Would I like it more if I was Catholic?
So I’m reading all the Hugo Novels and I just finished A Case of Conscience by James Blish. And, I was just not very impressed.
In the other Hugo award winners I’ve read, even if they started off kind of slow and corny (The Demolished Man, I am looking in your direction) or the writing was a little clunky, or it just seemed a little to anachronistic to be tolerated, at some point I came across the brilliant plot twist, or the fascinating idea, or whatever, that made me sit up and say hot damn, that’s why it’s a Hugo.
But in this one, not so much.
Maybe as aProtestant-reared atheist I was unable to surrender to the theological arguments. But, dude, a planet designed by Satan? And he exorcised a whole planet into 'sploding? And it was supposed to be so terribly clever that the author leaves you wondering whether Ruiz-Sanchez was right?
Also, I’ll admit that I’m a bit prejudiced against the basic plot where they go to another planet, discover an alien species and spend a little time getting to know the alien culture, then they bring the alien back to Earth, and the fish-out-of-water alien (surprise!) makes insightful commentary on human culture by virtue of their outside perspective. I just irrationally hate that plot. And I hated this one even more because the outsider perspective provided nothing more than, “Lo, Earth people, your rules are silly and you are unhappy! Rise up, unhappy people, and give in to your anger! Heed me, for I am a tool of Satan!”
And what is the deal with science fiction books always having to have some kind of a huge crazy party thrown by a rich person? I’ve never been to a huge crazy party thrown by a rich person. None of my friends have ever been to a huge crazy party thrown by a rich person. So why is it that so often, the author decides that the best way to show that We Are in the Future with Advanced Technology Through Which All Our Most Unworthy Hedonistic Desires Can Be Fulfilled is a huge crazy party thrown by a rich person? Are all of you guys constantly going to crazy huge parties thrown by rich people that I’m not invited to?
Somebody, please, tell me what genius thing about this book whoosed me totally?
In the interest of fairness, here’s the stuff I liked.
The Shelter Race was a neat idea. I grew up in the Eighties so I’m part of the last generation that remembers the Cold War, unlike these kids today (shakes cane), which is an asset in reading Cold War science fiction, because I can totally see younger people reading this stuff and just Not Getting It because they haven’t lived with that kind of fear of total annihilation. And I liked how Blish lead up to that slowly by alluding to the Shelter Economy, etc., but not really explaining it until they got back to Earth.
And . . . uh . . . Jeepers, there had to be something else I liked. Oh, yeah, the lungfish surprise early in the book was okay, but I hated how the story jumped in, supposedly near the end of the mission of exploration, and Ruiz-Sanchez just wanders into town, after having supposedly mastered the language, and discovers this basic biological fact almost by accident. (Ruiz-Sanchez. The mission biologist.) And all this stuff about “They have our moral code, exactly!” Uh, really? Yeah, except for all the stuff about pair-bonding and sex (I mean, I was raised Lutheran, but I’ve heard that Catholics have a passing interest in such matters, yes?) and the fact that, tempting as the idea is, we don’t turn our offspring out to fend for themselves and collect the ones that survive to adulthood without being eaten by predators. Honestly, at first, I thought Ruiz-Sanchez was all freaked out by the fact that they basically practice abortion.
Er, um, anyway, did anybody like this novel? What did I miss?
