Reading

Last night, I finished Perelandraby C.S. Lewis, a book that I started back when my father was in the hospital. Perelandra is the second in Lewis’ Space Trilogy, the first of which is Out of the Silent Planet and is concluded with That Hideous Strength.

Unlike Lewis’ famous Chronicles of Narnia series, these books do not wrap elements of Christianity in metaphor. Rather, Lewis simply sets out to set several science-fiction journeys somewhat reminiscent of Verne and Wells in a universe consistent with his religious beliefs. What at first appears to be metaphor in Perelandra quickly reveals to be just another chapter in a story that both extends and closely parallels events in the Book of Genesis.

While I almost always enjoy seeing mythology and religion expressed in works of science fiction (eg. Wolfe, Chesterton, Tolkein, Gaiman, etc.), something about Lewis’ sometimes snarky and morally simplistic expositions doesn’t quite work for me. The narrator in these books are nowhere as pronounced as they are in the Narnia books, yet I can still clearly hear the author’s ideaologies chiming through almost like clockwork.

I love Lewis’ writing, I really do. His diction, turn of phrase, everything is just brilliant in its imagery and storytelling. I just get tired of him preaching at the expense of his imagination. Others have managed to slip ideas through in their stories without such a compromise, so its not as if it couldn’t be done. From what I’ve read, Tolkein even bugged Lewis about how transparent his metaphors were with Narnia, even though they shared each other’s Christian beliefs. Tolkein likewise managed to keep a decent amount of Christian imagery in his Lord of the Rings, painting from a vast palette of his imagination (with a little assist from existing mythology) and telling a fantastic story but without treading too heavily into his religion.

That all considered, I would gladly read Lewis over many, many others around today. His strong narrative voice has even made me appreciative of other authors like Lemony Snicket and Philip Pullman, demonstrating other layers to their works that without Lewis would go unnoticed. I haven’t yet even purchased the third book in the Space Trilogy, and a friend has warned me that its quite different in scope and style than the previous two. So long as Lewis’ wit and very British sensability is still there, I’m sure it will be fantastic.

Frustration

Conservative agitator Bill O’Reilly and our current secretary of education (Margaret Spellings) seem to have the all-to-common problem of distinguishing between love and sex. “Many Americans believe that little kids should have a childhood and not be subjected to any kind of sexuality,” said O’Reilly in the above column. This is in reaction to a PBS cartoon where Buster the Bunny went to visit a lesbian couple in Vermont who run a syrup farm. It seems that a bunch (or at least one very vocal set) of parents complained to the PBS execs who, already fearful losing what little federal funding they receive, decided to not air that episode nationally.

To be fair and balanced, O’Reilly does, in the same column, criticize “some religious zealots who believe SpongeBob is cruising gay bars in Key West.” Still, neither SpongeBob nor Buster’s lesbian friends are demonstrating anything necessarily sexual. Why can’t parents just explain to their children upon seeing a gay couple that they love each other very much, and leave it at that? Why does the topic of sex necessarily have to be brought up before the inevitable “birds and the bees” conversation? Our culture’s repressive view on sexuality is exactly why people can’t see the distinction.

But that’s a topic for another day. Another point of frustration is the decision by SciFi to pass on the new Doctor Who show. Now, I realize that the previous incarnations of this show had less than impressive production value, but this new version promises to have excellent effects (at least as good as Stargate SG-1) and top-notch writing and acting. But with the exception of the new Battlestar Galactica (which I rather enjoy), SciFi hasn’t really been about quality science fiction so much as “exciting” (ie. explosive) scifi for the masses. Take for instance their lack of support for Farscape, or they abysmal treatment of Le Guin’s EarthSea.

This most recent action just points increasingly towards the loss of relevance of network television in light of the BitTorrent/iPodization of content. I know quite contently that when the new Doctor materializes on the BBC on March 26th, I will be able to download and delight in its glory a scant few hours later. Just like many were alleged to have done with the earlier run of Battlestar (but not me, of course).

One happy note to end on, though. Click here for the glory of a church constructed entirely of LEGO’s!

A Night for TV

In spite of my past misgivings about the SciFi channel’s committment to quality science fiction programming, I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed their 2 newest shows - Mad, Mad House and Tripping the Rift.

