Science Fiction Gives a Moral Compass

When I was eight years old I read a folk tale that said anyone who could kiss her elbow would turn into a boy. A middle child, and the only girl, I found the concept intriguing and practiced for days. In the same story collection, I met King Midas, I imagined myself his daughter, and then her mother. I was Pandora. I was hope. Myth, legend, folk tale, and fantasy rolled into one in the genre Science Fiction I discovered in my twenties. The science behind the fiction made it possible to trust the questions I asked of myself (and everyone who’d read the books along with me). Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land, Frank Hebert’s Dune, and Issac Asimov’s I, Robot inspired this flower child to seek community, work for justice and accept that while evil is a reality, humanity can choose to create a good that will survive it.
Now the children of the 60’s are approaching their seventies and their Science Fiction has morphed into apologia. In The Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood allows her personal despair about the lack of international Climate Change policy and technology without regulation to color her characters with a shallow, dark pen. The “flood” is a pandemic brought on by a virus developed by corporations in order to sell the cure. But the virus is not the only gene alteration we discover in this future. Technology has changed the balance of the planet and the only ones who seem to care are religious cults that warn of the dangers, but live in isolation. By making her protagonists religious eccentrics, Ms. Atwood offers those of us in the mainstream world little hope for change or motivation for action. And there is much: for those reading this review who would like to take action, GOOGLE your faith community name and ecology. I found over 200 sites organized by Catholics.
Catholic stories of saints and martyrs also formed my conscience, which may be why I recognized the spiritual quest in Stephenie Meyer’s Host. How strong is your Self? How strong is your commitment to those you love? Would you be willing to let another being reside in your brain in order to bring peace to the world? What if that meant never loving your family again? For Melanie Stryder, our heroine, the answer is obvious. Love and Self will not give in, so the peaceful alien who invades her body works with her. This intriguing novel gives the reader the opportunity to debate questions of life, death, love, commitment and wisdom with as many moral twists and turns as the caves in which the protagonist finds her family. Theirs is not an easy journey – anyone ever faced with a moral dilemma knows how confusing conversations in one’s own head can be – but Ms. Meyers gives us balance and opportunity in her characters and a romantic adventure as well.