Sci-fi Song of the Week

Hmmmm let's see, we need a sci-fi song for the week before Christmas. I wonder if we could possibly find something suitable, possibly involving Fountains of Wayne....

Tuesday Tunes: Space Whale Migration

This weeks choice for Sci-Fi Song of the Week is, apart from not being a song in any conventional sense, inspired by yesterday's mini-review of a story about space whales. So here for your enjoyment, a little piece of shoegazey post-Porcupine Tree instrumental greatness, Space Whale Migration by The Daysleepers.

Green Lantern, and a Leviathan

Has anybody got a couple of hours to listen to some excellent podcastery on the subject of religion and science-fiction? Well if you have, I have a couple of nice little links for you. And if you haven't, I recommend you make some :)

Firstly, the Leviathan in question is That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made, a Nebula winning novelette by Eric James Stone, and you can hear it on Starship Sofa Episode 194. It's a very neat little tale about some of the potential problems of bringing human religion (in this case Mormonism) to a decidedly alien race (in this case, a group of solar cetaceans living inside our sun). And this all seems to be going well for our protagonist, Harry Malan, until a swale member of his congregation confides in him about what Harry believes to be a case of sexual assault.

There follows a lot of discussion between Harry and cute scientist Dr. Juanita Merced about how human/Mormon sexuality and morals can't be applied to creatures older than human culture, and then when Harry tries to put his point to the oldest swale in our sun, things get even more interesting...

That Leviathan... is a well-written story, makes some thought-provoking points in an interesting setting, and all adds up to a fascinating exploration about the intersection of religion and 'other' cultures, definitely worth a look (or listen) if you're interested in those things.

Elsewhere in the podosphere, purveyor of Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy, Paeter Frandsen, has been geeking out over Green Lantern, who apparently is a comic book hero turned movie icon, or something. Anyway, as part of his Green Lantern special podcast he pulls some interesting Biblical parallels from comic book superheroes and wonders what the New Heaven and the New Earth will be like. Such ponderings gave me cause to wonder what kind of stories I'll be writing in the New Earth.... presumably they'll have to be set on the old one, as there won't be a lot of conflict in the new one, as I understand it....

Anyway, that's also worth a listen for an alternative angle on some Biblical stuff, and on some comic book stuff, or if you've just been overcome by Green Lantern fever....

Linky Goodness:
Starship Sofa No 194 (direct link)
That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made (text)
Spirit Blade Underground Podcast - Green Lantern Review Special (direct link)

Friday Review: Vanish by Tom Pawlik

It looks like we’re settling on two posts a week for the time being, at least until somebody teaches me time management.

And (on the subject of time management) I’m reviewing Vanish by Tom Pawlik, which I failed to feature in the, let’s see…. June 2009 CSFF Blog Tour. I guess I don’t need to worry too much about spoilers then.

I thought this was a great story. It’s one of a bunch of ‘where’d everybody go?’ novels that seemed fleetingly popular in Christian fiction a couple of years ago; the most obvious comparison being Kathryn Mackel’s Vanished (which I reviewed here). In Vanish you will find traditional gray aliens, Lost-y flashbacks, and plenty of suspense, action and general weirdness. It may sound like Pawlik just threw in a bit of everything from the spec-fic parts bin, but the result is an enjoyable and coherent story.

The writing style is uncomplicated but largely inoffensive, and it does the job well enough. The middle section does seem needlessly repetitive; I’m sure there was enough going on that we didn’t need to be told the same facts over and over again. I also noticed lots of jaws stiffening and teeth clenching from various different characters; arguably a minor flaw, but drawing attention to this apparently universal reaction did detract from what characterisation there was.

The main characters were a nicely mixed bunch, as is required in this kind of story; interestingly, there were no Christians among them, and the worldview was left to filter in via the people the characters know and love. However, when the third act starts and the pieces start to fit together (spoiler alert: think Life on Mars) it leads to a brilliant and satisfying conclusion (even if the final chapter is somewhat superfluous).

And I’ve just remembered there’s a sequel. The week after my birthday. Sigh.

For more linky goodness, why not time travel back to the CSFF Blog Tour for Vanish.

Friday Review: Paul

I was planning another artificial intelligence post earlier in the week, but our internet was out for most of a day, so it didn't get finished. Anyway, enough excuses, on with the review!

Before I say anything else about this film, I’ll say this: if you get offended by bad language, you’re gonna want to give this one a wide berth. There is a lot of it, to the point of gratuitous swearing being a running gag for much of the film. Much of the gratuitous swearing is therefore deliberately comical, but if you don’t want to hear it, save your pennies.

On the other hand, if you’re a fan of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and especially of Spaced, then you’ll get a kick out of this movie.

