"Jim Sharkey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Mon, 01 Jan 2001 14:43:42 -0500, JDG wrote:
>
> >Right..... and I'll admit that one of the things I find most
> >frustrating about sci-fi is how often modern-day religions just drop
> >off the face of the Earth. I mean, Christianity has been around
> >for 2,000 years, yet in so much sci-fi it seems to disappear in the
> >next 500.
>
> Some authors may feel that the constant secularization of religion in
> general, and Christianity in particular (esp. in this country) combined
with
> a historical shift in theology from spirit worship, to paganism, to
> monotheism could lead one to conclude that atheism is the next "logical"
> step in man's theological development. Not necessarily a position I
> suscribe to, but it could be seen as a logical conclusion.
Or perhaps from fire-and-brimstone monotheism to generic deism of the sort
professed by various notable persons from the last few centuries who didn't
make the plunge all the way to atheism. Deists and atheists probably look
the same to those steeped in well defined religions with customs and
practices, prayers and songs, etc.
I'd suspect it's less intentional than that, though. I, and others whom I
know are non-religious, spend about 0% of our time worrying about or
participating in any sort of religion. If writing about people living their
lives in the future, unless I was intentionally making a point, I would
probably not depict my characters engaging in any religious practices. It
simply wouldn't occur to me to have the characters behave in a non-secular
way.
That's a bias that would affect portrayals of a global civilization, though
(vs. merely characters in a heterogenous world, who one might argue just
happen to be non-religious).
> >When I encounter morals, however, that are foreign to me - I just
> >accept it as cultural differences and go on. If the message is
> >something I disagree with (for example, the ST:TNG episode where
> >Riker lands on a planet of homosexuals, and attempts to pursue a
> >taboo heterosexual relationship),
>
> If memory serves, that planet's population was *asexual* rather than
> homosexual. The taboo of their relationship was not that it was
> heterosexual, but that it was sexual *at all*. Sexuality in their cuture
> was deviant in any respect, IIRC.
IIRC, it was apparently even stranger than that - everyone was
hermaphroditic, and apparently engaged in pair-bonding, but assuming "male"
or "female" roles was seen as deviant. This was apparently implicit in a
sexual encounter with Riker. I was never sure how that was supposed to work
even in theory, given that the the distinction was internal to the minds of
those involved. Perhaps the offensive thing was not using your inny and outy
bits equally?
Silly writers.
> An interesting side note: In the Star Trek universe, interspecies romance
> is not only acceptable, it's fairly commonplace. However, homosexuality
is,
> apperently, non-existent.
While not trying to defend ST's juvenile portrayal of sexuality, all we can
truly say is that based on observation, the major characters of all 4 shows
tend towards being heterosexual. You can't prove a negative assertion with
evidence. That said, looking a the numbers, it's clearly a biased portrayal.
An overwhelming number of simple heterosexual relationships have been shown
explicitly; no simple homosexual relationships have been shown.
> There was even an episode in ST:NG where Dr.
> Crusher has an affair with an alien that's actually a symbiote (the
Trill).
> The symbiote changes bodies, and becomes female rather than male, and she
> terminates the relationship.
To be fair to the writers, what Crusher said was not "you're male now, too
bad"; what she said was "I can't keep up with these changes". One can take
her at her word or infer the former. Even inferring the former, all that's
seen is that Crusher does take gender into consideration - something that
most people of any persuasion do when selecting a partner. Implicitly,
though, the Trill didn't care what gender the host was. Kudos for that.
The writers seem to enjoy setting up bizarre situations to touch on but not
address such issues. There was a DS9 episode where Dax's former Trill SO
comes back in a female host; while there is some smooching going on, it's
apparently a no-no - trans-host relationships are frowned on. Uh huh.
On the flip side, the "Tom Paris discovers he's gay" episode - while great
for a soap opera, would be pretty lousy SF if it didn't have a weird
mind-altering space ray involved.
Joshua
