(urth) Silk for calde blog: Wolfe thesis

[Nathan Spears]

This is pure speculation on my part, as I was raised Protestant, so please forgive me if I stereotype.

1.  SF authors are interested in, um, science.  Science being a logical and repeatable method for explaining the universe.  Expanding on that idea, many SF authors (Wolfe, for instance) are interested not just in the results, but in the nature of logic, rationality, thought, memory, etc.
2.  Protestantism has vague boundaries to many of its practitioners.  Ask ten Baptists what they believe and you will probably get eleven answers.  The clergy in Protestant churches are likely to be well-educated, informed about and invested in their system of belief, but their parishioners much less so (the first two at least).  There is also much less an idea of a "clergy lifestyle" - pastors are very free to pursue their own agendas outside of their pastoral duties, and opinions vary widely as to what is permissible.  Drinking, smoking, dancing, hunting, parties, etc.  Opinions vary widely on these topics, even within one denomination.
3.  As an earlier poster pointed out, Catholicism has a lot of trappings, but I wanted to point out that it also has a more uniform belief system, with predefined actions, rituals, etc, and (I think) a clergyman is much more likely to have a "clergy lifestyle" across the Catholic church.  So, as a symbol a priest has a more universal power and greater accessibility than a pastor does, because many of his attributes and attitudes are known.  At least their stereotypes are known.

Sorry for rambling and chasing rabbits (I'm really tired), but my main point was this: it must appeal to many authors to be able to play two systems against each other to see where they are consonant and dissonant.  This is, I believe, a summary of the proposed thesis.  Because Catholicism seems a more defined system than, say, Methodism or Judaism (where it's much more likely that believers will pick and choose their doctrines), and the priest a more universal symbol, I would think those aspects would appeal to an author looking to juxtapose religion with science.

Ok, one more try: Catholicism is much more like a religious science than many other religions.  That's all I wanted to add to The Big Dog theory.

The temptation to provide a false dichotomy between religion and science often proves too strong for the zealous author.  Too strong for a good story, at least.  One theme of Wolfe's that would bear mention in your proposed thesis is religion as a humanizing element.  Wolfe is aware of the powerful benevolent moral influence of religion as well as the terrible things that it can achieve.  Most of the "negative" religion in SF that you mention comes from authors who believe (as best I can make out) that rationality should be sufficient to conquer our moral problems, who discount religion's benevolent influence as trivial at best, and who have in their minds a scale with the Inquisition, the Crusades, suicide bombers, Mayan sacrifice, etc on one side, and nothing on the other.

Anyway in Wolfe when the priest finds his faith shaken or confirmed, it is often this humanizing process - he must confront what about his faith he can continue to believe, what he finds truly important, what is worth believing, whether he will continue to believe it whether or not there is any proof of it, etc.  These are the same questions that we all confront about our beliefs if we are to shape them into something worth believing, whether or not they are religious.  </sermon>  I also wonder how much of Silk's journey is an analog to Wolfe's own - I feel that I can see Wolfe's shadow on Silk, as he makes a deliberate choice to believe even when it seems foolhardy and dense.  I often feel the same way in my faith so maybe I'm just projecting.




________________________________
From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com>
To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
Sent: Tue, September 22, 2009 12:49:07 PM
Subject: Re: (urth) Silk for calde blog: Wolfe thesis


On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 8:39 AM, Adam Thornton <adam at io.com> wrote:

 

>
>Something I'd *really* like to see someone play with is: why is such a large proportion of religion-oriented SF Catholic?  

One reason is that Catholicism is the Big Dog of Christianity. There is no Protestant sect that comes near Catholicism in terms of total membership;  thus, if you want to present a generic Christian, a Catholic is the logical choice.

In addition, there is a huge and interesting dynamic between Catholicism, specifically, and science. Catholicism is the most "rationalistic" of the Christian religions, with its theology heavily based on the Aristoteleanism of St Thomas Aquinas. Yet Catholicism is -- or was, until fundamentalism reared its head and began resenting biology and geology -- the sect which has the most significant history of conflict with science and rationalism (can you say Galileo? I knew you could). 

Plus, as Jerry observed below, there is all the nifty colorful baggage that comes with Catholicism - though if that's what you're looking for, Eastern Orthodoxy is even better.



>If it reflects the background of the authors, then why are Catholics overrepresented in SF authorship (and, concomitantly, why are there relatively few Jewish SF stories) ?  I mean, just off the top of my head:
>

Relatively few Jewish SF stories? Heavens, man, what about Asimov's "Robot" stories? Those are all basically Talmudic disputation.

There are two excellent anthologies of Jewish SF edited by Jack Dann in the '70s, "Wandering Stars" and "More Wandering Stars." 

 

Where's, for example, the Lutheran SF?  (If I were being snarky I'd ask and answer where the Baptist SF was.)  Or even specifically *Protestant* Christian SF?
>

I can't think of any Lutheran SF offhand, but there's an excellent Quaker SF novel called "Pennterra" by Judith Moffatt.
 

-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes



      
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