MOVIEGUIDE® has asked the Motion Picture Association of America to drop it’s rating system, which has blurred a good bit over the years. They are asking folks to sign a petition to this effect as well.
All posts by Phil
Coffee & Heresy
Loren Easton told me about this comment thread on a post criticizing The All-American Coffee Drinker, and kudos to you, Loren, for roasting your own beans. I don’t do it, probably won’t do it, but I appreciate it nonetheless.
In Time For Banned Books Week
Ben Hur Live
The photo is from the live performances of Ben Hur, in stadiums, with chariot races.
Deceased: Ben Stein’s NY Times Column
Ben Stein used to write for the NY Times. He does not now, because according to his editors, he had the appearance of a conflict of interest in his writing and commercial endorsements. It’s very much like the clear conflict Rush Limbaugh had with Pizza Hut several years ago. I mean, he probably ate a Pizza Hut pizza before and even after his commercial deal with them. Ridiculous. Stein, pictured right on April 4, 2001, wrote about finances in his column and endorsed a company which offers credit checking services. Both things are related to money; he probably even carried money on his person–clearly a conflict of interest.
In related news, the Times tossed out a column in which Stein criticized the president’s power grabs. They did that just before they let him go. Bad timing, no doubt. Lots of people complained about Stein’s columns over the years. Only now do they get through to the editors. Stein states:
The whole subject reminds me of a conversation Bob Dylan had long ago with a reporter who asked him what he thought about how much criticism he was getting for going from acoustic to electric guitar. “There are a lot of people who have knives and forks,” he said, “and they have nothing on their plates, so they have to cut something.”
There’s a quote to put on tap.
Pseudo Histories and Truth
From the Times Literary Supplement: “Ronald Fritze, a historian and dean at Athens State University in Alabama, is concerned about, and clearly fascinated by, the pseudo-histories and pseudo-sciences . . .” The article goes on to describe his work, and the writer of the article appears to have trouble with discernible truth and passionate lies.
“But, how do we reckon with the fact that pseudo-historians also insist on their stories’ truth? Through evidence and “objective” empirical methods, Fritze tells us, again without raising any questions of method and evidence. While objective historians look at all the facts, guarding themselves against presuppositions, pseudo-historians choose only those that support their case.”
Because insisting on the truth of something does not make it true. Imagine that.
The Wand Beats the Laser Gun
Fantasy has thrown down Science Fiction in popular literature, in case you haven’t noticed. It’s partly science’s fault. Philip Marchand reports this quote: “We have reached the point where contemporary science is so far out, to most people it is indistinguishable from magic,” comments well-known Canadian science fiction novelist Robert J. Sawyer. “The notion, for example, that black holes might provide not only links between space but links to time is grounded in current theoretical thinking.”
(via Arts Journal)
Your Jesus Is Too Safe, by Jared C. Wilson
The title of Jared’s first book, Your Jesus Is Too Safe: Outgrowing a Drive-Thru, Feel-Good Savior, brings to mind J.B. Phillips’ classic book, Your God Is Too Small: Miracle Grow for Your Puny Religious Imagination (OK, I made up that subtitle, and Phillips would not have thought it funny). What I remember most of Phillips’ book is the first part, the destructive part, in which he tears down inadequate views of the Almighty. I expected to find Jared’s book similarly organized, but it isn’t. He doesn’t spend much time describing poor views of Jesus, like Hippie Jesus or the inhuman Flannel-graph Jesus. He touches on them in the context of healthy views on Jesus’ role as a shepherd, a judge, a prophet, a king, and many others.
Something Jared says while discussing one role puts a finger on his approach to the whole book. “In contemplating Jesus as Shepherd, I’m most tempted to make a short list of things shepherds do—the shepherd’s responsibilities chart—and cram Jesus into and see how he fits. Some books actually take this tack. I believe this is a backward way to go about things—sort of getting the cart before the horse . . . or sheep, I guess.” Jesus—the real, historic, biblical Jesus—is the focus on the book. If a reader finds it unfamiliar or oddly lacking in application, then I suggest they question whether they may be influenced by preaching and reading that presents the Christian life as a pattern of moral behaviors, who Jesus is not being nearly as important as what he supposedly wants us to do. Your Jesus Is Too Safe is a Christian Living book, but not a book with 40 ways to have a victorious Christian life. Just to iron out any possible subtly here, the latter book is the safe one; this book isn’t safe.
