Allison Monahan: And Then There Was Nothing. Existentialism and Horror in Science Fiction [PDF]

Essay from the year 2015 in the subject Didactics – English – History of Literature, Eras, California State University, Fullerton, course: Science Fiction Literature, language: English, abstract: “There is no traced-out path to lead man to his salvation; he must constantly invent his own path (Vasey).” With this freedom comes immense fear— fear of choices, of the consequences of those choices. Perhaps worse than this, is the thought of no consequence at all. Not because of proper decision-making or behavior, but simply because the consequence would be irrelevant. In the end, it mattered not what anyone did—it all just ends. Existentialist philosophy begs these kinds of questions; many of which play directly into the newly bled together works or horror and science fiction. “Blood Music” by Greg Bear is a terrifying work of art that incorporates existentialist theory into its story to contemplate human existence, or the potential lack thereof, and the implications of a genre composed of both science or speculative fiction and horror.