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The concept of scale is becoming lodged within contemporary theories about reality, change and possibility. This assumption materialises as an increased interest in diverse forms of otherness on the one hand, and an almost fanatic insistence on the non-identity of objects on the other (Franco Moretti, Thomas Piketty, Graham Harman). Scale thus functions both as a medium through which difference can be understood and the absolute limit to which human reason can stretch, and never beyond. Works based on the Israeli– Palestinian conflict have a long history of grappling with the paradox of scale. Assaf Gavron’s novel CrocAttack! (2006) depicts diverse forms of otherness in a missed point of understanding between an Israeli and a Palestinian. Nathan Englander’s short story ‘Sister Hills’ (2012) highlights the limits of scale in characters which take the ‘as if’ of Jewish law at its word. The structure of this paradox of scale is read through Marshall McLuhan and Graham Harman in order to show how being confronted with the non-identity of scale actually encourages adaptation or change to take place. The metaphor developed from this reading is that of ‘the wall’, which is used in an interpretation of Palestinian director Elia Suleiman’s Divine Interventions (2002).

Aleksei Fedorchenko’s First on the Moon (Pervye na Lune ; 2005) suggests that alternative histories are not about militarism or extreme dystopias. Instead the film is a mediation on the relationship between the past and possibility. In other words, if alternative histories are derided for eschewing the more traditional view of sf which sees change located in the future, First on the Moon suggests that the future is locked down, meaning that the limitless possibilities of what-is-to-come have already been decided for us. Reflecting the thought of Paolo Virno, the film paradoxically suggests that it is looking into the past which creates alternatives to the present. In fact, this idea will be taken one step further: First on the Moon shows that potentiality is only located in the past and never in the future. Thus alternative histories are seen to be central to discussions of sf, for they can show how the unanticipated future has now become the unanticipated past.