The writer Clive Gollings (Nick Frost) and Graeme Willy (Simon Pegg) are living every British geek’s dream: a road trip from San Diego Comic Con along the Extra-terrestrial Highway. As is the tradition with road movies, they pick up a motley crew of hangers-on along the way – in this instance a stereotypical grey called Paul, and a similarly stereotypical Bible Belt girl called Ruth. (If Christian-bashing is going to offend you, you might also want to skip the film. If not, we’ll come back to Ruth.) They also pick up a crowd of pursuers, Men in Black, the FBI, Ruth’s dad and his pet shotgun…

So, the film. It’s funny, in a Pegg & Frost way; the pair are perhaps not quite as chummy as in, say, Shaun of the Dead, but the gag rate is high, and the ‘aliens abroad’ theme is completely subverted by having an actual alien having more clue what’s going on than the humans. Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen) gets all the best lines, and a weird love triangle with Graeme and Clive, who almost fall out over hogging the alien experience.

Which brings us back to Bible belt Ruth, who sort of gets in the way of the aforementioned love triangle by wanting to fornicate with Graeme. Yes, her alien encounter brings about a rather abrupt conversion to, well, some brand of hedonistic atheism maybe; or maybe just a belated rebellion against the religion instilled in her by her father. Even Christians in the UK find it easy to laugh at these stereotypical trailer-park dwelling ‘Christians’; I’m not sure how well that will go down in the States, but the character’s of Ruth and her father, and how they interact with the wider world around them, gives plenty of scope for meaningful discussion – Paul hands you one the second he meets Ruth, and there’s plenty of debate to be had, not just about how Christianity would react to alien life, but about fundamentalism done badly, what Christians are really like in real life, the whole miraculous healing thing aliens have evolved, and no doubt plenty of others.

Oh yes, and anyone who was on the CSFF Blog Tour last week might find something familiar about the way Paul does his alien healing thing too!

That said, most of the fun to be had with this movie, is in trying to spot all the geeky references and cameo appearances as the fly past with varying degrees of subtlety. I will be looking out for the DVD in the hope of an homage-o-meter similar to the Spaced DVDs. A lot of fun for the geek in your life!

On toy robots and masturbation

OK, it’s actually just an excuse for another retro review, but hey, how long will it be before somebody googles that exact phrase? (If that was you, by the way, welcome!)

So, Transformers then. Big action movie, fun special effects, every Hollywood cliché in the book, Megan Fox as eye-candy, and a happy ending. If any of that tickles your fancy, you probably saw this already, and if it doesn’t, you don’t care. So why, I hear you ask, are you blogging about a movie whose sequel has already been blogged to death?

Well, out of curiosity as to what the greater Christian public actually makes of films like this. There is, it must be said, a lot of good stuff in the movie – as with any good movie of this kind, the heroes are there to demonstrate self-sacrifice, justice and defending the weak, as well as looking cool and kicking Decepticon butt. This is all good. There is a lot of violence and reckless destruction of stuff, but it’s all cartoon violence, there’s no gory stuff and the body count is not excessive. Our hero, Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) is an ordinary teenage guy, who just wants a cool car and a hot girlfriend. Although some may consider this shallow (and rightly so), it’s also realistic. That’s what teenage guys want out of life. OK, so I generalise, but that’s a moot point, as during the course of the movie Sam discovers more noble traits like friendship, honour, and bravery, and generally matures over the course of the movie. Again, all good.

Although some Christian reviews I perused took issue with Sam’s shallowness, there did seem to be a problem with the sci-fi elements. In the movie, the good and bad Transformers are looking for the ‘AllSpark’, the means by which they were given life. It seems to me you can take this one of two ways; either it’s an allegorical version of God, or it’s a grotesque blasphemy. As this is just a story, surely it would be better used as an allegory, a way to teach children about the creation of man, than blamed for encouraging them to grow up worshipping robots? Yes, kids will want the toys, yes they will fantasize about worlds inhabited by shapeshifting robots, but I expect most will know it’s not real. And really, is there anything wrong with imagining – or even believing in the possibility – that God created life elsewhere than on this random chunk of rock we call home? And, at the risk of leaning towards the grotesque blasphemy, that such life may be completely unlike ourselves? I guess I’m just biased though.

Oh, yes, you were wondering when I would get to that bit weren’t you? Yes, there is an awkward scene where Sam’s parents think they’ve caught him masturbating, and a conversation about his special alone time ensues. Yes it was unnecessary for the plot, and unsuitable for children of a certain age, but films have ratings for a reason after all (in the case of Transformers, 12/PG-13). I suppose it may have given the teenage audience a slightly embarrassed moment of humour, but in its defence, the moral outrage it caused among Christian movie-goers probably saved the sci-fi elements from more of a bashing.

