Very interesting, although the idea of Osama bin Laden reading Asimov boggles the mind, even knowing that he spent much of his life living a pretty secular lifestyle.
Despite being religious, I prefer my SF not to deal with religion. I struggle to engage with alien religions. I do like Philip K. Dick's VALIS, but not really because of the gnostic theology, more because it's someone trying to reason himself out of (and sometimes in to) psychosis, which is not possible, but makes for moving and sometimes funny fiction -- the blend of paranoia and occasional self-awareness.
I was working my way through the Dune books, but then 7 October happens and I haven't been able to restart reading about Space Jihad. I just can't face it.
Bin Laden certainly read Asimov. Whether he was inspired by him is a speculation but interesting to consider. Dick is another writer I want to address, especially in relation to the intersection of SF and Gnosticism. You can see why the notion of hidden knowledge, central to Gnostic traditions, would be appealing to SF. There is a series called The Watchers by Stuart Gordon, which is an outright transposition of Gnosticism into SF. Harlan Ellison also dabbled with it in several of his stories. And of course, October 7 was a paradigm shift everywhere, including SF. I am going to talk about it at a conference, and I would love to hear from writers and readers how it affected them.
I wonder if "Star Wars" is a science fantasy insofar as it is thematically about the collision between the 'fantasy' of an enchanted past and the dread of an accelerated hyper-modernity, i.e. the Empire vs the Jedi, or myriad pre-modern alien worlds.
And on Jewish SF, would the work of Jack Kirby fit here?
Thank you! Yes, I always classified Star Wars as science fantasy rather than SF proper. Its tagline alone is a sufficient indicator with its obvious fairy-tale reference. The first trilogy has a Campbell hero plot as well.
As for Jack Kirby - certainly. Though comics are not my field, i know several people who worked on Jewish themes in graphic novels.
Michael Faber's The Book of Strange New Things is an interesting take on the "missionary goes to evangelize the aliens" plot, but it's mostly a character-driven story about the growing alienation between a man and his wife. I'm looking forward to reading your new series, as religious SF used to be an interest of mine.
Hello, Elana! Very excited to continue reading this series of yours. The intersections between religion and sci-fi are of great interest to me. I am firmly in that third camp you mentioned - the speculative kind. Currently I’m writing a series right here on Substack, doing my best to take Christian theology very seriously and apply it to the challenging questions that science and science fiction present to us. It might be of interest to someone such as yourself!
And thanks you for the mention about Paul Nahin - I’m eager to read other perspectives on these issues. I hadn’t heard of him, but I’ll certainly check his work out.
Thank you! I just subscribed to your Substack. I did not know that there were other people dealing with SF in a philosophical and theological context on this platform, and I am very excited to meet you. Looking forward to reading your essays!
And if I may be so bold as to make a suggestion, I would recommend starting with the piece I’ve linked here. It provides some context and lays out the vision for what I’m aiming to do here.
Very interesting, although the idea of Osama bin Laden reading Asimov boggles the mind, even knowing that he spent much of his life living a pretty secular lifestyle.
Despite being religious, I prefer my SF not to deal with religion. I struggle to engage with alien religions. I do like Philip K. Dick's VALIS, but not really because of the gnostic theology, more because it's someone trying to reason himself out of (and sometimes in to) psychosis, which is not possible, but makes for moving and sometimes funny fiction -- the blend of paranoia and occasional self-awareness.
I was working my way through the Dune books, but then 7 October happens and I haven't been able to restart reading about Space Jihad. I just can't face it.
Bin Laden certainly read Asimov. Whether he was inspired by him is a speculation but interesting to consider. Dick is another writer I want to address, especially in relation to the intersection of SF and Gnosticism. You can see why the notion of hidden knowledge, central to Gnostic traditions, would be appealing to SF. There is a series called The Watchers by Stuart Gordon, which is an outright transposition of Gnosticism into SF. Harlan Ellison also dabbled with it in several of his stories. And of course, October 7 was a paradigm shift everywhere, including SF. I am going to talk about it at a conference, and I would love to hear from writers and readers how it affected them.
Really looking forward to more of this.
I wonder if "Star Wars" is a science fantasy insofar as it is thematically about the collision between the 'fantasy' of an enchanted past and the dread of an accelerated hyper-modernity, i.e. the Empire vs the Jedi, or myriad pre-modern alien worlds.
And on Jewish SF, would the work of Jack Kirby fit here?
Thank you! Yes, I always classified Star Wars as science fantasy rather than SF proper. Its tagline alone is a sufficient indicator with its obvious fairy-tale reference. The first trilogy has a Campbell hero plot as well.
As for Jack Kirby - certainly. Though comics are not my field, i know several people who worked on Jewish themes in graphic novels.
Michael Faber's The Book of Strange New Things is an interesting take on the "missionary goes to evangelize the aliens" plot, but it's mostly a character-driven story about the growing alienation between a man and his wife. I'm looking forward to reading your new series, as religious SF used to be an interest of mine.
Hello, Elana! Very excited to continue reading this series of yours. The intersections between religion and sci-fi are of great interest to me. I am firmly in that third camp you mentioned - the speculative kind. Currently I’m writing a series right here on Substack, doing my best to take Christian theology very seriously and apply it to the challenging questions that science and science fiction present to us. It might be of interest to someone such as yourself!
And thanks you for the mention about Paul Nahin - I’m eager to read other perspectives on these issues. I hadn’t heard of him, but I’ll certainly check his work out.
Thank you! I just subscribed to your Substack. I did not know that there were other people dealing with SF in a philosophical and theological context on this platform, and I am very excited to meet you. Looking forward to reading your essays!
And if I may be so bold as to make a suggestion, I would recommend starting with the piece I’ve linked here. It provides some context and lays out the vision for what I’m aiming to do here.
https://open.substack.com/pub/pneumanauts/p/a-pneumanaut-embarks-for-unknown?r=508pg6&utm_medium=ios
Many thanks for your interest!
I’m not sure there are any, besides you and I!