I like Science Fiction

I like Science Fiction, and I read it avidly whenever I get a chance. I like the way people look at things from a not-quite-normal point of view. I think sometimes it helps me be a quality engineer, since it makes me think outside the box as well. Orson Scott Card is a writer who often blends bug eyed space invaders with old fashioned religion, with a smattering of flat out honesty. In his stories, he doesn't just tell a story, he describes many characters and their relationships with one another. Since his focus is on the people and not on the conclusion, it's easy to relate with his characters and the overall effect is more believable. The bible is a lot like that - we are not simply told Abraham obeyed God. We are told Abraham's wife has a difficult time believing God because of her age. We know the problems Abraham had to face, both from outside and inside his own family. We are told the questions he asks, and we are shown the love he has for his son. We get to know Abraham, and it makes him someone we can relate to, and thus to emulate.

In any case, a "Speaker for the Dead" is one that comes to a funeral and reveals all the truth about a person. They don't just say "Bob was a great guy", they tell it like it is. A speaker simply reveals the real person, good or bad. And in the book, there are occasionally little bulletin-like blurbs. One of our members here also read the book and asked me why I never used it as a bulletin. So, well, here it is! -RC


A Great Rabbi stands teaching in the market place. It happens that a husband finds proof that morning of his wife's adultery, and a mob carries her to the market place to stone her to death. (There is a familiar version of this story, but a friend of mine, a speaker for the dead, has told me of two other rabbis that faced the same situation. Those are the ones I'm going to tell you.)

The Rabbi walks forward and stands beside the woman. Out of respect for him the crowd forbears, and waits with the stones heavy in their hands. "Is there anyone here," he says to them, "who has not desired another man's wife, another woman's husband?" they murmur and say, "We all know the desire. But, Rabbi, none of us has acted on it." The rabbi says, "Then kneel down and give thanks that God made you strong." He takes the woman by the hand and leads her out of the market. Just before he lets her go, he whispers to her, "Tell the lord magistrate who saved his mistress. Then he will know I am his loyal servant." So the woman lives because the community is too corrupt to protect itself from disorder.

Another rabbi, another city. He goes to her and stops the mob, as in the other story, and says, "Which of you is without sin? Let him cast the first stone." The people are abashed, and they forget their unity of purpose in the memory of their own individual sins. Someday, they think, I may be like this woman, and I'll hope for forgiveness and another chance. I should treat her the way I wish to be treated. As they open their hands and let the stones fall to the ground, the rabbi picks up one of the fallen stones, lifts it high over the woman's head, and throws it straight down with all his might. It crushes her skull and dashes her brains onto the cobblestones. "Nor am I without sin," he says to people. "But if we allow only perfect people to enforce the law, the law will soon be dead, and our city with it." So the woman died because her community was too rigid to endure her defense.

The famous version of this story is noteworthy because it is so startlingly rare in our experience. Most communities lurch between decay and rigor mortis, and when they veer too far, they die. Only one rabbi dared to expect of us such perfect balance that we could preserve the law and still forgive the deviation. So, of course, we killed him.

Excerpt from "Speaker For The Dead" - Orson Scott Card