--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <no_re...@...> wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "lurkernomore20002000" <steve.sundur@>
> wrote:
> >
> > Seeing Avatar, and reading a lot recently of reports of possible
> > liquid water on other planets, had me thinking that if "intelligent"
> > life is found, then Christian missionaries would feel compelled to
> > immediately go and try to convert the inhabitants. I am not poking
> > fun at them. But, I figure that a world view that holds that Jesus
> > is the "Lord of the Unverse", does'nt really allow for any renegade
> > provinces that may not have heard the "good news". I think
> > discovered life on another planet, (if it happens) is going to be
> > a tough one here.
>
> If you like thinking about such things, Steve, I
> highly recommend a pair of novels by Mary Doria
> Russell. The first is called "The Swallow" and
> the sequel (necessary to get over the impact of
> the original) is called "Children Of God." Both
> are brilliant.
>
> In "The Swallow," Jesuit priests working at the
> deep radio dish in Areceibo are on hand when the
> first radio communication arrives that definitely,
> no question about it, is from another species that
> does not live on Earth. They live on a planet that
> is actually reachable. So while the governments of
> the Earth are arguing about who is going to go there
> and who is going to pay for it and get the credit
> for it, the Jesuits (phenomenally wealthy) do what
> they've always done and mount their own expedition.
>
> Part scientists, part priests, they go to this planet
> with the best of intentions. And it turns out really,
> really, really badly. Heartbreakingly badly, shattering
> the life of the priest at the heart of it all.
>
> It really takes the followup novel "Children Of God"
> to resolve things and make things somehow all right
> again.
>
> "The Sparrow" was Russell's first novel. It won the
> Arthur C. Clarke Award, James Tiptree, Jr. Award,
> Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis and the British Science Fiction
> Association Award. But please don't think that these
> science fiction credentials make it lightweight on in
> any way a "genre" novel. Mary Doria Russell's favorite
> author is the same as mine, Dorothy Dunnett. That's a
> pretty awesome role model to feel that you have to
> live up to in your own writing. She does.
>
I read The Sparrow years ago and loved it - and will now get Children of God
and try some books by Dunnett. Totally different but incredibly wise and well
written is Fifth Business by Robertson Davies, a Canadina Jungian writer - I am
rereading it and enjoying it even more 15 years later.