Mad, Mad House is a reality TV show that has guests attempting to learn how to live with vary alternative lifestyles. No, not a fundie trying to come to terms with a gay man. The alternative lifestyles featured here include a witch, a voodoo priestess, a vampire, a modern primitive, and a naturalist. Watching this reminded me of my days in the dorms, experiencing that “fish-out-of-water” feeling when confronted with such a different worldview from my roomies and bandmates. At this point in my life, such an experience would be vastly rewarding, but probably wouldn’t make for the most entertaining reality TV. In this case, I am looking forward to watching these fish struggle and try to swim.

Tripping the Rift follows in the finest traditions of Spaceballs, Futurama, and even the Space Quest series. At first, I was a bit turned-off by the not-quite-Pixar-quality CG. But after the jokes started flowing by, I quickly stopped caring about polygons and learned to love the show. Within the first 30 minute episode, there were jokes about sex, lesbians, fundies, racial profiling, bureaucratic shortcomings, God, robotic phalluses, and time-travel paradoxes. If the show keeps up this healthy mix of scifi satire and social commentary, I’ll be quite pleased to keep watching it.

The Book of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe

Gene Wolfe is the finest writer of modern, American literature alive today. Period. This is a statement of reality that scholars are slowly coming to realize, as they did in the early days of Tolkein, Lewis, Clarke, and Herbert (among many others). In less than a century, Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun, Book of the Long Sun, and Book of the Short Sun will stand out with Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings and Herbert’s Dune series as the most important epics of science fiction ever written.

I have just completed reading the New Sun and the Long Sun series for the second time. Even still, I find myself needing to go back and reread passages a dozen times to extract all the subtle meanings and allusions that Wolfe throws out. Long Sun is especially dense because of the immense cast of priests, gods, robots, thieves, soldiers, and whores that comprise its dramatis personae. Thankfully, Wolfe has provided a listing of the characters and brief descriptions in each book. Even so, navigating the sometimes seemingly capricious narrative flow seems an impossible challenge. But it can be done and even enjoyed. And it is soooo worth it!!

Long Sun deals with the story of a generation starship and it’s “cargo” of “bios” and “chems” on their way to another world. In this “whorl” inside the starship, a religion has been established in which the people pray and sacrifice animals to the “gods” who built and run the whorl. This system seems to be running well until the real God enlightens a local augur to seek out the truth beyond the whorl. It is this priest’s saga that plays out in the Long Sun books (Nightide, Lake of the, Calde of the, and Exodus from the Long Sun).

Wolfe examines themes of religion, spirituality, war, and destiny in this epic work. This alone would not distinguish Wolfe from the myriad of other authors who have dealt with similar themes. It is, however, Wolfe’s amazing style and command of mythology and mysticism that truly establish Wolfe as the imminent author of science fiction today. Now, I’m looking forward to digging in to the sequel series Book of the Short Sun. I’m sure that I won’t be disappointed.

Pitch Black

It’s EXTREMELY unusual to find a satisfying blend of science fiction and pop cinema these days, but Pitch Black is a film that could stand up in either category. Set around a classic crash-landing, survival plot, Pitch Black mixes elements of horror, suspense, and even moral redemption into 90 minutes of frenetic fun. From the beginning, this movie shocks you into it’s universe of morally challenged characters by an outstanding crash-landing sequence that stands alone in all sci-fi films. Once landed, the plot and universe only thickens with new dangers (both within and without) and new scenic wonders.

The use of color in this film is also remarkable as the director tries to accurately depict a desolate world with three suns of varying color. I can’t think of any other movie (including Star Wars) that convincingly depicts an alien world so well. This realism adds a sense of strangeness that amplifies the running fear of new dangers and situations ahead.

If there is any other film that Pitch Black could be compared with, it would have to be Ridley Scott’s masterpiece Alien. Since that films release in 1979, no other film has come close to realizing the terror or suspense that Scott yielded so aptly - except Pitch Black. Though still not quite up to the level of Ridley Scott, Pitch Black will both challenge and entertain you, and will leave you in fear of running out of light.

The Diamond Ageby Neal Stephenson

Having recently finished Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, I decided to continue in exploring this innovative author of cyber-punk science fiction. Where Snow Crash explored the ramifications of virtual, distributed reality and an overly franchised political landscape, The Diamond Age seeks to explore how nanotechnology will shape the ability of humanity to redefine society.