My take? Sam is a teenager. OK, most mums wouldn’t tackle the subject quite the way his did, but treating it as taboo, and calling it the ‘M-word’ in your internet review, are not going to make it go away. I don’t have the answer, but in our increasingly sexualised society (see Mikaela in this movie for an example) we shouldn’t be walking out of films that mention it, and we shouldn’t be ignoring it.

Hence, I suppose, my title for this post :)

Podcasserole

I'm still lagging behind a little in my podcast listening since my cheap and nasty mp3 player imploded a while back, but there's a few things out in the podosphere at the moment worth mentioning here.

First, Adventures in Scifi Publishing is back in production! Yaaay! The first post-hiatus episode features Greg van Eekhout, who having had short fiction published in all the big sf zines, narrated on Escape Pod, and nominated for a Nebula award, has just published his first novel. Norse Code - for that is what it's called - is the tale of Ragnarök happening in contemporary Los Angeles. Yep, that's right, a Viking Left Behind! A Mr van Eekhout hasn't taken it that seriously, it sounds like it could be fun. If you have three minutes to spare, check out his story Taco on Escape Pod too.

On the subject of Escape Pod: The Legend of St Ignatz. This is a nice, slightly dark, story of Catholicism spread across a universe populated not only by humanoids but insectoids, squidoids, and quite possibly super-intelligent shades of the colour blue. A universe which has birthed the Sirius Heresy, which holds that 'Homo Sapiens was too weak in body and corrupt in mind for its form to harbor the Son of God'. (Discuss.) Well worth a listen, or if you'd prefer, a read on ideomancer.

And finally, everybody's favourite Geekette Mur Lafferty is in the process of putting out Season Five of her contemporary fantasy audiobook series Heaven. I'm planning to dig in to the earlier seasons again first with a view to reviewing them all here some time. In the meantime, the whole sequence is available at podiobooks.com.

So what are you still doing here? Get clicking!

Have you seen the saucers?

It's not just me that's gone UFO mad lately. The Ministry of Defence recently released a bunch of files on UFO sightings in the 70s and 80s, and this news was followed by various TV shows about flying saucers and UFOs, and, apparently, British UFO sightings reached bizarre levels.

None more bizarre than this one, I suspect.

Of course, it could all be a really elaborate marketing ploy.

All of which serves little purpose other than to introduce the latest Sci-fi Song of the Week, a slab of early-70s psychadelic rock by Jefferson Airplane. Check it out on the mixtape.

Abducted by ramblers

So I spotted this post the other day, which sort of follows my own insane ramblings about UFOs, so I thought, why not revisit the idea of life on other worlds.

I don't expect the 'established' church has an official view on extra-terrestrial life, although I can well imagine the lengthy and controversial debates over whether Venusians should be allowed to become priests...

However, as respected a Christian scholar as Charles Haddon Spurgeon at least appeared to accept the possibility, and the Vatican's Chief Astronomer Father Gabriel Funes said recently:

...there could be other beings, also intelligent, created by God. This does
not contrast with our faith because we cannot put limits on the creative freedom
of God. To say it with Saint Francis, if we consider earthly creatures as
“brother” and “sister,” why cannot we also speak of an “extraterrestrial
brother?”

On the other hand, when you have a director of SETI quoted (in Wired) as saying that ET is inconsistent with the existence of God, well, I wonder exactly where she's coming from. Presumably (and I apologise if she reads this and I've done her a total disservice!) a scientific worldview which holds that religion is bunkum and any alien life form we encounter will tell us how they out-evolved religious beliefs eons ago.

Personally I would approach first contact fully aware of the very real possibility of meeting the Martian Richard Dawkins.

Some would say that, given the huge number of variables which have to be just right in order for any life, never mind intelligent life, to exist, life on other planets is extremely unlikely. I wonder what the odds are of those variables falling into place just once in an infinite universe?

And besides, creative sci-fi writers have come up with intelligent races from all kinds of wierd and inhospitable worlds, so surely God just needs to settle down with some good sf, knock up a plastecine impression of the wierdest alien, and hey presto, we've got life on other planets.

The Tunguska Event at 100

It is 100 years since the Tunguska event, when a meteor/black hole/badly piloted spaceship crashed into Siberia, and exactly what happened remains a mystery.

Which is convenient for science fiction, because you can plausibly have a micro black hole floating around under the Earth's core, or the Death Ray experiments of a mad scientist. (Steampunk meets World War 1 on the Eastern Front, anybody?)

Most popularly, of course, Tunguska has become an integral part of UFO mythology, including being involved in the 'black oil' arc in the The X Files.

I have no idea where this is leading in terms of Christian sf, except that I kind of like the idea that when Lucifer fell from heaven, he landed in early 20th Century Siberia. (If I'd been a little more on the ball I would have actually written that story already, but I've been excercising my gift for procrastination instead.)

