"Not only was the Republic itself a venture into the unknown, but later countless utopian communities were established in America, some of them on very strange principles indeed. How could a science fiction writer be more original than, say, the Shakers? The most successful of these undertakings, which is still going strong, took place in Utah. I hope my Mormon friends won't mind my saying that their church, like our country, has a grand science fiction flavor about it. That ecclesiastical division into stakes and wards is pure Heinlein, isn't it? And so, by the way, is the raw courage with which their pioneers entered the wilderness."
-Poul Anderson, "The Discovery of the Past" IN Anderson, Past Times (New York, 1984), pp. 182-206 AT p. 199.
(We remember Heinleinian and Andersonian characters colonizing other planets.)
This quotation is appropriate for our experience today. First, we traveled to Windermere by bus since I no longer drive a car. Secondly, on the return journey, we sat opposite two young American women who are training in a nearby Evangelical college. On a human level, I responded to their goodness and honesty. On an intellectual level, I disagreed with their world-view - needless to say. On an imaginative level, I recognized the "grand science fiction flavor" of their perception of Biblical and eschatological history.
What more can I say? Very good people - a pity about some of their views.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Stirling might have argued with Anderson a bit about the US, because the former believes the drafters of the US Constitution actually set up a disguised version of an 18th century Whig view of the British monarchy. But that did lead to incalculably unpredictable results.
It's my belief that once mankind gets decisively off this rock what was seen for a time in the 19th century US would occur again: many sects, organizations, faiths, political malcontents, etc., will strike out in all directions to set up their often eccentric versions of an ideal society. Many of them, of course, will fail. But others will not.
And that will be good, because the Breakup of the human race will make it impossible for any single tyrannical ideology to force all of the human race into a single crushing strait jacket. And that is what I fear might happen if the race persists in living only on Earth (e.g., see "The High Ones").
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
You do realize those evangelical Protestants you met could say the same about you: "A nice man, a pity about some of his beliefs."
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Well, of course I realize that. Where does that get us?
Paul.
Post a Comment