Who doesn’t love a good disaster film? How often have we sat on the edge of our seat in a theater and watch as carnage and destruction decimate our planet? The more deadly and vicious the threat, the more we want it. Film has a unique way of putting us in the thick of things as we are surrounded by crashing tsunamis, exploding volcanoes, off-course asteroids, virulent viruses, alien invasions, or any number of phenomena destined to destroy our way of life.

Disaster films generally utilize an ensemble cast with each character bringing a bit of their story to the overarching one. This aspect is important to the success or failure of a film. Recently Warner Bros. released the monster disaster movie Godzilla vs. Kong. Critics faulted the movie for failing to develop its human characters. (Perhaps I am too simple. I didn’t care about the human element. I just wanted to see the lizard fight the monkey.) Whether one agrees with the sentiment, a successful disaster film appeals to our concerns about the humans involved.

Many films in the disaster genre explore unique symbolism. Given all the disaster film subgenres—manmade, apocalyptic, natural disaster, epidemics, and pandemics, and more—I’ll limit this article to the analysis of a selection of apocalyptic disaster films.

Apocalyptic films explore humanity’s purpose and desire for existence

Armageddon (1998) explored humanity’s potential end via an asteroid.

According to my mom, the plot is similar to 1978’s Meteor, with the added intrigue of Cold War politics with the United States’ favorite enemy, Russia. Humanity’s salvation rests on the eclectic motley crew of an oil rig who are tasked with drilling into the asteroid to break it apart. Scientific inaccuracies abound (according to those who care about such things), but the movie appealed to audiences because of the relatable characters.

In the movie, the world’s hopes rest on this crew. Within the movie, people of all different religious beliefs come together to pray for this crew’s success. Ultimately, they succeed when Bruce Willis’s character sacrifices himself at the end to save the world, a definitive parallel to Christ’s sacrifice. Praying to God represented people’s understanding that if this plan will succeed, the people need divine intervention. I don’t recall anyone heckling the thought of God intervening. In fact, this was welcomed.

Armageddon had more comedy than probably is warranted. However, laughter goes a long way in making dark news light. Deep Impact (1998), Armageddon’s fraternal twin, also explored the potential destruction of Earth via an asteroid. This film was more of an emotional story with potential survivors being chosen by a lottery. Deep Impact dealt with water, an allusion to Noah’s flood whose waters God used to cleanse the Earth. At the end, Morgan Freeman’s character stares at the camera saying, “The waters receded,” indicating God had spared his full judgement on Earth.

While I wouldn’t call both movies Christian, they had themes and precepts that fall in a Christian worldview. Our existence is completely dependent on God. Irrevocably. Anyone who believes different is welcome to…but it doesn’t make it true. Any illusion of control is simply that…an illusion.

Apocalyptic movies highlight our desire to prevent self-destruction

Recently my Granny and I watched a movie called Crack in the World (1965). In this movie, scientists send a nuclear missile into the Earth’s crust to access geothermal energy and release a crack that travels around the world. After the experiment succeeds, one scene shows all the animals running away. It made me laugh. (“Stupid humans,” you could hear the animals say.) This movie obviously showed how man’s consistent need to manipulate nature points to his own self-destruction.

Just like other impossible science fiction from the 1960s, the crack around the world is stopped by some secret underground laboratory and a big red button. The crack releases a giant chunk of the Earth, which glows and turns into a second moon.

The Core (2003) also digs into the Earth to depict our own self-destruction. In this film, our planet’s core, believed to be a Mars-sized chunk of iron in rapid motion, has stopped spinning. This affects the Earth’s electromagnetic field which affects life. Dangerous microwaves pierce through the atmosphere in lethal doses. Bizarre weather destroys cities. Devices affected by the electromagnetic field’s volatile change cause loss of life.

Our motley crew of terra-nauts have constructed a ship made from an improbable element called Unobtainium. They inform us that America’s enemies created a device that could create directed seismic disasters. Because one good turn deserves another, the main scientist of the project says, “They [our enemies] built it first. I built it better. M. A. D.! Mutually Assured Destruction.”

In The Core, one member of the crew dies. An argument ensues and the commander explains the cause of death as, “Fate or God—” But the science teacher screams. “You leave God out of this.” In the movie, the commander chooses not to save his friend and instead reluctantly chooses to save the world. This dialogue mirrors that it wasn’t fate or God, but man who caused the demise.

At the end, with help from nuclear bombs, they restart the Earth’s core.

These films are like Aesop’s fables about man’s arrogance. In both movies, scientists are responsible for the planet’s approaching destruction. In the name of defense, they create weapons to capitalize on power.

Apocalyptic films reveal that humanity cannot stop its own judgment

Can you remember the fervor over “Mayan prophecy” that predicted the world’s end on December 21, 2012? I’m so glad I didn’t set my watch. That fervor exploded into several movies, such as 2012 (2009). The apocalyptic end, caused by the shifting of the Earth’s crust, was spectacular.

I’ve watched the movie many times. Each time, I’m struck by its symbolism.

Water once again points to God’s judgment. 2012 shows most of the United States being destroyed by earthquakes and tsunamis. However, the story’s disasters shifts in subtlety, from a nominal spiritual element that all experience to a subjective emphasis.

Consider this: In the scene where the president speaks gently to the terrified masses, he begins to recite Psalms 23—but he is cut off. Fear ensues and volcanoes erupt. Here in a nation purporting to be Christian, the words of the Lord are superficially comforting.

A giant tsunami wave hurtles toward the cool, collected façade of the Dalai Lama who faces his end with serenity. In his last effort, he rings the bell of the temple before the wave crashes upon him.

The crazy prepper disc jockey who embraced the truth of the end joyfully accepts his fate, laughing and smiling in the face of death as a fiery rock burns him to a crisp.

Lastly, the Indian scientist, who discovered the changes within the Earth, dies in the disaster he predicted along with his family.¹

This film and many others depict the inevitability of humanity’s end. We understand our flawed, wicked nature. We don’t have to look very far to see humanity’s tendencies toward destruction. We must be stopped—and if we’re stopped by worldwide destruction, so be it.

Biblical prophecy points not only to a certain end, but a new beginning

If you want to start an eschatological fist fight, talk about the apocalypse according to Scripture. Christians share two popular points of views on the popular prophetic passages of Daniel, Ezekiel, the four Gospels, and Revelation.

The futurist view

This centers the apocalypse on the person of the Antichrist who develops a one-world government, with the Mark of the Beast as a way of separating true believers from the damned. It involves a complex aligning of geopolitical events to bring about the end in which the Rapture will occur, the reign of the Antichrist, then a global war between Satan and his demonic forces and God—who will ultimately win. The judgment ends by the purification of fire. ²

The Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins explores this view.

The preterist view

In this concept, the apocalypse is the breaking of the old covenant with Israel and the forging of the new one. The language of Revelation is metaphorical with allusions that first-century Jews would have understood: for example, the Antichrist being Nero, the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D., and other geopolitical events of the known world during that time frame. Most proponents of the preterist view believe that not all events mentioned in Revelation have already happened but that some are still yet future.

The Last Disciple series by Hank Hanegraaf explores this scenario.

Either way, God writes the ending

Regardless of one’s view, apocalyptic films mirror this biblical end-times imagery. However, most apocalyptic films stop at humanity’s end, where only a remnant of people are saved. Or, worse, everyone gets wiped out. Humanity dies away into stardust.

Thanks be to God, that’s not the end.

God’s judgment unleashes His righteous wrath that He has held back for so long. Yet, instead of utter destruction, He will restore creation to perfection: a New Heavens and New Earth where sin will have no reign.

That’s different even from supposedly hopeful endings like in the movie Knowing (2009), where we find Nicolas Cage running around trying to figure out end-times stuff. At the last end, mysterious beings (angels?) collect his children and a few others and take them to another planet (another Earth?) where they run by a tree, implied to be the tree of life. The problem with that scenario is that all the kids get saved—but they’re still stuck in their sins. Eventually, their descendants will make the same mistakes as their forefathers. In that movie, man’s destructive cycle continues.

Our Lord will end that cycle and bring a new beginning that will last forever.

What are some of your favorite apocalyptic sci-fi movies or series? What are some other underlying themes I missed? Share your thoughts!

I’m a fan of Jill Williamson’s writing. I haven’t read every single book she’s written, but close. In fact, I just bought her latest release, Hunger, the second book in the Thirst duology, prequels to her Safe Lands dystopian trilogy. This is one I’ve been especially eager to read. When news came out that she’d be releasing the book this April, I made a special effort to jump right in and get my copy ASAP.

Some might be skeptical, thinking if you’ve read one dystopian, you’ve read them all, but that’s not the case with these books that serve as prequels to Williamson’s Safe Lands trilogy. For one thing, the timing of the books about a virus—albeit, one in the water instead of one passed by human secretion—is eerily prescient. For another, Jill exposed the underbelly of human behavior in the midst of panic, painting pictures that are all too reminiscent of store shelves stripped of toilet paper, hand sanitizer, canned products, fresh fruits and vegetables, and more.

Of course, the over arching goal of these books aims to show what happened that brought about the circumstances in the Safe Lands books in which the majority of people lived in a walled section of the world, while a much smaller group lived more like survivalists apart from the majority. How did this happen? That’s the driving question behind Thirst and Hunger.