The whole UFO thing, though, has facinated me since I was a yoof, so I may explore that a bit. Or I may just sit and watch some X-Files. Yes, I think that's more likely.

Tuesday Tunes: Relient K

So, I was rooting around my favourite download sites for tunes for my latest Christmas compilation, and I came across this. I look forward to terrorising the in-laws with their manic interpretation of 12 Days of Christmas ('Whats a partridge?/And what's a pear tree?/ I don't know so please don't ask me/ but I bet those are terrible gifts to get') and We Wish You a Merry Christmas, followed by the shouty pop-punk 'I'm Gettin Nuttin' for Christmas' and then alarming them with Handel's Messiah in the style of a soccer terrace chant with rock guitars, Good King Wenceslas in the style of bad carol singers, and the post-Christmas melancholy of Boxing Day.

And then - and only then, because it's more fun that way - I will reveal that this terrible band with their loud guitars and stupid lyrics are, in fact, good Christian boys. I can hear the scoffing noises of disbelief now... until I skip to the sublime I Celebrate the Day. That'll shut them up.

Seriously, if you only download one Christmas song this year, make it I Celebrate the Day.

Sci-fi Santa Song of the Week

If that wasn't enough Christmassy rock fun, see if you can track down a copy of I Want an Alien for Christmas by The Fountains of Wayne.

First Contact... again

A couple of weeks ago I was considering some effects of first contact on the church and the established belief systems of our planet. This was in the context of aliens arriving on Earth, but...
What if it happened the other way around?
What if humanity is not alone in the universe, but is the most advanced civilisation within it?

This kind of premise allows for science fiction tales to comment on the empire building, colonization and slavery that the 'civilised' European nations embarked upon centuries ago, but there is an obvious Christian angle to that - the missionaries who went (and indeed still go) into these far flung outposts of the Empire to spread the Gospel. (I touched on a similar kind of calling in Countless as the Stars, but for a different reason.)

If you assume a galaxy peopled with many diverse sentient species, each with there own deeply held set of religious beliefs, it opens up a huge scope to explore the nature of God, faith and organized religion; in sufficiently skilled hands it also allows for conflict between religions that could almost become topical...

Imagine, for instance, if instead of Starfleet, the Interplanetary Mission Project had gone to Bajor at the end of the Cardassian Occupation. Or for a less confrontational challenge, imagine being called to be a missionary among the logical Vulcans, or the hyper-capitalist Ferengi...

Right, I'm off to re-write Star Trek...

In the image of God

I just threw this in at the end of yesterday's post, but it started a train of thought I decided might be worth finishing here.

There is indeed more to 'the image of God' than just a passing resemblance; in The Message, mankind is made 'reflecting God's nature'.

Whether or not God is basically humanoid (or at least, humans basically God-shaped) we probably won't find out just yet, and will each have to come to our own decision as to what to believe (or indeed if it even matters).

Let us assume that it does matter. Depending on how we decide to interpret these verses, there are two basic responses when confronted by intelligent insectoids from Betelgeuse:

1. Our interpretation is confirmed, and our understanding of scripture enhanced:
   Ah, it did refer just to the nature of God. Presumably God doesn't have a body, after all...

2. Our interpretation is challenged:
   But God's a humanoid! How can these... things be more intelligent than us? Perhaps they are demons. Perhaps the Bible isn't as inerrant as I thought...

And all this before the alien ambassador can get his mandibles round 'Take me to your leader'.

Once he has appeared on Parkinson and Oprah, regaling us all with tales of interstellar travel and what it's really like on Betelgeuse, it surely cannot be long before some other long argued over point of belief is challenged.

How long before the established church falls apart, a rift opening up between those unable to reconcile alien life with their version of Christianity and those using the opportunity to enhance their understanding of God.

How does secular culture react to this new schism in the church?

How does our alien ambassador react?

I Want To Believe

As a teenager, I believed in possibilities.

I believed in the possibility that dead people sometimes hung around their old house, just in case they didn't like the new occupants.

I believed in the possibility that this planet wasn't the only one capable of supporting intelligent life.

I even believed in the possibility that the universe didn't just spring into existence of its own accord, but was the creation of a superior being. (I also believed in the possibility that said superior being kept the universe in a fishtank in his kitchen, but that's not important right now.)
When I became a Christian some of my beliefs were altered, but not entirely thrown out (except the fishtank one).

I believe there is a spiritual realm to the universe, demons and angels, if you like, and that this may account for many of the ghosts people claim to have encountered.

I still believe in the possibility of life on other planets. Why not? Speculation as to how the story of God may have played out a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, was what led me to create the Old Testament Space Opera.

It also leads to one of christian sf's interesting dilemmas: If man is created in God's image, what happens when intelligent alien life turns out to have ten arms and no head? or be a shapeshifter? or a super-intelligent shade of the colour blue?