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review

The Ready Player One “Easter Egg” That Bypasses the Backlash

April 18, 2018 by Matt Hill Leave a Comment

this quick post plays
through three short stages

the third contains
the Easter egg

all three potentially
contain SPOILERS


Stage One: “Microreview”

if you haven’t seen Ready Player One
(or read Cline’s book),
you really should;
particularly if you’re the
target demo:
a “nerd,” “geek,”
pop culture afficionado
of a certain stripe
(70s-80s gaming, sci-fi, etc.)
(more on this later)

but even if you’re not
the target demo du jour,
you should still see it,
cuz it’s a fun,
eminently Spielbergian,
bombastic popcorn flick
(tho, prepare to
suspend plenty disbelief
and prepare to groan
at the too-neat ending)


Stage Two: “Context”

if you’ve seen this movie already –
more certainly if you’ve
read the book,
have this kind of thing
on your radar, etc. –
you may have a sense of the
Ready Player One backlash
that’s been afoot:

e.g. 1: Steven Spielberg’s Oblivious, Chilling Pop-Culture Nostalgia in “Ready Player One”

e.g. 2: The Ready Player One backlash, explained

(those two pieces are helpful
primers and there are others)

the gists of the criticisms
have to do with
Cline, Spielberg, or both
succumbing to certain
negatives of nostalgia and some
nasty exclusivity concerning
particular pet passions
(this involves something
called “Gamergate”)

i think there’s obv
plenty valid points here,
but delving in fully
is beyond this post

(for some
thoughts on nostalgia, see my
good, bad, ugly: nostalgia edition)

(for some
thoughts on how groups
(like gamers)
crave things like
ownership, community, etc. –
relevant to them
playing out negatively
re: Gamergate – see my
a pop invite to the church)


Stage Three: “Spiritual < Spiritual”

while in general i agree with
Rob Bell that
“everything is spiritual,”
i think some
desires
(longings,
hungers,
senses of privation,
experiences of lack,
problems,
issues,
whatever)
are more clearly so

in this instance, by “spiritual”
i mean something like
“essential to our being
as humans;”
i also mean something like
what’s at play here:

“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” ~ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

here, in other words,
spiritual = supernatural

and HERE is where we discover
the titular EASTER EGG –
the “secret” that “saves”
Ready Player One
from some potential negatives
brought up in Stage Two….

Ready Player One, really,
is about these spiritual/supernatural
longings/desires;
specifically, i see
The OASIS
(the movie’s VR game world)
as a proxy for
desires for
things like:
love, belonging, community,
escape, freedom, victory,
meaning, enjoyment, passion

Ready Player One
says this about people:
people need
love/meaning/etc.
and they’ll do
whatever it takes
to get it
(including create
fictional worlds where they do)

but now notice how
Ready Player One‘s
counterintuitively anti-gaming ending –
when we’re told something like
“the real world is what’s real” –
also says this about people:
real (read: spiritual) problems require
real (read: spiritual) solutions,
and *bigger* ones, too

in other words: spiritual < spiritual

it may seem like The OASIS
can give Wade (the main character)
what he needs,
but nah: he needs Samantha (the girl)
irl for that;
in this same way,
our ultimately
spiritual/supernatural
desires for
love/meaning/etc.
must be “solved” by something/someone
ultimately
spiritual/supernatural –
and *bigger –
too

and,
to me,
with this Easter egg
of perspective in hand,
Ready Player One –
though imperfect –
communicates something
very valid,
very real
about being a human

(for some
thoughts on how
humans often
sneak these kinds of
Easter eggs
into pop culture, see
what it means that you like things that are like other things that you like
and
Get Re-Enchanted: Stranger Things 2, Pop Culture & God)

 

 

Filed Under: Editorial, Film, Reviews Tagged With: 1980s, atari, backlash, Christian, easter egg, ernest kline, gamergate, games, gaming, God, interpretation, Jesus, meaning, media, movie, negative, nostalgia, OASIS, ready player one; steven spielberg, religious, review, spiritual, video game

Sorry, Ricky Gervais: Humanity Still Needs a Cure

March 21, 2018 by Matt Hill Leave a Comment

i genuinely dig
Ricky Gervais plenty,
and i’m thankful for
The Office,
like, for sure

i appreciate his
iconoclastic approach
to comedy;
i relate to his atheism,
tho i’m not an atheist myself,
as you’ll gather below

however,
i noticed him make a move
in his recent Netflix comedy special,
Ricky Gervais: Humanity,
that i’d like to call into question,
because it raises a
significant issue
for someone like Gervais