Here is the description of Hunger

In the wake of a pandemic, Eli and his friends find a thriving community that offers free housing, food, and thankfully, safe drinking water. But something is amiss. The residents spend most their time partying and attending concerts. No one seems concerned that the virus is still out there. When Eli tries to leave, he discovers a fence has been built to keep him, and everyone else, inside.

Hannah is tired of running. When she is conscripted to work in the hospital, she hopes she’s finally found a place to belong, but Admin’s disregard for a doctor’s pledge to “First do no harm” is unsettling.

As Hannah starts to wonder if she will ever be safe again, Eli clings to his hope for freedom. In a world filled with lies, can they learn to trust each other? Or will their hunger for safety trap them in a world that’s not so safe after all?

Clearly, Hunger is the Part 2 of this two-book explanation for the existence of the world a reader will discover in the Safe Lands trilogy. For those who have not read the Part 1—Thirst—I strongly encourage you to start there. The really good news is that the book is available on Kindle for $2.99. That’s a steal. This book is fast-paced and highly entertaining. No one should worry that they will arrive at a cliffhanger ending, though it’s evident at the conclusion of Thirst that there needs to be more story. (See “Fiction Friday: Thirst By Jill Williamson”). And of course, the other good thing is that “more story” has now arrived!

As a refresher

Jill Williamson is weird, which is probably why she writes science fiction and fantasy novels for teenagers. She grew up in Alaska with no electricity, an outhouse, and a lot of mosquitoes. Thankfully it was the land of the midnight sun, and she could stay up and read by the summer daylight that wouldn’t go away. But the winter months left little to do but daydream. Both hobbies set her up to be a writer.

Also Jill is a Whovian, a Photoshop addict, and a recovering fashion design assistant. Her debut novel, a medieval fantasy called By Darkness Hid, won an EPIC Award, a Christy Award, and was named a Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror novel of 2009 by VOYA magazine. Jill has since published thirteen books.

Finally, she loves working with teenagers and encouraging them to respect their dreams. Jill speaks and gives writing workshops at libraries, schools, camps, and churches. She blogs for teen writers at www.goteenwriters.com. She lives in Oregon with her husband, two children, and a whole lot of deer. You can also visit her online at www.jillwilliamson.com, where adventure comes to life.

Jill is a prolific writer. Besides her Safe Lands dystopian books, she wrote a straight science fiction story about cloning called Replication, a young adult series suited for younger teens called The Mission League books, two co-authored (with her son) children’s stories in her RoboTales series, and several fantasy series. If you haven’t jumped on the Jill Williamson bandwagon yet, now is as good a time as any to dive in and find out what you’ve been missing.

Looking for something to entertain me horror-wise, I traveled to YouTube. Finally, I found what I was looking for.

Unlike their big budget or low budget longer counterparts, short horror films work very quickly to tell a story. The story doesn’t have to be completely flushed out, but you need to get the gist of what’s happening. Some of the short films are anywhere from three minutes to ten. Some a little longer like twenty minutes.

The movies I’ve listed below are on YouTube. If you decide to click on them, the thumbnail will reveal the scary image of the film. This is to attract viewers to the channel and entice potential subscribers.

The Beauty of Short Horror Films

Simple storylines.

In the short film titled, Polaroid, which is only three minutes long, we follow a young man who just moved into an apartment. He finds an old polaroid camera. Bemused, he takes a picture with it. And what he sees starts his journey in horror.

Within the first maybe five or ten seconds, without any dialogue, you pick up on these cues. The director staged everything so well that even the most passive viewer can see it.

Plot driven acts.

In these short films, it’s not necessary to know about the characters’ entire personal history. Depending on the type of story it is, we only need to know enough to follow their path. The purpose is to build tension within a short time frame. In She Knows, a five-minute film, we don’t know much about the main character. We only see the results of his actions as he hides the body…and what happens after that.

Sound effects, lighting, and space.

I think sound effects in these short films can really amp up the creepiness. Hearing a maniacal laughter in the background, crying, the creaking and cracking of bones, wind shrieking, a timid voice, a deep growl, all of those bring forth visceral reactions. In Reflection, another three minutes short, we have no idea who the woman is brushing her teeth. We don’t care. All we do care about as she’s doing something completely innocuous, we see the edge of something strange behind her in the mirror. Throughout the short is this weird laugh throughout that adds another level to strange to it.

The lighting and spacing in the movie created a claustrophobic feel. Evoking that sense brought you deep into the film. Tight spaces, darkness, and shadows are a recipe for creepiness.

Jump scares are a stable of horror films. Something jumps out at you when you least expect it. This technique can be overused to the point you no longer feel the impact of the scare.

Interpretative.

Due to the limited nature, some shorts have the capacity to craft a well-rounded story that leaves the viewer to guess what it means. This ambiguous aspect adds to the tension but in a more subtle way. “Make Me a Sandwich” explores domestic abuse and its psychological effects on the victim. The special effects weren’t the greatest, but the acting really made the film standout. As we follow our abused wife as she hurriedly answers her husband’s constant calls for another sandwich, we start to wonder at the happenings between this couple. The disgust factor in this three-minute film adds that weirdness to it. the husband chomps, and chomps, and chomps on the sandwich – no matter what’s in it. When we arrive at the end of this film, we find ourselves wondering about our own state of mind.

In “Lili”, an excellent eight minute film, it’s entirely dominated by two people. A man who remains mostly off-camera and a woman, an actress auditioning for a role. Her acting skills are phenomenal to anyone listening and watching her…but the guy behind the camera wants her to do a bit more. Echoing sentiments of the MeToo movement along with feminine empowerment, when we get to the end, it’s not what you think.

Predictability.

These films are predictable – that’s why we like them! We know someone’s going to get it. We know something dreadful is going to happen. We want to be the ones safely ensconced behind our monitors or our TVs in the living room and holler at the screen. “Don’t go in there!” “Don’t open the door!” “Stay away from the ancient demonic artifact!”

When you look in the comment section on YouTube, the commentary can get hilarious. In Lights Out, the not-even-three-minute film that became a full-length feature that grossed 150 million dollars, we’re screaming at the lady to ‘Keep the lights on!’ She does that. Then we heard creaking footsteps and we’re like, “Get out of the room!”

But we know she’s going to stay there. Ultimately, we really don’t want her to get out the room. We need to see the monster, the goblin, the ghost, the alien what have you.

This doesn’t mean that all short horror films are good. Due to the limits some are pretty bad. But why spoil it for you?

Looking through these short horror films, I noticed something a few things about them. There are more knowledgeable people about the film industry than me so please take these below ideas in a general sense of someone on the outside looking in.

1. Many of them were amateur movie makers. The makers weren’t well-known directors or had thousands of dollars at their disposal. They had a vision and worked at executing it.
2. Many of them used what was available. This means they called in friends, used their own vehicles, houses, borrowed clothes, and other favors. Many of them are scaled back in production design.
3. Those moviemakers who continued to make movies got better at making movies. Practice makes perfect. With the kind of technology out there, some of it free to download, use, share, and connect, more people are going at it.
4. Movies is an art form, not just entertainment. Most like to tell stories.
5. There is a community working together.

The Advantages and Examples of Horror Writing through a Christian worldview.

Mike Duran got into a lot of trouble about advocating for this, but I contend that he’s right. Horror is an excellent vehicle that depicts the human condition, and the need for salvation vs. survival. I am reminded of Frank Peretti’s The Oath, a thoroughly enjoyable book that took a literal and symbolic view of sin and Satan in the form of a dragon and black goo.

Most people think of horror as gore. It’s not. Horror has many sub-genres like any other. Sometimes it’s psychological, mysterious, comical.

I’ve seen Christians bully Christian writers out of exploring in this genre because of their own dislike for it. Well, admittedly, not just this genre but any speculative fiction genre. Folks have a knee-jerk reaction and because they don’t like it, you shouldn’t either.

The best book I’ve read in a long time is Nate Allen’s Death is not the End, Daddy. This psychological thriller explores the story of two men – a young girl’s father and the serial killer who kidnaps his daughter. Through dark storytelling, Nate Allen explores themes of sin, spiritual warfare, forgiveness, and possible redemption through a Christian lens. I told Nate it’s the best book I’ve read. I’ve enjoyed many, many books and it’s hard to pick ‘the best’ but I picked it because it’s a powerful piece of fiction looking at God’s grace through the eyes of someone the rest of us would give up on.

Another dark novel I’ve enjoyed is Jess Hanna’s Bright Lights, Dark Skies. Exploring the nature of alien abductions and speculating if they are extra-terrestrial or something much darker. When you listen to the stories of victims of alien abductions, they’re quite frightening. They aren’t first contact with a Klingon. They aren’t aliens asking for you to ‘Take me to your leader.’

There’s something sinister beneath these incidences.

In Deborah Alten’s Mrs. Shackles, this short collection of flash fiction pieces is reminiscent of the Twilight Zone with the recurring character of Mrs. Shackles. I told Deborah I wanted to see more of this woman who acts as judge, jury, and executioner. By the time you’re finished reading it, you begin to wonder why Mrs. Shackles is the way she is.

I wouldn’t call the book horror, but it does have somber, moodier stories. Hopefully, she continues to write more.

I sense there are those in the community of Christian speculative fiction writers who want to explore topics in this genre. Why not? It’s not always about demonic entities but psychological thrillers, cover-ups, manipulations and so much more. In fact, forget the demonic forces at large. What people do to each other can be quite frightening. Maybe you don’t want to go the spiritual or monster route. You don’t have to. The creep factor is what you make of it.

