Benjamin A. Plotinsky has written an interesting survey of Science Fiction, past, present and future in the City Journal: How Science Fiction Found Religion. It covers Star Trek through Star Wars, right up to current stuff, including Battlestar Galactica. His conclusion: following the cold war, most good science fiction employed Christian allegory. However, since 9/11 we seem to be returning to an era of overtly political science fiction.
It is an interesting piece. My take on it is that Plotinsky fails to go back far enough. Had he included some of the earliest science fiction writers, like H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, he would have likely discovered the radical optimism of the late nineteenth century, an almost childish glee filled with modern conveniences attributed to science. This optimism was bridled by the known faults of humanity. Still, the earliest science fiction authors were convinced that with the right tools, hard work and determination, a glorious future was at hand. With the onset of the World War however, the honest science fiction writer admitted our resources are too few and our faults are too many; inevitable war breaks out. Our optimism failed and we cry out: How can we obtain the future if we cannot even survive the present? How can we get out of this mess? Thus the rise of redemptive science fiction. We were still reeling from World Wars, so this redemptive side, I believe, was more visible in comics during the fourties and the fifties, than in science fiction. Although there certainly was overlap – Superman being the best example. But the question is: Why Superman? or maybe: Why a superman?
The answer is: we need something more than human to rescue us from ourselves, to redeem us. Humanity needs a messiah. We need something not susceptible to our faults. This is where sacrifice and resurrection come in. This something, in order to save us, must understand us, must know what it is like to be us. This something cannot be a thing, it must be a person, able to relate to us in every way. But if a person, like us, then surely the messiah would have our faults and be susceptible to them? Therefore this something should not be like us, it must be transcendent. How can we have both things? How can we get around this paradox?
The answer to this paradox is found in Jesus: fully God and fully human. He was susceptible to our faults without failure; He sinned not. He was so close to us so as to become a victim; killed by us. Yet he is not like us. He is transcendent. He is risen and living. This power he offers to us. Christianity is THE story of redemption. As C.S. Lewis put it (paraphrase) “Christianity is the myth that is true.” It is then not surprising that good redemptive science fiction borrows from Christianity. It is drawing from its source.
The return of political science fiction follows a return to human optimism. We can locate the promised land. We hear again the declaration:
We must make it work. If we don’t, we will not survive. No one is coming to save us. We are all alone. We need to buckle down and do the hardest work of all: Change ourselves. Do you believe we can change? You must believe! Believe in our human endeavor, for humanity’s sake. We are all in this together and we stand or fall together. I believe so I am not the one holding us back. And I will not stand by and let you hold us back.
Inevitable, we discover that this is bloody business. This time, however, will be different… so we hope.
Science Fiction: Who Saves?
Benjamin A. Plotinsky has written an interesting survey of Science Fiction, past, present and future in the City Journal: How Science Fiction Found Religion. It covers Star Trek through Star Wars, right up to current stuff, including Battlestar Galactica. His conclusion: following the cold war, most good science fiction employed Christian allegory. However, since 9/11 we seem to be returning to an era of overtly political science fiction.
It is an interesting piece. My take on it is that Plotinsky fails to go back far enough. Had he included some of the earliest science fiction writers, like H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, he would have likely discovered the radical optimism of the late nineteenth century, an almost childish glee filled with modern conveniences attributed to science. This optimism was bridled by the known faults of humanity. Still, the earliest science fiction authors were convinced that with the right tools, hard work and determination, a glorious future was at hand. With the onset of the World War however, the honest science fiction writer admitted our resources are too few and our faults are too many; inevitable war breaks out. Our optimism failed and we cry out: How can we obtain the future if we cannot even survive the present? How can we get out of this mess? Thus the rise of redemptive science fiction. We were still reeling from World Wars, so this redemptive side, I believe, was more visible in comics during the fourties and the fifties, than in science fiction. Although there certainly was overlap – Superman being the best example. But the question is: Why Superman? or maybe: Why a superman?
The answer is: we need something more than human to rescue us from ourselves, to redeem us. Humanity needs a messiah. We need something not susceptible to our faults. This is where sacrifice and resurrection come in. This something, in order to save us, must understand us, must know what it is like to be us. This something cannot be a thing, it must be a person, able to relate to us in every way. But if a person, like us, then surely the messiah would have our faults and be susceptible to them? Therefore this something should not be like us, it must be transcendent. How can we have both things? How can we get around this paradox?
The answer to this paradox is found in Jesus: fully God and fully human. He was susceptible to our faults without failure; He sinned not. He was so close to us so as to become a victim; killed by us. Yet he is not like us. He is transcendent. He is risen and living. This power he offers to us. Christianity is THE story of redemption. As C.S. Lewis put it (paraphrase) “Christianity is the myth that is true.” It is then not surprising that good redemptive science fiction borrows from Christianity. It is drawing from its source.
The return of political science fiction follows a return to human optimism. We can locate the promised land. We hear again the declaration:
Inevitable, we discover that this is bloody business. This time, however, will be different… so we hope.
Katie Sackoff as Battlestar Galactica's Starbuck
[ Image: dailyinvention via Flickr ]