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The Row Boat"Had we but world enough, and time..." *
SPACE TRAVEL!7/18/2006 15:10:27I like to take summers to work on my science fiction literacy and this time I've started with the old classic by Frank Herbert, Dune. Of course sci-fi has been taken up by the recent so-called critical theorists like Jameson and the like, so my interest happens to be in fashion, though I don't think my methods and interests are quite in line with theirs. To me science fiction (mainly in the form of star trek) was one of the most powerful forces that informed my religious consciousness as a child. Its dreams and images did much to steer my idea of what should be and my suspicions of what could be. In Dune there is a marvelous and intruiging tension between religion as a human concoction and an account of spiritual realities. The line is never clearly drawn. A large part of the story revolves around an ancient prophecy, planted in part by careful operatives, but which takes a life of its own and actually transcends the expectations of its manipulative creators. It reminds me of all the discourses that cast religion as a tool of the powerful upon the powerless. In any such case, I find, the manipulator is just as much immeshed in the forces and demons of the religion as anyone. The religious languages in the book are drawn from twistings of extant religions (which are their true ancestors in Herbert's future universe). Islam in particular provides the foundation for the terminology of the religion of the deseret-dwelling race that we learn the most about, the Fremen. For a student of world religions, it is an entertaining hodgepodge. In the appendicies Herbert takes on a distanced academic tone to discuss some features of the background story and devotes a few pages to religion that are absolutely marvelous. My favorite few sentences are these. "There is a fifth force which shaped religious belief, but its effect is so universal and profound that it deserves to stand alone. This is, of course, space travel - and in any discussion of religion, it deserves to be written thus: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
re: SPACE TRAVEL! - 7/20/2006 11:06:53
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