I don’t always post when I update the blogroll, but Shapely Prose is such a fantastic and wonderful blog that I wanted to point it out extra special. Go read it.
Tuesday Trivia: Love is Strange
1. He tells her he loves her. She tells him she’s engaged to another man. He pulls the tablecloth, and everything on it, off the restaurant table.
HINT: He pulls the tablecloth with his teeth.
Solved by Melville (comment #25).
2. He tells her he loves her. She slaps him across the face, but soon, she’s in his bed, in an apartment in Brooklyn.
Solved by Nobody in Particular (comment #3) and Daven (comment #6).
3. She slaps him across the face, but soon, she’s in his bed, in a hotel room in Berlin.
HINT: The villain of this movie is modeled after Rupert Murdoch.
Solved by TehipiteTom (comment #22).
4. At the very end of the movie, she finally realizes she loves him, and tells him so. But it’s too late, he leaves anyway.
Solved by TehipiteTom (comment #1).
5. At the very end of the movie, he finally realizes he wants to be with her, and tells her at a press conference.
Solved by TehipiteTom (comment #1).
6. At the very end of the movie, he finally realizes he wants to be with her, and tells her at a New Year’s Eve party.
Solved by Evn (comment #4) and Daven (comment #6), three minutes later.
7. She wants to be loved, and she is. But she wants to be craved, and she is not.
Solved by Amy (comment #10).
Note: Nobody in Particular’s answer to #2 got stuck in the spam folder. So he solved it before Daven but it never showed up. Both get credit. NiP’s comment was restored to chronological order, making his #3 and everyone else’s moves forward.
Subgenius Custody Case’s Tragic Conclusion
The Wild Hunt is today reporting that Rachel “Reverend Magdalen” Bevilacqua has lost custody of her son.
It is unclear what will happen at this point, Bevilacqua is mired in over 70,000 dollars in legal bills (click here if your interested in helping her out with those bills), and she may not be able to afford appealing to a higher court. No official statement by Bevilacqua has been made at this time.
My previous posts on this issue:
First
Then
And then
And finally.
Monday Movie Review: Dances With Wolves
Dances With Wolves (1990) 10/10
Lt. John Dunbar (Kevin Costner) requests a frontier assignment after being commended for heroics during the Civil War. Sent to an abandoned outpost, he encounters a nearby Lakota tribe, and soon befriends them, falling in love with Stands With a Fist (Mary McDonnell), a white woman raised by the tribe. Directed by Kevin Costner.
The “director’s edition” of Dances With Wolves is four hours long. That’s not a movie, that’s a lifestyle. It took me a week to watch this frickin’ movie. But despite the many criticisms the film endures, it was worth it. (FYI, I saw the 180 minute version in the theater when it was new, and this was my first re-viewing.)
The basic criticism, as I understand it, is that DWW is a treacly movie that romanticizes Indians enormously, painting them with a thick coating of Noble Savage, which is dehumanizing and unrealistic. I beg to differ.
First, DWW has a lot to offer above and beyond those criticisms. It is beautiful, and manages to actually show what the American West might have looked like, in a way no other movie has done. Not even John Ford’s Monument Valley filming has conveyed this richness and detail. One could watch Dunbar approach the Lakota village and actually believe one is approaching the real thing. Like Titanic, DWW works on the level of obsessive detail that communicates the experience of living inside a particular moment in time. The authenticity of everything from teepee construction to costume to horsemanship is not an end unto itself, but a way of creating a world.
As to the criticism, first, John Dunbar is himself an intense romantic, and this is clear from the opening scenes. He wants to “see the frontier before it’s gone.” He lives inside his head, as expressed by his journal-keeping, where there is order, propriety, and honor, and the world around disappoints. With Dunbar, it’s not that he sees the Indians as “other,” it’s that he sees the whole world as “other” and sees the Indians, and himself in the process of becoming one of them, as his first hint at someone who isn’t other. I don’t think that the film gives Dunbar’s romanticism a free pass.
Second, I don’t think the Lakota we see fit the standard Noble Savage stereotype. These are people who laugh, screw up, argue with their wives, and in general are fully human. I don’t think we’re used to seeing American Indians with fully-fleshed lives in a Western.
After a while, yes, cracks appear. Mary McDonnell’s role is too convenient by half. All the whites (except McDonnell and Costner, and a general seen for a brief moment in the opening scene) are savage, cruel, cowardly, and/or slovenly. On that level, yes, this movie definitely sides with the Indians as the better and nobler people. Of course, the actual history of the American West supports a view of whites as cruel in regard to Indians. Which is why it needn’t be shown in a heavy-handed way. These are definite flaws, but the movie has such virtues, such a sweeping scope, that it is not worth downgrading, and I stand by my 10.
Sunday Meditation: Crossroads
Sometimes life brings us to a crossroads. We have multiple opportunities. Something changes. We can go back and or forward or off to some strange side path. Because our culture is dualist, we tend to view our choices as either/or: Forward or backward, single or married, old job or new job. But really, there are many times when it is wiser, more empowering, freer and more fun to view a crossroads going in many directions: Old job, new job, or go back to school. Single, married, dating without commitment, dating several people, group marriage, or sacred prostitution. Life gives us many opportunities, and it serves us to visualize paths that are open and, perhaps, unexplored.
Imagine yourself out of doors. Feel the gentle breeze, the warmth of the sun on your skin, and enjoy the sound of birds in the trees and the rustling of leaves.
