THE WORLD JONES MADE

[defrog]

ITEM: io9 reports on how Intelligent Design is serving as the basis for some new sci-fi novels who treat it as though ID was the truth.

Jay Lake's Escapement is a perfect example, as is Walter Jon Williams' Implied Spaces — both are novels about people in clockwork worlds designed by some kind of higher power associated with spiritual realms. Other recent tales, such as Charles Stross' Saturn's Children and Iain M. Banks' Matter, flirt with the idea of an Intelligent Designer by suggesting that under some circumstances it is the most logical explanation for reality: For instance, if you are a creature who lives in a synthetic world (or body) designed by sophisticated engineers, your existence has been literally created for you rather than randomly evolved.

Artificial worlds are nothing new in SF, of course, and as far as I can tell, Lake is the only author listed above who acknowledges an ID influence. Note also that none of the stories above credit the Judeo-Christian God as being the “designer”, as ID more or less tends to do (and Creationism explicitly does).

Anyway, I like the idea of using ID as a basis for fiction. Why not? ID itself is a work of fiction, so it’s only fitting.

Ironically, I’m not that big a fan of massive world-building SF – or rather, it’s not the world-building itself that appeals to me. But I do like fiction that treats religious beliefs as a playground for exploring ideas – which is probably the result of reading Piers Anthony’s Tarot trilogy and Steven Brust’s To Reign In Hell as an impressionable teenager.

Of course, like any sub-genre, there are good examples (see above, plus Pratchett and Gaiman’s Good Omens, Garth Ennis’ Preacher, Vidal’s Live From Golgotha, even The Last Temptation Of Christ) and bad examples (anything by Tim “Rapture Me” LaHaye).

But I figure if yr going to write stories about gods, there’s no reason to stick to Greek mythology, Lovecraft or the D&D Deities and Demigods handbook. Except for the death threats and fatwas, I mean.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I’m hoping to contribute to the “good examples” list when I finish the Planet Of The Bulls project, which has somehow become populated with certain religious personas, which in turn has required me to outline a background under which they exist. So I’m probably going to offend some sensibilities. But then I was going to do that with all the explicit GLBT sex scenes, so why not?

When someone asks if yr a god, say yes,

This is dF

Comments

[dinopollard.livejournal.com]

It's a video game and not a novel, but Xenogears had TONS of religious overtones.

[jasonfranks.livejournal.com]

Haven't read any of the books cited in the io9 article (although I'm sure it won't be long before I get onto the Iain Banks book, I've been eying it of since it came out).

I have read GOOD OMENS and PREACHER and a good slab of ol' Piers Anthony--and of course there's Roger Zelazny's LORD OF LIGHT (if you haven't read it, you should--Rog was the first, I thinjk, and he's still the best).

I do think that it's a bit short sighted of i09 to say that these books are about Intelligent Design just because that's what's in the news right now--the parable about the brain in a vat (or, prior to that, the 'deceitful demon') has been a subject of philosophical debate for centuries. It's about the first thing you cover in any University-level epistemology class.

As you know, I'm sort of working on the topic myself right now; with a particular emphasis on the origins and purpose of the Devil.

-- JF

[def-fr0g-42.livejournal.com]

Sure, I think the ID analogy is a little overworked, but it is a way at looking at artificial-world stories I hadn't really thought of before.

Never really read Zelazny, he's one of those authors whose books I tend to pick up and then put down again. Same with Iain M Banks, actually, though I see more of his books here than I do RZ. I have "Excession" on my desk which someone gave to me, but haven't felt sufficiently motivated to start it. Not yet.

[jasonfranks.livejournal.com]

I grew up on Zelazny, find his stuff really approachable. LORD OF LIGHT is perhaps the exception, it starts late in the story and then goes back to fill you in and there's a lot to take in at once, but it's well worht the trouble.

Banks is a different story. He really keeps the characters at arm's length and his books can be a bit... I dunno, cold, in some ways. They're interesting characters, but you have to work to understand them and empathize with them. I think that holds for his SF stuff, mean, his 'ordinary' fiction is much more in-POV. It takes some work, but he's become one of my new favourites.

Banks' culture novels aren't world-building so much as society building--literally. Most of the Culture novels examine some aspect of colonialism. If you've read Ursula LeGuin's SF (LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS) you can see a direct antecedent to Banks' work, rather than your Nivens and Heinleins and Asimovs.

I haven't read EXCESSION but I've heard that it's a difficult place to start reading Banks--I recommend CONSIDER PHLEBAS or THE PLAYER OF GAMES. My favourite is USE OF WEAPONS, but I don't think it's a good starter, either.

-- JF

[garbagecanmusic.livejournal.com]

Need a beta tester? Again? :)

[def-fr0g-42.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, you will be notified. :)