Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Science Fiction Philosophy

My husband really likes to read science fiction, and he often shares with me some of the more interesting or insightful plot developments as he's reading. (Science fiction is often insightful I've realized--a lot of his novels have a strong philosophical bent. Who knew?) The other day, he told me that the evil female lead character in his book decided that she was going to kill off 99% of the men in the world because she believed that in getting rid of men, she would also be getting rid of violence (her way of going about this is just a tad hypocritical, don't you think?). 

This is obviously an extreme, non-realistic, abstract idea, but still it got me thinking. I have to admit that every war I can think of was started by men. That almost every example of terror and injustice that comes to my mind was perpetuated by a man. That violence is almost exclusively a male behavior.

But a world with all women? Though it might be more peaceful, I don't want to live in that world. As much as I love women, and being a woman, as much as I embrace all things feminine and graceful and pure and lovely, I am no feminist. This world needs men, good men.

Men and women are different--biologically and emotionally and spiritually--and I do believe that's something to be celebrated. We are made to live in this world together, feeding off of each other's strengths and weaknesses, bringing our own sense of beauty and rightness into the lives of the people we touch, helping each other to become our best selves.

And the truth is that we are all imperfect beings. The truth is that there will always be good and evil in our world. There are good men, and there are good women, just as there are bad men and bad women. Yes, we might be able to eradicate (or mostly eradicate) violence from our world if men were out of the picture, but wouldn't we be giving up so much more than we would gain? Men complement us, just as we complement them. 

I realize that this particular example, as I said, is an extreme one, but shadows of this philosophy do exist outside of science fiction novels. I think it's something worth thinking and talking about. What are your thoughts?




13 comments:

  1. May I ask why you say you're "no feminist"? Feminism seems to have a distinctly negative connotation, but feminism simply promotes the equality of the sexes. As a feminist, I would absolutely say that equality does not mean sameness.

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  2. Hi KJ, thanks for your comment. I say that I'm no feminist because feminism stands for a lot of things that I don't agree with. Of course I believe men and women are equal, but that comes from my faith as a Christian, not from feminism.

    I think you're right to separate equality from sameness, but too often, I think that feminism obscures that particular point. Good for you for distinguishing the two.

    Does this answer your question?

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  3. This post is so thought provoking! I wish I had time to really chew on it and write a more substantial comment, but in the meantime, I just thought I'd say thanks for posting! It's fun to read something that gets the wheels of my brain turning. :)

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  4. Well thanks, Natalie, I always love your sweet comments! :)

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  5. I appreciate you taking the time to respond! Though you and I seem to disagree on many things :), I read your blog because I think that opposing viewpoints help me to form my own more thoroughly. I appreciate your posts!

    I guess my main point is that while the term "feminism" has negative connotations within society, the only thing that feminism actually stands for is the social, economic and political equality of women to men. All of the other stuff is promoted by smaller sub-groups, but not "feminism" as a whole. :)

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  6. Do you have a blog? I'd like to check it out.

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  7. Kate, My husband reads SF books as well, maybe I should start looking at them differently. This post made me think of the book Wild at Heart by John Eldredge. He writes about the hearts and souls of men. Man was made in His image. Exodus 15:3 (KJV) The Lord is a Man of war: The Lord is his name. While I don't believe God wants us to pick fights He certainly wants us to fight for ourselves . The bible is full of stories of war while The Lord stood by and protected His people. Thank you for another post that got my brain burning.

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  8. Rachel, that's such a great connection you drew, I love that. I know of that book, Wild at Heart, and I read the "sister" book written by his wife. It's called Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul. I highly recommend it. The Eldredges have such a beautiful way of thinking and writing about what makes each of us uniquely male or female.


    Thanks for stopping by!

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  9. I didn't know there was a sister book, thank you for the recommendation.

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  10. It's really fascinating the parallels to real life fiction can draw, isn't it? I agree with you - so thankful for the differences in men and women, and how we compliment each other.- The world would be such an unbalanced place without one or the other!

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  11. It is fascinating, I think we can learn so much from novels! I finding these real-life parallels. :)

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  12. This is interesting! I don't read much science fiction, but I do read things like Harry Potter... and Lord of the Rings. My husband doesn't get them, but I think you can learn something from just about everything you read. I always try to tell him those books have plenty of things to learn inside their pages. :)

    Men and women definitely complement each other. Like Kristin said, this world would be a very unbalanced place without one or the other. One sex alone just can't do it all.

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  13. That's neat that you're the science fiction reader in your family, not your husband! I absolutely believe that we can learn from almost anything we read. Even from lightweight novels, I feel like sometimes I have new insight into people I know based on the characters and the way they think and behave and speak! It's so interesting.

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