Oops, and The Year of the Flood

OK, next time I should do my research before posting! :-( After looking more closely at the Blogger settings, I've realized that having "Followers" and having a restricted group of people "follow" your blog are two different things. That is to say, if I do restrict access, I'd have to send e-mail invitations to each reader individually - just being a Follower is not enough. And to me that seems a bit too complicated and invasive of my readers' right not to have to give out their e-mail addresses. So I think I'll just leave the blog unrestricted. Sorry about that - this was not intended as a sneaky campaign to get more Followers (though I did gain 6 - thanks, folks!)

To deal with the concerns I had in the first place, I may look at the archives and prune out some personal stuff that I feel uncomfortable about having out in public. And one of my Internet-whiz followers has kindly given me some suggestions on managing my web presence - that is, managing what the average person finds when they try to Google me.*

In other news, earlier this year I mentioned Margaret Atwood's recent novel The Year of the Flood. This summer I got a chance to read it, and I really liked it. It's the companion piece to her earlier Oryx & Crake. Both employ theological symbolism and wrestle with hard philosophical questions. I asked Gabriel McKee's opinion and he felt that O&C was the better book. From a literary standpoint I think he may be right. I enjoyed The Year of the Flood more, however, because it was (relatively speaking) more upbeat, and it focused more closely on issues in which I have a special interest. For example, much of it concerns the pros and cons of growing up in a small counter-cultural sect whose beliefs seem fanatical and ridiculous to the world around it. (Not unlike my own upbringing.) In that sense it reminded me of Anne Tyler's novel Saint Maybe. In places the two books share a sly but not unkind sense of humour in the way they view the foibles and quirks of tiny religious groups.

The concerns of Atwood's imagined sect, God's Gardeners, have to do with environmental degradation, reckless bio-engineering, the mass extinction of species and humanity's self-destructive tendencies. Their beliefs bring together a particular reading of the Bible, apocalyptic ideas, radical environmentalism, evolutionary thought and survivalism in a system that would likely seem heretical to many Christians, radical environmentalists, evolutionary biologists and survivalists! But I think their ideology shows a kind of internal logic and that Atwood is simply selecting and exaggerating some existing patterns, a bit like she did with the radically anti-feminist theocracy imagined in The Handmaid's Tale. A close reading of the Bible certainly can lead and has led people to take up radical positions on environmental protection/creation care. The original founders of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals included clergymen and evangelical activists (such as William Wilberforce) who were seen as fanatical nutcases by contemporaries. Harsh modern realities like mountaintop removal or large-scale industrial farming have led to the formation of religious groups such as Restoring Eden.**

The Year of the Flood isn't a cheerful book. It's about the collapse of society as we know it, and it looks squarely at despair, violence, oppression and, above all, human selfishness. Atwood is rarely sentimental and views human nature in a rather pessimistic light (almost Augustinian, one might say). At the same time YotF is about an endearingly flawed community of people who are trying to find a better way to live, and there are some (relatively) happy endings to be found. It casts a different light on its bleaker companion, Oryx & Crake. It's entered my canon of must-read science fiction books and it's one of the most thought-provoking portrayals of religion in sf that I've read to date. Not only that, but it's helped me make some changes in my eating habits and the way I view the natural world. So I highly recommend it and I plan on re-reading it at some point.

On a related note, another post-apocalyptic book I read this summer was Liberation by Brian Francis Slattery. It wasn't as memorable as The Year of the Flood but it was highly enjoyable. It didn't have too much to do with religion, though it did feature an entity/process called The Vibe (if I remember correctly) which was something like a cross between Providence and the Tao. The book features the adventures of six super-criminals during and after the complete economic collapse of the United States. It's about capitalism, money, the 1960s, slavery, the American Dream and American history more generally. It touches on abolitionism, which is a topic I've been reading a lot about this past year.

And that's it for today!

PS: Check out this new masterpiece about Superheroes In The Bible.


