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dustydigger
Posted 2015-05-15 12:48 AM (#10536 - in reply to #10534)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2015		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		@ Spectru - hope you are enjoying the Cities in Flight saga more than I have enjoyed A Case of Conscience.Its famous tale of a Jesuit scientist/priest on a survey of a beautiful new planet,Lithia, whose alien inhabitants live a perfect ethical and moral life with a point by point ethical correspondence with Catholic christianity,except they have no religion whatsover. The priest is on the horns of a doctrinal dilemma.Is he to believe that creatures can live to perfection the christian life without God in the equation? That is totally out the question to catholic belief.So he is logically (?) left with the premise that the whole planet is a creation of the Devil as a trap for mankind. But catholic belief categorically states that the Devil has no creativity whatsover,,yet here is a pure world without hatred, crime or violence,with the Lithians living out christianity to the full. Others on the team have there own ideas about what should happen to this world,either to exploit it or learn from its highly intelligent inhabitants. Cue for much anguish and despair on the priest's part about what should happen to this world,as he wants to isolate it forever,others want to open it up.
On leaving the planet as as sort of gift he is given a newborn Lithian .He is brought to earth,where he quickly grows into a rebellious iconoclastic youth with his own TV show, acting as a focus for the disaffected of the earth,who living for the most part in underground shelters in a miserable post Cold War world.There is a final tragic end to the ethical dilemma ,but since all the characters were paper thin, mere mouthpieces for phliosophical and ethical stances,I couldnt really care I'm afraid.
I found the plot full of absurdities,the second section set on earth poorly developed,with some improbable bizarre events. The writing was a bit strange too,jampacked with earnest philosophical debates ,reminding me irresistably of the ponderous prose of George Eliot's Middlemarch. I never could get into that weighty tome. Oh well,at least this book was quite short.There were gleams of what seem to either be weak humour or maybe irony,or satire,all a bit too faint t osucceed I felt. I found the plot barely credible,especially the way the Lithian youth could bend the world to his rebellious ways so easily. The whole ethical dilemma was too esoteric. The pace was uneven,the plot rather messy and weak. The early setting on the planet Lithia was fairly well done,but the earth section was poor. The whole thing was set up as ambiguous,both as to whether the priest was right or not,but since non of the characters were realistic or wel ldrawn,frankly I couldnt care less!
Not at all my cup of tea. Waste of a great First Contact intriguing setting as far as I am concerned. I am such a philistine you know,just not a fan of literary SF!


Edited by dustydigger 2015-05-15 12:57 AM

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