Mary Doria Russell Duo
Some of the very best books on cross-cultural miscommunications are written in science fiction, and by some of the greatest names, the oldies but goodies. Now I know by naming a couple, I am going to offend some of those out there by leaving out your favorites – please feel free to jump in (comments section) and make additonal recommendations.
One of the great classics is Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. It is a hilarious book, with occasional moments of pathos, but an easy read, and an unforgettable book.
Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness is another primer in the kinds of misunderstandings that can come with the best of intentions. She also deals with the changes that living in an alien culture makes in the visitor, as well as the visited.
More recently written is a duo by Mary Doria Russell. Her hero, Father Emilio Sandoz, is a Jesuit priest. Sent as an intergalactic evangelist, he runs into some serious problems. These are very strong book, adult books with adult topics and sexual content, not for those who want an easy read and feel good at the end. It is about spiritual testing, as well as survival. There are parts of these two books where you will laugh out loud, and parts where you will be so depressed you don’t want to continue reading. At the same time, they are deeply spiritual.
The saddest, funniest, most horrible part of all is that the worst things happen as a result of the very best intentions. Russel’s characters try to get into one another’s way of thinking – and fail miserably. The results are horrorific.
And yet . . . in the end, there is redemption. These are books that get you thinking, and keep you thinking for a long time. They stretch your mind, opening topics you never dreamed existed.
You can read either of these two books, The Sparrow and The Children of God as a stand-alone read, or you can read them together. I personally found The Children of God the better book, but because I find Russell so addictive, so insightful, I recommend them both. They are available from Amazon at around $10/each in paperback.
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I certainly won’t object to your choices of exemplary materials – they are all excellent reads that force the reader to do some serious thinking. And it’s an area that even science fiction doesn’t tackle anywhere near frequently enough. Though I might object to your characterization of Stranger as an ‘easy read’ – there is a heck of a lot that is buried within its confines that takes quite a bit of effort (or an encyclopedic knowledge of a bewildering number of subjects) to dig out and place in proper context (see The Martian Named Smith: Critical Perspectives on Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land by William H. Patterson for a detailing of at least some of this).
I’d add Walter M. Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz for a completely different take on the relationship of humanity to religion, with radically changing cultures, Edgar Pangborn’s A Mirror for Observers for a non-Heinlein view of how Martians would view our culture, and Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game and its direct sequels.
Sounds interesting 🙂 I’ll read both and let you know :))
Thanks for sharing!
Hyperpat – you are right. Canticle for Liebowitz is an excellent addition. And Ender’s Game is also both a gripping read and thought provoking. I found the later books got a little bogged down, but made good points about war, and the mistakes we make when we attribute motivation to “the enemy”. Great comments, thank you for your input. (I’ll have to read the Pangborn)
Ummel3yal – Happy reading! Come back and tell me what you think when you finish.
Hello Stranger,
Nice Blog and interesting content, although i did not fully explore it yet. What is your origin? Africa?
Keep up the good work!
Bests and cheers,
-arjen
Hello, Arjen – origin American. Get to Africa as often as we can. 🙂 When we can’t, we read your blog and we feel like we are there.