First Things Considered as a Helix of Semi-Pretentious Trolls

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First Things Considered as a Helix of Semi-Pretentious Trolls

December 28, 2006 at 11:06 pm | In Church, fandom |

Usually, I enjoy reading First Things, whether or not I agree with their writers.

Today, they have decided to utilize typical troll methods. First they set out the bait; then they went back under their bridge, listening for the trip-trap of tiny hooves. Today’s troll: “Is any science fiction literature?” in the variant: “Homer, Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare, and Goethe produced literature. Now, does any science fiction stand near them?”

Homer, Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare, and Goethe all wrote some genre fiction, including some science fiction and fantasy. So, clearly, some science fiction stands very near them.

Now, if Mr. Bottum (yes, his real name) on First Things really wants to talk about other great literary works of science fiction by other great writers, he will have to restate the question in a civil way. (Being careful, by the bye, not to diss the sainted More and his Utopia, whom I would have expected a religious journal to have mentioned with respect for his contribution to the field.) He might also do the non-lazy thing, which is to read one of the vast numbers of articles and books written to inform you of the identities of great literary works which are also great science fiction, instead of trying to torque his readers into doing all the work for him.

But I particularly appreciate how a supposedly Christian writer is doing his busybody best to set back evangelization among science fiction fandom yet again. His ill-considered little post will be remembered decades after he’s dead and gone, as yet more proof that Christians are necessarily hostile to science fiction. What a gift for the Twelve Days of Christmas.

Now, stay tuned to see if the troll does the next logical thing — removing the literary credentials of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Dorothy L. Sayers for writing genre fiction — or if cowardice and his better angels stay his hand.

Sigh. It was a better Net when enlightened despot-admins could ban bandwidth-wasting troublemakers like this. Gharlane, thou shouldst be flaming at this hour.

5 Comments »

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Meh! I used to subscribe to First Things but eventually lost interest. There’s usually one or two good articles in each issue but there’s a lot of pretentiousness and ranting. They do love to ride their favorite hobby-horses (the total wickedness of the New York Times, gay people, and the Supreme Court, for example). Bottum usually seems like a sensible guy but who knows how much he really knows about sf to begin with? I would pay him no attention at all on this. I didn’t even bother looking at the Volokh post & comments because I’ve seen so many discussions like that and they never go anywhere interesting.

Comment by Elliot — December 29, 2006 #
It is always so easy to take a swipe at sci-fi with that superior sneer. I like John C. Wright’s article as a rebuttal, even though he wrote it before Bottum swiped.
http://johncwright.livejournal.com/57689.html#cutid1

Comment by Julie D. — December 29, 2006 #
I think SF is awful good, myself. I would rather read “Canticle for Leibowitz” than “The Merchant of Venice.”

But we should recall what G. K. Chesterton (Genre Writer Extraordinaire) says on literature:

“Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.”

(from the book “The Defendant” in the chapter “A Defense of Detection Stories”)

Comment by Delta — December 29, 2006 #
Oooo, Delta, zing! Love it!

Comment by Julie D. — December 29, 2006 #
Another zinger at literature from his “Heretics” (chapter: “On Smart Novels and the Smart Set”)

“Thus a man, like many men of real culture in our day, might learn from good literature nothing except the power to appreciate good literature. But from bad literature he might learn to govern empires and look over the map of mankind.”

Mind you, good literature is a good thing. I’m just saying good stories are better than good literature.

Comment by Delta — December 30, 2006 #