Many months ago I talked about the role of religion and spirituality in the mediafranchise of Battlestar Galactica. From this topic I would like to
introduce the role of religion in my Mars series “Red Desert”.
In reality the link with Battlestar Galactica comes from a small
anecdote, which concerns the origin of the names of the two NASA missions
appearing in the story: Isis and Hera. The first simply comes
from a goddess of ancient Egypt (and here
we are already in the religious theme). Being an egyptophile, I like to put
these elements in my stories. The second mission takes its name once again from
a goddess, i.e. the wife of Zeus. By choosing this name, however, since I am a nerd,
instead of going to look for a list of Greek-Roman deities, I decided to
have a look to those of Battlestar Galactica! Moreover, the choice then
fell on Hera, not so much because it is a goddess, but because it is a
character in the saga (Hera Agathon). Only later I found out that, within the
religion of Battlestar Galactica, Isis and Hera are considered as sister
deities, moreover (and I didn’t remember it) the two names are given to the
character I mentioned at different times of the series.
But let’s talk about those which are actually religious elements in “Red Desert”.
The most obvious is undoubtedly the inclusion in the story of a Muslim
character (Hassan), while our protagonist, Anna, is
characterised by an ill-concealed intolerance towards men of Middle Eastern
origin. Although her prejudice has personal origins (his father is
Middle Eastern), it has as sole discriminating element its religious aspect,
because the only thing that differentiates the two characters is their
religion, since they belong to the same ethnic group. However, the inclusion of
this subplot serves two purposes.
The first is to create conflict between the two characters, which
causes the mistrust and doubts of Anna against Hassan. Anna, however, far from
terrestrial conventions realises that her prejudices don’t have a
rational basis and will see them slowly be removed by Hassan.
Despite this, she still fails to get rid of them, or at least this process is
expected to take place slowly throughout story.
The second purpose of this topic, however, is to make the reader identify
in the characters, promoting the suspension of disbelief. This is possible
because, given the current events, in the Western world there is an ambivalence
of feelings against Islam and Muslims: suspicion but also curiosity.
This ambivalence is even greater in Anna. The Islam is her cultural identity,
which was denied to her, and Hassan is the only one from whom she can draw it.
Hence her contempt and at the same time interest for him.
The character of Anna, moreover, by her own admission has no faith,
but she is also intrigued by the concept of faith, because she sees it as
something that hypothetically could give meaning to her uncertain existence.
Anna is a very unconfident woman in front of events and choices; she feels she
needs a fixed point in her life. Her weakness stems from the need to show
the world that the very fact she was born was not a mistake. In this
psychological condition, amplified by the events she is experiencing, she
looks to Hassan’s faith with curiosity mixed with suspicion.
This topic, which is the relationship of Anna with Islam and faith in
general, is already introduced in “Point of No Return” and analysed in “People of Mars”, but you find it again in “Invisible Enemy” and “Back Home”.
In these last two books emerge, however, two other topics that have to
do with religion.
One of these is the theme of the couple that we see in the
community of Ophir. Each person in this community has a companion; it can be a
husband or a wife, but also a brother or sister, in the case of children. The
importance of the couple is particularly analysed in “Back Home” and,
speaking about this theme, I admit that once again I took inspiration from ancient
Egypt. Here the
couple formed by Pharaoh and his Great Royal Wife had a very important
role in both political and religious scopes. It was essential that the
Two Lands were ruled by a couple and not a single person. These couples had a
reason to exist that was more ritual than personal. In this context it
was not unusual that the Great Royal Wife was a sister or a daughter of
Pharaoh, without this necessarily implying any relationship of a sexual nature
between the two (there were secondary wives for this purpose). Often the
Pharaoh was too young and so his Wife ruled the country. Or the widowed Wife
appointed the new Pharaoh. The important thing is that in one way or another
there must be two of them to get the favour of the gods.
This topic, namely the need to be in two, is also found in “Red Desert” and is an
important subplot of “Back Home”.
There is also a final topic, but, even if I should simply mention it, it
would become a big spoiler for those who have not yet read the third book. In
itself it is not religious, but spiritual. It regards the consciousness,
whose religious counterpart is nothing more than the soul, but in the story it
is dealt with in an almost scientific fashion. Among other things, it is a very
common theme in science fiction, both classical and contemporary one. I cannot
say any more, but those who have read “Invisible Enemy” have certainly
understood what I mean.
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