Is there any secular fiction about Biblical mythology?
Posted on: August 11, 2011 - 9:31pm
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Is there any secular fiction about Biblical mythology?
Does anyone know of any secular works of fiction (movies, books, etc) about stories from the Bible? For example, a film like "Clash of the Titans" except about Biblical mythology, and not created by a Christian publisher. Just a good ol' fantasy film or novel about Yahweh.
Optimism is reality, pessimism is the fantasy that you know enough to be cynical
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I rather enjoyed Only Begotten Daughter
http://www.amazon.com/Only-Begotten-Daughter-Harvest-Book/dp/0156002434/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313114101&sr=8-1
Written in 1990, it was just a few years before the Y2K fiasco, so it didn't get much publicity. The second coming, came. We just weren't expecting it in just this fashion. Pretty funny, a lot weird.
James Morrow has written some others - that I haven't read and now I will have to. Every time I go to Amazon, my reading list just gets longer.
edit: correction - 1996.
-- I feel so much better since I stopped trying to believe.
"We are entitled to our own opinions. We're not entitled to our own facts"- Al Franken
"If death isn't sweet oblivion, I will be severely disappointed" - Ruth M.
There were some shitty action movies based on Christian mythology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legion_%282010_film%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priest_%282011_film%29
The one that most immediately comes to mind is a short story that Larry Niven wrote ages ago. I don't recall the title but I will see if I can dig it up at some point.
The premise is that a time travelling historian goes back to research the life of Jesus only to find that the historical character is mentally retarded. Realizing that he can't ever go home without fixing the time line, he does the only thing that he can do. He steps in and uses his advanced technology to fake all the miracles.
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"Behold the Man" by Michael Moorcock.
Guy goes back in a time machine, hoping to meet Jesus.
Can't find him, lots of involvement with people who were mentioned in the Bible.
Ends up being cruciified....
I found it pretty powerful, read it quite a while ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behold_the_Man
Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality
"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris
The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology
Also, Arthur C Clarke, "The Star", also made into a Twilight episode.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_%28short_story%29
I read this one in high school. Freaked me out. But also got me hooked on Clarke.
-- I feel so much better since I stopped trying to believe.
"We are entitled to our own opinions. We're not entitled to our own facts"- Al Franken
"If death isn't sweet oblivion, I will be severely disappointed" - Ruth M.
Moorcock wrote some pretty strange fantasy. I am not familiar with this particular book, and I'm not real sure I want to be after reading the wiki article. I once read a lot of his Elric novels. There is cheerfulness for you - not.
-- I feel so much better since I stopped trying to believe.
"We are entitled to our own opinions. We're not entitled to our own facts"- Al Franken
"If death isn't sweet oblivion, I will be severely disappointed" - Ruth M.
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I stand corrected then because the wiki plot line is just too close to the one that I was thinking of. Odd though because the copy that I had was definitely a short story and it was in a graphic anthology along side several of the "when the magic dies" stories. Ah well.
Another interesting one, while not specifically biblical come from the “Time Patrol” series by Poul Anderson. Guy goes back in time and accidentally kills Cyrus before he can found the Persian empire. The time patrol decides that the only way to fix the situation is to male him serve in place of King Cyrus.
I would recommend getting the anthology version of the stories as they are all really good. Basically, the time patrol are like police who enforce a sing version of the time line and do not tolerate changes.
One really good one is about the man who invents the time machine. He builds it and just as he is about to power it up for the first time, two obviously more sophisticated time machine appear in his workshop. The pilots step off and tell him that they are from the time patrol and he is in posession of an unlicensed time machine. I will let you find out what happens from there.
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cj,
I will have to agree with you that Moorcock wrote some pretty strange stuff. I read a few of the Elric stories, didn't quite get 'into' them.
Also a big Arthur C. Clarke fan. Liked 'The Star' very much.
The first SF novel that really blew me away was his 'The City and the Stars'.
Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality
"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris
The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology
Loved "The Star" I saw it on TV back in the 80's but I don't recall what show it was part of. Possibly some incarnation of the Twilight Zone?
Speaking of which, while not strictly biblical, there is a great Twilight Zone episode which could fit in here. I can't get the embed code because the server is somewhere where I can't read the language.
http://www.123video.nl/playvideos.asp?MovieID=836311
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Found another good one:
Isaac Asimov - The Last Question
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Bob,
Don't ask me - I went through a Goth phase before it was Goth. Started with HP Lovecraft and got weirder from there. Moorcock's Elric was actually rather tame comparatively.
The first novel of Clarke's that I read was Childhood's End but it was a long time ago. I confess I generally preferred Clarke's short stories to his novels.
-- I feel so much better since I stopped trying to believe.
"We are entitled to our own opinions. We're not entitled to our own facts"- Al Franken
"If death isn't sweet oblivion, I will be severely disappointed" - Ruth M.
Does "The Ten Commandments" movie count? That wasn't a Christian film was it?
Sure - cheezy, but sure.
cj,
I can see where that is a reasonable view of Clarke's work. He certainly wrapped really neat, concise story-lines around some fascinating ideas.
"The Sentinel" comes to mind, which was expanded into a core theme of "2001, A Space Oddyssey",about a mysterious artifact found on the Moon.
They were classics of the short format, a fascinating, tight narrative, setting the scene for stunning zinger in the last paragraph.
As in The Star - the discovery of an ancient tragedy, a stellar civilization, wiped out by a supernova, then the implications to a Jesuit scientist when he calculates just when the light from that star would have reached Earth...
Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality
"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris
The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology