(urth) Silk for calde blog: Wolfe thesis

[Jerry Friedman]

--- On Mon, 9/21/09, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 4:26 PM,
> Gwern Branwen <gwern0 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Seems like a worthwhile thesis, although I wonder whether
> those 2
> priest archetypes are quite so universal - such a
> categorization would
> have difficulty with Frank Herbert, I think.
> 
> 
> ... and Arthur Clarke ("The Star")

It's been a long time, but I have the impression the
narrator's faith was shaken, not stirred.

Do the priests or monks in "The Nine Billion Names of
God" count?

> ... and Dan
> Simmons (Hyperion) ... and Mary Doria Russell (The Sparrow)
> ... and Peter F. Hamilton (the Night's Dawn trilogy) ...
> and Walter M. Miller (A Canticle for Leibowitz) ... and Tony
> Boucher ("The Quest for St. Aquin") ... and ...

You've got some points there (as best I remember those
books and stories).
 
> The makings of at least one excellent doctoral thesis lies
> in the image of the (Catholic) priest in SF. However, this
> person's thesis ain't it.

Definitely not, if I'm right in thinking this is an
undergrad thesis.  However, hope is a virtue, I'm told.
Maybe he'll get out of his stereotypes by doing the
research.

Jerry Friedman