Extraterrestrials
Extraterrestres in literature: first contact as a mirror of our humanity
Literature has imagined first contact with extraterrestrials as a mirror reflecting our deepest fears, hopes and questions. A journey through the books that have shaped that encounter.
By Pedro J. Pérez ·
Introduction: literature before the extraterrestrial question
The possibility that we are not alone in the universe has fascinated humanity ever since we first looked up at the sky. Literature has been the laboratory where that question becomes a story: what would happen if extraterrestrials arrived tomorrow? It is not idle speculation, but a way of exploring who we are. Books about first contact not only imagine ships and signals, they also dissect our capacity for wonder, our fear of the unknown and our hope for transcendence.
LaSexta has gathered how literature and cinema have imagined that first encounter, and that journalistic gesture confirms something we readers know: extraterrestrial fiction is a living, serious and profoundly human genre. Far from being a minor pastime, these stories train us to think the unthinkable. In a world that sometimes shrinks, books about extraterrestrials remind us that otherness can be an invitation to dialogue, not only a threat.
Context: from the classics to contemporary questions
First contact is one of the great themes of science fiction. From the stories that inaugurated the genre to the most recent novels, authors have rehearsed very different answers: the silent arrival, the hostile invasion, the peaceful encounter or tragic miscommunication. Literature does not seek to predict the future, but to rehearse moral scenarios. Every book about extraterrestrials is a hypothesis about the human condition placed in an extreme situation.
The LaSexta news item echoes that shared imaginary and presents it as a cultural phenomenon worthy of attention. In doing so, it adopts a favourable stance: it does not ridicule the subject or treat it as an empty fad, but recognises it as a creative vein that has produced memorable works. That gaze matters, because literary first contact is not a simple fantasy: it is a tradition with a vocation for thought.
Explanation: what first contact stories tell us
Books about extraterrestrials tend to work as mirrors. When we imagine the other, we reveal our hierarchies, our prejudices and our longings. An encounter can be read as a parable of colonisation, of migration or of intercultural dialogue. Science fiction has used first contact to talk about racism, war, empathy and loneliness. That is why these stories do not age: they change their skin according to the reader and their era.
Moreover, literature explores the limits of language. How can one communicate with a radically different mind? That question is also literary: it forces us to invent forms, to twist syntax, to create new metaphors. The best books about extraterrestrials do not limit themselves to describing ships: they inquire into the very possibility of understanding one another. First contact thus becomes a metaphor for reading, that act of deciphering another who is never entirely transparent.
Relevance: why read about extraterrestrials today
In an era of polarisation and algorithms that lock us into bubbles, reading about extraterrestrials is an exercise in openness. These books train us to imagine the radically different without reducing it to an enemy. First contact literature offers no definitive answers, but it does offer a gymnastics of speculative empathy. It reminds us that otherness is not an automatic threat, but a question that deserves to be thought through carefully.
The LaSexta news item stresses that literature and cinema have imagined that first contact, which confirms the vitality of the subject. For the reader, approaching these books is entering a conversation that has been enriching itself for decades. One need not believe that extraterrestrials exist to enjoy these works: it is enough to accept that the question of the other constitutes us. Extraterrestrial fiction is, at bottom, a form of humanism.
Useful information: how to approach these books
For anyone who wants to explore the subject, it is advisable to begin with the classics that founded the imaginary of first contact and then move on to contemporary works that revisit it with new sensibilities. It is useful to read attentively to the details: how the extraterrestrial is described, what reactions it provokes, what moral dilemmas it raises. That attentive reading turns a science fiction novel into a small treatise of speculative anthropology.
It also helps to alternate approaches: stories of invasion, of peaceful encounter, of miscommunication or of coexistence. Each variant illuminates a different aspect of our relationship with the unknown. And one should not disdain cinema or series, which often adapt these books and broaden their reach. The LaSexta news item mentions both media, which suggests that the subject is nourished by a fertile dialogue between pages and screens.
Conclusion: the other as mirror and as threshold
Literature about extraterrestrials is not an escape, but an inquiry. By imagining first contact, authors force us to look closely at ourselves: our virtues, our panics, our thirst for meaning. These books do not claim to prove anything about extraterrestrial life; they aim, rather, to explore what we would do if otherness knocked at the door. That question remains urgent and fertile.
The LaSexta news item, in gathering how literature and cinema have imagined that encounter, adopts a favourable stance towards the subject. It invites us to take it seriously as a cultural phenomenon. And rightly so: reading about extraterrestrials is reading about ourselves. In every imagined first contact beats a human question: will we be capable of recognising the other without destroying it? Literature, at least, gives us the space to rehearse it.