Bumper Sticker Logic #2

At a red light in Traverse City last year, I waited behind a car that appeared to be held together entirely with bumper stickers. My amusement changed to annoyance when I realized that my 11-year-old sitting next to me was learning some new words while absorbing some bad ideas.  Who knew so much crass and shallow thinking could fit onto the back of a car?

Last week, while waiting at a different light, the multiple stickers on the car in front of me got me thinking again. It began with this slogan:

"Remember to always be yourself. Unless you suck."

I wouldn't put it on my own car, but it earned a chuckle. I get so tired of phrases like "Always be yourself," as well as its more aesthetic cousin “You’re beautiful just the way you are!” When used properly, these sentiments can bolster the self-image of someone who has been wrongly shamed by reminding them they have a value that transcends opinions and circumstances. That's when it's used properly. In general, I hear versions of it mindlessly parroted by the self-indulgent "don't judge me" crowd.

This "Always Be Your Own Beautiful Self!" scenario sounds really good in a song, but even Christina Aguilera's stellar pipes do not have the power to change an important truth about the world:  some things in all of us are not beautiful.  Sometimes, the people pointing out ugly things are right.

Oblivion: Of Machines and Men

Oblivion is a beautiful film. I'm a fan of sci-fi already; give me an alien invasion, sweeping landscapes, a shattered moon, clever plot twists and beautiful people, and yes - I will be entertained.

Having said that, Oblivion ultimately failed to satisfy, and I left the theater frustrated for several different reasons.

First, Oblivion was a poorly written film with an almost comical amount of plot holes. Since the purpose of this blog is to focus on worldviews rather than the art of storytelling, I will leave it to other sites to provide the details.

Second (and more importantly), the movie failed to give meaningful answers to the questions it raised. As Grantland noted, "Oblivion is something you want to be inside of. Upon entry, you'd have plenty of room to notice how hollow it is."  I firmly agree.

Warning: I'm going to give away the plot. You need the backstory to understand a key worldview question the movie addressed in its own charmingly inept way:  What does it mean to be human?

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

In an attempt to enter into and better understand the stories, worldviews, and messages shaping my kids and the rest of today's youth, I submit my latest review of trending books, films, and TV shows effecting a primarily YA audience. My goal is not to critique the art form as much as look at how the story reflects and shapes  the readers' worldview.

This review will look at Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth, the first book in a hugely popular zombie apocalypse series. As is increasingly the case with popular YA novels, a movie is in the works.

There will be spoilers.
_________________________________________________________

Mary has lived inside a fence all her life. The Unconsecrated (zombies) lurk in the woods, and no one knows if there are any other survivors. The Guardians protect the fences, while the Sisterhood indoctrinates the survivors. Police at the walls of the city; church at the walls of their hearts and minds. The community is ordered, purposeful and exasperatingly pragmatic. Humanity has a long road ahead, and purpose rather than passion will pave the way.

Mary is the now-to-be-expected YA rebel. Though her mother told her stories about the ocean, of freedom and goodness and hope beyond the fence, Mary does not believe her. She also does not believe in a God who allowed her father to become one of the Unconsecrated. One day her mother gives up on her own stories and goes to the fence, allowing herself to be bitten so she can join her husband. Mary holds her until she dies.

This loss of parents is a common plot twist in YA literature.  In every single book I have read in the past year and a half, one or both parents are either gone or dead. Every. Single. One. I’m not sure there is a more obvious marker of the yearning in our youth for stability and love in a culture of divorce and abandonment.

In the brief span between death and Unconsecration, Mary's beliefs about God crystalize:

     “ I stop believing in God… I wait for [the Scriptures] to calm me, to infuse me with light and grace. But it does not come, does not fill the hollow ache inside me. I wonder if I will ever feel whole again now that I no longer believe in God.”

Throne of Glass

In an attempt to enter into and better understand the stories, worldviews, and messages shaping my kids and the rest of today's youth, I submit my latest review of trending books, films, and TV shows effecting a primarily YA audience. My goal is not to critique the art form as much as look at how the story reflects and shapes  the readers' worldview.

