This week I made some cool discoveries in Substack with new authors addressing topics I’ve followed for years. The first has application to the recent success of the Artemis II mission. I watched the rocket blast off into space and kept tabs with its mission over the days that followed, and like millions of other Americans I watched with a slight bit of nervousness as they re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, hoping the heat shield would do its job. The mission brought back memories of the Apollo missions of the late 1960s and 1970s that I watched as a kid. The Artemis mission has reinvigorated the American space program with the plans for a fresh landing on the moon and the establishment of a permanent base, and continued hopes for sending astronauts to Mars. But I must admit that while I find the space program fascinating, and undoubtedly a shining example of America’s technological abilities, I think the hopes for a Mars mission, and perhaps future interstellar travel, are really current expressions of the new frontiers myth rather than real scientific possibilities. I was reminded of this in a Substack piece by Jason Pargin titled “Interstellar Space Travel Will Never, Ever Happen.” In the piece he lists several scientific reasons why this is the case, and I find it compelling. Because of these realities, our space program provides a mythic hope that dovetails the new frontiers myth as expressed in science fiction tails.
This leads me to my second great find on Substack, a series on aliens in science fiction by Graham Lau. This is a multipart series on Mythologies of Alien Life, where looks at the historical development of alien concepts, including how this has been shaped in science fiction. I’ve discussed science fiction as myth previously on this blog, and I am pleased to see Lau take up the topic. You can read Part 4 of his series here where looks at science fiction from the 1900s and how the concept of aliens evolved from this context. I’d encourage reading the other parts of the series as well.
Finally, Lau’s Substack introduced me to a new concept and author, Jason D. Batt’s work on Xenomythology, defined as “The interdisciplinary study of how mythological structures, archetypes, and religious systems might form among non-human intelligences. Xenomythology synthesizes depth psychology, comparative mythology, astrobiology, and evolutionary biology to explore the conditions under which myth-making arises—and challenges the assumption that human mythological patterns are universal.” Although I’ve studied UFOs/UAPs and the theological implications of possible alien life, surprisingly this was my first encounter with Xenomythology. Lau explores this on his wonderful Substack at The Stellar Furnace (including some other great posts on science fiction like Frankenstein). You can read one of his posts on Xenomythology here, and for a deeper dive check out his website Xenomythology.