(Ricky, i hope you’ll appreciate this;
you seem to appreciate
close thinking,
or at least attempts at it 🙂 )

last year around this time,
Netflix was
releasing a slew
of comedy specials;
at that time, i posted
“comedy needs Crashing”

in it, i noted:

…a certain “typical”
comedic perspective –
generally hilarious,
of course,
but also
sardonic, cynical,
melancholic and
world-worn and weary,
endlessly observational
when it comes to
finding problems,
but seldom (apparently)
when it comes to
actually addressing them,
actually living with them
in the day-to-day
(other than offering
its own oddly biblical
and plenty true
pseudo-spiritual
prescription of
“just laugh through it”)

i submit that Gervais
affects this perspective
in Ricky Gervais: Humanity
*to the letter,*
almost as if he’d
read what i wrote

he even chooses to
end the special –
having already advertised,
importantly,
his own atheism,
as he’s wont to do –
with his own version
of the prescription:
“just laugh through it”

in other words,
how does Gervais
suggest we approach
(obv universally rough) life
in this Godless universe?

“just laugh through it”

*this* is the move i want to
call into question

first let me say again:
i agree with this suggestion;
it can be, in fact,
found in the Bible
(Proverbs 17:22, e.g.)
and other religious traditions

but here’s the thing:
in the Bible,
such a prescription is
clearly but a palliative –
something to help you through,
but not something
that ultimately cures
any ultimate issue

for,
importantly,
in the Bible,
there is an ultimate issue,
and more importantly,
there is an ultimate cure

and so this is the part where Gervais –
where any atheist –
encounters a problem;
here’s the rub:
either there isn’t really
an ultimate issue to cure,
or there is an ultimate issue,
but no ultimate cure

either the way things are
in this Godless universe
seem wrong –
like something that
could be,
should be “fixed” –
but they’re really not
(because “wrongness”
isn’t really a thing);
or they really are wrong
(whatever that could
even mean sans God),
but there’s nothing
and no one “ultimate” enough
(no God)
to ultimately do
anything about it

to me, tbh,
neither of these
really seems okay

to me, tbh,
neither of these
really seems to
match up with
our experiences, our intuitions,
our wisdom about the world

and so,
to me, tbh,
a palliative like
“laugh through it” –
nice and true
and helpful as it may be –
is just not enough
once we’ve dismissed
the possibility that
something is really wrong
and
something can
really be done about it

in other words,
it’s just not enough,
once we’ve dismissed God

\\\

so…
calling into question complete…
where one goes from here, of course,
is up to that one

thanks for the laughs, Ricky –
humanity is certainly a
fertile topic for it

here’s to hoping for
options kept open 🙂

 

 

Filed Under: Editorial, Reviews, Television Tagged With: analysis, atheism, atheist, Christianity, comedy, God, humanity, Jesus, laughter, Netflix, pop culture, religion, review, Ricky Gervais, special, spiritual, Twitter

seeing it coming [The Last Jedi SPOILERS]

December 22, 2017 by Matt Hill 6 Comments


when old wineskins
make way for new,
who sees it coming?

if one waits on royalty
but receives rabble,
will one still receive?

and though death is
obviously an end,
isn’t it always also a beginning?

even so . . .

shred the Jedi texts and
burn the sacred tree,
for the force is
the force for everyone –
“The wind blows wherever it pleases.
You hear its sound, but you
cannot tell where it comes from
or where it is going.” –
true always,
clearer now

when the one book
in the one tongue
gets Gutenberged,
then can the word
truly be writ
on its true home:
the hearts of all,
not the papers of the few

even so . . .

if Rey be the seed of nobodies,
that need not mean
she cannot still be
the start of a new hope –
for the last shall be first,
the weak shall be strong,
the poor shall be rich

also forget not
the lamb yet lion,
the servant yet master,
the pauper yet king –
forget not that
things many
can yet be one

even so . . .

