miscellaneous bloggery 8

The latest in an occasional series in which I can't be bothered to come up with anything original to write about.

Regular visitors here will probably already have read about why the sci-fi catholic dislikes christian sf, and from there found out why Keith Strohm hates it.

Speaking personally, there's a place for 'evangelical' sf in my life. Although, having jumped on, and promptly fallen off, the Left Behind bandwagon of badly written evangelical sf, I'm duty bound to say that. :)

I guess any hopes I may have had that CBA fiction (to use the US term) might catch on in the UK following LB have yet to be fulfilled in any significant way. Even UK based writers of Christian fiction seem to be publishing in the US (the Nemesis, for a genre example, and Penny Culliford, just to prove that I know books do exist outside of the sff shelves, at least in theory).

I am increasingly of the opinion that maybe the place for Christian sf in my life is just for me to write it, as a means of making sense of my life in general and this Christianity lark, and doesn't need to be shared with the rest of the world for God to appreciate that I'm using the medium to communicate with Him. Besides, I've got a blog and a website. I can still inflict it on the wider world. ;)

Anyway, back to the bloggery. I came across this the other day too: The Christianity in Star Wars. I've always seen the Force as more a kind of eastern mystical kind of thing personally, though I suppose the arguments may be interesting. (Says me, in the midst of searching for Christianity in the works of Douglas Adams!)

And then, of course, there was this. The lovely Elliot has me tagged...

Name up to three characters (from books)...

1). You wish were real so you could meet them.
Rincewind, from out of the Discworld series (a rare exception to my 'not doing fantasy'!)
Obviously, The Doctor. Either the fourth or the current one. He's in books too!
Buffy Summers. Stretching the books concept again, but if you don't let her in, she'll come round with Mr Pointy.

2). You would like to be.
Ford Prefect. I have to pick somebody from Hitch-hikers, and he always seems to be having so much fun. Great name, too.
Dirk Gently. The idea of being a private detective has some kind of romantic appeal, and he just takes it to a whole 'nother place...
Thursday Next. Not only does she live in Swindon, but she has simply the best job in the known universe.

3). Who scare you.
This was kind of a tricky one, as I haven't read any especially 'scary' books lately. But:
Professor Weston in C S Lewis's Perelandra was very disturbing at points.
And I do like a bit of Stephen King - I could pluck any number of his 'better' bad guys but I'll settle for Mordred Deschain from the Dark Tower series (although his father, Roland, was scarier in his own way) and Annie Wilkes from Misery. One good reason to continue writing mediocre evangelical novels that nobody wants to read!

Just as a kind of self-indulgent experiment, and because my fellow CSFF blog-tourers have been mass-tagged already, I tag Alf, who claims to follow my blogging, and Matthew, who does occasionally drop by. And anyone from Swindon who wants to play.