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:
“Consider the deference which is everywhere paid to a doctor’s opinion. Nothing more strikingly betrays the credulity of mankind than medicine. Quackery is a thing universal, and universally successful. In this case it becomes literally true that no imposition is too great for the credulity of men.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)