As I was reading the article, I was constantly reminded of the video game’s many layers of allegory, all of which I’ve been dying to talk about since completing the game series (several times). Unfortunately, few of my students have played the game, so my excited rants are usually met with sympathetic but uncomprehending stares. Saunders is wise to stick with easily accessible media sources, such as film and popular novels, as teaching tools.
As he points out, encounters with The Other and the imperialism that frequently follows is a recurring motif of SF. Mass Effect, too, has this as a central theme, including the imperialist’s fear of being imperialized: The human race finally travels far enough into space to discover a Mass Relay, a kind of worm-holing technology built by a long extinct “alien” race that allows us to travel to previously unreachable galaxies where we encounter a myriad of “strange” races who have long been members of an intergalactic UN, the Council. Political, cultural, romantic and military shenanigans ensue.
But Saunders is limited to the International Relations potential in SF. Mass Effect is broader and encompasses deeply personal as well as historically terrifying themes of existential crisis. I would love to be able to teach the game in its operatic entirety, but until we figure out how to bend time to our will, I’ll have to settle for the occasional gamer rant.
Again, Saunders has the right idea. As an English teacher, I want to explore all facets of a work. As a IR teacher, Saunders needs only to extract the elements relevant to his course requirements.