What if...?

When I was just a lad, back in the second Millennium, book stores had a section known as 'Science Fiction'.  The shelves were filled with incredible stories by the likes of Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Niven, Ursula Le Guin, Orson Scott Card, Phillip K. Dick (whose stories make the best movies) and the founding fathers: H. G. Wells and Jules Vern.  These people told tales that were generally optimistic; exploring the potential of humanity in futuristic settings that captured the imagination and the heart of this young reader.

Science fiction stories spring from the answer to the eternal question: what if...?  H. G. Wells asked "What if Mars was home to intelligent life and they decided to try and take over the Earth?" His answer to that question became "The War of the Worlds'.  Arthur C. Clarke asked "What if a race of highly evolved beings was monitoring the galaxy for signs of intelligent life?" His first answer was the short story 'The Sentinel', which later expanded into '2001 A Space Odyssey' and beyond to a series of novels.  Since the seed of science fiction is the question "what if...", the genre is speculative at its heart.

Around the same time, another type of story telling was growing rapidly, thanks to the brilliance of J. R. R. Tolkien.  'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy were captivating the imagination of millions of readers.  Soon, many other authors began producing stories about elves, wizards, dragons and magic.  These stories were generally set in a medieval time period and usually contained very little in the way of science.  They were given the label 'Fantasy' and placed in bookstores right next to the 'Science Fiction' section, perhaps because they appealed to same demographic.

Over time, the two very different genres merged into one, broader category called speculative fiction. By definition, all fiction is speculative, but speculative fiction is comprised of stories that take a little more liberty in creating the environments that contain the stories.  Historical novels, for example, are strictly set in the known history of the period they describe.  Murder mysterious must adhere to the rules of the world as we know it.  Suspense thrillers are equally confined to a sense of reality.  If any of these authors stray too far from reality as we know it, they become writers of speculative fiction.

The category of speculative fiction is extremely broad, from stories that are centered around the consequences of new discoveries in quantum mechanics to coming-of-age zombie novels.  From Harry Potter to the HAL-9000 and beyond, speculative fiction spans the vast expanse of the imagination, leaving no stone unturned.

On occasion,  writers of speculative fiction have ventured into the realm of spirituality, but usually it is an underlying theme that is not explored overtly.  A classic example that we are all familiar with would be 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'.  The implications of a device that connects directly to God or a spiritual realm, are left entirely to the audience, as we thrill to the survivability of Indiana Jones. There are some less well known stories that address spirituality more directly.  Here is a website with a short list:

http://spiritualsciencefiction.wolfzen.com/

As the above website indicates, spiritual science fiction is a small subset of the speculative fiction genre.  I believe it needs to be larger.  There are huge movements of spiritual awakening across the planet today, and most are growing larger.  For many individuals, this is uncharted territory, and we wonder what our future will be like.  Spiritual speculative fiction has the opportunity to explore such futures, shedding light (no pun intended) on what a more spiritual world could look like, anticipating challenges and rewards, and preparing current seekers for what lies ahead.

So, what if I wrote stories where spirituality is as much a part of the lives of my characters as warp drive is to the crew of the Enterprise?  What if I explored spirituality in fiction as if it actually impacted my characters daily lives and was integral to the story, instead of portraying it as an ethereal mystery off to the side?  What would that look like?

Let's find out, shall we?

I am working on a novel called 'God's Daughter'.  The story adheres to the Biblical narrative, but with a very different perspective, giving me the opportunity to explore the spiritual nature of humanity in away that is potentially healing and unifying.   This blog will touch upon themes from the novel, but I want to give you more than that.  I want to write very short stories that I will share with you in this space.  I want to give you a taste of speculative spiritual fiction that will create  a  desire for more.  Yes, I would really appreciate you buying my novel when it is complete, but I would also challenge you to express your own thoughts and write your own very short stories to share with others in this forum.

What is our spiritual potential and what will the world look like when we realize it?  Come, explore with me!