LITERARY IMPLICATIONS OF RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES ON THE NUCLEAR IN U.S. FICTION: FRANK BERGON’S “THE TEMPTATIONS OF ST. ED & BROTHER S”

• Main Author: Inna M. Sukhenko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Alfred Nobel University Publisher 2020-12-01
• Series: Vìsnik Unìversitetu ìm. A. Nobelâ: Serìâ Fìlologìčnì Nauki
• Subjects: nuclear fiction; nuclear narrative; nuclearism; energy humanities; spirituality; bergon
• Online Access: https://phil.duan.edu.ua/images/PDF/2020/2/12.pdf
• ISSN: 2523-4463; 2523-4749

The paper studies the literary implications of ‘religion-science’ interaction in U.S. nuclear fiction with the focus on reconsideration the spiritual nature of nuclear energy on the example of «The Temptations of St. Ed and Brother S» (1993) by Frank Bergon. The paper analyses the Bergon’s literary reflections of understanding ‘nuclear energy’ concept in fictional writing by illustration its protagonists’ transformations of realizing ‘the nuclear’ as a component of a new mythology of American West by joining the global (ethical dimensions of nuclear energy in the science-religion interface) and local (the nuclear within the local history of the American West). This paper tries to clarify the literary considerations of studying nuclear energy as a social cultural phenomenon within energy humanities as a methodological basis for researching the novel’s conflict between nuclear energy and spiritual energy, stemmed from the conflict between the faith, underlying a technological society, and the faith, supporting a spiritual community. By separating ‘nuclear energy’- related issues and ‘nuclear weapons’-related messages as parts of nuclear narrative, the paper brings back the religious organizations’ debates about their support of the policy of nuclear disarmament and their recognition of the peaceful use of nuclear energy, by supporting the nuclear energy initiatives and advocating the key role of a nuclear source of electricity in the fight against anthropogenic climate change, which reflects church organizations’ contribution into the social debates about nuclear energy. As the novel’s plot is based on the true case of U.S. DOE’s initiative about constructing a nuclear waste reservoir in the Nevada desert, the paper illustrates the fictional/factual balance in covering the conflict between spiritual energy and nuclear energy, represented in the perspective of two protagonists, trying to protect their monastery from U.S. Department of Energy’s initiative on building a nuclear waste repository in their vicinity. The paper highlights the conflict as an encounter of some spiritual powers, which the protagonists go through – the spiritual power of the religious faith, implemented in the monastic life in the remote hermitage, the spiritual power of the place, implemented in the Nevada desert (combining the energy of community on the desert and the energy of Indian folklore, which collaboratively are trying to counterbalance the spiritual power of nuclear energy. The paper tries to follow the author’s way of illustrating how the traditional Indian wisdom and Christian practices, jointed together, result in making their hermitage survive as a counterbalance to the U.S. federal plans to build a nuclear waste repository. The paper underlines the literary representation of a hermitage as one of the central plot-framing imaginaries which is the embodiment of spiritual impressions, materialized in the monastery and inserted in the historical settings (in the context of the nuclear history of Nevada region). The paper summarizes Bergon’s perspective on this conflict of spiritual powers’ counteraction by depicting how the novel’s protagonists try to search for possibilities which that can help avoid the conflict and consolidate the spiritual powers’ balance by changing the perspective on nuclear energy by learning the spirituality of the atom and by avoiding polarity in reconsidering the new world order. Being involved in debating the spirituality of atom and the counteraction of faith and science, Bergon’s novel reflects the current issues on the advantages and disadvantages of peaceful using nuclear energy by reckoning ‘the nuclear’ not only as a social cultural phenomenon of energy dependent society but also as a trigger of debates on ‘science as a new religion’ within the Nuclear Anthropocene