Silk for calde blog: Wolfe thesis

Zachary Kendal · 22 Sep 2009, 23:15 · from 2009-September.txt.gz

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From: zackendal at optusnet.com.au (Zachary Kendal)
Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:15:14 +1000
Subject: (urth) Silk for calde blog: Wolfe thesis
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On 23/09/2009, at 2:47 AM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:

> Zac,
>
> Welcome aboard.
>
> I had no idea that this was an undergrad thesis - I've barely even  
> heard of those. To me, the word "thesis" conveys images of Ph.D.
>
> I'm also sorry I was so harsh, but truly, I can't think of a single  
> significant SF text that _does_ fit the description you give. The  
> closest thing I can think of is the Curate in H.G. Wells' "The War  
> of the Worlds," which is proto-SF in the meaning of the act. (SF  
> proper really begins with Hugo Gernsback's identifying it as a  
> genre, giving it a name, and providing it with a home, first in _The  
> Electrical Expermenter_ and then in _Amazing Stories_.)
>
> There are plenty of SF writers who are blatantly hostile to  
> religion, but they don't seem to use priests as characters all that  
> much.
>
> I'd be interested in examples of what you're describing.
>
> --Dan'l

Hi Dan'l, and thanks for the welcome.

I fear I was unclear in my original blog posting, but those examples I  
gave of the 'positive' and 'negative' use of the priest as protagonist  
were extremes (and intended to be taken that way). I'll post a  
clarified thesis topic to my blog today later today, which should sort  
out some of this confusion.

I'd consider Clarke's "The Star" to be a fairly clear example of the  
'negative' use of the priest in SF (i.e. in order to shake the  
priest's faith). I know the Jesuit narrator doesn't explicitly  
renounce his faith altogether - he may well retain his belief in the  
existence of God (the extraordinary 'coincidence' of the supernova  
being the star of Bethlehem would suggest this) - but his idea of an  
all loving and merciful God is greatly challenged (and, indeed, I  
believe his faith is profoundly shaken to say the least). It's not an  
uncommon SF motif for Got to be revealed as incredibly evil (often an  
incredibly evil parasite - hell, Stargate SG1 milked this theme for 10  
seasons and 3 films!).

Miller's "A Canticle for Leibowitz", as a whole, focuses on the  
Church, not the priest (singular) and his personal journey of faith,  
which is what I will be focusing on. While it is a fantastic book, I  
don't believe it will be referred to much in my thesis.

As Adam Thornton wrote:

> 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.

Adam seems to have described my decision well :) rejection/shaking or  
reaffirmation of faith are the two obvious reasons to have a priest as  
a protagonist. The very purpose of my *doing* research is to see  
whether or not these are the two *dominant* uses of the priest. I  
should also be clear here, I am only looking at SF works with a priest  
as the main or central character, where his faith / spiritual journey  
is an important part of the story. And I do believe that some SF  
authors hostile to religion choose to have a priest protagonist  
(especially narrator) - this is usually done in order to attack or  
debunk religion from 'within' (i.e. Clarke?).

Zac

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