Dancing in the face of doom

kw: book reviews, science fiction, fantasy, anthologies

Of all the reasons for children having pets, the saddest and most necessary is for them to learn that everything dies. The least "science-fictional" story in The Fate of Mice by Susan Palwick is "Going After Bobo", about a boy coming to terms with the death of a pet cat, as he comes to terms with the unpleasant facts of his own family's existence. Though I'll be giving too much away, this story more than equals Guy de Maupassant's "Boule de Suif" ("Fat Ball") in its ability to induce profound sympathy for a prostitute, and it goes further to examine the woman's family relations.

All the stories in The Fate of Mice confront the inevitability of death, but even more so, they present a multitude of different ways one may live while knowing it is so. Whether the protagonist is an artificially-smartened mouse, an aging werewolf, a very ordinary woman coming to the end of a crushingly disappointing life, or even a freak whose heart is "out there" for all to see, life is soon to end, so now what? This deeply moving book is filled with eleven kinds of "now what".

I was going to stop there, but I just can't. Science fiction writers in general are not pious people. Very few are the SciFi stories in which physical death is not a final end. Even the zombies in Palwick's story "Beautiful Stuff" only get a very temporary reprieve from the grave. The hope of permanent resurrection that is central to the Christian message, and various kinds of "afterlife" message that inform other religions, are anathema to most writers of speculative fiction. They will have none of it. So what am I doing, as a Christian, reading SciFi whenever I can?

I certainly don't read it for spiritual edification. That's not what it is about. I am an idea guy. It is quite possible to be "too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good." The literature of ideas anchors me. The kingdom of God may be one of infinite resources and infinite time, but it hasn't arrived yet. At least in the Bible, the human race is exhorted by Jehovah to be good stewards of the planet. One verse warns clearly, "Those who destroy the Earth, God will destroy." (I find it strange that environmental activists never mention this.)

The science fiction I find most enjoyable follows John Campbell's dictum: "Pose a problem, then solve it." In much recent fiction, the problem faced is one of the ecological ones caused by overpopulation and over-exploitation of resources. Some stories are apocalyptic, about surviving the problems that were not solved. Some are more narrowly focused, on rescuing a specific situation or surviving a specific disaster. Others bring in powerful aliens who do things like put a moratorium on new births or new development, and then the stories are about living under the suddenly-changed circumstances.

In the stories in Mice, Ms Palwick poses the ultimate problem, but always adds a secondary problem: You can't solve the big one, but what is worthwhile that you can do instead? Can you smile as you face finality? Do you dare to birth children who will one day certainly die? Can you bear to care for a pet that you will surely outlive? In a world that is still finite, with an unknown time until the end of the age for which God's people hope, we need new ideas all the time.