Since you guys are more talented geeks and nerds than me, I ask a question of you.

Are you aware of any works of fiction where aliens show up at Earth and don't do anything at all?

Thanks,
Dixon

I'm sure there is an example but honestly that would be a pretty boring story.

The day the earth stood still is an okay example.

Maybe the My Teacher Is An Alien books? As I recall, the aliens had plans for earth if humans didn't shape up, but because it was children's book, of course they never went through with them...

Oh, and while they never find any aliens aboard, the space ship that shows up in the Solar System in the book Rendezvous With Rama doesn't really do much, at least in terms of even acknowledging human presence within the Solar System.

Also, I think E.T. fits the bill pretty well too.

Wow, I haven't read those since 4th grade.

Signs...which was the worst movie ever

9th district sorta...

Triscuit, it's a setting not a story. Idiots write stories about aliens coming and talented writers write stories about people while aliens are coming.

DESS isn't bad, but the interaction with whats his face is known to the whole world.

Never read those books, though it sounds similar to DESS.

I had considered Rama, and that series may be the closest to what I'm thinking of.

ET, eh...

Signs is not that at all. The aliens creep around on rooftops and inturrupt mexican birthday parties.

District 9 is similar too.

I am trying to see if the idea of aliens showing up and people losing their **** and accomplishing themselves what aliens usually do in these types of stories has been treated before.

good points so far friends, thanks

Maybe the upcoming smirfs movie..

Roadside Picnic.

Men in Black.. kinda.

Ah. I've only seen the movie (well, Stalker). Is the book less ambiguous about the nature of the zone?

Much less. It's a much more coherent narrative... and it covers a much larger span of the life of Red Schuart (I don't remember if that's the Stalker's name in the movie...), instead of just that one trip into the Zone that Stalker captures. The ending of the novel is sublimely beautiful, and the fact that there's a lot more history and development of the characters gives it much more weight than anything in the film. I think the movie's just a good depiction of the quiet desolation of the zone, and the invisible threat it carries. Seriously, no one gets kilt or smushed or burned up in that movie.

I think Stalker is interesting, but I prefer the story of Roadside Picnic to a large degree.

http://www.cca.org/cm/picnic.pdf (a pdf of the novel, third google result for it... it's where I read it)

I will check it out.

In the meantime, I heard that the versions published for some time after the 80s were censored and not the same book at all. Is this translation based off of the original Russian?

Yeah, that translation looks to be relatively accurate.

I find that movie strange. Coming from an advanced race capable of space travel, E.T. the alien sure seemed dumb and incompetent. Maybe E.T.'s arrival indicated how his civilization dealt with the mentally-challenged; send them on "space adventures," possibly to take advantage of some space-tax loophole.

I lol'd.

Mork & Mindy, bro.