(urth) Silk for calde blog: Wolfe thesis

[Jerry Friedman]

I'll start by recommending Richard Cowper's  trilogy /The
White Bird of Kinship/, both for Zac's thesis and as
something I liked.  (I can be a little sentimental at
times, though.)  If you find a copy of volume 1, /The
Road to Corlay/, that doesn't start with the story
"Piper at the Gates of Dawn", you should track that
story down and read it first.

Though if you really want suggestions, Zac, you could
ask in rec.arts.sf.written if you haven't already.

--- On Tue, 9/22/09, Adam Thornton <adam at io.com> wrote:
> On Sep 22, 2009, at 3:32 AM, Zachary Kendal wrote:
> 
> > "I should have been clearer in my original post, but
> these crude 'stereotypes' are what I *currently* have the
> impression are dominant. I gather, from the limited research
> I have already done, that most SF with priests as
> protagonists (not peripheral or minor characters) either use
> the priest to challenge (or shake or debunk) the priest's
> faith, or to have it reaffirmed. These two categories are,
> of course, generalisations.
...

> To apply a slightly different crude overgeneralization: if
> you're making a priest a major figure, then there's
> presumably a *reason* for that choice, and that reason has
> something to do with his being a priest, rather than, say, a
> fat guy, or a redhead.
> 
> At which point, you're probably committed to doing
> *something* with his faith.  Shaking (perhaps to death)
> and reaffirming are the two obvious things to do.
...

So why did Wolfe make Chris a priest in /Pirate Freedom/?
Just for plot convenience?  To say some some things about
contemporary Catholicism?  To give him vows to break?
(This is a real question, not a rhetorical challenge to
your argument.)

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

Catholicism is more colorful than most Western religions.
It's got rituals, saints, vestments, cathedrals, celibates
(who can break their vows), a hierarchy, and more.  And as
the storyteller in "The Tale of the Rose and the Nightingale"
points out, color is a requisite for a good story.

Catholicism goes with medieval and pseudo-medieval settings,
which are popular.  The RC Church a worldwide organization,
which makes it suitable as a conspiracy (for good or evil).

Also, until recent decades, Catholicism was more pervasive
in American Catholics' lives than Protestantism in American
Protestants'.  If I may be forgiven a stereotype, being
whacked by nuns can give one deeper feelings about one's
religion than being hushed during sermons.

Recently, conservative Protestant denominations have been
trying to close the pervasiveness gap.  As a result, once
in a while there's a magazine story set during Vacation
Bible School or some such (and maybe fewer stories where
fundamentalism is the root of all evil).

> 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) ?

Catholics outnumber Jews in the United States by a factor
of more than 10.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_demographics#Religious_affiliation

Getting numbers for other countries is more work that I'm
willing to do, but the proportion for the UK might be fairly
similar.

> I mean, just off the top of my head:
> 
> _A Canticle for Leibowitz_, _A Case of Conscience_ (which
> really is dire), 

I liked it, at least the ending.  So it's scientifically
ridiculous--whaddya want?

> Hyperion/Endymion_, "The Star", much of
> Wolfe's work. Where's, for example, the Lutheran SF?

As one of Robertson Davies's characters points out,
Protestantism has inspired great music, but not a single
great painting.  (Have I mentioned that I like Robertson
Davies?)

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

There's Heinlein: "If This Goes On--" and "Job", neither
of which is favorable to evangelical Protestantism, if I
may understate.

Jerry Friedman