Theological Thoughts of the Day

I think that there are two things God will say to pretty much every Christian when he arrives in Heaven.

1) "When you did [X], you were very silly and very wrong. But you were responding to my Spirit, and it was a step towards Me."

2) "When you did [Y], you were very smart and very correct. Even so, you were arrogant about your accomplishments, and it was a sinful stumble away from Me."

Just thoughts of the day. I could be wrong, though.

To See or Not to See a Dalek

Just as the only real James Bond (really) will always be Mr. Connery, the indisputable real face of the good Doctor is Tom Baker.

Yet I must admit, I have been rather un-dissappointed by David Tennant. Something about his performance--the idiotic energy, the inappropriate wide grins, the rare moments of old-school Shakespearian intensity--has just hit me as essentially English and essentially Doctoresque. Almost against my will, I must conceed he's a good face for the iconic character. Eventually, I'll probably end up owning the unconscionably expensive DVD sets of his incarnations.

In what once was unrelated news, I have never seen a live performance of Hamlet. For an immense number of reasons, this is about as illogical a fact as the $130 pricetag on Dr. Who seasons. I mean, just to brush the surface:

1) As unoriginal as it may sound, Hamlet is (at most times) my favorite Shakespeare play. (At other times I go for Twelfth Night. Twelfth Night has everything I want in light entertainment--swordplay, strong tragic undertones, and a resolutely happy ending.)

2) I have seen Romeo and Juliet. I know, one of my wife's friends starred in the performance, but still. I've seen Romeo and Juliet, but not Hamlet. Le sigh.

3) Whatever enthusiasm I have for Hamlet will never draw near to my wife's passionate love for the play. Some people think "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" is a funny and silly song. For me, it is an expression of a self-evident truth: it is always a good thing to quote Hamlet to my wife; the more insanely inappropriate the quote is to the situation, the better*.


As I said, these two elements of my taste in entertainment used to be quite separate. But now, God (in cooperation with the Royal Shakespeare Company) has decided to taunt me with my status as a poor grad student residing an ocean away from England.

David Tennant, apparently, is now starring in Hamlet.


I would adapt a soliloquy to express my bitterness at this latest mocking sling and arrow of outrageous fortune, but I have not the heart.

On the other hand, there are more things which wind up on YouTube and the internet than are dreamed up by corporate lawyers.



*This is yet another way Hamlet is the anti-Romeo. Quoting Romeo, like quoting Anakin, is a joy which must be engaged in only very rarely. Otherwise, I might end up sleeping on the couch.

I Have an Odd Connection with England

I have an odd sort of connection with England. Somehow, in many ways, it feels far more familiar than I might expect.

Mostly, I guess I like the fact that they actually have a national history--that everything wasn't wiped out by malaria blankets just a couple hundred of years ago. And that the Middle Ages, for which I also have a Quixotic love, happened there, so that's a plus.

But I really hope I never find out that they imported this French armor style:


























Yes. That is a duck. On his head. While he's dressed for war.

Le sigh.

(Image yanked from BibliOdyssey, an immensely cool blog and well worth checking out.)

The Perennial Pi-Day Video

Still as trippy and hillarious/oddly-disturbing as ever!

Christian Publishing, A Reconsideration

Thinking about some comments I made about Christian publishing yesterday, I feel some clarifications need to be made so that I can better understand what I think about the issue. And hey! If I have to say it publically, maybe I'll get other ideas from, like, other people. And stuff.

1) I quite enjoy making fun of the Christian publishing industry. Mainly, because in a lot of ways they make it quite easy. Their legalistic focus on what ought to be in/out of a book seems, even at just a glance, to have a strong potential for encouraging stories that flee truth-telling in order to portray every Christian as entirely unsinful and the world as entirely unthreatening. Worst of all, the marketing of "Christian" literature separately from "secular" literature draws those authors who would otherwise be entering into dialog with their fellow writers into a realm where they get the final say simply because they get the only say. (When I've said this before, it's been misinterpreted as a critique of Christ-lit authors, which it isn't. It doesn't matter how effectively an author deals with real questions and deep issues of life--if they're under a Christian distribution system they'll almost exclusively be read by not only Christians but those Christians so subsumed into "Christian" lifestyle that they seek out such labels. A "Christian" fantasy author will in all likelihood not be read by too many of his "secular" counterparts, for instance, with far-reaching un-effects. For example, say a guy (for the sake of argument lets call him "Mr. Lewis") comes up with an idea (again, to choose randomly: "kids going through a wardrobe and into a whimsical world where highly religious and allegorical overtones mix with an appreciative mythopoesis"). Now say he publishes in the CBA. Some people may hear of him, some people may not--but there'll probably be a lot of Christian novels featuring portals and different worlds, though with a smaller talent pool probably not as many brilliant versions as otherwise would occurr. Certainly it would be unlikely that an author such as Niel Gaiman would feel the book's influence strongly enough to devote an entire heartfelt story to the scene he felt was most offensively Christian. Marketing would rather lead to it being simply ignored.

2) I still like the concept of a Christian publishing company. Certainly overt Christian themes and arguments have found their way into a wide variety of "secular" publications--many times because they were in stories created by self-identifying Christian authors. But I think it an interesting and worthwhile adventure to start a publishing company on a vaguely Christian basis, selecting books that it feels in some way contains an aesthetic excellence while focusing on specifically Christian themes or preoccupations. That's why I get excited about Relief Journal, who opens its doors even to those who don't identify themselves as Christians but are interested in writing those type of stories.

