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{{short description|Sub-genre in science fiction}}
{{More citations needed|date=October 2015}}
A '''shaggy God story''' is a story in a minor [[science fiction]] [[genre]] that attempts to explain [[Biblical]] concepts with science fiction [[trope (literature)|trope]]s. The term was [[Neologism|coined]] by writer and critic [[Aldiss|Brian W. Aldiss]] in a pseudonymous column in the October 1965 issue of ''[[New Worlds (magazine)|New Worlds]]''.<ref name="Bibliography Blues">{{cite web|url=http://www.ansible.co.uk/sfx/sfx120.html |title=Bibliography Blues |publisher=Ansible.co.uk |date= |accessdate=2015-10-26}}</ref> The term is a pun on the phrase ''[[shaggy dog story]]'', which describes a lengthy or complicated story with an anticlimactic conclusion.
A typical shaggy God story might feature a pair of astronauts landing on a lush and virgin world and in the last line their names are revealed as [[Adam and Eve]]. The television show ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' used several versions of this, the most notable being "[[Probe 7, Over and Out]]". Another classic example is Isaac Asimov's 1956 short story "[[The Last Question]]," which ends with the protagonist [[supercomputer]] exclaiming: "[[Let there be light]]!"
The creation of the term is often misattributed to [[Michael Moorcock]]. Moorcock edited the issue of New Worlds where Aldiss coined the term in a pseudonymous column. It has been suggested that many assumed Moorcock to be the author of the column. The issue was cleared up in an August 2004 [[David Langford]] column in [[SFX magazine]].[http://www.ansible.co.uk/sfx/sfx120.html]▼
▲The creation of the
==The genre as a cliché==
[[Brian Stableford]] noted in ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' that a frequently written, but rarely printed, story submitted to science-fiction magazines features a male and female astronaut marooned on a habitable planet and "reveal[s] (in the final line) that their names are Adam and Eve".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NzAqAQAAIAAJ&q=“reveal+(in+the+final+line)+that+their+names+are+Adam+and+Eve.”|last1=Clute|first1=John|title=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction|date=1995|publisher=St. Martin's Press|location=New York|isbn=031213486X|edition=1st|page=16}}</ref> Among the "partial list of overworked ideas that should be strenuously avoided" that [[H. L. Gold]] of ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction]]'' in 1953 warned prospective writers of were "the characters we have been reading about are Adam and Eve or [[Jesus Christ|Jesus]], the creation of a miniature universe in a laboratory by a scientist whose name turns out to be an anagram of [[Jehovah]]".<ref name="gold195303">{{cite news | url=https://archive.org/stream/galaxymagazine-1953-03/Galaxy_1953_03#page/n3/mode/2up | title=For Writers Mostly | work=Galaxy | date=March 1953 | accessdate=28 November 2013 | author=Gold, H. L. | pages=2}}</ref> "Dr. Peristyle" ([[Brian W. Aldiss]]) of ''[[New Worlds (magazine)|New Worlds]]'' wrote in 1965 that "The shaggy god story is the bane of magazine editors, who get approximately one story a week set in a [[garden of Eden]] spelt Ee-Duhn".<ref>''New Worlds'', October 1965.</ref> The genre is also listed as a cliché in the [[Science Fiction Writers of America]]'s Turkey City Lexicon<ref>[http://www.sfwa.org/writing/turkeycity.html] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060924221810/http://www.sfwa.org/writing/turkeycity.html|date=September 24, 2006}}</ref> and David Langford's SFX magazine column on same.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ansible.co.uk/sfx/ |title="Langford" SFX Column Index |publisher=Ansible.co.uk |date= |accessdate=2015-10-26}}</ref> [[Will Ferguson]] references the cliché extensively in his novel ''Generica'' (2001).
[[David Brin]]
''[[2001: A Space Odyssey (film)|2001: A Space Odyssey]]'' was called this by film critic [[John Simon (critic)|John Simon]].<ref name="Simon">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ioE-AAAAIAAJ&q=%22Shaggy+God%22|last1=Agel|first1=Jerome|title=The Making of Kubrick's 2001.|page=244|date=1970|publisher=New American Library|location=[New York]|isbn=0-451-07139-5}}</ref> One interpretation of David Bowman's entrance into the EVA pod before entering space (the new Eden) to become a Star Child suggests Adam and Eve and the dawn of new man. Some people interpreted [[David Bowman (Space Odyssey)|David Bowman]] transforming into the Star Child as his turning into a god or godlike being. The plot also involves an alien intelligence "creating" modern man by improving upon mankind's hominid ancestors.
▲==Expansions of the Term==
▲Since Shaggy God themes can be seen as an effort to harmonize religious stories about the origin of human beings with science fiction tropes such as [[Extraterrestrial life|alien]] races, interstellar travel, [[gene]]tic manipulation, the uplift of primitive races and man’s place in the galactic life cycle, in can be argued that the works of [[Daniken|Erich von Däniken]] and other proponents of the [[Ancient astronaut theory]] are essentially working in the genre.
▲[[David Brin]]’s [[Uplift Universe]] is a series of well-regarded science fiction works that deal with the idea of advanced intergalactic cultures who identify proto-sentient species and genetically manipulate them into star-faring cultures in their own right (often enslaving them for thousands of years as “payment.”) In the novels, a proponent of the view that humans were uplifted by a galactic culture (as opposed to evolving into sentience) are called “Dänikenites.”
==See also==
*{{anli|Euhemerism}}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaggy God Story}}
[[Category:Science fiction themes]]
[[Category:Religion in science fiction]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Adam and Eve]]
==External links==
* [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AdamAndEvePlot Adam and Eve] plot entry at [[TV Tropes]]
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