The basic premise is this - a poor, young girl comes into ownership of an interactive primer that changes her life in many ways. Stephenson follows in the tradition of Dickens and Gibson, weaving an interesting tale of technology and society and how the two interact. Set in a future where nations have been replaced by “philes” of similarly-minded people, The Diamond Age both challenges the reader to ponder technology’s implications and project himself into the moral situations faced by the characters. How far would you go to make your children’s future better? How much would you give up to see another go farther?

Stephenson stands out right now for realistically painting the effect of technology on society. What’s even scarier is how soon such technology might be commonplace, and how sweeping the changes to society might be. Read it with an open mind, and don’t let the style hold you back from this or other works.

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

I’ve read quite a number of science fiction novels, but the Sparrow is only the second to masterfully blend religion and science to produce a morally compelling work. The Sparrow is essentially about the role of God in mankind’s destiny and that of another alien race, forcing the reader to ask himself what he believes and why he believes it. The novel is the story of the Jesuit missionary Emelio Sandoz and his journey to an alien world to spread the word of God and make contact with the alien race. This journey tests Sandoz’s beliefs by subjecting him to the apparent absence of God, forcing him to reasses his own beliefs for the worse. The Sparrow will both touch your hearts and test your beliefs, challenging you to ask yourself why God does what He does.

Farscape

With so few good shows on today, it warms my heart for innovators like the Henson Creature Shop to be involved with creating some quality on television. And in spite of the Sci-Fi Channel’s unfortunate decision to canel MST3K (see last month), I applaud them for their faith in programming good science fiction like Farscape. Essentially, Farscape is the story of John Crichton, an astronaut scientist who’s propelled across the universe into an alien part of the galaxy. In this story, he is caught up with several escaped prisoner aliens travelling together in the living ship Moya on the run from some human-like military commander whose brother Crichton has killed accidentally. Confused yet? Farscape succeeds in drawing the viewer away from the human-centered, Star Trek-eque universe and transporting them into a totally alien universe. This approach was somewhat successful in Lost in Space and is even more so in Farscape. The masterful writing, combined with the top-notch CGI, and complimented with the all-together alien music make Farscape an adventure to not only follow but also support. Because in this age of soulless, crap-as-television Farscape is truly a diamond in the rough.

The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil

Most science fiction that you have read/seen/heard is wrong, or at least woefully underoptimistic! At least, that is what Ray Kurzweil believes, and his book The Age of Spiritual Machines will permanently alter your dreams of the future. And what sets this book apart from the myriad of futurist fantasy is Kurzweil’s credentials. This is the same Kurzweil that invented the swiss-army synthesizer, the K2000. This is also the same Kurzweil that invented the leading speech-to-text recognizer of today, the very recognizer to which he dictated the entire book. But what are Kurzweil’s predictions? Just a sample…in twenty years, virtual reality will be commonly used to augment day-to-day interactions…in thirty years, machine intelligence will be both ubiquitous and more advanced than human intelligence…and in a hundred years….well, man will have merged with his robotic creations. Whoa…that’s some revolutionary stuff! But those are only a few of the amazing benefits that technology can offer us. Read the book to discover the rest. And be prepared to question his view of reality, and whether or not it’s a reality you want to live in. The future may coming quickly, but it also has yet to be written.

Babylon 5 by J. Michael Straczynski

There exists only a small subset of television shows that can accurately be classified as science fiction. Among those shows, only a select few can be compared against the majesty and imaginative depth of the great science fiction authors such as Asimov, Clarke, Herbert, and Niven. Babylon 5 is one of these shows, arguably the greatest science fiction show ever created. Throughout its five year arc, Babylon 5 evolved from a story about a space station to a sweeping epic about mankind’s fate among the stars. If you have a free hour each weekday, I strongly urge you to watch the reruns of Babylon 5 on Tuner Network Television (TNT). While these episodes run chronologically across about a five month period, you don’t have to wait until the arc starts again. Jump right in and fight to catch up with the myriad of subplots and themes. If you need help, just check out the numerous fan pages on the internet for summaries of the backstory.

Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson

This novel marks the first science fiction novel for Wilson, and what a remarkable novel it is! Starting out as a kind of alternate-history take on the early 20th century, Darwinia gradually delves into some profound concepts of reality and destiny. To say any more would give away too much, but be prepared for some interesting realizations that place this novel soundly in the science fiction genre.