In 1971, in the wake of the moon landing, the New Era published an article entitled “People on Other Worlds” by BYU associate professor of astronomy Kent Nielsen. This article asserts extraterrestrial life as a natural part of Latter-day Saint theology: “Are planets out in space inhabited by intelligent creatures? Without doubt” (Nielsen). Another scholar observed that the concept of worlds inhabited by intelligent beings “is not only central to … restorationist scripture but, far more significantly, is at the very core of Mormon eschatology and belief in postmortal experience" (Paul 193).
Terryl Givens noted in his book People of Paradox that the belief in “the reality of multiple inhabited worlds” is one aspect of what drives so many Latter-day Saints into the production of science fiction (Givens 320). While the existence of the alien is firmly entrenched in LDS theology, the exact significance of these other worlds and their inhabitants is open to the exact kind of speculation that leads to the production of Mormon science fiction. In the majority of science fiction, the use of aliens provides “considerable capabilities for commenting on difference and on encounters with Others in our own world" (Booker 14). For example, aliens have been used as a metaphor to discuss the threat of communism, the impacts of colonialism on non-Western peoples, and issues of gender and sexuality (Booker). Part of the reason aliens remain such a powerful symbolic tool is that their existence is a blank canvas. Fictional aliens are constructed by humans, so they are often a mirror that reflects the author and the culture that created them.
Thus it stands to reason that we might expect to find reflections of Latter-day Saint theology about extraterrestrial life in Mormon science fiction. I propose that Mormon writers are more likely to create fictional worlds that share our holistic cosmology. Of course, not all novels about aliens written by LDS authors will fit this pattern, especially given that authors are also influenced by the greater tradition of science fiction and that published fiction will exhibit a bias towards marketability. Nevertheless, in contrast to mainstream science fiction books where relationships between intelligent species are settled through diplomacy, cultural exchange, and even violence, a universe written by a Latter-day Saint author is more likely to have a predetermined system which sets humans and aliens in a divine, metaphysical relationship to each other.
This paper examines the relationship between the human and the alien in works by prominent Latter-day Saint speculative fiction authors Orson Scott Card and Brandon Sanderson, as well as less well known formerly-LDS author Zenna Henderson. I also address a range science fiction from less well-known authors published in collections specifically oriented towards a Mormon reading community, including the Latter-Day Science Fiction collections published in the 1970s and contemporary works from the Mormon Lit Blitz contest.
Works Cited
Booker, M. Keith. “Aliens.” Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction in Literature, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2014, pp. 14–18. ProQuest Ebook Central.
Card, Orson Scott. Speaker for the Dead. Tor Books, 2009.
---. Xenocide. Reissue edition, Tor Books, 2009.
Givens, Terryl L. People of Paradox: A History of Mormon Culture. Oxford University Press, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central.
Godfey, Kenneth W. “The History of Intelligence in Latter-Day Saint Thought.” The Pearl of Great Price: Revelations from God, edited by H Don Peterson and Charles D Jr Tate, Religious Studies Center, 1989, pp. 213–36, https://rsc.byu.edu/pearl-great-price-revelations-god/history-intellige….
Hunter, Preston. “Zenna Henderson’s People Stories.” Irreantum, vol. 2, no. 4, Winter -2001 2000, pp. 87–93.
Johnson, Hollis R. “Worlds.” The Encyclopedia of Mormonism, New York : Macmillan, 1992, pp. 1595–96, https://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Worlds.
Moskowitz, Clara. “Did Jesus Save the Klingons?” Scientific American, 16 Oct. 2014, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/religion-extraterrestrials-j….
Nielsen, Kent. “People on Other Worlds.” New Era, Apr. 1971, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/eng/new-era/1971/04/people-on….
Paul, Erich Robert. “Extraterrestrial Intelligence and Mormon Cosmology.” Science, Religion, and Mormon Cosmology, University of Illinois Press, 1992, pp. 193–223, https://lib.byu.edu/search/byu/record/cat.1207684.item.31197209156915?h….
Reece, Gregory L. “UFOs, Scientology, and Other SF Religions.” The Oxford Handbook of Science Fiction, edited by Rob Latham, Oxford University Press, 2014, p. 0. Silverchair, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199838844.013.0028.
Vestal, Kirk Holland. “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints – 2017 AD.” LDSF: Latter-Day Science Fiction, edited by Scott S Smith and Vickie Smith, vol. 1, Millennial Productions, 1982, pp. 39–45, https://lib.byu.edu/search/byu/record/cat.606686.item.31197203860686?ho….
Westfahl, Gary. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders. Greenwood, 2005.
In the wake of the moon landing, an official Latter-day Saint magazine published an article which asserted belief in extraterrestrial life as a natural part of Latter-day Saint theology: “Are planets out in space inhabited by intelligent creatures? Without doubt. … People ‘out there’ are like people here, because we are all of the race of Gods.” While aliens in science fiction are often used to explore the concept of the Other, Mormon science fiction writers are more likely to look at aliens as a part of themselves and part of a unity of creation. This presentation seeks to examine how Latter-day Saint theology has influenced the portrayal of aliens in stories from Mormon science fiction writers, including stories written for a Latter-day Saint audience as well as those written for a national market. Prominent writers examined include Zenna Henderson, Orson Scott Card, and Brandon Sanderson.