Skywalker is dead.
the call of the
force/wind/God
made in a way most final.
his shoot of a branch
seemingly snipped.
the Jedi –
once but a
dreamer of a boy
looking aloft to
binary stars –
finally, the last.

yes, but,
who supplants him?

who but he himself:
yet another boy dreamer,
looking aloft to a
new sky of his own

so can you see?

can you see it coming?

the new wineskins?
the royal rabble?
the end-yet-beginning?

can you see that
Luke is Rey is
the boy dreamer
is all the dreamers is
me
is
you?

and can you see that
this is the way of the
force/wind/God?

i hope,
yes

 

Filed Under: Editorial, Reviews Tagged With: Bible, Christian, interpretation, Jesus, lucas, Luke Skywalker, Mark Hamill, meaning, review, Rey, spiritual, Star Wars, The Last Jedi

Get Re-Enchanted: Stranger Things 2, Pop Culture & God

October 16, 2017 by Matt Hill Leave a Comment


i am
*so* psyched
for Stranger Things 2

like, *psyched* psyched

i want more mystery,
more stylish 80s homage,
more dope soundtrack,
way more Eleven;
i want #justiceforbarb,
Eggos ate raw,
Winona Ryder everything,
coffee and contemplation

honestly, who can deny
that the whole
Stranger Things thing –
like much of what
it lovingly calls back to –
is one of those
oh so pleasant
serendipitous revelations;
one of those things where,
now that it’s happened,
you can no longer imagine
the pop landscape
without it

however,
(serendipity be damned),
why?

why such a strong reaction
to Stranger Things,
by so many,
seemingly
“out of nowhere”
?

i thought
Alissa Wilkinson
(in a Christianity Today
article called
“How ‘Stranger Things’
Re-Enchants the World”
)
was onto an answer:

In a modern world—where science can explain everything from depression to deja vu to the Aurora Borealis… even religious folk yearn for a re-enchanted world, one where fairies, or demons, or other intelligences exist just beyond what we can see.

What we’re after is joy—the serendipity of discovery, the thrill of mystery, the feeling of excitement lurking around the corner…

Our desire for magic doesn’t let up… art still seems best poised to capture that magic. Stranger Things is just the latest version of this yearning…

agreed for sure:
part of the draw,
the allure
of Stranger Things,
is that it sort of
re-imbues the world
with a magic,
a mystery,
an enchantment;
Stranger Things
takes the “regular world”
and adds the “upside down” –
takes plain old “things”
and makes them “stranger”
(again)

so is that it?
Stranger Things
speaks to us so
cuz it’s a reminder that
“there’s more to things
than meets the eye”
?
and cuz the experience
of that is… fun?

no, that’s not (just) it

as Wilkinson notes,
the show is
“the latest version
of this yearning
[for magic];”
Stranger Things is also
powerful precisely
because it participates
in this long line of
pop culture manifestations
of a specific
human yearning

what yearning,
specifically?

a yearning not only for magic –
read: the supernatural –
but for a universe
*built* with and on magic;
a magical universe
that not only
brings “joy,”
but makes possible
an explanatory
and existential
completeness
that an un-strange,
mundane,
materialistic,
naturalistic universe of
pure scientism
actually *cannot*

a yearning, in other words,
for a universe of meaning

what meaning?

literally *any* meaning

for in an un-strange,
mundane,
materialistic,
naturalistic universe of
pure scientism,
science is the only
game in town;
but though science excels
at explaining the “how”
of things,
it is exceedingly bad
at explaining the “why;”
in fact, science
does not,
*cannot*
speak the language of “why”
at all, and therefore
cannot lend meaning
in the sense we mean

you need things to be a bit…
stranger…
for that kind of meaning;
you need a magic universe
of possibilities
for that kind of meaning;
for that kind of meaning,
you need
a universe with a God

once you have that,
magic and the
possibility of
knowing the
“why” of things
reappear,
along with all
our dearest, deepest meanings –
good is better than evil,
love defeats hate,
sacrifice overcomes greed –
the narratives
we inescapably spin
to demonstrate
those meanings,
and the pop avatars
we create to animate
those narratives…
Stranger Things,
thankfully,
awesomely,
among them

(for some related
ideas about narratives,
see “What IT Means
(and How *Any* Good Story ‘Means’)”
)

Filed Under: Editorial, Reviews, Television Tagged With: #justiceforbarb, belief, Christian, christianity today, eleven, Faith, God, Jesus, meaning, morality, narrative, Netflix, pop culture, review, Science, scientism, spiritual, story, stranger things, stranger things 2, wilkinson