Notice that you are walking on a path. Observe your feet moving beneath you, carrying you forward, step-by-step. Feel the strength in your body that moves you freely and resolutely along this path. It may be that there are obstacles, but you step over or around them easily.
As you continue along your path, you find yourself at a crossroads. There are several different ways to go. None looks immediately better than the others, but you feel calm and peaceful. You stand in the center of the crossroads, feeling a pleasant anticipation. Soon you will know which way to go. For now, you stand and look around, turning so that you can see down each path in turn.
Now recall the glowing ball of your center. Notice that the glow is reaching outward, that your body is visibly glowing from the center. It is a lovely, warm feeling and you tingle with it.
Allow the light from your center to expand as it will, and notice that it reaches more towards one or two paths than towards others. Gently allow the light to move further down its chosen path or paths, illuminating them.
Turn around again, looking at each path, those in shadow, and those illuminated by your own glow. Notice now if you feel more drawn towards one. Notice which paths you are certain you won’t take.
When you are ready, when the light from your center and your own inner call agree, step upon your chosen path and continue walking. What does it feel like? Are you comfortable? Excited? Peaceful? Anxious? Allow yourself to explore your feelings as you walk, looking around yourself and observing the path you have chosen.
You may repeat this meditation as often as you wish during a period of transition in your life. You might do it daily, and choose different paths on different days. This exploration can help clarify your real-world choices.
Variegated Hardwood Theology
I read this over at Shakesville, and I was going to comment, but then comment became post (as sometimes happens).
We believe in an Almighty, we believe in the freedom for people to worship that Almighty. They don’t. They don’t believe you should worship the way you choose. They believe the only way you should worship is the way they choose. And, therefore — and, therefore, they will do anything they can to spread that ideology.
The notion that “We believe in an Almighty” is so destructive, so harmful, so vile. It is what Chuck Colson thinks.
“We” sometimes believe in an Almighty. We sometimes believe in an Almighty, but a qualitatively different one than the dog-whistle intends us to hear. We sometimes do not believe in any supernatural being at all. We sometimes aren’t sure. We sometimes believe in one, or many supernatural beings who are not Almighty (that is, who is or are not omnipotent).
The varieties of religious thought in the U.S. are vast. “An Almighty” is a bad meme. It is as bad as “Judeo-Christian.” It sweeps vast diversity under a rug that should not be covering the beautiful and variegated hardwood. It doesn’t begin to touch upon who we are as a people. It seeks to restrict us, and it seeks to exclude and marginalize many of us.
Don’t let it. Don’t shrug when you hear these things. Say no.
Say no.
Colson’s “Religious Muster” doesn’t pass religious muster
The “On Faith” blog used the July 4th Pagan rally as a jumping off point to invite essays for and against the issue of allowing Pagan chaplaincy (Pagans have been blocked repeatedly from military chaplaincy, as Wild Hunt has been documenting).
So here’s the wacky contribution by Chuck Colson (because I always take my religious advice from Watergate co-conspirators). Now, normally I wouldn’t take this seriously. And in fact, I don’t. But it’s really so loopy that I can’t resist fisking the thing.
It is debatable whether paganism is a religion, per say.
Always an excellent move to have a spelling error in your first sentence. Lends credibility.
Chucky, Paganism is not “a” religion, it is a group of religions. In fact, Chuck seems to know this when he says “Wiccans or pagans generally” in his very next paragraph, implying that he understands that Wicca, a specific religion, is a subset of Paganism (which he refuses to capitalize), which is more of an umbrella term. “Christianity” is also not “a” religion, it is an umbrella comprising such widely diverse groups as the Greek Orthodox Church and the Shakers.
It is generally defined as a pre-Christian state
By whom? This definition isn’t used by The Free Dictionary, or by Merriam-Webster, or by Webster’s/Dictionary.com, or by American Heritage. In fact, I think Chucky made it up.
It takes a wide variety of forms—all the way from relatively benign New Age-style nature worship, to pantheism, to witchcraft, and even human sacrifice.
Can I just say, holy shit?
Answers to Independence Day Trivia
It took a little longer, but that was probably the holiday. They’re all solved!
Anyone here?
Seems like everyone in the U.S. took a Wednesday holiday as good reason to take the whole week off. I’m leaving the last Tuesday trivia question up a while longer to give vacationers time to get back and take a look.
I married young the first time. Yesterday would have been my ::mumble mumble:: wedding anniversary. More than twenty-five. Holy shit, twenty-seven years. No offense if you’re reading this, Vere, but MY GODS I’m glad I didn’t spend twenty-seven years married to you. Seriously, one was plenty.
So yes, we’d say “We were married on the 4th of July. They had a parade in our honor. There were fireworks.” Blah blah. Funny, right?
Independence Day Trivia
1. Christmas with Christmas; fireworks in Istanbul.
Solved by Brandi (comment #4).
2. A diamond necklace, and fireworks on the Riviera.
Solved by Melville (comment #1).
3. A wedding anniversary; the husband points out that he gave up his Independence on Independence Day, and never regretted it.
Solved by Melville (comment #1).
4. Fireworks in the shape of a dragon from a beloved out-of-town visitor.
Solved by maurinsky (comment #2).
5. As they watch fireworks, she throws the gift he gave her into the water so she’ll always know where it is.
HINT: This romance is a cult classic and features a woman best known for her role in a disturbing horror classic.
Solved by Heather (comment #6).
6. He has writer’s block from missing his wife so much, so they bring her to him.
Solved by Melville (comment #1).
7. “If I had known I was gonna meet the president I would’ve worn a tie.”
Solved by Evn (comment #3).
