptions and eventually [[Fate Worse Than Death|loses their sense of self]]. ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Witches Abroad|Witches Abroad]]'' also deals with a wolf that was anthropomorphised by the villain to fulfil the role in ''Little Red Riding Hood'', and had been driven insane by its predator mind being forced to ''think''.

** Discworld also covers dogs' different perception of the world, in which scent is the primary sense. Werewolves, with a human frame of context for comparison, describe scents in their wolf form in synaesthetic terms, with sounds and colours.

* The sections of ''[[West of Eden]]'' and its sequels that focus on the Yilané.

* There's a short-short-story collected in the anthology ''Futures from Nature'' that is in the form of a review of a mystery novel written by a robot, reviewed by another robot. The protagonist of the mystery and most of the characters are robots too.

* ''[[Man After Man]]'' by [[Dougal Dixon]] includes numerous POVs, from "normal" modern humans to non-sapient human descendants to sapient future humans with vastly different mindsets from ours.

* In Leonnie Swann's ''[[Three Bags Full]]'', a flock of sheep attempt to solve the mystery of their shepherd's murder. It's better, though less funny, [[Better Than It Sounds|than it sounds]].