So, i have been reading "War and Peace" all summer.
But i had to take a break from it.
Because it is long.
And
Because it is difficult.
But i did not want to take a break from reading.
So, i picked up Francis Chan's "Crazy Love."
Here are my thoughts on the book:
It was fine.
Let me qualify that by saying this:
Love is an old topic written about by everyone.
And so, Francis Chan had nothing new to say:
Love must be experiential, not educational.
This is not a new revelation.
Culture has picked up on that truth.
So that qualifies me to say this.
The read was fine.
After reading the book, these were my thoughts:
Love is not Crazy, it is simply Love.
You cannot take a break from experiencing it.
Even if it is difficult
And
Even if is long
But you have to let it break you.
So, "Crazy Love" might take me all summer.
The Exorcist is a demonic thriller that transformed the anti-supernatural presupposition from doubter to believer.
Chronicling the possession of a young girl named Reagen, The Exorcist shines light on what is hidden in the Catholic and Protestant Closet-- the supernatural. Since the introduction of psychiatric diseases and somatic disorders, the supernatural has been explained away through personality defects. However, The Exorcist revives the inkling of the supernatural by sharing a story of elements unexplainable to the psychological realm but rather the spiritual. In a despiritualized culture, The Exorcist made a box office splash by presenting ideas that are absent outside the third world. The Exorcist captures the curiosity of culture by utilizing a storyline unfamiliar to the common citizen.
As i finished this movie, i wondered why a world detached from the supernatural world watched The Exorcist, a movie about the very thing culture has tried to corrupt. And then it struck me, the world loves the demonic because it explains circumstances. If evil exists, then actions are excused. If the demonic is real, then destruction is justified. We want the excuse without the consequences. We want the bad without the good. And so, we watch The Exorcist and think of its possibility but hear about the church and think of its absurdity. The Exorcist ironically helps us sleep at night when the reflection of the day's actions awaken us. It seems that culture is so concerned with qualifying its content that it misses its reality, that if the supernatural exists, then the church exists.
Good Will Hunting is the feel good saga about the Southy, Will Hunting, who's math abilities have been overlooked due to his custodial duties. Introduced as a janitor and revealed as a genius, Will Hunting seeks to fulfill his potential as defined by himself in this tale of a maturing life in logic and love. The story unfolds as Will Hunting is released from jail under the supervision of a Professor and a Psychiatrist. As the relationships unfold between the math savant and his respective colleagues, Will Hunting begins to discover that love trumps achievement. Despite pressure to perform mathematical functions that are simply solved by him, Hunting is intrigued by what he cannot figure out- a woman.
Good Will Hunting brilliantly distinguishes the difference between empirical knowledge and experiential knowledge, emphasizing the depth of first person experiences compared to the cheapened explanations read from the perspectives of others. Throughout the movie, the Psychiatrist explains to Will that he cannot truly know what he has not witnessed. I have to agree with the power behind participation compared to observation. Although one can obtain knowledge of art by reading or viewing photographs, the essence of the experience is eradicated if one is not present to gaze upon the beauty found in every stroke of the brush. One can read a Shakespearean Sonnet and learn about love, but this pales in comparison to the experiential knowledge of a sacrificial relationship.
Good Will Hunting explains in a tangible way what culture sometimes misses.
The experience itself is worth more than the knowledge gleaned.
The journey is more important than the desitnation.
The means justify the ends.
Experience determines reality.
Experience provides knowledge
Experience is teaches truth.
Experience is everything.
Last night after the storm invaded the southwest Missouri sky,
I started the epic that caused a splash in the entertainment realm.
The movie that spent over $300 million,
but grossed more than $700 million.
The top box-office movie of all time.
The Best Picture Academy Award Snub.
Avatar.
And here are my reflections:
Avatar is an epic story of colliding cultures. On the planet Pangea, the Navi people, a humanoid race, are being exploited by a human invasion orbiting around a mineral that produces $20 million per kilo. Much like other Epics, Avatar focuses on the interaction of cultures and the affects that said interaction has on the individual experiencing a more "primitive" culture (see also Lawrence of Arabia). The ex-Marine main character, Jake Sully, incurs a paradigm shift involving the relationship between nature and money because of his involvement in the indigenous culture. His intrinsic values transform to reflect the values of the infiltrated culture. As the evolution proceeds, Jake Sully abandons his human tendencies, even "betraying his race" for the naturalistic Navi people.
I appreciate the experience focused transformation of Jake Sully that reflects our post-modern culture. Avatar is truly a post-modern movie, illustrating how truth can be blurred by perspective, producing the human perspective from a greedy, mineral hungry corporate exec, and a patriotic marine looking to defend human values. Such a presentation of relative truth encourages the audience to root against their own kind in favor of the more primitive Navi people without investigating the consequences of such an action.
If the human perspective were presented from an experience that would gain support, the audience would have rooted against the blood thirsty, poison arrow shooting Navi people in favor of the more likable characters. And thus is the beauty of post-modernism. Perspective changes truth. And thus is the danger of post-modernism.
There were many other things to appreciate about Avatar, such as its focus on Nature Preservation, Cultural Intolerance, and the Evolution of Man, but what was most striking was its proper presentation of current culture through a futuristic tale. I would give Avatar a solid 4 Stars out of 5.
Recently i flew to Arizona (Phoenix) to visit some friends (in Chandler) with a good friend (Dakota).
As we ascended into the evening sky from the miniature airport in Springfield,
i found myself unable to do anything but read.
And so i did.
Every once in a while my eyes would dry from the blowing recycled air
and i would straighten out of my emergency row slouch to look about the plane.
There i found a man snoring, a man nervously fidgeting with his phone, and another man reading.
I must be honest, i judge people by what they do on airplanes.
The activity they chose when there is nothing else to do can really tell you a lot about a person.
But mostly, i judge people by the books they read on airplanes.
For example, there was a lady that sat next to me in the emergency exit row.
She was reading what appeared to be some woman oriented love novel with 400 pages and large print.
Here's my judgment:
She is married, but lonely (thus the novel she was traveling with and not the man).
Reading boosts her self esteem, but she does it rarely (large book with large print).
She was embarking on a 3 day work trip in which she will spend an equal amount of time at the bar as she will in her hotel room, yearning for conversation. Yet when that conversation arrives, she will drive it away with her constant chatter about anything and everything that has been building up for the hours she spent reading in silence on the plane.
I judge people by what they read.
What does your book say about you?
