Finding Faith in Secular Scifi

Print the article

This entry was posted on Friday, August 10. 2007 and is filed under posts by Guest Blogger Marcus Goodyear.



My brother-in-law picked up Robert Charles Wilson’s Spin at the grocery store in paperback. He thought it would be healthier than a King Sized Snickers, I guess.

Or maybe he just liked the premise. One night the stars disappear.

The book won a Hugo for best novel in 2006, and it deserved the honor. As most Hugo winners do. If you’ve read Spin, you know what I mean.

Haven’t read it? You should. Primarily because it is a well-written book, and I happen to agree with Keats that “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: / Its loveliness increases, it will never / Pass into nothingness.”

Subhead: Learn from the Style of Spin

Certainly, Spin is a work of beauty. A series of flashbacks connect themes of memory and time to the narrative structure itself. The concept is so thoroughly logical that I could never believe it when Robert Charles Wilson surprised me with another plot twist that I should have seen coming. I won’t get into the plot twists and spoilers, nor will I debate whether the ending satisfied me. With such a perfect build up, I’m not sure I care.

The editor in me just gloated over paragraphs like this one from a scene in which two million people watch an important rocket launch at Cape Canaveral:
“Twenty seconds. Ten. Jase stood up and leaned into the balcony railing. The hotel balconies were mobbed. The beach was mobbed. A thousand heads and lenses swiveled in the same direction. Estimates later put the crowd in and around the Cape at nearly two million. According to police reports, more than a hundred wallets were lifted that night. There were two fatal stabbings, fifteen attempted assaults, and one premature labor. (The child, a four-pound girl, was delivered on a trestle table at the International House of Pancakes in Cocoa Beach.)”
Besides the masterful pacing of the sentences themselves. This paragraph stuck out to me as the perfect example of Wilson’s ability to turn a speculative idea into a human-interest story. The rocket launch becomes a cosmic event that seems to upset the order of things with violence and petty theft, until we reach the premature labor. A tiny girl is born at IHOP. Not a stillbirth. Not a tragic birth, though certainly not an easy birth on a trestle table. It is a girl.

(Speaking of human interest, my daughter was 4 ½ pounds when we left the hospital. She's six years old now.)
 
Moments of hope like this shine regularly throughout the book.

That explains simply why Spin is good­-not why it is particularly relevant to people interested in Christian speculative fiction.

Lots of books have hope in them after all. Secular humanists are often hopeful. They’ve just put their hope in something that will disappoint them.

But Spin has something more.

subhead: Spin as a Model for Spiritual Storytelling

First, the main character is born again-­from the inside out. True, the method of his rebirth involves alien medication and some kind of fuzzy, scifi DNA reconstruction, but it is also definitely spiritual.

Reading the book for its craft, I’m less concerned about whether I agree with Wilson’s specific spiritual conclusions. Instead, I want to study the way he convincingly fuses plot, technology, and spirituality. There are no didactic sermons here. No heavy hammers of moralism.

Second, Spin is the only book of fiction I can remember that tries to think about dispensationalism. At least that’s the label Wilson puts on a religious movement that starts when the stars disappear. Christian publishers sells books with titles like Have We Witnessed the Second Coming? And Can We Survive the End of Time?

Rather than using his story to speculate on Christian theology in a meaningful way, Wilson focuses on a cult of wackos. The dispensationalists start something called Christian Hedonism, which involves orgies and other weirdness. (All of which takes place off stage.)

Wilson even apologizes for presenting only this skewed view of Christianity that he calls “New Kingdom, a Spin-inspired Christian movement­-at least nominally Christian, though it had been denounced by mainstream and conservative churches alike…” Later in the novel, we learn, “It was partly because of New Kingdom that so many roadside billboards proclaimed TRIBULATION IN PROGRESS.”

The fictional mainstream and conservative churches denounce New Kingdom and its billboards. Great! The only problem is that we never see or hear from any of these people. Only the wackos. I’ll admit, Wilson does present us with sympathetic wackos. But they are still wackos.

They make a good warning against bizarrely literal interpretations of the Bible (involving red cows). But not much else.

Subhead: A Call to Action!

This is where Christian Speculative Fiction comes in. I don’t think the world needs another thin allegory of Eden on another planet. Lewis pretty much mastered that in Perelandra.

What we need are writers like Wilson who also present some normal Christians. Dynamic characters with depth and complexity, and [gasp!] a deep faith in Christ. Maybe even a deep understanding of what it means to be Christian.

Wilson shows us how to mix up eastern spirituality and space opera. We can learn from him and start mixing up Christian space operas.

