Oxygen (novel) - Literary Significance & Criticism

Literary Significance & Criticism

Oxygen is one of few novels to propose that astronauts might not be the unblemished heroes of the popular legend that has grown about them. This legend dates back to Projects Apollo, Gemini, and especially Mercury. Though the author Tom Wolfe (The Right Stuff) has definitively revealed that the Mercury astronauts were not unblemished heroes (with the possible exception of John Glenn), the notion of an astronaut deliberately manipulating his administrative superiors to influence a flight assignment, and another astronaut resorting to planting a "discoverable scientific find" in order to ensure continuance of his country's space program, might have proved difficult for readers to accept.

The jarring portrait of NASA's finest might serve as one possible explanation for the lack of continued interest in this title. However, Christian critics have consistently praised the work, perhaps because it unabashedly demonstrates that no human beings deserve placement on any sort of pedestal, and that all human beings are quite capable of making mistakes, often disastrous ones, even with the best of intentions.

By far, however, the greatest significance of works like this is that they seek to bridge the gap between faith on one side, and pure and applied science on the other. Oxygen forthrightly addresses certain areas of science that might appear to test the Christian faith quite sorely—among them the very possibility of finding living organisms on a world other than earth. Regrettably, Oxygen does not offer any explanation that might reconcile the disparate concepts of life on worlds beyond earth, and God having created life on earth and only on earth. One possible explanation might be that Mars harbors living organisms carried to it in the event that caused the Noachic Flood. (See especially the article on Hydroplates.) But neither this novel nor its sequel discuss that possibility at all—possibly because the theory remains controversial. Instead, they offer an assurance that the Christian faith is strong enough to stand any test, including a scientific finding that might on the surface appear to contradict Scripture. (In fact, Scripture is silent on the nature of the planets, and indeed on all celestial bodies, except the sun, moon, and stars.)