The Fredösphere

A while back I mentioned SF author John C. Wright, an atheist-turned-Christian.  John has a story in the current issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine, a copy of which is sitting on my shelf, waiting to be read.

Thanks to John's blog, I now know of the scholarly work of Doris T. Myers, whose book promotes the importance of C. S. Lewis as a contributor to the science fiction genre.  A small sampling of my SF friends tells me CSL is not regarded as among the stratosphere in SF, although his fantasy work (anybody heard of Narnia?) is almost Tolkienesque in its fan loyalty.

Myers disagrees, and puts Lewis at the center of a dialog among H. G. Wells and Arthur C. Clarke.  Lewis also gets credit for speaking from within the academy in favor of showing respect to the genre:

C.S. Lewis himself was a champion of the idea that science fiction should be taken seriously: C.S. Lewis regarded it as regrettable that a book of ideas like Arthur C. Clarke's CHILDHOOD'S END would be dismissed as juvenilia while modernistic books be feted. In a letter, Lewis says:

It is a strange comment on our age that such a book lies hid in a hideous paper-backed edition, wholly unnoticed by the cognoscenti, while any 'realistic' drivel about some neurotic in a London flat--something that needs no real invention at all, something that any educated man could write if he chose, may get seriously reviewed and mentioned in serious books - as if it really mattered. I wonder how long this tyranny will last? Twenty years ago I felt no doubt that I should live to see it all break up and great literature return: but here I am, losing teeth and hair, and still no break in the clouds. ~C.S. Lewis, Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis: Volume III, Letter to Joy Gresham, Dec 22, 1953

Of course, the admiration of the author of the Ransom Trilogy for the author of CHILDHOOD'S END will come as no surprise to those who recognize where these books stand in the Great Dialog of the Pen. Arthur C. Clarke's novel was an answer and a rebuttal to OUT FROM THE SILENT PLANET and to THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH in the same way that C. S. Lewis' novel was a rebuttal and an answer to FIRST MEN IN THE MOON by H.G. Wells.

Read the whole thing, then read the follow-up post.  Then spend some time browsing Wright's other posts.  This is a man with lots of interesting things to say.

Labels: sci-fi