Life And Fiction

 

Theological sf interacts with real life quite a lot. Poul Anderson's Peter Berg wants to know how Ythrians relate to God. James Blish's Fr. Ramon Ruiz-Sanchez wants to know whether Lithians have qualms of conscience. Meanwhile, in real life, human beings have more than enough problems, both outer and inner, of our own. Today, sitting in our Market Sq, after eating some Sudanese food from a Refugees' Week event in the Public Library, I was approached by a black Jehovah's Witness. We discussed Genesis - not Poul Anderson's novel -, Revelations and much between, also the present state of the world. Our subject matter seemed as fantastic as the contents of several sf future histories. When we shook hands at the end of the conversation, we discovered that our names were Simon Peter and Paul, respectively. Two thousand years after Saints Peter and Paul, we discuss their heritage - and some of us imagine that heritage extending into an indefinite future. Maybe I will be a bit more focused after half an hour of meditation.