*Any Hawksley Workman fans out there? He has an amusingly bizarre ten minute "I Googled you, didya Google me? No?" schtick that he uses at concerts.
** FYI, I find that Lee over at A Thinking Reed blog frequently puts up interesting posts on the connections between traditional Christian theology/ ethics and environmental issues such as animal rights and vegetarianism.

Starships & art

If you haven't already, check out Zachary Kendal's Silk for Calde blog, where all sorts of interesting things are going on. For example, a fascinating series of posts on the "generation starship" trope, exploring the history of such stories and the surprisingly large role religion plays in them. This research is for the honours thesis he's writing on Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun, which draws upon many of those older motifs but puts them to different use. The posts are on The Voyage That Lasted Six Hundred Years, Universe and Common Sense, Non-Stop, Spacebred Generations, and Captive Universe. Zachary has also pointed out a series of posts on religion in science fiction at Chris Bateman's blog, Only a Game. I've only looked at a few of them but they seem thoughtful and well-researched. Also, did you know they have Daleks in Australia?

In other news, has anyone been watching Work of Art? I was a bit skeptical of the competitive reality show format, but (after some encouragement from my girlfriend) I got hooked on the last few episodes of the season. The winning artist, Abdi, incorporated evocative religious imagery with social commentary in his final few works, such as Baptism and his final exhibition Luminous Beings. And the painting of him and the President running around on a spaceship is unspeakably awesome. He's currently displaying work at the Brooklyn Museum.

Changes

I see it's been about five months since I last posted something... That was partly because I was doing school work and graduating from university. And partly because I was making big life decisions and moving to a new town (which is where I am now). But it was also because I've just gotten out of the habit of blogging. University (which monopolizes my reading and writing time) and Facebook (which fulfills my strange need to tell the Internet what I'm up to) are the two main culprits there. Over the summer I guiltily thought about blogging many times, but just never did.

Furthermore, I've begun to feel a bit more paranoid about posting my life's story out in the open on the Internet. Anyone who Googles my full name will quickly come across this blog, even though I don't use my full name, and in the past I've posted some fairly personal stuff, as well as expressed some opinions I probably don't even agree with any more. On the other hand, I do have a soft spot for this blog, as well as my little network of blogquaintances. I do still have ideas about religion in science fiction and fantasy when I read books, watch movies, and so forth. And apparently some people (11!) have cared enough to add me as followers. So here's what I'm going to do: In two or three weeks, I'm going to switch the blog over to the setting that only allows "followers" to see it. If you happen to actually read this, and you would like to read more in the future, and you're not already a 'follower,' please sign up. Or if you don't like signing up for things, post a comment to this post and I'll see what I can do. In return, I'll promise to be a bit more proactive about posting sf/f-related thoughts and recommendations instead of just thinking "Hey, I should post about that" and then forgetting.

In more topically relevant news... I finally got around to watching the original Tron and was mildly amazed. I watched it because there's a sequel coming out. Now, I remember being a kid and finding Tron toys in my cereal, but I somehow never watched the movie until this year (when it first came out my parents weren't big on letting me watch that sort of thing - just like Star Wars). It's aged pretty well - yes, the technology and hairstyles are dated, but the stylized graphics of Tron-world are still cool. And I'm sure this is old hat, but why did no one ever tell me how darned theological this movie was? I mean, they play the computer-user-as-incarnate-God-who-is-saving-the-world angle so hard it almost becomes annoying (but not quite). It'll be interesting to see what the new movie, Tron Legacy, does with the concept. The trailer features the line "He said he was going to change everything: science, medicine, religion!" So I'm expecting at least a nod to those themes. Speaking of computer-user-as-God, you should all go and watch the final episode of ReBoot season three. Heck, just watch the whole season.

