Mars & Mu

Books & Culture has two new book reviews of science fiction and science fact:

Joseph Bottum gives a brief history of Mars in science fiction literature and then moves on to review Joe Haldeman's Marsbound. He points out approvingly that Haldeman has looked back and employed some of the classic sf iconography of Mars, but wishes that he'd used more:

I want back my canals and my princesses and my golden eyes. I want back a reason for the Red Planet to remain central to the science-fiction canon. I don't exactly want to go Mars, but I want once again to imagine going there.

Stephen O. Moshier reviews a book on plate tectonics and continental drift, including the history of the theory and the scientists who developed it. It also discusses the pseudo-scientific legends and religious interpretations that quickly sprang up around it (while 'sunken continents' do exist, places like Lemuria, Mu and Atlantis do not.) The book's author seems rather irritated by these legends and trumpets the triumph of science over myth & religion.

I think it's the same situation Bottum describes regarding Mars: while they may not be scientific, some images are just too apt or archetypal or enjoyable to abandon. By all means let us distinguish between scientific fact and fantasy! But let Lemuria, Mu, and Atlantis live alongside Lowell's canals, the Sorns, and the delectable Dejah Thoris in the realms of myth.

August tidbits

A few weeks ago I finished reading Something More, by Paul Cornell. The first three-quarters combines a extrapolative post-apocalyptic future, a first contact story, and a haunted-British-manor tale with theological speculation about electromagnetic fields and religious experiences. It was all fairly compelling. The last section, however, takes a wild, flailing jump towards a interplanetary metaphysical epic, a crazy blend of C.S. Lewis and Philip Jose Farmer... and crashes like a graceless, aged cat with inner-ear problems to land with a resounding thump on its side, behind the sofa, amidst the dust and lost pen caps. (Or perhaps like a kite, which you've just managed to get airborne, nosediving with a horrible 'crack!' into the grass.) It might have worked if the story had been stretched out to a trilogy. Full marks for effort, and the first three quarters are quite well-written and are worth reading on their own. The religious element is thought-provoking up until that nose-dive. Some Christian readers will find the last section ridiculous and offensive, while others will just find it ridiculous. I'll say no more, since I don't think there's much I can profitably add to Stuart Carter's review over at Infinity Plus.

In other Cornell news, he's posted pictures of a new anthology which contains one of his stories. The cover features, among other things, two people waving crosses. But not in a 'I bless you in the name of Christ' kind of way, more of a crazed-superstitious-mob kind of way. Maybe they're driving out vampires. Though, from the close proximity of the crosses to a clenched fist and a gun, I wonder if this sf anthology doesn't contain some evil Christians! Might they even be, say, ignorant science-hating theocrats?

Here's a recent interview with a Christian who doesn't hate science or science fiction, namely, Gene Wolfe. It's mostly on the art and craft of writing. (One of his stories appeared in the first volume of that particular anthology, actually.)

The Matrix vs. Carl Sagan - a mashup. Now if only they could work Elrond in there somehow. "Billions and billions, Mister Baggins." (via Tom - check out his answering machines!)

Over at PodCastle, Stephen Eley reads "Cup and Table," a story by Tim Pratt about a ruthless hunt for the Grail, and by extension, for God. (Also via Tom.) With an introduction that talks about the history of the Grail (or Graal) in literature. Just a heads-up, the story itself contains some nasty language and nastier characters. Oh, and Eley's Wikipedia entry contains two religion-related factoids about him.

Lint Hatcher of Excuse Me, Ghidorah? has a new podcast in which he reads a twenty-year-old essay entitled "A Supernatural God." It's a C.S. Lewis-influenced meditation on horror and fantastic literature, a memoir of his early life up to and including college, a spiritual and psychological autobiography, and an account of his conversion to Christianity. I think I also noticed a certain Romantic influence. (via Bernhardt Varenius)

Jimmy Akin, Catholic blogger extraordinaire and confirmed sf fan, has new posts about Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind. (via the Sci-Fi Catholic)

As for me, I'm currently trying to avoid thinking about fall, and reading Ubik.

Morality play

I finally got around to seeing The Dark Knight. It wasn't perfect, but I do think it was the best super-hero movie I've ever seen, for a variety of reasons. The most important one, I think, is that the film makers understood that the powerful driver of super-hero stories, the thing that raises them above colourful sound and fury, is morality. They're about people making tough moral distinctions and choices. These people are bigger than us, and the choices are bigger, too, more noble or more evil, but that's so that we can see them better. They're archetypal, mythically resonant: the White Knight, the Dark Knight, but especially the Joker, who here has no real origin story and who wreaks havoc on a scale which is strictly speaking not believable. But that's to be expected, because he's not a human criminal - he's a malign trickster god, a blend of Coyote, Loki and Satan.

But to drive home the point that this is about all of us, not just heroes and their decisions, the key moral victory takes place within groups of ordinary people. The setup leading to their dilemma seemed a bit contrived, but in the context of a superhero story, that's OK too.

The film drew on the insights and highlights of older Batman stories without sticking with any particular version or becoming too cliched. I think I saw elements of The Long Halloween, The Killing Joke, Batman: Year One, The Dark Knight Returns, and there were doubtless others. People have been talking about this movie a lot, and I expect it will be continue to be talked about for a long time to come. I have a feeling we'll be seeing lots of essays and theses on this one.

Dueling news

Today this (local) news had me feeling down and really creeped out. The Free Press has three or four pages of gory details.*

But this news, from Science, is more cheerful:

"The ethical problems of using eggs can be circumvented with induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which are adult cells reprogrammed to behave like embryonic stem cells. In 2006, scientists created such cells from mice and rats by introducing a combination of four genes to a culture of skin cells. Then last year, scientists showed that they could do the same thing with human cells. The new study, published online today by Science, shows that iPS cells can be successfully generated even from the skin cells of an elderly, sick person, Eggan says."

Hurray for progress in science! Especially progress that solves ethical problems rather than creating new ones.

And Boo to unprovoked homicides / decapitations by cannibal psychotics off their meds.

*They even had a story about worldwide reactions. Best were the quotes from boorish Americans informing us that Canadians were wimps, blaming the tragedy on handgun control, or explaining that this was clearly an al-Qaeda terrorist attack aimed at the USA. (Oh, just like fist bumps or reporters?) There are good rebuttals to such allegations, but it's more fun to reply in the same spirit they were made: No, your MOM is clearly a wimpy handgun controlling al-Qaeda attack aimed at the USA!!