SSStttooonnnyyy BBBrrrooooookkk UUUnnniiivvveeerrrsssiiitttyyy The official electronic file of this thesis or dissertation is maintained by the University Libraries on behalf of The Graduate School at Stony Brook University. ©©© AAAllllll RRRiiiggghhhtttsss RRReeessseeerrrvvveeeddd bbbyyy AAAuuuttthhhooorrr... Transcendent Outsiders, Alien Gods, and Aspiring Humans: Literary Fantasy and Science Fiction as Contemporary Theological Speculation A Dissertation Presented by Ryan Calvey to The Graduate School in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Stony Brook University May 2011 Copyright by Ryan Calvey 2011 Stony Brook University The Graduate School Ryan Calvey We, the dissertation committee for the above candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree, hereby recommend acceptance of this dissertation. Dr. Susan Scheckel – Dissertation Co-Advisor Associate Professor, English Department Dr. Krin Gabbard – Chairperson of Defense Professor, Department of Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies Dr. Patricia Belanoff Professor Emeritus, English Department Dr. Ira Livingston – Dissertation Co-Advisor Chairperson of English and Humanities, Pratt Institute Dr. Brian Attebery – Outside Reader Professor of English, Department of English and Philosophy, Idaho State University This dissertation is accepted by the Graduate School Lawrence Martin Dean of the Graduate School ii Abstract of the Dissertation Transcendent Outsiders, Alien Gods, and Aspiring Humans: Literary Fantasy and Science Fiction as Contemporary Theological Speculation by Ryan Calvey Doctor of Philosophy in English Stony Brook University 2011 This dissertation argues that mainstream discourse on theology and morality often fails to explore the value and credibility of different theological approaches and the possibility of moral evolution and that, as a result, we need to pay more attention to arenas which allow for deeper speculation about theology and morality. Following an observation by Margaret Atwood, I argue that one such space within literature is literary science fiction and fantasy. In my first chapter, I argue that, while some science fiction merely echoes the limitations of mainstream debate, the genres can creatively explore theological questions because, like myth and theology, they contextualize known existence and voice what I call “transcendent outsiders,” beings who are superior to humans and provide critical and comforting outside perspectives. In the second and third chapters, I draw on the work of writers such as Carl Jung, Brenda Denzler, and Linda Dégh on alien beings as spiritual/theological figures to argue that a range of narratives and films, such as The Day the Earth Stood Still and Carl Sagan’s Contact, present aliens as godlike transcendent outsider figures in ways that explore, endorse, or critique various theological conceptualizations: in chapter two, the judgmental, punishing god figures of much ancient myth and traditional religion; in chapter three, more loving, peaceful god figures echoing Eastern and New Age theological concepts and progressive spirituality. In chapter four, I argue that science fiction and fantasy also contextualize by depicting what I call “aspiring human” figures, a kind of flipside of transcendent outsiders which allows us to explore human identity and morality and, by positioning us as gods, theology. I assert that in his Wizard Knight and Short Sun series, Gene Wolfe uses an array of aspiring humans to raise deep questions about human identity, morality, and theology and to present hierarchical Christian solutions. I conclude by suggesting both a fresh approach to theology that emphasizes the need for imaginative, open-minded speculation about transcendence that goes beyond the limitations of the mainstream debate and an increased recognition of the value of science fiction and fantasy as literary arenas in which important, creative theological speculation is occurring. iii Table of Contents Introduction: More/Less Theology is the Problem/Solution...…………………………………1 I. Chapter One: Science Fiction On Theology; Science Fiction as Theology……17 II. Chapter Two: Aliens as Traditional Gods……………………………………...43 III. Chapter Three: Making Contact with New Age Alien Gods…………………..73 IV. Chapter Four: Voices from Below……………………………………………102 V. Conclusion: Using and Valuing Our Spiritual/Theological Playgrounds…….138 Endnotes……………………………………………………………………………………....139 References…………………………………………………………………………………….152 iv 1 Introduction: More/Less Theology is the Problem/Solution “Why are people so mean?” “Because they separate themselves from the Outsider.” I had not thought about it in those terms before and said what I did without reflection, but as soon as I had spoken, I realized that what I had said was true. (Wolfe, Whorl 271) If you think it would be impossible to improve upon the Ten Commandments as a statement of morality, you really owe it to yourself to read some other scriptures. Once again, we need look no further than the Jains: Mahavira, the Jain patriarch, surpassed the morality of the Bible with a single sentence: “Do not injure, abuse, oppress, enslave, insult, torment, torture, or kill any creature or living being.” Imagine how different our world might be if the Bible contained this as its central precept. Christians have abused, oppressed, enslaved, insulted, tormented, tortured, and killed people in the name of God for centuries, on the basis of a theologically defensible reading of the Bible. It is impossible to behave this way by adhering to the principles of Jainism. How, then, can you argue that the Bible provides the clearest statement of morality the world has ever seen? […] […] Religion allows people to imagine that their concerns are moral when they are not—that is, when they have nothing to do with suffering or its alleviation. (Harris 22-23, 25) We are often told what Gene Wolfe’s protagonist tells another character in the first epigraph: that human weaknesses and flaws are the result of our lack of belief in or connection to God, whom Wolfe’s character calls “The Outsider.” Anyone who proposes, for example, that schools are now more dangerous and young people more violent, sexually active, or less respectful of authority because the Ten Commandments are no longer posted on the walls and God has been “driven out of our schools,” is invoking this theme. The implication is that morality results from religious adherence to divine teachings or scriptures, from a spiritual connection to God, or, in some cases, merely from a fear of divine punishment. Our secular society has strayed from the first, lost the second, and no longer takes the third seriously, and the result is moral regression and sometimes confusion or chaos. In brief, this diagnosis suggests, the lack of religion/belief is what plagues us. But there is hope: things might be bad now, but if we reconnect, we can return to a time when they were better. And yet, if some voices in our public discourse tell us that secularism and the lack of faith or religious belief are the problem, others, including, recently, writers dubbed the “New Atheists,” assert that the exact opposite is true. Our moral problems are not the result of a lack of faith, but rather the direct results of too much faith or belief in outrageous and primitive ideas and in an outrageous and primitive God, like the Old Testament God, whom evolutionary 2 biologist Richard Dawkins describes in The God Delusion as an “evil monster” (248). As another atheist critic, Sam Harris, has put it, It is terrible that we all die and lose everything we love; it is doubly terrible that so many human beings suffer needlessly while alive. That so much of this suffering can be directly attributed to religion—to religious hatreds, religious wars, religious taboos, and religious diversions of scarce resources—is what makes the honest criticism of religious faith a moral and intellectual necessity. (56-57) While many forces can prompt human hatred, violence, and cruelty, as Harris observes in the epigraph quote, religion has perhaps more power than anything else to make us act badly while believing we are doing the greatest good. According to this line of argument, to advance to a better future, we need to disconnect and replace faith with reason. Along these lines, nun-turned- scientist Mary in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series learns that God (in Pullman’s world, the “Authority”) is a fraud and Christianity a “very powerful and convincing mistake” (Amber Spyglass 393). In other words, our task is not to return to faith and better times in the past but to advance past oppressive delusions which are holding us back from a brighter future. If the two sides of this argument propose opposite solutions to present problems, for fairly obvious reasons, they also sometimes see very different worlds. The voices urging us to reconnect with God, faith, or spirituality tend to see a world in which these have been lost or, as Wolfe’s protagonist implies, people have “separate[d] themselves from” them (Whorl 271). In the worlds of Wolfe’s major series, for example, people have forgotten the true God and fallen into false worship of lower beings and, as a result, morally regressed to barbarism and brutality. The atheist side of the debate sees a world in which religion and faith dominate or tyrannize, a world oppressively controlled, and held back, by faith and superstition. Philip Pullman’s fantasy series, for example, depicts an alternate England controlled almost completely by a Church devoted to repressing heresy and eradicating “dust” (what they mistakenly take to be harmful original sin, but which is actually the gift of consciousness), which eventually requires separating children from their very souls. At the very end of his comic documentary Religulous, Bill Maher, standing in Megiddo, Israel, where he says, “Many Christians believe the world will come to an end,” suggests that we must abandon religion or face cataclysmic consequences, his commentary visually accompanied by images of violence and destruction1. While the differences between the two sides I’ve outlined are what stand out, there are at least two significant points of agreement.