news from nowhere

I have finally finished my epic article, News from Nowhere: the connections between SF and Pagan thought.

There are many spiritual and religious ideas in science fiction, but there are several connections between science and speculative fiction and Pagan thought; it is also noticeable that many Pagans read science fiction and fantasy, and are influenced by its ideas. From the earliest stirrings of science fiction and fantasy in the Romantic movement, when writers looked to ancient myths and despaired of the Industrial Revolution, we see reflected the ecological and social concerns of Pagan thinking. Writers became more optimistic about technology with the arrival of science fiction as a genre, but it was then that visions of alternative societies came to the fore. Paganisms offer an alternative way of looking at the world, a different set of ideals to strive for, and a critique of our own society; so does speculative and science fiction. >> more

Topics include Utopias, Back to the land, Gothic and Romantic stirrings, Technofear and dystopia, Ecological concerns, Visions of alternative societies, Feminist fables, Slipstream, fantasy and magic realism, Pagan SF, and other religions and SF. There are also some interesting connections between Paganisms, magic and science, but that is a whole different article. The subject of science and religion and magic is extremely complex, as different religious movements at different times and places had different attitudes to science and magic.