I heard from a gent who could not believe that I was not a fan of the Left Behind series.
Furthermore, although I might not be a fan, surely I could realize the value of the books.
I had to tell him that I do not.
Our stories are what we are and we are our stories. Our lives are history; a narrative of a being whose cognitive system allowed him to experience the Holy.
If I choose to allow violence, death, and disaster, then my story will reflect this fact.
I once spoke of Defoe's pamphlet On Murder Being Considered As A Fine Art. Even murder may be an art form if enough people say it is.
Murder is an art form now, in fact.
We have an entire genre of literature and cinema devoted to artful depictions of violent degradations of humanity. Martin Scorsese is a master of the form. He has a new film called The Departed and people flock to see it. These same people will probably discuss its merits afterwards.
I was recently asked if I had seen it. I replied that Martin Scorsese and I have...issues, issues going all the way back to Taxi Driver.
Our stories are built upon these choices. In the realm of Faith, the common sense distinction between the world of Image and Reality disappears, for we experience the Holy in fear and trembling, but when we return to the everyday world, we must tell of our experience using words and figures of speech with which we are familiar.
If we are familiar with the glorification of violent disaster, we shall use the language of Left Behind.
We are limited beings.
We cannot comprehend the Holy. We can feel it, taste it. Then we try to describe it.
If our vocabulary is that of Violence and Discord, so shall our picture of the Holy be.
If our words are formed by the Sermon on the Mount, so shall our story of God.
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3 comments:
Defoe's pamphlet On Murder Being Considered As A Fine Art, or the Quincey´s On Murder Being Considered As A Fine Art essay?
Kind regards,
Darn.
Why in heaven's name do I constantly mix up DeQuincey and Defoe?
As I type this, I just answered my own question: their names both start with "de".
It runs in the family.
The University Marching Band has jackets for its members whereon are stitched the member's first name and instrument, such as "Paul" followed by "Trombone"
My daughter went to U. for 4 years before she asked why so many band members were of the "Tuba" family, such as "Bob Tuba", "Jim Tuba", etc.
What a sense of humor, you are amazing!!!
I had a reasonable doubt about the author, I read about DeQuincey´s, and I thought that may be Dafoe wrote something with the same name.
I think you are catholic, so am I, and someone has written that the Blessed Virgin, is the prototype of women´s submission, in negative terms. In my opinion is the maximum expression of love and courage. I would be really interested about your opinion. Thank you very much.
Kind regards from Spain.
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