The Sparrow and A Case of Conscience
The Sparrow is similar to James Blish's science fiction novel, A Case of Conscience. It also involves a Jesuit priest confronting an alien civilization.
On her website, Mary Doria Russell addresses this speculation with the following statement:
I get this question all the time, because Blish's 1958 story is about a Spanish Jesuit in space. If I ever read this story, I guess it didn't make much of an impression on me, because I don't remember it. I still haven't come across it, but people have told me that the protagonist is named Ruiz-Sanchez, so they thought I must have named Emilio Sandoz in homage to Blish. In fact, Emilio got his name from the pharmaceutical manufacturer who made my son's cold medicine. Danny got a cold in 1992 when I started the book, and I noticed the name Sandoz on the medicine label and thought it sounded good. No symbolism or homage beyond that, I'm afraid!
Read more about this topic: The Sparrow (novel)
Famous quotes containing the word case:
“The landscape of the northern Sprawl woke confused memories of childhood for Case, dead grass tufting the cracks in a canted slab of freeway concrete. The train began to decelerate ten kilometers from the airport. Case watched the sun rise on the landscape of childhood, on broken slag and the rusting shells of refineries.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)