Lit. of Horror, Fantasy and Sci-Fi: The Star

"The Star"

For this week, I read the short story, "The Star" by Arthur C Clarke in 1956. With how short it was, there was a lot in it that piqued my interest. 

The story crosses science fiction with religion, two topics that always seem to clash. The study of science had a way of calling the works of God into question, either causing people to doubt or outright prove this couldn't have happened. There are those, of course, who believe regardless, but none of those people are featured in this story.

I had no idea how much it involved Earth's Christianity until the very end, that the dead star the explorers go to investigate--the white dwarf whose death wiped out a civilization on nearby planets--is actually THE Star, the Star that shone over Bethlehem to guide shepherds and the Three Wise Men to where Jesus was born. 

Upon discovering this and finishing the story, I did sit for a moment to reflect; the story is basically saying that the death of this star, causing the death of these people, is a symbol of hope and life back on Earth. The other crew members, including Father Loyola, seemed to have lost or starting losing their faith upon discovering the nature of the Phoenix Nebula. Essentially, the Star is the wrath of God to another world. Either the Star seen on Earth turned out to be nothing--a natural phenomena, not an intentional sign from God or Heaven--or God chose to destroy this particular star, thus killing a race of people, to bring hope to those on Earth.

It seemed twisted; I could almost feel and imagine the crew's reactions and emotions when they discovered this. Even the Father started to doubt after finding this tragedy. I personally don't have much faith myself, I look to space and religion in a logical way. But imagine experiencing that outlook in person, it would be spiritually painful.

Comments

  1. Dr. David SteilingApril 5, 2020 at 5:01 PM

    Perhaps the story would like us to recognize that the way we create meaning comes from within the contexts surrounding an observed phenomenon instead of something that is absolute to the phenomenon itself .

    ReplyDelete

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