- Cover of Kindred (Bluestreak)
This is exactly what James McGrath is proposing for next year’s Society of Biblical Literature/American Academy of Religion meeting in San Fransisco.
I think it would be a great idea, as long as the Sci Fi section was inclusive both academically [across fields] and culturally (more on that forthcoming; I am planning on doing a book review/reflection Octavia Butler‘s Kindred.)
What say you all?
Related articles
- James McGrath on responsible blog ownership (westernthm.wordpress.com)
- SBL Reflections (drjimsthinkingshop.com)
Actually, that sounds pretty darn cool to me. I’m not a religious person, but Biblical allusions (heck, religious allusions in general) are often overlooked in SF, not because of a bias against religion, but because the allusions are often buried under futuristic settings and allegories for present society (thus, not always easy to pick out, and when they are easy, they seem to be too obvious to be worth mentioning). I suspect there’ll be a fair bit of talk about David and Goliath and Sodom/Gamorrah, though. Those seem to be themes that pop up (intentionally or otherwise) in SF. Either way, a deeper look into the intersection of Christianity (or any religion) and SF is much needed; they look at such things for general fiction all the time, so why not SF?
SMD,
Thanks for commenting. Could you give a specific example of a sci fi book or movie/tv show that deals with David & Goliath or Sodom and Gomorrah? I’d be interested in checking them out.