Re: Huh?

On Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 9:01 PM, Kirsten Brodbeck-Kenney
<crowyhead@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 10:45 AM, Sibyl Smirl <polycarpa3@ckt.net> wrote:
>
>> A "myth", anthropologically speaking, is a story about God, or a god, or the
>> gods. Its truth or falsity has no bearing. Therefore, even though
>> "Stranger" is modern fiction, it could be myth, Christian, (well, duh, it's
>> clearly about Jesus) or otherwise.
>
> I think we all know that some modern fiction could be classed as
> "Christian mythology" -- I think that's what started the whole
> discussion?
>
> I also don't know that any of the discussion required a definition of mythology.
>
> It's been a long time since I read Stranger in a Strange Land, so my
> recollection of it was that Valentine Michael Smith could definitely
> be read as a Christ-like messiah figure, but I was not sure that the
> similarities were strong enough to constitute "Christian mythology"
> along the same lines as "Lamb" by Christopher Moore, which is an
> out-and-out re-imagining of the life of Christ. That was the original
> context of the discussion.
>
> As an example of where I think it becomes difficult to classify
> literature as "Christian" or not -- Paul Atreides in Dune is
> definitely a messiah figure, and Herbert deliberately drew on
> Christian themes (as well as Islam, Hinduism, and many other
> religions), but I'm not sure that I would in any way class Dune as
> "Christian mythology."
>

Never thought about Dune that way, but:
His conception was not, exactly, natural
There were prophesies about his (?) coming
He saw the future
He sacrificed himself for his people

Those *are* elements of Christ story - although fewer than in
Stranger. As I said - depends how hard you want to look for them.
But these? only parts of the story.
Nor Mike's "Though are god", neither Paul's water collecting sounds
like Christianity to me,.


--
ilana