Living word by word

Juno redux

    There was a great op-ed in the Times Sunday on why Juno is a fairy tale. I really resonated with this point:

The final scene of the movie shows Juno and her boyfriend returned to their carefree adolescence, the baby — safely in the hands of his rapturous and responsible new mother — all but forgotten. Because I’m old enough now that teenage movie characters evoke a primarily maternal response in me (my question during the film wasn’t “What would I do in that situation?” but “What would I do if my daughter were in that situation?”), the last scene brought tears to my eyes. To see a young daughter, faced with the terrible fact of a pregnancy, unscathed by it and completely her old self again was magical.

We just received a Christmas letter this year from a friend who, now in her 40's and the mother of a young girl, just met her adult son, whom she gave up for adoption over twenty years ago. The way she described this meeting, and the loss and wondering all the intervening years have meant for her, was profound. For me, as someone who knows her not that well, it was as if a piece of the puzzle clicked into place, and all the things I've known about her as a parent made sense. Caitlin Flanagan's op-ed asks the deepest questions about teenage pregnancy, going well beyond the pro-life/pro-choice debate.

The Golden Compass redux

The Christian Century has a cover article about The Golden Compass (the book -- they don't really cover the film) titled "The Enemy Church." The first book of the trilogy doesn't fully play out Pullman's theological challenge, so it's no surprise that any protest about the film was short-lived. I agree with Chris' comments below that Pullman's primary problem seems to be with original sin. It's a disagreement shared by a lot of people I know, even though many Christians would agree with GK Chesterton that sin is the one doctrine of Christianity for which there is empirical evidence.
        Pullman's characterization of the church as authoritarian and oppressive is no surprise either to most of us. We're accustomed to seeing the church as a pure caricature in the movies. And, quite honestly, we can agree with most atheists that historically the church has done a lot of Bad Things. Add to that the fact that Pullman's world is purportedly a fantasy world, a parallel universe of sorts in which the pope is John Calvin and people's souls walk about with them in animal form.
            If Pullman wants to criticize the historical church, have at it. Christians can at least agree that the church has often betrayed its own mission. If he wants to argue that we'd all be better people if we didn't believe in sin, well, there you have a matter to talk about, and I'm not sure the straw man of the Evil Church that he raises in His Dark Materials series helps advance that argument.

Juno

My in-laws came to visit for Johannes' 3rd birthday this weekend, and my mother-in-law was eager to see Juno, so the two of us and about 800 people younger than we wedged into the Uptown Theater last night. What all the critics are saying about the acting is true. The dialog is so hip that I missed many of the gags, but I didn't care because the people were emotionally more real than the way they talk. (My mother-in-law, the classics scholar, was quick to point out that drama frequently involves dialog that isn't how we really talk.) This story of a teenage pregnancy is full of lovely people you want to hang out with.

I particularly appreciated the movie's portrayal of Juno's parents, who are warm, down-to-earth and funnier than parents of teenagers are ever allowed to be in the movies. Even I've seen 140 episodes of West Wing three times each, I found Allison Janney's portrayal of the Good Stepmother believable.

The Golden Compass

A friend of mine noticed that I'm reading Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass and asked if I had an opinion about the call for a boycott of the upcoming movie. I don't yet, but I was motivated to finally read the book because:
a) it's a genre I usually enjoy
b) I know a lot of kids at my church are reading it
c) a lot of people will see the movie
d) New Line Cinema is promoting it by transfiguring the ring from LOTR to a compass in its previews
e) I heard years ago about Pullman's atheist agenda, and decided I'd better investigate for myself

I'm not done with the book, and suspect that the full agenda of Pullman's anti-Paradise Lost tale will become more evident only in books two and three. So I don't have much to say yet, except that Alan Jacobs, who I respect enormously for defending Harry Potter among the evangelical set years ago, has voiced serious concerns about Pullman. OK, Jacobs is a C.S. Lewis fan, and Pullman decidedly is not, so they are already in different camps. But Jacobs is not a knee-jerk "It's not explicitly Christian, therefore it's bad" kind of critic. You can hear his thought on Mars Hill Audio, here.

Mars Hill Audio, by the way, is sort of public radio (Ken Myers formerly worked for NPR) for conservative Christians. It's very intellectual and thoughtful, and I subscribed to it for a while back when it was in CD format, but stopped when they started doing apology for the war. They did some wonderful programs on Tolkien when LOTR was emerging in film.

What Would Jesus Buy?

I saw What would Jesus buy? today, and it has, appropriately, stirred me up. I can’t say I learned anything new about American consumerism, or corporate (non-)citizenship or sweat shops. Rev. Billy did not irritate me as much as I expected. But I was moved simply by the story of these individuals – Bill Talen and his choir and band members – who toured the country for a month in ancient buses (retrofitted for biodiesel) in order to spread their message.  Most of them seem like the people with whom I lived for a year in Lutheran Volunteer Corps – young, committed, hopeful, and fun-loving.

