An Interruption in Our Normal Programming for Good Friday: Christ-like Sacrifices in SF

This entry was posted on Friday, April 06. 2007 and is filed under Posts by Mirtika.

This is neither a long nor ponderous entry. And it's not a continuation of the previous week's. You'll excuse the interruption, since today is a major Christian holiday, and I have much to do and much to sit and meditate upon.


Good Friday. Godes Friday (God's Friday). Holy Friday. Crucifixion Friday. The Friday of Atonement. Bloody Friday. The Sixth Day and the Sacrifice.

I hope you began your day with thoughts of Christ and his humiliation, beating, torture, and death, cause it was done to gain your freedom, your ransom from slavery.

So, if you're going to ponder Good Friday and SF, or if you want to read or watch something speculative  today—on top of the Scripture readings for this somber day of remembrance—read a story or a passage that speaks to self-sacrifice for the salvation of others, for the liberation and the good and the blessing of others.

Feel free to post suggestions—I'd like to know what you'd consider a good Good Friday SF read. Here are mine:

The death of Gandalf passage in LoTR: The Fellowship of the Ring

"The Porcelain Salamander" by Orson Scott Card

"The Dead Lady of Clown Town" by Cordwainer Smith

The climactic scene in The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold

Aslan's execution scene in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe

Neo's death in The Matrix: Revolutions

The destruction of the Gear in Doug TenNapel's GEAR

Buffy's Self-Sacrifice for Dawn and the world/Spikes immolation in the finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Spock's death in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan

Perhaps Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still

Rhysling's sacrifice in "The Green Hills of Earth"


Take time to read the gospel portions suitable for this holy day. And if you have time, read or watch a good depiction of the death of a Christ figure. It's the right day for it...

And isn't it marvelous that SUNDAY'S COMING!

(Next week, finishing up with Creating a Christian SF Story)

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Comments

• Saturday, April 07. 2007 Martin LaBar wrote:
  I guess no fictional sacrifice can be truly Christ-like, or fully Christ-like, because His was real, and it worked. Nonetheless, this is a good idea.
  
  I recently posted about the death of Deth, the High One, in Patricia A. McKillip's Riddle-Master trilogy. This had some aspects of Christ's sacrifice.
  
  It's been a while since I read it, and I may be imagining it, but wasn't there an important sacrificial death in Lloyd Alexander's Prydain books?
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• Saturday, April 07. 2007 dausema wrote:
  Certainly Thomas Covenant at the end of the Second Chronicles should be included. (And in general I'd say that much of Donalson's work is full of Christ figures of one kind or another.)
  
  I think the whole concept of someone sacrificing himself (or herself...though I'm trying to think of a female Christ figure and am not coming up with one yet) resonates with us in so many ways that it comes up often in literature of all kinds. As well as in a variety of mythologies. Something in us really responds to that.
  
  Martin, I'm glad you bring up McKillip--I saw your blog posts through a link on Claw of the Conciliator. You bring up good points from what I remember of the books...I really ought to reread them. In general I love McKillips books though.
  
  I'm sure there are many more we could bring up here--so post away, folks! =)
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• Saturday, April 07. 2007 SolShine7 wrote:
  Good post Mir! You gave a bunch of good examples from literature. I'm glad you wrote this. It's very relevant.
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• Sunday, April 08. 2007 Becca Johnson wrote:
  How about the final scenes of Ted Dekker's books Red, White, or Showdown? Of these my favorite of course would be the one in Red, but the other two are good too.
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• Sunday, April 08. 2007 Martin LaBar wrote:
  Does the death of the Archmage, Nemmerle, giving his life to heal the breach in the fabric of the world, caused by the young Ged, in Wizard of Earthsea, count? Le Guin is a Taoist, if that matters.
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• Tuesday, April 10. 2007 Elliot wrote:
  One of the most obvious sf/f references to Christ's crucifixion and death that I've come across is in the third Paksenarrion book, Oath of Gold, by Elizabeth Moon. The parallels are drawn quite explicitly.
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