Regular Dear Reader Christina lives in a small town in western Canada, where there are "lots of nice rock art and arrowheads and Indians (though they don't want to get excavated for political reasons) ". Here's a cool snippet from a letter she sent me.
"Speaking about books and the local library, I've discovered that if you want to read about Old Norse religion, then you'll have to look in the science fiction section. I guess I should have known, or what? Most likely, the reason is that I live in a town that used to be a really tiny place, but that's grown into a major city in the past five years. The politics of the place, though, are still run as if the place was a hamlet, and everything is pretty much controlled by five Dutch families. All five are horse-and-buggy, dyed-in-the-wool Mennonites, so for them it's of course inconceivable to discuss other religions as anything else than sci-fi..."
Well, I think these Mennonites are definitely onto something. All religions are escapist fiction, so why not science fiction? I hear L. Ron Hubbard wrote some rousing yarns in his day.
[More blog entries about scienceficiton, sf, religion, mennonites, canada; Andra bloggar om: Kanada, sciencefiction, asatro, religion, sf.]
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An interesting point regarding religion, but L. Ron writing rousing yarns? Please don't tell us you think Battlefield Earth and that other pile of crap series he wrote was good (or even average)?
I've never read Hubbard, but his writings do seem to inspire an almost religious awe in some readers!
Frederik Pohl (who wrote 'Man Plus') wrote somewhere that he and Ron Hubbard used to drink beer in his living room, and they both got into the idea of inventing religions. I don't know if Pohl got anywhere with it in his writing, but Hubbard sure cashed in on it.
Ny 16yo tweaked the staff at a the local (chain) bookstore by pointing out that term "religious fiction" prominently displayed over some of the books was redundant.....
Mwaha!
Hey,....... mr Howling anteater,
Listeng to Ron L Hubbard regarding religion is like hearing what Mona Sahlin thinks about nuclear physics or chess.
;)
I always think of the social democrats' new chairperson, Mona Sahlin, as "Mona, Bride of Space Emperor Xenu".