One thing that interested me while I was doing the reading for this week was the character of Henry Armitage and the roll that he will play as the novel continues. While he is a minor character thus far, I think it’s important that Niven and Pournelle included him at all. Throughout history scientists and theologians have butted heads and disagreed on major issues, so the religious figure in a science fiction novel stands out in my mind as an anomaly. I’m wondering how the other characters will react as it gets closer to the time of disaster- will more of the characters become religious and turn to faith to get them through things, or will everyone look to science for the answers? Thus far, obviously the major characters are more scientifically inclined so it is unlikely that Tim Hamner will suddenly become a devout Christian as the comet strikes. I’m more interested to see how the authors treat the subject of religion or faith after the fact. Once the comet hits and the world needs to be rebuilt, will religion play an important role in the new world order or not?
The other thing I’m worried about is how specifically Henry Armitage plays into Hammer Fever. We see him write an issue of his magazine with the headline “The Hammer of God” and then do not read much about him again for at least another fifty pages or so, and that’s just a snapshot. I’m wondering if in the reading for Tuesday there will be more about him because I’m curious to see how his scare tactics play out. He seems to be looking to use the comet as a way to get more people to believe in his faith and I don’t know how that will work for him in the long run.
Armitage has definitely been an overlooked character so far in our class discussions. You’re right to guess that his role becomes more prominent later on in the novel. We talked about the novel’s divide between rational logic and emotional impulse, and another way to pose the opposition is between science and religion. According to the terms of the novel, religion is just another form of irrationality. This is something we’ll definitely look at soon.