I also watched The Book of Eli. [Spoiler warning] I don't think it's much of a spoiler to reveal that the book in question is a King James Bible. Eli (Denzel Washington) wanders a post-apocalyptic world on a mission which he believes is from God, trying to find a safe haven for his book, which is possibly the last surviving copy. I agree with Mike Perschon's assessment that it wasn't a great movie, or even a very good movie, but that it was somewhat better than the bad reviews might lead you to believe. The twist ending is mostly ridiculous, it's all more gory than it has to be, and Eli is rather unbelievably good at dealing out death (not to mention avoiding it). But the visuals and atmosphere are quite striking, and the clash between differing uses of the Bible is very interesting. The villain (emaciated old man Gary Oldman) really wants a copy, so that he can use it to rule and manipulate his people. Eli wants it preserved, but for other reasons. In the end, though (or maybe because) Eli has total faith that his mission is God's will, he's content to pass the Bible on to a kind of militant librarian/curator society that is gathering and preserving knowledge and culture of all sorts. (Like in A Canticle for Leibowitz, but pluralist or secular.) At the end we see the Bible placed on a library shelf among other books. Eli's faith is such that he is confident that the sacred text can speak for itself. Oldman, by contrast, cares nothing for other books and has them burnt when he finds them; he prizes the Bible alone, but for the wrong reasons. Oh, and also Tom Waits has a role and there's a great scene where he and Gary Oldman appear together and try to out-haggard each other. I kind of imagine them saying "I look like a homeless alcoholic!" "Oh yeah? Well, I look like a dying heroin addict!" So it's worth watching, if you can stomach the outlandish violence. For martial arts enthusiasts: Washington was apparently trained for the role by Dan Inosanto and Jeff Imada. The fight choreography features eskrima.

OK, I'm going to sign off for the time being. I seem to remember there were some books I wanted to mention but I'll save that for another post.

PS: If you like video games, comics, or humour, go see Scott Pilgrim Versus the World. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

American Narnia?

I guess being the president would have its perks. Rather than getting taken on a bunch of boring official tours, you'd get to look at the really cool stuff. For example, President Obama recently inspected the wardrobe which grants access to Narnia.

New York magazine did a series entitled "A history of Obama feigning interest in mundane things," which has since been remixed by Dean Trippe into the far more interesting "Barack Obama looking at awesome things." Awesome things include a Green Lantern Corps power ring, Thor's hammer Mjolnir, and The Fortress of Solitude.

Jewish Narnia?

Here's an interesting review essay by Michael Weingrad. In the course of his piece Weingrad asserts that fantasy as a genre has attracted few Jewish writers, and ponders why that might be. Of course a number of people beg to differ about his premise (ie, Robert Silverberg's Majipoor series might be a counter-example, though I guess it's technically science fiction.) Over at his New York Times blog, Ross Douthat provides some thought-provoking commentary. He quotes Abigail Nussbaum at length; her equally thought-provoking post on Weingrad's essay is here. I'd recommend reading all four of the above posts/articles; I think they all make good points.

Turning to a more specific topic, one of the books Weingrad reviews is Lev Grossman's The Magicians. Grossman, if I remember correctly, is the journalist who wrote an article in Time asserting that the total absence of religion in Harry Potter (as opposed to Narnia) illustrated the triumph of secularism in the modern world. Of course, that was before the final Potter book was released... which had all that stuff in it about Harry, the saviour of wizards and witches, sacrificing himself for his friends and being resurrected. It was 'round about the chapter entitled "King's Cross," if you've forgotten.

Anyways, apparently Grossman has since written his own fantasy story, satirizing both Narnia and Harry Potter. Weingrad writes of the novel:

...its goal is to ask the question of whether fantasy and adulthood are mutually exclusive, as the process of becoming an adult means accepting the reality principle rather than “looking for the next secret door that is going to lead you to your real life,” as one character puts it. Of course, such an either/or does not do justice to fantasy literature, which, at its best, confronts loss, pain, and frustration. Grossman does not, for instance, turn his satirical sights on Tolkien’s Middle Earth, which after all is a world saturated with failure and loss, and his send-up of Narnia’s divinely incarnated lion Aslan falls short of grappling seriously with Lewis’s actual theology. Moreover, his overeducated, young, single protagonists—like Whit Stillman characters thrown into a Harry Potter novel—can offer only a thin slice of what it means to be an adult. Nevertheless, Grossman’s experiment of placing real, urban, early twenty-somethings in a Hogwarts-and-Narnia-like environment is often dazzling. What he shows is the extent to which medieval magic cannot make our human unhappiness disappear.