Or maybe you’ve read some good ones already? Tell us about them in the comments!

 
Trackbacks
Trackback specific URL for this entry
  • Trackbacks are closed for this entry.
Comments
    Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)
    Page: 1 of 1
    • Friday, August 10. 2007 Mir wrote:
      In my review last year of SPIN, I recommended it as a novel to study craft elements--such as writing a novel that spans a long time and goes from present to past and back and forth throughout. He handles time issues with marvelous grace.

      And he integrates the science with the characterization beautifully. It never feels dry and overwhelming. He keeps the suspense up, which is daunting when you're not on a short time frame (the ticking clock), but one that spans decades.

      Mir
      Reply to this
    • Friday, August 10. 2007 David Ellis wrote:
      I loved SPIN. Its probably the best of Wilson's books (which are routinely top-notch). If I recall correctly I think there are some more normal christians portrayed sympathetically in some of his previous books---though none are central characters (Wilson is a humanist after all).

      If you're interested in SF where both christians and religious skeptics are portrayed sympathetically and complexly I don't think you can do better than EIFELHEIM by Michael Flynn. It was nominated for the 2007 Hugo Award and is available as a free etext:

      http://www.spectrumliteraryagency.com/flynneifelheim1.pdf
      Reply to this
    • Friday, August 10. 2007 david ellis wrote:
      Oh, and then there's John C. Wright. His GOLDEN AGE TRILOGY was some of the best SF I've read in recent years dealing with transhumanist themes (second only to Greg Egan and Charles Stross on that score). He was an atheist at the time he wrote it but converted to christianity after having a religious experience following a heart attack and surgery.

      He hasn't yet published any books written following his conversion so far as I know but he's certainly someone interested in SF from a christian perspective would want to keep an eye on. It'll be interesting to see how his religious conversion affects his writing.
      Reply to this
      1. Saturday, August 11. 2007 Mir wrote:
        Love Mr. Wright!!!

        And his wife is soon to be pubbed, so I'll be buying her novel, too.

        Both are incredibly well-educated and sharp. And John C. is simply a delight to read at his blog. What a mind! (And spirit!)

        Mir
        Reply to this
    • Saturday, August 11. 2007 david ellis wrote:
      Yeah, I forgot to mention his blog. He and I are rarely in agreement (I'm not a christian or even a theist)---but that's OK since he always brings up interesting topics for discussion.
      Reply to this
    • Monday, August 13. 2007 Mark Goodyear wrote:
      Thanks for the great reading ideas, everyone. So far we've got

      Wilson's other books
      Michael Flynn (esp. 2007 Eifelheim)
      John C. Wright (esp. Golden Age Trilogy)
      Greg Egan
      Charles Stross

      I'd add Greg Wolfe as well. That's a good reading list to start with. I better get busy.
      Reply to this
      1. Monday, August 13. 2007 Mir wrote:
        I loved his Chronicles of Chaos trilogy (Wright).

        I'd sample Stross and read some reviews first. He's not the cup of tea for all religious folks.

        Mir
        Reply to this
    • Monday, August 13. 2007 david ellis wrote:
      I think you misunderstood me when I mentioned Egan and Stross. Egan is definitely an atheist and I'm pretty sure Stross is as well. Most SF writers dealing with transhumanism and the singularity tend to be nontheists (as Wright was at the time of the writing of THE GOLDEN AGE).
      Reply to this
    • Tuesday, August 14. 2007 Elliot Hanowski wrote:
      Wright's Chaos books were partly written after his conversion. It shows up a little bit in the first one, where he changed some details about Jesus to be more positive.

      I'd definitely recommend Eifelheim, too. Anything by Gene Wolfe. I guess some of Elizabeth Moon's work is space opera, and she is (or at least was) a Christian.
      Reply to this
    • Thursday, August 23. 2007 Mark Goodyear wrote:
      Ellis, I was with you, but I guess that list could have been misleading to someone who didn't read the entire thread. You said you were not a theist.

      In my opinion, good fiction always raises ideas that are worth wrestling with--even if the ideas are not specifically Christian. As a Christian I'm interested in the intersection of faith and fiction. As a reader, then, I try to think about the intersection of my specific faith with the books I read. As a writer, I'm interested in how I can create stories that present my Christian worldview as plausible and engaging.
      Reply to this

    Page: 1 of 1
    Leave a comment

     Enter the above security code (required)

     Name

     Email (will not be published)

     Website

    Your comment is 0 characters limited to 3000 characters.



      
    Copyright . http://SPECFAITH.RITERSBLOC.COM. All rights reserved.