Horror is an excellent canvas to explore good vs. evil, light vs. dark, survival vs. salvation and a whole host of themes. I think it would be even better written within the context of a Christian worldview.

In the US, with the First Amendment protecting free speech, I have not imagined a time I would be discussing banning books, but here it is. I’ll be discussing some of the books that I read during my enforced time away from the computer, but another matter has more urgency, I think.

With little notice, society has taken upon itself the banning of certain books. I looked at lists from 2019 and from 2020 listing the top ten banned books, usually by some library. School libraries were the most apt to ban the books. Technically taking a book out of a library is not “banning,” because presumable people can go elsewhere and find the book or perhaps buy their own copy.

It is troubling that books like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain ( a Bantam Classics, published in 1885); To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (publised by Harper Perennial in 1960); and Lord of the Flies, make these lists, but the idea that they are banned is not quite accurate. Rather, more often than not, concerned parents who found the content of certain books, often required reading, to be offensive, complained to their school and their library or administration removed them.

However, in 2019 the US moved a step closer to actually banning a book:

In 2019, two New Jersey lawmakers introduced a non-binding resolution calling on school districts in the state to remove the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—considered to be one of the greatest in American literature—from their curricula.

Government, “suggesting” to schools what people can or can’t read.

More recently, however, “cancel culture” has influenced the withdrawal of six Dr. Seuss books from publication. Complaints caused the organization to rethink the books they put in print:

As adored as Dr. Seuss is by millions around the world for the positive values in many of his works, including environmentalism and tolerance, there has been increasing criticism in recent years over the way Blacks, Asians and others are drawn in some of his most beloved children’s books, as well as in his earlier advertising and propaganda illustrations.(ABC news report)

Finally, last year the organization holding the reins of the Dr. Seuss legacy, decided to stop publication of a select number of titles.

Dr. Seuss Enterprises, working with a panel of experts, including educators, reviewed our catalog of titles and made the decision last year to cease publication and licensing of the following titles: And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo, McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super!, and The Cat’s Quizzer. These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong. (from the Dr. Seuss Enterprises statement, as quoted by Deadline)

And so the dominoes begin to fall.

The canceling of books in a little confusing. For instance, some of the books on the 2020 list of “banned” books were removed because Christian parents objected to graphic sex portrayed in the book, some because of vulgar language or similar questions about age-inappropriate material. Should parents be allowed to make those decisions for their children? Should they push for what they believe to be inappropriate books to be removed from their school library?

On the other hand should the hypersensitivity of a culture in the 21st century remove books written earlier, often with the very intent to eliminate the objectionable behavior about which people complain?

No matter where people stand, I think the most dangerous piece of this puzzle is the involvement of a state government which has moved the needle toward actual censorship in the form of banning books.

How can we discuss ideas if we are not allowed to read anything about those ideas?

As I see it, the same “banning” approach is being employed by the “legacy” media and the tech giants that control social media. How else is a story published by the fourth largest newspaper in the US squelched? If our approach to news stories comes under the control of those holding only one view, how are we not turning our those reports into propaganda? I have to admit, I am strongly reminded of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four in which the protagonist has the job of rewriting the past to suit the needs of the Party in control of the government.

In other words, I see books as key elements of our society—on one end giving a prescient look at our society, and on the other end, receiving the brunt of criticism caused by a climate of offense. The latter should concern readers and writers alike. Even when no harm is intended, when humor and caricatures are widespread such as in the canceled Dr. Seuss books, when the subject of a book is purposefully to expose a wrong attitude which has become “sensitive,” books are subject to negative treatment, if not actual banning.

To be honest, I’m surprised that Gone With The Wind is not on a recent banned book list. I’m pretty sure that Uncle Tom’s Cabin found its way on one such list not long ago. These books show life in the South during the era of slavery. To Kill A Mockingbird showed life in the segregated South during the 20th century. How are we to talk about the whys and the needed changes if we don’t have some look at what those times were like?

It is a truth universally acknowledged that romance receives a lot of hate.

Recently I saw someone comment about romantic fiction; something to the effect of, “When you read romance books, you’re committing adultery.”

I rolled my eyes, but it’s not the first time I’ve heard that argument. Probably won’t be the last. In this Fantastic Romantic Fiction series, I’ve answered to the best of my ability the common critiques romance receives as well as presented a primer.

My hope is I’ve given a fresh perspective about a genre I love.

To end this series, I wanted to share insight from two authors.

‘I didn’t know what I was getting into’

Outside of Travis’s wife, I am Travis’s biggest cheerleader.  I have a great deal of respect for him. He’s been a blessing to me as a brother in Christ and as a fellow author. He and I, along with three others, created a romantic fiction series. I’ve asked him to share his thoughts about the experience. ¹

1. Why did you want to experiment with writing romantic fiction?

Travis Perry

Travis Perry: I have enjoyed stories with strong love interests. I didn’t understand the difference between a romance and a story with a love interest. The other reason is that romance sells better than speculative fiction. I wanted to get in on those romance dollars.

2. What did you learn about writing about romantic fiction that you didn’t know before?

Travis Perry: Flirtation and building expectation are essential commodities of the genre. My initial idea was two characters find something in common and fall in love. Romancing the Stone (1984) is a good example. The movie is an adventure.  Romantic fiction is about relationship-building.

3. During our time working on this project, I critiqued your draft and provided some suggestions to add stronger romantic elements. How was that experience for you?

Travis Perry: Details about attraction, flirtation and romance building are elements I’d seldom used. When you went over the draft, you included details about physical attributes, thoughts, and internal narrative. I focused on other parts like dialogue and plot development.

4. We released the series. What were some things you gathered from the experience?

Travis Perry: I’ll share the following:

• I should have used a pen name for writing out of genre. The crowd who followed my work knew me for my military and sci-fi work.
• As a group, we included fantasy, sci-fi and romance and ended up offending all three sects of readers. Also, the covers did not attract the readers we were looking for. We should have created a more romantic storyline and covers that matched it.
• We imagined that putting three genres together, thinking we’d attract all three categorical readers, but that didn’t happen. We should have simplified the stories.
• Romance dollars don’t come as easy as you think. Some speculative fiction writers believe romance is a pile of money you only have to pick up and grab, but that’s not true. Writing romance takes a certain skill set. It’s not easy.

I agree with Travis: we made some choices that didn’t pan out. But neither of us would call it a failure. If anything, we learned what not to do.

‘I use the Bible as a guideline’

My second author is Suprina Frazier.²

What can I say about my beautiful friend? She loves the Lord, and she doesn’t have any issue with adding sex and sensuality in her Christian fiction books. Her primary works are contemporary romance, but I reached out to her for this interview because she has a unique perspective I felt should be shared.

1. As an author who has written sex scenes in her Christian stories, what kind of opposition have you faced?

Suprina Frazier

Suprina Frazier: I faced a lot of opposition from Christians. Realizing they are coming from their own interpretation of what is clean, I don’t vilify them. I’ve learned not to let other people’s interpretation be mine. One well-meaning Christian told me I wrote unclean books. In response, I took her to the book of Acts, to Peter’s vision, and showed her how the Lord admonished Peter for calling what he called clean, unclean. God created sex. It’s people, not God, who make it ugly.

The things you may call unclean are what God wants me to use to reach somebody. God has made me fearless in this path. He told me I am going to write what He tells me to or not at all.

Someone else’s displeasure can’t move me, only His.

2. What are the boundaries you use when crafting sensual scenes?

Suprina Frazier: I talk about whatever God gave me permission to talk about in the Bible. If you go to Song of Solomon, Chapter 4, the groom describes the woman and her body. He pans down from her hair, eyes, teeth, neck, and breasts. My love scenes are steamy, but tasteful. In the Song of Solomon, the groom discusses her face, her lips, her breasts, thighs. This is the permission God has given me.

3. How can you compare the intimacy of husband and wife with the intimacy with God?

Suprina Frazier: With intimacy between a husband and wife and intimacy with God it’s knowing a person like no one else does and should. No one else should know your husband or wife like you do. Likewise with God, there are things we trust God with to be completely naked with Him. When all our sins are laid bare, and He knows all about them. It’s undressing your soul before the Lord. Intimacy with God is greater than intimacy with your spouse.

4. If an author wanted to dip their toes in this volatile area of edgy Christian fiction, how would you advise them?

Suprina Frazier: I would tell the author to do a study in the Word of God. Start in Song of Solomon, but you can look at other instances where God refers to a man and woman becoming one. “He went into her.” “He knew her.” and other phrases. Be prepared to deal with those who will object.

The Creator of romance

My confusion remains why Christian authors and readers have such a hatred of romance. It’s strange. When God describes His relationship with the Church, He calls us his “bride.” As my author friend David Bergsland recently said to me, “When God talks about knowing us, it’s using the same term of an intimate relationship with a husband and wife.”

God is the creator of romance. He’s as crazy about love as we are. This doesn’t mean that he loves so blindly that He lets us do whatever we want. That wouldn’t be genuine love. Love has conditions.

Travis mentioned romance isn’t just two people falling in love. It’s relationship building. When you first fall in love, you can’t get enough of your sweetheart. You long to be in his or her presence all the time.

When we fall in love with our Lord, for new Christians, we bask in His love for us. He came to our rescue, a knight in shining armor, and carried us away from the dragon.

Committing to each other, a couple’s love grows as they experience life. Marriage, children, sickness, career changes, finances, and more. Each segment works to build the couple together. Romance explores this.