PS: In passing, Nussbaum's post points out this blog post from Martin Lewis about Arthur C. Clarke's story The Star. In the comments a bunch of people, including Lewis, John Kessel, Adam Roberts and Paul Kincaid (all, I think, identifying themselves as atheists) engage in a spirited discussion about the theological meaning of the story and of SF's roots more generally. Meanwhile, over at this post some of the same players discuss The Fifth Head of Cerberus and Gene Wolfe more generally. Kessel seems to be a fan of Wolfe's.)

Atwood on theological narrative in SF

This is five years old, but I think it's worth citing. Margaret Atwood muses about science fiction:

More than one commentator has mentioned that science fiction as a form is where theological narrative went after Paradise Lost, and this is undoubtedly true. Supernatural creatures with wings, and burning bushes that speak, are unlikely to be encountered in a novel about stockbrokers, unless the stockbrokers have been taking a few mind-altering substances, but they are not out of place on Planet X. The form is often used as a way of acting out the consequences of a theological doctrine. The theological resonances in films such as Star Wars are more than obvious. Extraterrestrials have taken the place of angels, demons, fairies and saints, though it must be said that this last group is now making a comeback.

We want wisdom. We want hope. We want to be good. Therefore we sometimes tell ourselves warning stories that deal with the darker side of some of our other wants. As William Blake noted long ago, the human imagination drives the world. At first it drove only the human world, which was once very small in comparison to the huge and powerful natural world around it. Now we're close to being in control of everything except earthquakes and the weather.

Read the whole thing here.

I just discovered that in September 2009 Atwood published a sequel/companion piece to her thought-provoking dystopia Oryx & Crake, entitled The Year of the Flood. One of the main characters is Adam One, leader of God's Gardeners (a group blending environmentalism with religion) which appeared briefly in the earlier novel. I recall Atwood sympathizing with the God's Gardeners point of view in an interview she did on O&C. I imagine she wanted to explore these ideas a bit further. The promotional website for the novel lists a number of books on the environment, religious history, and green spirituality.

The Year of the Flood includes fourteen hymns sung by the GGs. A composer has written music for them, and a companion CD has been released. Apparently at least one of the stops on Atwood's book tour took place in a Anglican cathedral and featured a choir singing some of these hymns.

A million alien Gospels

But in the eternities
Doubtless we shall compare together, hear
A million alien Gospels, in what guise
He trod the Pleiades, the Lyre, the Bear.

O be prepared my soul!
To read the inconceivable, to scan
The myriad forms of God those stars unroll
When, in our turn, we show to them a Man.

The final two verses of an elegant little poem entitled Christ in the Universe. It was written by Alice Meynell, a British writer, suffragist and convert to Catholicism. She lived from 1847 to 1922.

I'm reminded of Ray Bradbury's longer poem Christus Apollo, which includes the lines:

Christ wanders in the Universe
A flesh of stars,
He takes on creature shapes
To suit the mildest elements,
He dresses him in flesh beyond our ken.
There He walks, glides, flies, shambling of strangeness.
Here He walks Men.
Among the ten trillion beams
A billion Bible scrolls are scored
In hieroglyphs among God’s amplitudes of worlds;
In alphabet multitudinous
Tongues which are not quite tongues
Sigh, sibilate, wonder, cry:
As Christ comes manifest from a thunder-crimsoned sky.
He walks upon the molecules of seas
All boiling stews of beast
All maddened broth and brew and rising up of yeast.
There Christ by many names is known.

PS: This is news to me, but apparently Christus Apollo was set to music in 1969 by the prolific film score composer Jerry Goldsmith.