I generally avoid the places Rev. Billy targets – megamalls and Wal-Mart – precisely because they make me feel demoralized and numbed out. I’m no better than any other average mortal at getting out of Target without spending $50 more than I intended to, so I try to just avoid the whole scene (except when I have to, say, pick up party favors for a six-year-old's birthday).  I thought sitting through 90 minutes of footage  in these places would depress me. But, in fact, Rev. Billy’s  witness makes me hopeful.

The members of the Church of Stop Shopping are witnesses, in the best sense – they point to another way – in a totally silly, outrageous manner. The folks in the film also seem, in some odd ways, to be a genuine church, in that they care for one another, reach out to others, and even confess their own shortcomings.

This is not great film, but I’m glad Morgan Spurlock has documented TCOSS in this way.

My favorite line, after Billy has been detained in Disneyland  (I think from one of the choir members):

“They [the Disney folk] completely control this place. It’s not like U.S public land where you can, like. . . sing.”

Enchanted

I went to a Disney movie last night, and I enjoyed it. It was, as all the reviewers have noted, new territory for Disney, spoofing its own star brand, The Princess. Creating Giselle, a Cinderella- Snow White - Briar Rose – Ariel- Belle amalgam, the makers have thrust their cherished meme into the (sort-of) real world of New York City, where she must find her way, at least until her True Prince finds her. They manage to make you laugh at all the truly laughable qualities of the Princess while still letting you care about her enough that, in the end, you don’t resent the storybook ending one bit.

 

Well, maybe a little bit. At first, the movie seems like a wink at moviegoers my age, who have figured out that the princess dreams we grew up with were not necessarily our allies in facing the realities of modern love and marriage. OK, Enchanted admits, love at first sight is not the wisest basis for a lifelong relationship. The Princess is even allowed to get angry – in fact, this anger is the pivotal moment in the movie. They even let her rescue her guy, sort of.

 

I would be a scrooge to begrudge the ending, in which Princess simultaneously gets her guy and grows to appreciate some of the contours of real life relationship. At least they don’t kill off the mature, assertive, rival girlfriend.  But the lapse into fantasy that most irritated me was when Giselle steps into a maternal role. What, you may ask, seals the deal with her potential stepdaughter?  A high end shopping spree capped by a mother-daughter pedicure.  “Is this what it’s like?” the little girl asks. “What?” Giselle says. “When your Mom takes you shopping.” Yes, there it is, the real thing that binds us to one another in families: shared self-indulgence. That’s the scene I don’t want my little girl to see.

 

The moment that most encapsulates the Disney mythology is near the beginning, when the realist father gives his six-year-old a book of heroines: Rosa Parks, Marie Curie. He wants her to have it instead of the fairytale book she wants, he explains, because these are real life women. “See? Madame Curie,” he points, “she devoted her life to science and research, and .. uh . . . died of radiation poisoning.” Every man’s dream for his little girl.

 

There’s the rub. Fairytales never end with the heroine actually dying. Actually, some of them do, just not Disney’s Americanized versions of them. Despite a Disney ban at our house, we still have lots of princess fantasies going on, and I’ve made my peace with them by reading – reading the original  tales by Hans Christian Anderson or even the Brothers Grimm, as harsh as they may be.  There is some very deep archetypal stuff going on with the good and evil in these tales – they have survived for a reason. Yes, mature and good women are often lacking in these stories, but I’m secure enough in my motherhood to believe that this alone won’t warp our mother-daughter relationship. And if I’m reading to her instead of popping in a video, I am neither the Absent Mother nor the Evil Stepmother. And maybe she’ll be less likely to assume that a true princess has to have a microwaist and a $70 manicure.

 

 

March of the Penguins

Our upstairs is now 88 degrees (we have air conditioning only in two rooms in the house), so it seemed like a good day to just retreat. Katie and I went to see March of the Penguins at the Edina Theater.  A lot of other people had the same idea, which makes sense on the 8^th straight day over 90 degrees. The theater wasn’t even set on freezing the way many multiplexes are, but watching footage of Antarctica for an hour and a half does tend to cool one off.

The film is worth seeing for the cinematography alone. The narration was occasionally rather corny – though I could listen to Morgan Freeman’s voice any time (maybe it’s just all those years of Electric Company in the 70’s).  I knew that male penguins incubate the eggs. I didn’t know that they do so without any food for four months during the harshest weather of the year. (The females are busy walking back to the sea before they starve to death). As in most parts of the animal kingdom, there is some competition for mates, but when winter storms roll in, the males huddle together to keep themselves and their eggs warm. And – here’s the part that surprised me -- they take turns being at the center of the huddle.

These amazing creatures have a way (not an easy way, but a way) to survive in the harshest climate in the world. It’s likely that global climate change is going to make life a lot more difficult for most humans in the future as well. A planet with more storms, more drought, more hurricanes and so on will not be an easy place to survive. I sure hope we can learn to take turns when the going gets rough.