Committing to God, our relationship thrives as we experience life. The ebbs and flows of everything above and more. Our love for Him deepens the longer we get to know Him.

In the article “Meet 105-year-old man and 96-year-old wife who have been married for 79 years,” we hear of a couple who have spent nearly eighty years of happily ever after together. Through it all, they had each other.

It makes me look forward to the day when our happily ever after comes, when we reach Heaven and bask in His presence. We’ll be surrounded by His love for all eternity as we partake of the marriage supper and cement our relationship as His bride forever.

Ah! Isn’t that romantic?

I’ve been absent from this site for 2 and 1/2 months, and even before that, I was hit and miss. Long story short, my old computer needed to be upgraded. The operating system was no longer compatible to a lot of newer versions of the software running many sites. While I could still post here at Spec Faith, I could no longer comment from the site (I could still go to the administration page and search for comments I wanted to respond to, but I could not generate new comments). This went on for several months.

Then one December while I was watching a video, my computer simply stopped. Just stopped.

Since it was the week leading up to New Years Eve, I decided to wait until the new year to handle the problem

When I contacted my computer guy—a tech person who has a one-man business working with old Apple computers (the Apple people had long since told me they could not maintain my machine, because it was so old), I worked out a way to transport that desk top computer a half hour or so to his business. He laid out my options: he could try to repair the machine, but for a little more money he possibly could find a newer, used model that would have more life in it than my old computer which was likely to have other problems as time wore on. Fine. I

I expected in to call me that week to let me know if he’d been successful in finding such a used computer. Instead, nothing. OK, I thought, I’ve dealt with old cars before, so maybe he’s having a little trouble finding the part that he needed to get my old computer up and running. So I waited. And waited. After about three weeks, I considered the possibility that he was waiting for me to call him instead of the other way around. So I called.

Instead of his immediately picking up the phone, as he had initially, I can a recording that allowed me to leave a message. Fine. I did so, including my phone number, though I knew he already had it. The week wore on, and nothing.

So I called again. The recording said the number was being rerouted to a different number, where I gain left a message. A couple days later I called again and received the same recording.

Now I’m starting to get concerned. This was a man with a respected business, who had received 5 star reviews on Yelp, including a comment about how fast the service was. This was a business I’d used before, and had been very happy with. And now he had my computer and I did not. So many of the sites that require passwords were ones I did not have—only my computer did. Consequently trying to use my phone was out for practically everything.

Then I began to be concern for my computer guy. Did he have Covid? Had he been in an accident and was laid up in a hospital? As weeks went by, I prayed. What else could I do? Basically my brains were locked up in a shop in another city, and I had no idea how or when or even if I’d get them back.

Finally, in early March I called again, and my tech guy answered. Turns out he had been dealing with a family emergency. Now he was able to give me some answers. Turns out, my old computer was still suddenly quitting as if the electricity had been turned off, despite his efforts to repair it. So the option was a replacement. He called on Friday to say it was ready.

And he found me a good one. It’s big, has upgraded software and a much newer operating system. He transferred all my programs and documents—the info on my old hard drive, in other words, so at long last, I’m back up and running.

That was likely more information that you’re interested in, but the end result of all this time away from my computer gave me time to read. And mostly I read fantasy novels that I’ve had on my Kindle or as physical copies, and had not yet read. So I thought over the next little while, I’d give my thoughts on these various books—which will be a good thing because I haven’t had books to talk about in some time. I mean, ones I personally had read. Now I have some. And I’ll use this opportunity to give you my $.02.

Among writers, there exists, for some, a latent sense of snobbery when it comes to the romance genre. Perhaps, they feel as if romance is easy to write. Like, it doesn’t take any effort. As my good friend Travis Perry jokingly mocked to me once when we worked on a romantic fiction project together, “Kissy, kissy.”

It should be noted that some speculative fiction writers will add a romantic element in their stories. Often, the romantic element is under-utilized because the writers have a preconceived bias about romance. They don’t feel it’s important.¹

Romance is just as fantastical. Romance writers create an engaging couple that, despite the ups and downs, survive and thrive. ²

Relationships – the glue of a romantic story

Relationships make the world go around. Regardless of the genre, every story is built upon relationships. No relationship, no story. Humanoid or not, sentient beings or instinctual predators, plant life, angels, demons – every story is built upon relationships.

Romance tropes and why they work

Here’s a secret: people read what they are familiar and comfortable with. Chances are, if you like dragon stories, you’ve read dozens of books about them. It doesn’t matter if the story has twists and turns, or even a fresh spin. What drew you to the story is that it contained dragons.

Some popular romantic tropes are:

First love – Exploring the characters’ first awakening feelings of romance.

Enemies-to-lovers – Friction between two seemingly aggressive and opposing characters that hide a romance.

Second chance – Presenting or gaining an opportunity to regain a lost romance ripped apart by conflict.

Best friends – Transforming an intimate friendship into a romantic relationship.

Forbidden love – An external or internal mandate or perception creates a taboo romance.

There are plenty more and while it is true that tropes can be overused, they aid in helping to defining the pathway of the couple’s journey.  It should be noted that tropes are reflections of real life. There’s not a person who is reading this blog post that hasn’t a relationship that started in one of these ways.  Or even a combination.

When authors who are trying to write a romance ask my advice, if they are married or in a relationship, I often tell them to remember what it was like for them. Often, I hear, “Well, our relationship was different.” “It’s complicated.”

Great! Go from there.

Hopefully, through the tropes I’ve provided, you can see how a speculative fiction story can utilize them. Starman (1984) What if an alien came to Earth and took over a man’s dying remains and falls in love with his wife?

Worldbuilding through romance

Retrieved from https://cherylwalsh.art/mermaids

Understanding the fantastical elements of romance is to understand that the dynamics of the couple is central to the storyline. We experience the world through the couple’s eyes, interactions, and responses to external stimuli. A story can have romantic elements in it, but simply having those elements doesn’t make it a romance.

In the movie Her (2013), our protagonist develops a relationship with his AI virtual assistant. Through their relationship, we learn about the world our protagonist lives in. Yet, it’s not the relationship that is core of the story. It plays a major role but at the end, the movie tackles other questions besides their relationship.

In Ex-Machina (2014), our protagonist learns the hard way that his AI Robot romantic interest passed the Turing Test with flying colors. We learn about the blurred line between the natural and programmed. Whether AI consciousness, allowed to develop, would be able to deceive us.

In these two movies, the romantic element moves the plot along but ultimately, the couple doesn’t end up together. In my opinion, and in the romance world, opinions differ, a romance is when the relationship, through the ups, downs, twists, or turns, the conclusion is the cemented relationship of the main characters.

That’s right — happily ever after!

In Jupiter Ascending (2015), the main story revolves around the relationship between June, the cleaning woman come galactic princess and her protector, a half human/half canine soldier Caine. Through our couple, we learn of the worldview, conflict, and more. I wouldn’t call the movie a romance as the couple’s relationship isn’t front and center. In the true nature of a space opera, other points of view intersect but at the core, you have strong romantic element.

C. S. Johnson’s book, Northern Lights, Southern Stars is a great example of romantic fantasy. A retelling of Snow White, we experience our world through the dark-skinned princess Ebony of the Southern Colonies and her love interest, the pale-skinned Prince Rion with commentary from his stepmother, the evil Queen. The romance is the core of the story with their relationship moving the action and plot along.

Plot development through romance

In Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series, we follow the main characters, Richard Rahl and Kahlan Amnell through twenty-five books. Their relationship throughout the books evolves in ways through the external happenings all around them. Richard’s love for Kahlan remains true despite a dumpster truck of happenings. Goodkind considered his books to be fantasy, but I think he was shocked when his fourth book in the series, Temple of the Winds, won a Romantic Times award because, like it or not, the romance between Richard and Kahlan appealed to romance readers.

In the same way, romance can help develop a plot. In Carole McDonnell’s tribal speculative fiction book Wind Follower, Satha and her husband Loic are forced to deal with a long separation, invaders, and other elements. Through these events, they are changed and grow but the plot moves along because of them.

Every relationship experiences conflict. No conflict means no growth. You don’t know what type of hardships you can live through until you live through them.

As in life, a couple who experiences hardship and survives them, often grow stronger. In the agonizing slow-burn series, Colony (2016-2018), we follow husband and wife, Will and Kate Bowman as they navigate their life through the occupation of an alien race that dominates Earth. Will becomes a collaborator while Kate becomes part of the resistance. Will is acting as a double agent, pretending to be a collaborator but trying to gain information about his missing son. He’s forced to kill resistance members, which puts Kate in danger as this is a secret from her husband.  Throughout the series, their relationship is attacked from all sides, all while the plot of the story moves it along.

Romance makes the story.

I tell myself he’s not real, but it’s hard to remember that when he’s sitting across from me in the bathtub.

“Read my audiobook,” I command him.

His electric blue eyes gleam for a second. Do they gleam because he’s processing my request? Or because he’s excited to read this juicy part of the book just as I am excited to hear him read it in that deep, milk and honey voice?

He speaks, his full lips moving, reciting the sensuous words as I slowly sink deeper into the bubbles. I try to remember that the man in the tub with me is only a visual representation of millions of lines of code, a force field, and holographic technology. Layers of artificial means to simulate reality for my pleasure.

A jarring series of knocks almost…almost…takes away the magic of the moment, but I ignore them. The man before me may not be real, but he’s more real to me than my husband knocking at the door, begging to be let in.

