"The Sparrow" Author Mary Doria Russell Presents Dewald Lecture and Convocation
June 1, 2010
Honors and Dean's List students along with faculty and staff attended the annual Dewald Honors Dinner and Lecture in Kresge Dining Commons located in the Hoover-Price Campus Center on September 10 at Mount Union College. The dinner recognizes freshmen honors scholars and students who earned Dean's List recognition during the 2002-2003 academic year.
Following a refreshment reception and a welcome by Mount Union College President Jack Ewing, dinner was served. Mrs. Eleanore (Iman '38) Dewald was present as a special guest. The dinner and lecture series has been made possible by her family since 1981 to applaud the quality of student achievement and to encourage the pursuit of academic excellence at Mount Union.
President Ewing and Dean Richard Marriott presented the 2002-2003 Class Leader Prizes. Chad Kimmel of Youngstown was the recipient of the Rickard/Evans Freshman prize, Mark Heltzel of Cochranton, PA was the recipient of the Ramsayer Sophomore prize, and Brian Keller of Huron was the recipient of the Drushal/McMaster Junior Prize.
Dr. Mary Doria Russell, famed author of "The Sparrow," presented the lecture. She began on a humorous note, gauging the amount of "West Wing" fans in the audience. In her speech, she focused on the tentative belief of existence of life on other planets. "You may be a part of the generation where science and technology discovers that there is evidence of life on other planets," she said.
She talked about the tendency of intelligent people to think that if there is an issue beyond their understanding, it is a cosmic mystery. She believes that is dangerous. "These people think that God is a "God of the Gaps," the God of only what smart people don't understand, " she said. "Give God full majesty and honor over all things, not just over what we don't understand."
Russell admitted that there is uncertainty in science. "No matter how sophisticated our knowledge becomes, there will always be existential questions for generations to ponder," she said.
Russell also presented at the morning convocation in the Mount Union Theatre on Thursday, September 11.
After an introduction by Deborah Lotsof, associate professor of theatre, Russell detailed the experiences she had prior to writing her books, "The Sparrow" and "Children of God." She talked about career work as a paleoanthropologist and personal life history.
One of the events that spurred Russell to begin work on "The Sparrow" was the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' exploration of the New World. Many individuals from the academic world began to discuss a revisionist history about his voyage. They talked about the many mistakes he made. He didn't actually discover anything, they said, but stumbled upon the New World by accident.
She believes that Columbus should have been allowed mistakes on his voyage. "He and his fellow voyagers were up against cultural and language barriers," she said. "Many of his critics act as if they would have done a much better job than he, despite the cultural environment and time frame he was working with."
Russell originally began work on a short story that grew into "The Sparrow." She wrote a religious science fiction story that puts people in a position
of radical ignorance where they have to find a way to survive. "Writing fiction is the hardest thing I've ever done," she said. "Compared to writing fiction, science is a cakewalk."
When she started looking for an agent and shopping her manuscript, the story was turned down a discouraging 31 times. This went on for eighteen months before literary agent Jane Dystel, gave her a break through the intervention of a friend. "Eight days later, I had a Random House contract and sold the movie rights to my book," she remembered.
Russell is currently working on her third book, "A Thread of Grace," set to debut in 2004. It is an underground thriller set in World War II.