We discussed the short story, the star, in class. The story took place in the future. It was about a Jesuit astronaut and his travels to visit a galaxy that was destroyed by a supernova. He and his crew learn about a civilization that once existed there. The story is the captain addressing Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. After viewing the beautiful civilization that was destroyed he is questioning his faith.
Before our discussion on Thursday, i 'd missed a major part of the story. The supernova that caused the civilization to be destroyed was the star of Bethleham. Therefore, the star that Jesus followed, and was a symbol for hope killed a different beautiful solar system.
I thought the description of the beach was especially moving, with the children splashing in the water and the sun that would soon destroy them setting in the background. I thought it was interesting that this civilization was almost like an ideal earth. Although, the captain does reflect that they might have only preserved their finer achievements. He then says who could blame them. It made me wonder what we would preserve from our civilization if we knew we were going to die. I wonder if we would acknowledge our failures so others might learn from them. I thought it was very smart of the author to never actually put a name on the civilization. It almost made the story more believable, and left out the stereotypical "sci-fi space details" that can bog down the real meaning of a story.
The story made me wonder what it would be like for a whole civilization to know they were going to die. I wonder what they would have felt, and if they dealt with it collectively. I wonder if they had a religion. I wonder how they explained to their children why they were going to all die. i wonder if they even told them.
The story also made me wonder about faith, the narrator is obviously filled with internal turmoil. But the definition of faith is believing the unexplainable. i wonder what it would take for other people's faith to be questioned. i wonder if there is any Christian that would not doubt their faith by seeing what the narrator saw. I wonder how people who are Christian and religious react to this story. Are they touched by it? Offended?
1 comment:
Liz,
I noticed you talked a bit about faith at the end of your post. You mentioned your wonderings about christians and how they might be affected by this story. however, you didn't really talk about how you were affected. what do you have faith in--not necessarily in terms of religion, but in general. would proof (or in this case, dis-proof) affect your faith in anything?
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