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Re: If god exists, what created god?
Allan Dunn (adunn@sun.lclark.edu)
27 Apr 1995 05:49:14 GMT
Gil Hardwick (gil@landmark.iinet.net.au) wrote:
:
: In article <D7G0IM.IJI@cunews.carleton.ca>, Greggory Senechal (gsenecha@chat.carleton.ca) writes:
: > The book is partly about a new church rising from the ashes of
: >nuclear holocaust and they worship a "Saint" by the name of Leibowitz
: >who was really one of the engineers who had a hand in creating the
: >bomb that caused the devastation. But they don't know this of course.
: >Oh yeah, and the author's name: Walter M. Miller Jr.
I've just read it and it is an outstanding, if not obscure book.
It is interesting in that it relates how many current "Saints" develope
out of the creative hopes and dreams of people, and the political
ambitions of institutions. In a way, Leibowitz being transfigured into a
Saint thousands (?) of years later was not only ironic, but symbolic
justice. His followers facilitated the resurrection of technological
society because they penitently saved the last remnants of our own,
believing that they were symbols of their lost saint and
protected it from the chaos after the holocaust (like the monks saving
old greek and latin texts in medieval europe )
This in turn facilitated the development of new weapons of destruction
that might have destroy humanity once again...thus the irony.
This book is thought provoking in a way that is typical of many SERIOUS
post-holocaust sci-fi (Mad Max not included!). Earth Abides and On the
Beach comes to mind. What do we learn from these stories? Do they
continue an older tradition (what happens after the world ends, after the
gods have their battle with the frost giants..etc.)? And do other
cultures have similar, maybe oral traditions of a holocaust, and what
purpose do they serve (the Deluge comes to mind)?
2 cents...
AD
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