The above snippet is ‘fan fiction’ of the Michael B. Jordan commercial I alluded to last week. In it, I ask the question: “What if a woman finds herself in a love triangle with her distant husband and a computer program?”

To conclude, the fantastical elements of romance are just as strong. Crafting a story utilizing the relationship as the main vehicle is a skillset to be honed and improved over time. Speculative fiction writers need to consider that in their great worldbuilding, can a couple fall in love and grow together?

As a pastor told me last week: Our whole relationship with God is romance, of the right kind.

Ah! Isn’t that romantic?

What are some ways you can explore your speculative fiction world through romance? Do you think romance is overrated? How does your own real-life romance show up in your stories or books you read? Share your thoughts!

The Moon, which Genesis describes as “the light to rule over the night,” has in fact been the subject of a great deal of science fiction. Though much of the science fiction dedicated to Earth’s moon describes exploring it or traveling to it, rather than settling it. Still, enough tales have been set there and it is so near to Earth, relatively speaking, that we ought to treat the prospect of settling on the Moon seriously. Though it may have more potential as a military base or scientific station than a permanent human settlement, if given the opportunity, human beings will consider settling on the Moon. And science fiction has already considered it.

What’s the Moon Got for Survival?

(For a review of what humans need to survive in space, please see the section on Human Survival Needs in part 1 of this series.)

Oxygen, Energy, Water

You might think the Moon has nothing much, but in fact it has plenty of oxygen in oxides found in lunar rocks. It also has plenty of energy for food production and warmth–solar panels would work very well there. And, in addition to those two things, the Moon has water. Not just water trapped in craters that never receive sunlight at the lunar north and south poles–a 2020 report revealed there’s a surprisingly high amount of water on the sunlight side of the lunar surface. Water trapped in the microscopic glass bubbles common on the Moon or within grains of sand. Plus, the same article I just linked also reveals there’s probably even more craters with water ice in them than believed in the past. Plenty of water for a small colony.

Resources

I’m going to deviate from the order of the Mercury (part 1) post because I’d like to say the most important thing about the Moon at the end of this section. In the meantime, the Moon has plenty of mineral resources…but isn’t all that great in that regard. Much of the Moon seems to be undifferentiated material–that is, from what is known so far about it, it has no ores (Mercury probably has ores). Mining the lunar surface would seem to require scooping up a lot of moondust and running it through some kind of furnace that would superheat materials and allow separation into various chemical elements. A process that’s more difficult that processing materials on Earth, but which lunar settlers could pull off, given enough energy and the right equipment. Though we should note that unlike Venus or Earth, the Moon doesn’t have much easily-available carbon.

Protection

The lunar surface doesn’t offer any protection from radiation or meteors at all, except when incoming radiation or meteors are directed at the far side of the Moon, but digging underground would work there. It’s not known if the Moon has any natural underground caves–certainly it doesn’t have any created by water, but may not have any created by vulcanism, either. The other requirements for protection would have to be manufactured, though moondust could become the basis for creating soils that would be part of processing and eliminating waste. But the most important bit that requires humans to live on planets as opposed to deep space may be inadequate on the Moon: Gravity. With gravity at 1/6th of Earth (or 16%), the gravity on the lunar surface may prove to be insufficient to prevent destructive bone loss and malformation of human embryos–though on the other hand, it might be fine. Nobody knows. But there’s a separate issue concerning lunar gravity.

Gravity

The greatest thing about the Moon as a place humans could settle is also the worse thing–its gravity is much lower than Earth’s. While humans living there run the risk of bone loss and other medical problems, the lower gravity means if you wanted to build spacecraft or stations out of lunar materials to use in deep space, it would cost much less fuel to get those materials or pre-constructed craft in orbit from the Moon than it would from Earth. The difference in fuel needs is so extreme that it likely would easily make up for the extra costs of manufacturing on the Moon. So the Moon could be an excellent production center or military base–which might mean the Moon would do very well in the category of “protection from attack.”

How Has Science Fiction Seen the Moon?

There’s a tremendous diversity of stories that mention or feature Earth’s Moon. Such tales are not always clearly science fiction–literary fiction and fables have also featured voyages to the Moon. Although Wikipedia is not a perfect source in general, I’m finding its articles on planetary bodies in fiction to be very helpful. Please refer to the “Moon in fiction” Wikipedia article for more detail on what I’m summarizing below.

First Voyages

A tremendous amount of fiction concerning the Moon has simply imagined what it would be like to travel there for the first time, obviously produced prior to the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, the first actual landing. These include Lucian of the Second Century AD writing satire that features the Moon, a story by Johannes Kepler, another by Francis Godwin (which featured a Spaniard using a chariot pulled by geese), a tale by Cyrano de Bergerac, Daniel Defoe, Edgar Allen Poe, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Isaac Asimov (in 1939), Robert A. Heinlein (who consulted on the script of a 1950 movie on the subject), and Arthur C. Clarke (in 1951).

Fantastic Adventures on the Moon

While stories about the first trips to the Moon described it as inhabited as often as not, the point of such stories was not the interaction with Moon people as much as the exploration itself. But other tales showed it to be a fantastical, even magical place. And set various stories there, where heroes have adventures of a wide variety of types–or alternatively, feature Moon people coming to Planet Earth. These stories include a 10th Century Japanese folktale, an Italian epic poem (Orlando Furioso), Pan Twardowski in Polish folklore, a story by Hans Christian Anderson, and even a tale by J.R.R. Tolkien, Such stories mostly came to an end after the Apollo missions found a desolate, empty Moon, but there are some modern examples nonetheless, such as David Almond’s The Boy Who Climbed Into the Moon.

A Future Moon That’s Been Colonized

A large number of science fiction stories have imagined a future Moon that has colonies, often in the context of talking about other developments in outer space–so a story many mention or feature lunar colonies, but also talk about more numerous and important colonies on Mars or elsewhere. These stories include about a dozen stories from Robert A. Heinlein, several of which I will talk about in more detail under the next point. Also included are four novels from Arthur C. Clarke, Ursula K. Le Guin’s Lathe of Heaven, Isaac Asimov’s The Gods Themselves, G.R.R. Martin’s Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels, Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Lunatics, Pierce Brown’s Red Rising series, Artemis by Andy Weir (of The Martian fame), and numerous references to an inhabited Moon in the Star Trek universe (among many other stories).

The Moon as a Military Threat to Earth

While the Moon has been very popular in terms of a place to imagine future colonies, science fiction at times has portrayed it as hostile to the Earth. That’s even though sci fi has much preferred Mars as a source of aliens interested in invading Planet Earth, but at least once the Moon provided invaders of our planet in fiction–though more often aliens hostile to us, though not invaders. Or, alternatively, humans inhabiting the Moon who represented a threat to people living on Earth.

Alien Invaders From the Moon / Hostile Aliens on the Moon

These stories include an 1809 essay with story elements by Washington Irving, which openly compared lunar invaders to what Europeans did to American Indians. Tales of hostile Moon aliens (though not invading Earth) include the greatest early science fiction series in Polish, The Lunar Trilogy by Jerzy Żuławski (written 1901-11) , which imagined the descendants of the first human explorers of the Moon becoming slaves of malicious lunar aliens. Likewise, C.S. Lewis’s That Hideous Strength refers to the near side of the Moon having evil aliens the scientists of N.I.C.E. admired–while the far side had creatures the eugenicist aliens from the near side persecuted. And the very-low-rated 2013 film Stranded featured a shapeshifting alien on the Moon attacking a human lunar base.

Hostile Humans Threatening the Earth from the Moon

Perhaps more significantly than menacing aliens on the Moon, science fiction has shown humans inhabiting the Moon threatening the Earth. These tales include the 1925 novel Menace from the Moon, which imagined that humans had arrived the lunar surface in the 1600s and now were in a crisis and were attacking Earth with a heat ray. In a way more technologically realtistic, Robert A. Heinlein’s Rocket Ship Galileo, in which teenage prodigies in a rocket club help a scientist convert a suborbital rocket into a moonship, features a Nazi base on the Moon. In the story, the Nazis landed there during WWII, bent on developing a weapon to allow the Third Reich to rise again. (Note this 1947 novel was the first sci fi novel Heinlein ever wrote–and the first sci fi novel I ever read). A 2012 Finnish film Iron Sky likewise featured lunar Nazis–and an Austin Powers film featured Dr. Evil pointing a laser at Washington D.C. from the surface of the Moon. However, there’s one novel about the humans on the Moon that stands apart from the rest in describing what humans living there could do to Earth.

The Moon is A Harsh Mistress

Robert A. Heinlein’s 1966 novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress describes a lunar society that declares its independence from the Earth. Earth had colonized the Moon in the story, including setting up penal colonies, but also funded the building of lunar mines. The mines launched their ore back to Earth with a giant electromagnetically-powered launcher, a piece of technology commonly known as a railgun. When the lunar colonists decided to declare their independence from Earth, they used the launcher to hurl lunar rocks at Planet Earth. Instead of destroying cities, which they easily could have done, they aimed at locations on Earth that allowed them to demonstrate their capacity to kill–mostly targeting the open ocean outside of a major city, warning the “Earthlings” an attack was coming to allow for evacutation. Then sending a tsunami wave at the targeted city as a body consisting of tons of moon rocks slammed into the Earth.