3) I quite enjoy making fun of the Christian publishing industry. So here's a list of some of my favorite items that are ACTUALLY SOLD in SBC-affiliated Christian stores.

* Apples to Apples, Bible Edition. Okay, this one I actually could imagine enjoying, though only if mixed with normal Apples to Apples (the Greatest Game, might I add, Ever.) But it goes on the list for the example hand shown on the back of the box (quoted loosely):

Green Card (Card to Match): Awesome!

Red Cards (Suggestions): The Bible! The Church! Jesus! God! Baptism! (For some reason the examples are slightly different on this image.)

I would be tempted to play "Satan," but only because I'm constantly tempted to play "Hiroshima, 1945" with my current cards.



* Settlers of Cannan. Hex-based strategy games are of Satan! This is because one sits at a table with college-aged nerdy friends to play them--just like the Evil Dungeons & Dragons! But now, we can redeem them! It won't be "Catan," an imaginary (and therefore PAGAN!!) kingdom. It will be Cannan, and the first step in the game should be to kill every imaginary man, woman and child in the name of God. Then you lay down your city and road at the port, before some other Tribe of Israel gets there--because you know the House of Benjamin is just waiting to block your path.

* Goliath Electronic Sword. This one, quite literally, takes the cake (but only away from the evil Israelites.) Tired of seeing your young boy play-pretend as noble knights like Arthur or Galahad who are not mentioned in the Bible? Now you can rest in peace, knowing that your child is in Scripturally-ordained training to become the most powerful champion of the Phillistines. But maybe this time, he will learn from the past and work hard enough to succeed in his valiant attempt to slaughter the Lord's Annointed and decimate the people of God.



Sigh.


(In all fairness, I must admit that none of these items were exactly flying off the shelves. Which might point to the root of the problem: people who trust "Christian" stores do so under an illusion that these companies are, in some manner, "Christian." In fact, they are quite often entirely out of touch with reality, merely promoting any immitations of anything and hoping that somewhere, something will turn a profit.)

Towards a Christian Narrative: Love and Character-based Storytelling

I've been putting a lot of thought into what "Christian literature" should be. Not, of course, the silly sub-sub-genres that fill the bookstores where only Christians go and have to follow a long list of rules seemingly made up by 1950's-era pitchfork-holding Southern Baptists on a very angry day ("may not include alcohol consumption by Christian characters, dancing, card playing, gambling or games of chance (including raffles), explicit scatological terms, hero and heroine remaining overnight together alone, Halloween celebrations or magic or the mention of intimate body parts.") Bit I think if one takes Christ's call seriously, it should change the way stories are told nonetheless.

One of the questions that keeps rolling around my head is the label "inspirational" as applied to Christian literature. As an inspirational teacher, I'd give Jesus (for instance) a B- at best. Sure he can command magnificently impossible things such as loving one's enemies, and sure the tale of the Prodigal Son (and more prodigal Father) is about as heartening as allegories can come. But do inspirational teachers really run around destroying furniture in temples and hitting people with whips? Do they tell rich seekers bluntly to give everything away to the poor? Do they talk casually (if allegorically) about the destruction of the Temple on the Mount? If Jesus submitted a book to an "Inspirational" publishing outlet today I think he'd be told that revisions were needed, otherwise he'd alienate too many people.

One of the quotes that's always inspired me was by good ole' Gilbert, and goes something like "It is the prime duty of an author to tell the whole story about life. Either the characters in a story are evil, or the story itself is." But I think, on the whole, our society (at least the part not hiding under a mask of "Christianity") may be a bit glutted with "genuineness" and "honest self-expression." I applaud Rich Mullins for having the courage to write the song "Jacob and Two Women" and thereby honestly chronicling the weaknesses and difficulties of a life of faith. But I think there was something far deeper and richer going on beneath the Dylanesque honesty that makes the song worthwhile. In a word (and it is the most rightfully elusive word in the English language): it is love.

I think a lot of fun can be had with manipulation of motif, story, "form vs. content," philosophical speculation, and clever manipulation of reader expectations. If it wasn't so, Quentin Territino would not be in buisness, and the nation of France would not have the character we see today. But in the end, if ALL you have is clever ideas, brilliant writing, and innovation, the story's going to be hollow at the center. In that sense I guess a good story is a lot like a good Christian: "If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal."

Now maybe I'm wrong, and maybe there can be a non-character based and equally right ideal of Christian literature which through avant-garde manipulation of words seeks to open the soul and fight injustice on an ideological level. But it seems to me a bit dangerous to put one's ideas in front of one's characters--one might find oneself arrogantly putting one's ideas in front of the real-life "characters" one meets and interacts with on the street.

And maybe that's why I tend to appreciate either older works or modern genre fiction more than most contemporary "literary fiction." Authors like Shakespeare, Doestoevski, Steinbeck and even Raymond Chandler were not particularly revolutionary--or even interesting--in terms of form. But in revealing the complexity and humanity of their characters in a spirit of love, they created resonant works that are humanizing in the best sense of the word.