ezekiel“You heard him say it? ‘Pain’s the only evil I know about.’ You heard that?”
The monk nodded solemnly.
“And that society is the only thing which determines whether an act is wrong or not? That too?”
“Yes.”
“Dearest God, how did those two heresies get back into the world after all this time? Hell has limited imaginations down there. ‘The serpent deceived me, and I did eat.’ Brother Pat, you’d better get out of here, or I’ll start raving”
–Walter M. Miller, Jr., A Canticle for Leibowitz
While moving last week, I took the time to finally read Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz, which turned out to be the best combination of the themes of religion and science fiction I have read. I was momentarily made wary by an introduction by Mary Doria Russell, author of the overrated The Sparrow, thinking I had got myself into another disappointment. There was nothing of the sort.
Science fiction, all too often, merely makes a fetish of progress. Star Trek is a definite example of this, though Deep Space Nine–an incarnation which pushed back much of that future golden age mythology–is the one that routinely shows up as a favorite today. Robert A. Heinlein walked the line between that and political and social realism (of an idealistic sort). Frank Herbert roundly rejected it in Dune and its sequels. Miller, informed by both pessimism and Catholicism, rejects progress. This gives his post-apocalyptic tale a much grimmer feel than most, but also one with a chance of redemption.
Miller manages to do what science fiction does at its best–provide a window into human society and psychology by distancing itself from present and history–while additionally broaching real topics of theological import: Church and State, science and faith, euthanasia, gender in religion, original sin.
I would be happy to discuss the novel in the comments field in greater detail, but I’d rather not write more here, lest I ruin it for those who–like me until a few days ago–have not yet read it.
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