Copyright: Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Prize Trust

Heinlein’s tale included him heaping praise on Libertarian economics coupled with enthusiasm for combat (Heinlein also wrote the novel Starship Troopers) plus featured a central Artificial Intelligence running lunar systems as a key member of the rebellion against Earth–all thought-provoking stuff. But what most distinguished the story was its use of relatively simple ideas, especially the potential the Moon has to attack Earth. Because the Earth has much higher gravity than the Moon, it has an enormous military advantage against the Earth. Launching rocks from there with an electromagnetic gun requires nothing more than building such a system, abundant lunar solar power, and abundant lunar rock. Getting the rocks off the lunar surface is relatively easy due to the its light gravity and lack of atmosphere, but the Earth’s heavy gravity guarantees that any body of rock large enough to successfully pass through Earth’s atmosphere will impact with a force equivalent to a nuclear weapon.

It’s like the Moon is on a high castle wall over the Earth. A lunar defender has to lift a rock over the ledge of the wall (i.e. launch it from the Moon), but from there, the rock falls on its own, doing tremendous damage to enemies below by the force of gravity alone. The Moon in fact provides an ideal base to build relatively low-tech weapons which would seriously menace Planet Earth.

What’s Unique About the Moon–Military Advantage And Space Telescopes

Close

As I mentioned in the section above, the Moon would be a great place to launch weapons at the Earth. I’ll say more about that in a bit, but part of the reason why that’s a menace to Earth is because the Earth and Moon are much closer to one another than any other significant astronomical body comes to Earth. The proximity of the Moon relative to even Venus or Mars is what makes it such a likely place for human activity. Such activity would likely include tourism, which in fact has been mentioned by numerous science fiction stories, even though I didn’t focus on that above.

Edgar Mitchell of Apollo 14 on the Moon. Credit: NASA

Low Gravity

The Moon’s low gravity is its double-edged sword so to speak. On the one hand, it means anything built there will be much easier to get into space. It’s got real potential as a place to manufacture spacecraft (though if Mercury has separated ores, Mercury might be better than the Moon for building spacecraft and as good at launching the craft from its surface with a rail gun). On the other hand, it may mean humans living on the lunar surface lose too much bone over time to make permanent lunar colonies impractical. (Only time and further experimentation will tell on the bone loss and embryo development issues low gravity worlds may pose human beings).

Military Advantage

As mentioned above, the Moon is a great place to build a base to attack Planet Earth. It also could be used to defend Earth, though the fact it is on only one side of Earth at a time means it could not defend against ships coming from all directions, meaning the Moon by itself would be insufficient for the defense of Earth (but could be a key part). But the Moon’s low gravity means it could be used to launch missiles and other smart weapons (as opposed to “dumb” heaps of rock). The Moon’s lack of atmosphere means beam weapons built on the lunar surface could easily shoot into space without pesky air, with variable optical qualities, getting in the way.

Outer Space Treaty Limitations

Since the Moon is such a great place to build military bases and since the weapons on those bases could be so potentially dangerous to Earth, nations of the Earth have seen the Moon and outer space in general as representing great potential danger to life on Earth. For that reason most nations have signed an Outer Space Treaty, promising not to put nuclear weapons in space and to in general use space for peaceful purposes. Note that the Outer Space Treaty was negotiated in 1966 and signed in 1967–after Heilein’s publication of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress in 1966, which pointed out the military potential of the Moon. Science fiction does have the potential to influence public policy.

The deliberate de-militarization of space means the nations of the world will also not look kindly on space settlements building space weapons of any kind or declaring their political independence of already-existing nations. These political considerations may in fact keep the Moon from being used for its most obvious purpose as a military base. But the Moon has one more natural advantage worthy of consideration.

The Moon as an Astronomy Station

Because the Moon has no atmosphere and because its far side has over 2,000 miles (near 3,500 km) of rock separating it from Earth, radio signals from Earth that interfere with radio telescopes would fall silent on the moon’s far side. Also there would be no issue for light pollution for optical telescopes. So the Moon, specifically the far side, would be a great place to build a series of telescopes, primarily radio but also optical, exploring the depths of outer space.

Conclusion

Because the Moon is not as friendly to life as other planets seem to be, it remains an afterthought in plans to colonize the Solar System, even though a great deal of science fiction has imagined it as at least partially inhabited. The Moon in fact would be a great place to build bases to create spacecraft and provide for military defense of Earth–if, that is, humans could be persuaded to unify to defend Earth rather than attack it. And of course, the lunar far side would be the greatest place to set up astronomical instruments, including telescopes, especially radio telescopes.

Could you imagine yourself living on the Moon? Or going there as a tourist?

Had you ever considered the Moon’s potential as a military base before? Do you think the Outer Space Treaty is wise to prevent humans from building military bases in space?

Do you have any other thoughts you’d like to share? Please make your thoughts known in the comments below.

“Alexa, dim the lights,” the clip plays for the twentieth time.

Michael B. Jordan immediately obeys. Slowly—or too quickly?—he peels off his skin-tight black T-shirt, revealing smooth golden-brown skin striated with muscles and—

“Hey, what are you doing?”

I jump, tearing my eyes from the screen. My thumb pauses the Super Bowl commercial with a quick tap of the space bar. I blink, coming out of my trance to see my husband standing there, bare-chested with no rippling muscles.

“What?” I snap at him.

“What are you doing?” My husband’s blue eyes narrow, staring down at me.

“Can I help you?” I retort, wanting him to just go away so I can get back to my fantasy man.

“You’re watching Michael B. Jordan again, aren’t you?”

I clear my throat, my fingers shakingly caressing the keys of the keyboard. “So?”

“You’ve replaced me with him, haven’t you?” His voice raises, his skin flushing with color.

“Babe, you don’t understand. I love Michael B. Jordan.”

“He’s not me!” My husband’s hands curl into fists. “You prefer him to me!”

“Who wouldn’t? He’s better-looking than you, nicer than you, sweeter than you and has more money than you!”

Meanwhile, back in reality …

Actually, nothing like this happened. But admit it: I had you going there for a minute, didn’t I? There is some element of truth to it: Michael B. Jordan does have more money than we do. Can’t fault a man for his hard-earned wealth, can you?

In the real world, my hubs and I both laughed watching the commercial. He’s well-aware of my celebrity crush and he finds it funny. He’s not threatened by it. Back in 2012, I crushed on Korean actor So Ji Sub. Ever so often I get a new celebrity crush. Then, like every schoolgirl infatuation, it fades away.

Why readers critique romantic fiction

I use this fictional scenario because people who oppose romance fiction often give a reason like this: “Women use romance to create fantasy men that real men could never live up to.” They might add that men similarly use pornography to create fantastical women that real women can’t live up to. Romance books, they say, are simply women’s pornography.

So when romance readers say, “I’ve got a new book boyfriend,” opponents say, “See? They’re replacing fantasy men with real men.”

Recently, a guy in a Facebook group asked why romance was so popular. I got on my soapbox and said my few thoughts. Above me, someone had commented, “I stay away from romances because romances can be [deterrent to your spiritual condition].” I could flow with this statement. Then that person said: “Even if the reader is okay [with romance fiction], you should still stay away from it.”

Some people don’t even read romance, or have read only one or two books and fancy themselves expert critics of the genre. I’m often irritated when an author who doesn’t know the genre well says, “Oh, romance isn’t realistic.” Conversely, some authors decide to write romance for whatever reason, but refuse to read the genre and assume they know what a romance details. They craft a boring story that’s three thousand pages long with absolutely nothing happening.¹

I thought I’d divide this article into a couple of parts. Yet before I can get into the fantastical elements, I need to answer or respond to critics and their concerns. After all, not all critique is wrong. For our purposes here in part 2, I’ll also keep the romance within the speculative fiction genre.²

Answering common critiques about romance

1. “Romance is all about sex.”

If you scrolled for sci-fi romances online, you’d likely see many books emblazoned with disembodied muscular male chests of different colors and textures. You’ll even see creature patterns like scales, blue skin, horns, red skin, tattoos, yellow skin, and other variant markings. An average romance reader would assume that these books all have sex in them. This may be true, and most often is.

Sex does sell. Let’s not forget that.

People often associate this image with romance and assume that all romance is just sex books. Add the fantastical element, and these books are just about a guy and girl rolling around on black sand on some distant planet, right?

That’s not always the case.

As a consumer of romance for years, I’ve found that good romance shows the exploration of a couple’s journey to togetherness. It’s a reflection of real life.

Imagine you’re in a relationship and even married. What did that journey look like? Did you look at your sweetheart and fall instantly in love? Had you been close friends since childhood and then something changed the dynamic of your relationship? Were you co-workers who developed a friendship that led to something more without your even knowing it? Perhaps you first hated each other’s guts, and you fought the attraction?

To explore a couple’s romantic journey, we need intricate details because people are complex. Yes, people may have sex in a romance. People do that in real life. We wouldn’t be here if they didn’t. God created sex—let’s not forget that. (And it seems like a lot of Christians do.)

But not all romance has sex in it. Some fall into the “clean and wholesome” category with a “first kiss and blush” level of heat. Some stories have more romantic or sensual tension in them. Others may go into detail, and then “stop at the door.”

Whatever the romance’s heat level, it’s ancillary to the couple’s relationship journey.³

2. “Romance can cause spiritual deterioration to readers.”

To some extent, I can agree with this statement. Women—and men—can turn toward fantasy instead of realistic expectations.

