A Novel Society: Science Fiction Novels as Religious Actors
Issue: Vol 17 No. 4 (2014)
Journal: Implicit Religion
Subject Areas: Religious Studies
Abstract:
Science fiction—as a literature of the fantastic—has become a part of the religious landscape of modernity. In a secular world, not all of religious activity is explicitly so; indeed, much contemporary religious thought and practice happens implicitly, in ostensibly secular arenas. Yet the human need for meaning and enchantment has gone undiminished in the age of secularism, and science fiction is a powerful route for such desires. In China Miéville’s Perdido Street Station, we see how traditionally religious themes are woven into a science fiction story, but also how the book itself illustrates a religious goal of divine creation. Using actor-network theory, this essay contributes to the building of a sociology of religion that acknowledges the powerful ways in which science fiction texts like Perdido Street Station offer transformative experiences for readers and for culture.
Author: Robert Geraci
References :
Bailey, Edward. 1983. “The Implicit Religion of Contemporary Society: An Orientation and Plea for Its Study.” Religion 13(1): 69–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0048-721X(83)90006-4
Barnes, Barry, David Bloor and John Henry. 1996. Scientific Knowledge: A Sociological Analysis. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Berger, Peter L. [1967] 1990. The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion. New York: Doubleday.
Berry, Kevin M. 2011. “The Meaning of Artificial Life?” Robot 26: 26–28.
Biagioli, Mario. 1993. Galileo Courtier: The Practice of Science in the Culture of Absolutism. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Brantlinger, Patrick. 1980. “The Gothic Origins of Science Fiction.” NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction 14(1): 30–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1345322
Brooke, John Hedley. 1991. Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Brooke, John and Geoffrey Cantor. 1998. Reconstructing Nature: The Engagement of Science and Religion. New York: Oxford University Press.
Busto, Rudy V. “‘Chiariidaa o Sukue, Sekai o Sukue!’ Nuclear Dread and the Pokémonization of American Religion in Season One of Heroes.” In Small Screen, Big Picture: Television and Lived Religion, edited by Diane Winston, 289–318. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.
Chidester, David. 2005. Authentic Fakes: Religion and American Popular Culture. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Childers, Richard. 2010. “A Virtual Mars.” In Online Worlds: Convergence of the Real and the Virtual, edited by William Sims Bainbridge, 101–109. London: Springer.
Csiscery-Ronay, Istvan, Jr. 2008. The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
Dawkins, Richard. 1989. The Selfish Gene. New York: Oxford University Press.
De Garis, Hugo. 2005. The Artilect War: Cosmists vs. Terrans: A Bitter Controversy Concerning Whether Humanity Should Build Godlike Massively Intelligent Machines. Palm Springs, CA: ETC Publications.
Draper, John William. 1874. The History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science. New York: D. Appleton.
Eliade, Mircea. 1969. The Quest: History and Meaning in Religion. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Freud, Sigmund. [1927] 1989. Future of an Illusion. New York: W.W. Norton.
Geraci, Robert M. 2007. “Robots and the Sacred in Science and Science Fiction: Theological Implications of Artificial Intelligence.” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 42(4): 961–980. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9744.2007.00883.x
Geraci, Robert M. 2010. Apocalyptic AI: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality. New York: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195393026.001.0001
Geraci, Robert M. 2011. “There and Back Again: Transhumanist Evangelization in Science Fiction and Popular Science.” Implicit Religion 14(2): 141–172. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/imre.v14i2.141
Gingold, Chaim. 2009. “A Brief History of Spore.” In Third Person: Authoring and Exploring Vast Narratives, edited by Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardrip-Fruin, 131–136. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Gordon, Joan and China Miéville. 2003. “Reveling in Genre: An Interview with China Miéville.” Science Fiction Studies 30(3): 355–373.
Hayles, N. Katherine. 2011. “Wrestling with Transhumanism.” In Transhumanism and Its Critics, edited by Gregory R. Hansell and William Grassie, 215–226. Philadelphia, PA: Metanexus Institute.
Ketterer, David. 1974. New Worlds for Old: The Apocalyptic Imagination, Science Fiction, and American Literature. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press.
King, Brad and John Borland. 2003. Dungeons and Dreamers: The Rise of Computer Game Culture from Geek to Chic. New York: McGraw-Hill/Osborne.
Latour, Bruno. 1993. We Have Never Been Modern. Translated byCatherine Porter. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Latour, Bruno. 1999. “For David Bloor…and Beyond: A Reply to David Bloor’s ‘Anti-Latour.’” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 30(1): 113–129.
Latour, Bruno. 2005. Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. New York: Oxford University Press.
Marx, Karl. 1996. The German Ideology: Part One with Selections from Parts Two and Three and Supplementary Texts. Edited by C. J. Arthur. New York: International Publishers.
McGrath, James, ed. 2011. Religion and Science Fiction. Eugene, OR: Pickwick.
Merton, Robert K. 1970. Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth Century England. New York: Howard Fertig.
Miéville, China. 2000. Perdido Street Station. New York: Del Rey.
Miller, David M. “Toward a Structural Metaphysic: Religion in the Novels of Frank Herbert.” In The Transcendent Adventure: Studies of Religion in Science Fiction/Fantasy, edited by Robert Reilly, 145–156. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Nelson, Victoria. 2001. The Secret Life of Puppets. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Noble, David F. 1999. The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention. New York: Penguin.
Nye, David E. 2003. America as Second Creation: Technology and Narratives of a New Beginning. Cambridge, MA: MIT University Press.
Otto, Rudolph. [1917] 1923. The Idea of the Holy. Translated by J.W. Harvey. London: Oxford.
Smart, Ninian. [1995] 2000. Worldviews: Crosscultural Explorations of Human Beliefs. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Smith, Jonathan Z. 1978. Map Is Not Territory: Studies in the History of Religions. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago.
Stark, Rodney and William Bainbridge. 1985. The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation. Berkeley: University of California Press.
White, Andrew. [1894] 1923. The History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom. New York: D. Appleton and Company.