"A Case Of Consilience" - читать интересную книгу автора (MacLeod Ken)

MacLeod, Ken - A Case of ConsilienceA Case of Consilience
KEN MacLEOD
From Hartwell, David - Year's Best SF 11 (2006)
Ken MacLeod (kenmacleod.blogspot.com) lives in West Lothian, Scotland. He became
prominent in the late 1990s with his early novels, the four politically engaged
books in the Fall Revolution series, that began in the UK in 1995 with The Star
Fraction, and in the U.S. in 1999 with the reprinting of The Cassini Division.
His next three novels are The Engines of Light trilogy, and his latest novels
are Newton's Wake (subtitled A Space Opera in the UK in 2004) and Learning the
World (2005, subtitled or, The New Intelligence: A Scientific Romance). He wrote
an essay on "The New Space Opera" for Locus in 2004, and is generally regarded
as central to British space opera in this generation. He has published very
little short fiction.
"A Case of Consilience " was published in Nova Scotia. It is in dialogue with
James Blish's classic, "A Case of Conscience." The first twist is that MacLeod's
Christian, Donald Maclntyre, is a Scots Presbyterian, not a Catholic priest. The
second is that the intelligent alien is a vast subterranean mycoid—a fungus.
Maclntyre's belief motivates him to bring the gospel to the alien. But then
there is the alien point of view.



When you say it's Providence that brought you here," said Qasim, "what I hear
are two things: it's bad luck, and it's not your fault."
The Rev. Donald Maclntyre, M.A. (Div.), Ph.D., put down his beer can and nodded.
"That's how it sometimes feels," he said. "Easy for you to say, of course."
Qasim snorted. "Easy for anybody! Even a Muslim would have less difficulty here.
Let alone a Buddhist or Hindu."
"Do tell," said Donald. "No, what's really galling is that there are millions of
Christians who would take all this in their stride. Anglicans. Liberals.
Catholics. Mormons, for all I know. And my brethren in the, ah, narrower
denominations could come up with a dozen different rationalizations before
breakfast, all of them heretical did they but know it—which they don't, thank
the Lord and their rigid little minds, so their lapses are no doubt forgiven
through their sheer ignorance. So it's given to me to wrestle with. Thus a work
of Providence. I think."
"I still don't understand what your problem is, compared to these other
Christians."
Donald sighed. "It's a bit hard to explain," he said. "Let's put it this way.
You were brought up not to believe in God, but I expect you had quite strong
views about the God you didn't believe in. Am I right?"
Qasim nodded. "Of course. Allah was always…" He shrugged. "Part of the
background. The default."
"Exactly. Now, how did you feel when you first learned about what Christians
believe about the Son of God?"
"It was a long time ago," said Qasim. "I was about eight or nine. In school in
Kirkuk. One of my classmates told me, in the course of… well, I am sorry to say
in the course of a fight. I shall pass over the details. Enough to say I was
quite shocked. It seemed preposterous and offensive. And then I laughed at
myself!"