It isn’t too dangerous either. Even though Jared jokes about making readers angry when talking about Jesus’ humanity, (he says people in some circles get riled at the suggestion that Jesus may have relieved his bowels at some point during his life) he does not draw excessive lines in the sand and call out the heretics lurking in every church. He is very charitable, while presenting sound, biblical portraits of Jesus. I appreciate how he reasons deeply from the Scripture and does not fill each chapter with personal stories or extra-biblical illustrations. It’s a darn good book, in other words.
One outstanding point of interest for readers of Brandywine Books is the section on Jesus’ human intelligence. Jared quotes from Dallas Willard’s The Divine Conspiracy to say Jesus isn’t generally considered smart because “the world has succeeded in opposing intelligence to goodness.” Saintly people who are also brilliant are considered anomalies in the world, if their brilliance is recognized (I suppose Chesterton’s Father Brown was one). Some Christians take this idea so far as to discourage heavy study, even in theology, but noting that Jesus was God in human form, Jared states “anytime a Christian denies the importance of reading, learning, and studying . . . one is, practically speaking, denying the incarnation.” So loving the Lord our God with all our minds may mean reading Plato or Shakespeare because doing so would enrich our imaginations.
Continue reading Your Jesus Is Too Safe, by Jared C. WilsonWhere Are the Heroes?
It’s interesting that Lars wrote about villains last week, because I was thinking about them last week too. I quickly a list of 50 greatest from literature, compiled by the UK Telegraph a while back. So when I said to myself, “Dude, what’s the list of 50 greatest heroes look like,” I ran aground searching for a list. That is to say, I didn’t find one.
Of course, now that I search again, I find this list and this one, both broad and not quite what I wanted, especially the latter one. So what about our own list? If you wanted an list of great heroes from literature, who would you expect to see?
Odysseus, Hamlet, Henry V, Petruchio maybe. Frodo, Sam Gamgee, Aragorn, Faramir (unless we limit it to one per work). King Arthur, Erling Skjalgsson, Beowulf, Theseus. Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown, Edmund Pevensie, Robin Hood. (This is getting beyond me, and if I had to rank them, I couldn’t do it.)
Critiquing Pollan: Is This a Regional Question?
I heard author Michael Pollan on NPR this week, and my reaction was mixed. He was discussing his article in Sunday’s NY Times Magazine, “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch.” I respect Mr. Pollan’s views, what I’ve heard of them, so I wasn’t biased against him going into the interview. Then he says Food Network shows like Rachael Ray’s 30 Minute Meals and Sandra Lee’s Semi-Homemade just have “dump and stir” recipes from which no one learns a thing. He says The Food Network claims people do download their recipes, but he asks can you call that cooking?
Come on, now. That’s a bit harsh. Does this look like dump and stir?
Pollan went on to trash event shows like Iron Chef, and though I enjoy that show and learn about food from it, I don’t learn how to cook, so his point remains. Shows like Wedding Cake Challenge are tiresome. But as he went on to dismiss the hassle of making home fries and say that marketers tell him no one cooks anymore, I have to wonder if he and his people live in a culture entirely different from mine.
Houston blogger Katherine Shillcut asks in Pollan’s critique applies to her city where farmers markets are packed and the obesity rate is high. Pollan contends that one can mark the rise in obesity by the decline in cooking at home. I don’t think it’s that simple.
Perhaps, like I said, there’s a cultural blindness in play here (probably on both sides). I can’t see how so many chefs, food bloggers, and recipe makers are sustained by the mere interest in vicarious cooking. As a rebuttal, Frank Wilson points out “The Omnivore’s Delusion: Against the Agri-intellectuals” and another article suggesting food critics are about as partisan as politicians.