There will be spoilers.
______________________________________________________________________

Throne of Glass, by Sarah J. Mass, was named Amazon.com's "Best Book of the Month for Kids & Teens" in August 2012.  Publishers Weekly called it a "strong debut novel," and many other reviewers (though not all) have agreed. As with many popular books, a film is in the works.

I'll be honest: I didn't really care for this book. After reading my initial thoughts, I decided I should rewrite it and spend a little more time on the positive aspects.  However, if you read between (or behind) the lines, you may be able to get a sense of where this review began.

Celaena is a teenage girl who is also the World’s Greatest Assassin. After her parents died, she was raised by a whole bunch of assassins. When the country's king finally manages to capture her, he sends her to the mines to die. 

While imprisoned, she kills 24 guards. Years later, she still remembers one of the guards fondly, specifically“the feeling of embedding the pickax into his gut, and the stickiness of his blood on her hands and face.” Some of those guards had raped a friend; they “died too quickly.” These memories haunt her sleep do not seem to bother her too much.

One day the king’s son, Dorian, unexpectedly pulls her from the mines to enter a contest which will decide the king’s next Champion. If she wins, she gets her freedom after four years of service. Dorian is a blatant womanizer handsome rogue, a man whose renowned prowess in the bedroom on the battlefield is surpassed only by his ability to use people look good. Celaena observes that when he stands up straight, he“looks like a king.” Never has good posture played such a pivotal role in a romance.

Celaena vacilates between blood-thirsty assassin, girly potential princess, and cynical, world-weary girl. Men think she is beautiful when she dresses up, and she giggles. Men mock her in the tournament, and she destroys them.  She dreams of cutting out the king’s heart and smashing in the teeth of her bodyguard, Chaol, then plays piano like a virtuoso, “playing and playing as the sounds forgave and saved her.” She is a hot mess a little bit of everything a woman wants to be.

The Dogma-Free Society

“Dogma”

a : something held as an established opinion; especially : a definite authoritative tenet

b : a code of such tenets 

"Society"

a: companionship or association with one's fellows

b: a voluntary association of individuals for common ends; especially : an organized group working together or periodically meeting because of common interests, beliefs, or profession 

I saw this sign posted on a college bulletin board last week. It sounds great, doesn't it? If I take language seriously, the poster is inviting me to be a part of an organized group that will be free of established opinions on the issues.

Who, I wondered, would take the time to start a group that stands for nothing? And who would attend the meetings?  An article on the Dogma-Free Society answered at least one question:

Life of Pi: Searching for the Better Story

Life of Pi recounts the story of Piscine Molitor Patel, mercifully known as Pi.  You can read the plot overview on Wikipedia; I'm not going to reinvent the Wiki wheel.  I will, however, highlight particular events that will lead us to the worldview embedded in this confusing, compelling story.

As a boy, Pi’s mother raises him as a Hindu. When he is fourteen, he begins to follow the teachings of Christianity and then of Islam, believing them all capable of teaching him something important about God. So, Hindu/Christian/Muslim. His father, a champion of reason, notes, "If you believe in everything, you believe in nothing." That's solid advice, but Pi seems far more motivated to embrace ideas based on personal experience, strong feelings and intuition. As a result, he does confusing things like a) embrace three contradictory notions of God and b) try to pet a tiger by luring it closer with a piece of raw meat. Think of these two events as related.

When his family and a bunch of their zoo animals head for Canada (read Wiki), a storm capsizes the ship, leaving Pi stranded on a lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a tiger named Richard Parker (the one he once tried to feed). Eventually only the tiger remains, and it is not inclined to share the space.

Pi ties a raft to the side of the lifeboat, and thus begins the heart of a mesmerizing story as they float for 227 days, fighting each other and the elements, surviving storms and carnivorous islands, and eventually making peace before finally landing on the shore of Mexico.

