Finding Truth and Wisdom in Science Fiction and Fantasy

My Rekindled Love for SF & My Convo with Christopher Ruocchio

I love science fiction stories. My dad has been a SF enjoyer for as long as I’ve known him (‘SF’ being the cool kids’ abbreviation for ‘science fiction’, whereas ‘sci-fi’ is mainstream and no good I guess). Seldom a week of my childhood went by without mention of Alfred Bester’s ‘Gulliver Foyle’ from The Stars My Destination— in fact, my dad even named his Scottish terrier Gulliver “Gully” Foyle Settecase.

But on top of talking about SF all the time, my dad also writes his own SF short stories. So for most of my life, my main introduction to philosophical themes came through the canonical great works of SF, namely the Hugo winners (I’m resisting the urge to insert a lame Bane-voice joke about “being born in SF and molded by it… yadda yadda yadda until I was already a man”—so you’re welcome). Though there was also a healthy dose of Star Trek and Batman the Animated Series which filled in any philosophical gaps left by the Hugo winners.

Once I was out of the house and left to my own devices, however, I began studying philosophy and theology straight from the professional philosophers and theologians. I kept on reading Philip Kindred Dick and the occasional Asimov story, but for a long time I was mostly mainlining concepts from analytic philosophy.

That’s all changing. As I’ve begun transitioning from philosophy & theology student to unauthorized and self-appointed philosophy & theology teacher/transmitter on YouTube, I’ve come to appreciate alternative methods of transmitting big ideas. I’ve come to realize what so many have known and have been saying all along: stories are king! If you want to impact someone with a deep idea, wrap it in a compelling story.

Part of this personal revelation came through my own work in systematic theology, specifically my work on the Authorial Analogy for the God-World relation. Basically, I think God is literally the author of our world and He relates to it in an analogous fashion to that of C.S. Lewis and his book Out of the Silent Planet or The Great Divorce. Lewis is both the author of those worlds as well as a character in them—main character of the latter and in-world author/narrator in the former. So, if God is the author of our world, then perhaps part of what it means to image God is to tell our own stories in an analogous fashion. But this is an idea for another time, perhaps for a future short story, maybe even a futuristic one.

Another part of the revelation that story is king came from studying the history of philosophy and seeing the different modes philosophers have utilized to convey arguments and ideas, such as dialogues (duh), sililoquy (Augustine), and even full-blown novels (Voltaire’s Candid, Dostoyevski’s Brother’s K).

All this to say, I’m returning to my roots, acknowledging that I’ll never escape my father’s shadow, and diving headlong once more into science fiction and fantasy—both reading and trying my hand at writing them once again.

Of course this means I’ll need to make a new YouTube channel where I analyze philosophical themes found in the great works of SF, fantasy, and even popular sci-fi shows. But this will be easy, in fact, I’ve already made a new YouTube channel! It’s called “Truth Suffers”, which is an homage to that ancient Fremen saying: “Truth suffers from too much analysis.” (Dune Messiah). This is a particularly timely saying for me as I’ve just spent the last eleven semesters studying analytic philosophy and theology across three Master’s degrees getting blasted by “too much analysis”.

I’ve already begun work on several Truth Suffers videos, and I’m thinking the first one that I’ll release will be on a beautiful metaphilosophical concept I found in Dune Messiah—say what you will about the book, but Herbert was a master of epigraphs and gnomic sayings! You can subscribe to the new channel here so you don’t miss it: Truth Suffers

But in the meantime, you can also hear me get schooled on SF and fantasy by one of today’s greatest up-and-coming science fantasy authors on episode 257 of the Parker’s Pensées Podcast! Christopher Ruocchio is the author of the Sun Eater science fantasy series and he came on the podcast to discuss the philosophy of science fiction with me. We also get into some of the ins and outs of his fantastic series and how he manages to be so productive as well. He is a major Roman classicist nerd and an all-around great dude! Both of us are ‘90s babies and as such, share a lot of similar influences. Enjoy this nearly 2 hour episode of us nerding out on the philosophy of science fiction.

Watch it on YouTube here:

Or watch or listen to it on Spotify here:

Grab his books here to support my work:

Empire of Silence: https://amzn.to/3J1CA9m

Howling Dark: https://amzn.to/3PPdgXZ

Demon in White: https://amzn.to/43GU4kS

Kingdoms of Death: https://amzn.to/4azY3BX

Ashes of Man: https://amzn.to/3TGLgqD

Disquiet Gods: https://amzn.to/43Hg3Iw