I used the Michael B. Jordan commercial as a humorous example of this kind of fantasy. After all, he is some fans’ ideal man, thanks to his sex appeal and muscular form. Near the commercial’s end, the wife in the bathtub tells Michael B. to read her an audiobook, while her husband is knocking on the door.

It’s humorous,  but if you know how the fantasy causes harm, you might not see this as humorous. Seriously: she’s shut her husband out and is entwined in the fantasy.

But oh! It’s Michael B. Jordan! Can you blame her?

Romance books can for sure lead to real harm. If readers seriously expect guys to act like a romantic fiction dude, that can cause rifts, just like pornography, with its presentation of sex without humanity or relationships. We cannot objectify people until they are mere body parts performing acts without the context of humanity.

I can hear someone say, “So Parker, since you’re saying that a little romance is okay, are you saying it’s okay to look at a little porn.”

No. So stop it. What am saying is that romantic fiction can lead to unhealthy reader fantasies. If a reader finds herself in that place, I would suggest getting help, just like someone with a porn addiction needs help.

3. “Romance writers who write steamy romances aren’t Christians.”

I’ve read some steamy romance books where I’ve concluded the author cannot be a Christian. But you might be surprised to learn that some Christian writers of romance have no issue with writing steamy content. They’re not always writing under pen names, either. I’ve also read squeaky-clean romances whose authors aren’t a Christian at all. We can’t brush all romance writers with one color of paint.

4. “Christian romance is all squeaky-clean.”

Many readers assume Christian romance is Amish fiction. I have no idea where they get that idea.⁴ I’m an advocate of edgy Christian fiction and realistic depictions of reality. A good friend of mine writes Christian fiction with real-life depictions, including the steamy parts of relationships.

Some Christian fiction, not just romance, over-spiritualizes sensuality. By over-spiritualizing it, we tend to sterilize it. I refuse to believe that the hero isn’t aware of the heroine’s physical charms.  Nor do I believe that a heroine doesn’t see those signs of masculinity that may appeal to her. That’s a big flaw. It’s one reason why the purity movement, despite good intentions, can become a stumbling block. These messages pressure Christians with “Don’t do it,” without addressing the real feelings and sensations of sensuality. Their focus is on virginity, like this will make you a better Christian, when all virginity does is make you obedient. You can still be a rather bitter, horrible Christian and be a virgin.

Plus, the purity movement puts so much pressure on these young girls and make their salvation based on a physical state and not their relationship with Christ. In addition, some proponents give the men a get-out-of-jail free card. Why should it always be on the women to maintain purity and not the men?

My critique of the purity movement doesn’t mean that I disagree with it entirely. As Steve Burnett reminded me, “we live in a society that burns incense to the gods of human genitalia, and it seems short-sighted for Christians to focus solely on debunking “purity culture.” Sexual impurity is distinct from other sins in a way that destroys from the inside out. ⁵

My own romance is ‘sweet and edgy’

With that, I think I’ve covered the critiques I’ve received the most.

For myself, I write what I call sweet and edgy romance. My books include romantic or sensual tension, but I also follow a behind-closed-door approach. That’s where I am comfortable, and my readers seem to share this comfort level.

Real romance explores a couple’s journey, including but not limited to their physical attraction to one another. When I think of Adam and Eve, I love thinking about how Adam must have reacted when he first saw Eve. What did Adam think when he learned that God had handcrafted this woman for himself, and that she, and she alone, was meant only for him just as he was meant for her?

Every great romance today mirrors the very first romance long ago. We see the one woman whom the man wants for his very own. We see the woman who basks in her man’s complete devotion, who in turn treats her as his one true treasure.

When Adam saw Eve, he said, “This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.”

Today, our vows also say: What God has put together, let no man put asunder.

Ah! Isn’t that romantic?

Our second stop in our solar system tour lands on Venus, a planet long considered to be much like Earth (though wetter and warmer), then recognized as nightmarish hellhole (with every single day hotter than Mercury at its worst), but after that seen as having some prospects for colonies anyway. Venus was never as popular in old science fiction as Mars, but nonetheless many kinds of speculative tales set themselves on Venus, probably second in fictional prospects for settlement in our Solar System only to Mars. Far more popular than Mercury.

What’s Venus Got For Survival?

For an overview of human survival needs that applies to any planet, please reference last week’s post on Mercury, which covered that.

What Venus Is Like (Hellhole, Anyone?)

Venus is nearly the same size as Planet Earth, meaning the gravity humans need to avoid atrophy and to allow for embryo development is likely to be enough on Venus, which has 90 percent of Earth’s surface gravity. Venus’s gravity is enough to contain a substantial atmosphere–in fact, its atmosphere is 92 times denser than Earth’s.

Venus, with color enhanced. Credit: NASA.

Which is the cause of Venus-is-a-hellhole thing. The atmospheric pressure on the surface is equivalent to about 900 meters (3,000 feet) under the ocean on Earth–a pressure humans can actually survive given time to build up to it (breathing a mixture of helium and oxygen), but which is dangerous and would instantly crush an unprepared person. The atmosphere of Venus is also devoid of oxygen, consisting mostly of carbon dioxide with traces of nitrogen, argon, and other gasses.

Venus is entirely cloud-covered, but those clouds aren’t made of water vapor like clouds on Earth. They’re made of sulfuric acid, which can dissolve a human being and most things we build in short order.

Oh, and did I forget to mention the temperature? The average surface temperature is 737 K (464 °C; 867 °F) on the surface, heat driven by a greenhouse effect gone wild. By the way, that’s hotter that the hottest spot on Mercury when Mercury is directly facing the sun over its long, slow day. And the peachy thing is the thick atmosphere of Venus makes it so that the incredible heat of the planet is pretty much spread around everywhere, both night and day, poles and equator.

For what it’s worth, Venus also has a strange rotation, the opposite direction of every other planet in the Solar System, so that the sun would rise in the west and set in the east. It also has the slowest rotation at 243 Earth days–which is longer than the 224 Earth days of its year. (Venus is the only planet in the Solar System with a day longer than its year.) However, because of the retrograde rotation, the length of a solar day on Venus (the time it would take an observer on Venus to see the sun cross the sky) is significantly shorter than the sidereal (actual) day, at 116.75 Earth days. Not that you would be able to see the sun through the thick clouds and dense atmosphere, not from the surface anyway.

Winds on Venus, image copyright Universe Today. Note 370 kph is 222 mph and 220 kph is 132 mph.

What would be a tremendous heat differential between the day and night side has spawned massive winds to even out temperatures at the level of the clouds that circle Venus approximately every six Earth days, blowing hundreds of miles per hour. It seems the atmospheric motion causes lightning strikes on the surface, though instruments on space probes to Venus have given contradictory data on whether the surface gets hit by lightning or not.

Oh and the surface also seems to have some active volcanoes, with plenty of evidence of lots of past volcanic activity. So if the crushing pressure, furnace-level heat, darkness, and lightning strikes were not enough, there’s also volcanoes! (Hence my use of the word “hellhole.”)

What Could Possibly Be Good About Venus?

Well, as already mentioned, Venus has enough gravity to make worries about bone loss over time unlikely. Venus’s thick atmosphere would also provide radiation shielding. Copious carbon dioxide can be processed to separate out carbon, which is a pretty good building material, and oxygen, a human basic (or “nutritional”) survival need. Sulfuric acid contains hydrogen, which can be separated out and added to oxygen, meaning it’s possible to generate water on Venus. (In fact, all the chemical elements life needs to survive are available in Venus’s atmosphere.)

Wind motion, probable lightning, and solar energy (if high enough in the atmosphere), provide plenty of power for cooling and for growing plants. Which of course doesn’t matter at all if you are going to be burned/crushed and struck by lightning/covered in lava. However, the surface of Venus isn’t the only option available.

A concept of high-atmosphere living on Venus. Image by NASA.

What if human beings were to build a cloud city on Venus, parallel to what was imagined to exist on Bespin in Star Wars? What if we were to fill airships with lifting gasses and create habitats in the clouds?

The fact is that carbon dioxide is denser than the mixture of oxygen and nitrogen that human beings normally breathe. That means you wouldn’t have to do anything special to get breathable air to float in Venus’s atmosphere. Just fill a balloon at a pressure comfortable to humans and it will naturally rise to about 50 kilometers above the surface of Venus.

Since the atmosphere of Venus gets both colder and thinner at higher elevations (just like the atmosphere on Earth), the level at which a balloon full of regular air would naturally stop rising would be a place where temperatures and pressures would be much more survivable than the surface. In fact, the level of 1 atmosphere on Venus (at 50 km) is bit on the cold side for humans, close to freezing, but just a bit lower gets into atmospheric pressures humans can adapt to at comfortable temperatures.

A chart of temps and pressure on Venus. Credit: spacestack.

Note that a city in the clouds would never have to touch down on the surface of Venus. It could generate new building materials from atmospheric carbon and other elements floating around and also generate the oxygen and water and minerals for plants, all from high in the sky, without ever touching down on the surface of Venus.

However, I should mention that the artistic image by NASA of living above the clouds isn’t how things would actually be. Well, not if living in the best place for survival. First, the clouds provide important protection against solar radiation. Second, the optimum pressures and temperatures are within the cloud layer, not above it or below it…yeah, that’s right, within clouds of sulfuric acid…ahem…(though of course it’s possible to make materials that will shrug off sulfuric acid).

How Has Science Fiction Seen Venus?

Now that we’ve looked at what Venus is actually like, what did science fiction speculate about Venus? Was anyone in the past thinking of cloud cities? (On Venus, mostly no.)

Cloud-Covered Venus: Ocean or Swamp?

But early astronomers couldn’t help but notice that Venus is always covered in clouds. They wondered why that would be. Having limited knowledge of Earth–that is, they had no way of knowing that no part of Earth is always covered in clouds–they imagined Venus might be covered in oceans, where the clouds on Earth originate–and that would be sufficient to explain the continuous clouds. Or maybe swamps would do, which are often foggy. (In fact, the Star Wars concept of Dagobah, Yoda’s home planet, is probably influenced by earlier science fiction stories of Venus-as-a-swamp.)

Another feature of early Venus stories, especially the campy ones, was to borrow from mythology and imagine Venus somehow connected to women. Since, you know, Venus was a female goddess. So the oceans and swamps of Venus tended to be filled with scantily-clad Amazon women.

The Venus in Fiction Wikipedia article details the stories which imagined Venus as an ocean world or a world of swamps, but I will take note of two particular stories. The first because it be of interest to Christian fans of speculative fiction. That is, C.S. Lewis’s Perelandra, book two of his space trilogy.

By imagining Venus as a younger world than Earth, Lewis set up the drama of the Garden of Eden happening over again, with the human characters from Planet Earth serving as the tempter and almost as an angel of light, to the equivalent of Eve…which kinda repeated the stereotype of Venus and women, but in Lewis’s case, he did so tastefully. While Lewis’s choices and his story are interesting, what he did with his space stories was imagine that Planet Earth alone was an abode of sin and it as a result was effectively quarantined from the rest of the stars and planets.

What if he had done the same thing with his fantasy? What if Lewis had imagined that Narnia was a world where people crossed over from Earth to tempt the equivalent of Eve (in an alternate time due to an alternate “dimension”), but then when the temptation was over, they would never be allowed to come back? Such a story would be an interesting one-off tale, but would discourage anyone else thinking about similar stories and close the door to any sequels…which is exactly what Lewis did in his fantasy versus his science fiction. In fantasy he left the door open, but in science fiction, he closed it. Which is why I think Perelandra versus Narnia partially explains why Christians are more interested in fantasy than science fiction. But anyway…

The second story world featuring Venus I want to mention came from the short stories science fiction pioneer Stanley G. Weinbaum set on Venus. He imagined Venus as tidally locked to the sun, so that the very center of the sun side would be a blazing desert, but the desert would be surrounded by a jungle, surrounded in turn by a ring of temperate lands, surrounded in turn by icy terrain near the dark side, melting and providing water for the light side (with no cheesy Amazon women, by the way). My reasons for mentioning this story is not only do I think it was awesome, I re-packaged Weinbaum’s planetary adventures, which made no sense around Planet Earth, and imagined them taking place around another star (with the help of Heather Elliot and Cindy Koepp). Available on my website under: Worlds of Weinbaum.

A Third Vision of Cloud-Covered Venus

In 1922 scientists tried to read the composition of the atmosphere of Venus–and found no evidence of oxygen. So, some old science fiction imagined Venus to be a windswept desert, covered in toxic dust clouds, which maybe a human might be able to live on, but barely. This was by far the least popular version of Venus in fiction, but the one closest to being true. Which goes to show that humans are not necessarily drawn to realism in fiction. (Yes, scantily-clad Amazons by a world ocean really do appeal to male readers of science fiction more than explorers barely surviving on a desert Venus. Go figure. 🙂 )

Terraformed Venus

It wasn’t until the Soviets sent landers to Venus in the 1960s was it evident what kind of planet Venus really is. The realities of furnace-level heat, crushing pressures, acid clouds, and all the other “fun” features of Venus caused the popularity of Venus in science fiction to plummet considerably.

However, some science fiction authors switched to imagining Venus as a terraformed world, thinking that at some point in the future the terrible conditions of Venus would be made better. Kim Stanley Robinson, better known for his series about the terraforming of Mars, imagined Venus made suitable for human habitation by putting up a giant sunscreen and collecting the carbon dioxide atmosphere as it would freeze out, then seeding life and water (via comets) in the atmosphere.

The Victorian Venus anthology I supervised imagined much the same thing and included orbital shades to keep the temperatures moderate, though I never detailed the terraforming process–and I imagined much of the extra CO2 would be sent to Mars, rather than buried on Venus, as Robinson imagined (and of course I imagined Victorian culture being largely reproduced as well). But still, most of the modern stories featuring Venus imagine transforming it into a place where people can walk on its surface.

Cloud City Venus

The most realistic vision of how to live on Venus isn’t particularly popular in fiction. Geoffrey A. Landis‘s “The Sultan of the Clouds” (2010) features habitations in the clouds of the second planet of the Solar System, but my research for this article didn’t reveal any other stories set in Venus’s clouds.

Bespin. Copyright: Disney.

However, Star Wars, with its interest in unique planets dominated by one aspect such as a desert world, ice world, swamp world, urban world, naturally produced a vision of a city in the clouds featured in Empire Strikes Back. However, this Star Wars version imagines the city floating over the clouds, not buried inside them, where people would not be able to see even a hundred meters through dense obscurity. And in fact, the best place for a Venus colony would be in the clouds, not over them.

A Psychological Need to See Skies?

I admit my thoughts of living buried in a cloud that you could not face for one moment without protection from acid, not being able to see more than a hazy glow of light around you, living every moment in a carbon-fiber inflated dwelling, from which you never dare fall off, lest you plummet into crushing pressure and lead-melting heat, does not appeal to me very much.

I find the idea of living on Mercury much more appealing–at least on Mercury you could walk on the surface at night, though you’d have to be in a spacesuit. And maybe vast underground chambers are available for use on Mercury, on which images of the stars could be projected, like a planetarium, and where trees and other plants could be put into the ground–yes, using artificial soil, but still, on the ground somewhere.

But the idea of living on Venus appeals to me a lot more if the cloud city were above the clouds, even though that isn’t the optimal place on Venus for survival. (In fact, even the artist working for NASA portrayed their futuristic dwellings on Venus as above the clouds, not within them).

I’m not claiming to say anything profound here–who wouldn’t rather live in a beautiful city above the clouds than within an acid cloud? Maybe a colony on Venus could in fact fly above the clouds, using shielding to deal with excess radiation and otherwise compensating for less than ideal pressure and temperature. Or perhaps the airships of Venus could rise about the clouds on a regular basis, say on holidays or vacations, but return to the practical levels of being within the clouds afterwards.

But perhaps it’s worth noting that having a view of skies, at least at times, may count as a human need as much as gravity and oxygen and warmth…

What’s Unique About Venus

Closest Neighbor

So what makes the second planet in the Solar System better for a colony than anyplace else? Well, overall, it probably isn’t the best, but it does have some strong points.

For the record, at its closest approach, Venus comes closer to Earth than any other planet. Also, the window for closest approach to Venus comes more often than the window to Mars (584 days versus 780 days, as mentioned in this Wikipedia article on the colonization of Venus). So Venus is literally the easiest planet to get a spacecraft to from Earth.

Gravity

What may be the strongest point has already beeen mentioned, that is, Venus has nearly has the same mass and density as Earth, so the pull of gravity is 90% of Earth’s. The fact is nobody knows what the minimum gravity requirement is for human beings. Over the long-term we’ve done zero gravity in the ISS and other space stations and established conclusively that microgravity isn’t enough for human long-term survival. But no long-term experiments have been done in low gravity. If 38 percent gravity is enough to allow for human embryos to develop normally, Mars and Mercury are viable. If even less gravity is enough, say 16 percent, a lot of bodies in outer space have enough gravity, such as Earth’s moon.

But if the minimum requirement for gravity for humans to develop normally proves to be say, 70% of what we find on Earth, then Mars and Mercury might possibly work if pregnant women spend nine months in a centrifuge to stimulate normal bone growth–but that’s not very realistic. In case the actual requirement for human life for gravity is high, then Venus is pretty much all there is, other than Earth. (Unless we want to discuss living in the atmosphere of a gas giant…which I in fact plan to bring up…)

Downsides

Other than the downsides already mentioned (acid clouds, crushing pressure and searing temps on the surface, lightning, volcanoes), Venus has the issue of its clouds moving around the planet as quickly as they do. The issue isn’t speed here so much as turbulence. In fact, the wind patterns seem pretty predictable, so once in the atmosphere, a settlement would move around in the wind without much getting shaken up…maybe. I don’t think the data is conclusive on this. Living in the clouds over Venus might be too dangerous, because of changing wind speeds. It could be from time to time, shifts in winds could be dangerous to human life.

The other big problem is getting away from Venus–without any ability to land on the surface, the means to leave Venus’s gravity (higher than Mercury or Mars) would have to use self-contained spacecraft which would have to be suspended on airships before takeoff. A technological hurdle–not insurmountable, but I can’t imagine leaving Venus would be easy. (“Landing” on Venus though could use plenty of air braking.)

And, if we are going to talk about physical security from attack, living in an airship that only has to be riddled with holes in order to sink to unbearable depths below may be rather less than optimal…

Conclusion

What are your thoughts, if any, about fiction set on the second planet in our Solar System? Lewis’s Perelandra, or anything else? Thoughs on Bespin? Dagobah?

Could you ever imagine yourself living on Venus? Would you be able to live in a cloud city?

Would you rather be above the clouds rather than in them, even if living in them is safer? Do you think humans would be able to adapt to living in a place where they never saw the skies?

What other thoughts do you have?