Insurance company representatives visit Pi in the hospital to find out what happened. They don’t believe his incredible story, so Pi quietly tells them a much darker one. It’s a horrible story of human atrocity, with a murderer and cannibal (the hyena) who preys upon Pi’s mother and another sailor (the zebra and orangutan) while Pi (the tiger) waits too long to intervene, then becomes a violent killer to destroy the evil on the boat. They believe that one.

Warm Bodies: Exhuming Humanity

“Once you’ve arrived at the end of the world, it hardly matters which route you took.”

Isaac Marion's Warm Bodies has been a surprise recent hit. Though this zombie romance book (?) was originally written for an adult audience, the recent movie targets a YA crowd. If you are tempted to dismiss the story as yet another sign that we are staggering toward cultural annihilation, you might want to reconsider. Warm Bodies gives a sobering, concise and (I’m afraid) largely true warning about the trajectory of a humanity consumed by the worst parts of its own nature.

“What happened to the world was gradual… A smoldering dread that never really caught fire till there wasn’t much left to burn. Each sequential step surprised us…The abandoning of quests, the surrendering of desires, the settling in and settling down that is the inevitable fate of the Dead…

It didn’t take much to bring down the card house of civilization. Just a few gusts and it was done, the balance tipped, the spell broken. Good citizens realized the lines that had shaped their lives were imaginary and easily crossed. They had wants and needs and the power to satisfy them, so they did. The moments the lights went out, everyone stopped pretending… 

I can no longer believe in any voodoo spell or laboratory virus. This is something deeper, darker. This comes from the cosmos, from the stars, from the unknown blackness behind them. The shadows in God’s boarded-up basement… I think we crushed ourselves down over the centuries. Buried ourselves under greed and hate and whatever other sins we could find until our souls finally hit rock bottom of the universe. And then they scraped a hole through it, into some… dark place.”

This is a zombie apocalypse in which no one is to blame but the collective, growing decay of humanity. The zombies were just the inevitable product of a civilization full of people who were already dead. The plague just removed the facade. 

The Paperboy: Quagmire of Evil

"We are trapped in our own situation...We are in darkness, and cannot see. We are ill, and cannot heal ourselves. We are injured, and need someone to bind our wounds. We are trapped, and cannot break free from our captivity. We are addicted to patterns of behavior that we cannot master. We need an illuminator, a healer, a liberator."   - Alister McGrath, in Redemption

 The Paperboy, based on Pete Dexter’s 1995 novel, was nominated for a boatload of awards in 2012, including Best Actress (Kidman was even nominated for a Golden Globe), Best Film, Best Supporting Actress, Best Ensemble, and Best Supporting Actor. I occasionally watch award-winning movies just to see what is currently considered commendable, and based on the official site summary, this movie sounded intriguing:

“The Paperboy takes audiences deep into the backwaters of steamy 1960s South Florida, as investigative reporter Ward Jansen (Matthew McConaughey) and his partner Yardley Acheman (David Oyelowo) chase a sensational, career-making story. With the help of Ward's younger brother Jack (Zac Efron) and sultry death-row groupie Charlotte Bless (Nicole Kidman), the pair tries to prove violent swamp-dweller Hillary Van Wetter (John Cusack) was framed for the murder of a corrupt local sheriff. Based on the provocative bestselling novel by Pete Dexter (Mulholland Falls, Rush), The Paperboy peels back a sleepy small town's decades-old façade of Southern gentility to reveal a quagmire of evil as dark as a Florida bayou.”

John Grisham meets James Lee Burke, perhaps?  Maybe it would be worth watching. I’m all in favor of a moving story where those who fight for justice wade through the quagmire of sin and defeat evil.  Note to self: next time, check out other reviews first, and read the official blurb more carefully. I foolishly assumed that it must take light to "reveal a quagmire of evil as dark as the Florida bayou," and that the purpose of exposing evil was to deal with it. I could not have been more wrong.