This Is Us / perfect title zen

March 23, 2017 by Matt Hill Leave a Comment

words wind around us,
obscuring, diffusing,
piling atop each other like
snowflakes on snowflakes,
making seeing true meaning
hard through the white,
like moments in life

thus does This Is Us succeed,
not just as “quality entertainment”
(important in its way),
but more importantly, truly,
as a light to help
color through white,
making meaning in moments in life

and it starts
where it ends:
perfect title zen

This: the occurrences
Is: the nexuses
Us: the identity

just three words.
word times three.
a singular triplet.

it was all they needed,
all that is needed,
to crystallize, to clarify,
the medium, the message:
This.
Is.
Us.

it is a reminder to
we who inhabit this
world of white on white,
this world of
swirling, obscuring,
diffusing words,
like moments in life

it is the lesson that,
though less may not
always be more,
more meaning will
always be more,
and all the better
if it take less space

and in this universe
where brute,
unordered facts
constantly, consistently
cry for it,
meaning, perhaps,
coalesces most clearly
in that perfect title zen:

that name that
captures it all
in one hand

Filed Under: Editorial, Television Tagged With: Christian, drama, meaning, NBC, review, spiritual, television, this is us, title

so i’m so sad after seeing Father John Misty sing on SNL

March 6, 2017 by Matt Hill Leave a Comment

so i’m so sad
after seeing
Father John Misty sing
on SNL

he sang two songs,
but the one he sung that so
got.
me.
was “Pure Comedy”

see here:

( for both performances,
with lyrics
(which i’ll refer to below)
and editorializing,
see “Father John Misty Questions Virtual Reality And Religion on ‘Saturday Night Live'” )

so why so sad?

first let me say:
my reaction
reminds me of
that i had
when reading and
writing about
(the so excellent
and amazing book)
House of Leaves
(see said react here)

both Misty’s song
and that book
are in similar vein,
saying similar things,
and even in similar strain,
format-wise
(experimental, sprawling)

so, saying what?
exactly?

something like
what one might say
if one tried to say
the interlocking gist of
a whole twisted mass of
a certain set of
“isms” all at once:
relativism/deconstructionism/
postmodernism/materialism/
naturalism/nihilism/
atheism/secularism/
existentialism/humanism

tldr version:
God is dead.
So now what?

House of Leaves
says it like this,
with this metaphor
where the world’s a
groundless tree:

Y g g
d
r
a
s
i
l

What miracle is this? This giant tree.
It stands ten thousand feet high
But doesn’t reach the ground. Still it stands.
Its roots must hold the sky.

“Pure Comedy”
sums our situation like this,
with its quiet,
out-of-the-cacophany
coda:

Just random matter suspended in the dark

I hate to say it, but each other’s all we got

so is that why
i’m so sad
after seeing
Father John Misty sing
on SNL?

cuz he sang so of
all them -isms?

nah.

i’m so sad cuz
“Pure Comedy,”
ironically
(intentionally),
is a sad song

it’s artful
and soulful
and beautiful
and musically adventurous
and plenty accurate
and justifiably biting
and eminently understandable
and relatable 
in its perspective,
but it’s darkly,
ironically, intentionally,
undeniably sad –
not a “pure comedy”
in the
story-where-things-
work-out-in-the-end sense;
that purer, older,
original meaning
of “comedy;”
but in the bitter, dark
“…comedy…it’s like something that a madman would conceive!”
sense

so i’m so sad
cuz the song‘s so sad

and
i’m so sad
cuz Father John Misty hisself
is so sad about said so sad song

how do i know?

go back and watch
the performance;
it is the performance
of a man who knows
that what he says is –
however clever,
regardless of its
apropos and earnest delivery –
bleak and hopeless
and ultimately sad

and why is he sad
about it?

cuz, assumedly,
presumably,
he thinks the
song he sings is
also so –
that it is true
(whatever that even means)

it is the lyric of a man
a quick Googling
reveals was raised a Christian,
but who now faux-mocks Jesus as a
“risen zombie,” son of a
“celestial virgin,” as the song says –
a man who now sees humans
not as “special” beings,
not as “created in God’s image,”
but as “godless animals,”
“…random matter suspended in the dark.”

and so i’m so sad
cuz the song‘s so sad,
and cuz he‘s so sad,
cuz he thinks the song’s so

finally,
lastly,
mostly,
i’m so sad cuz
the failed-palliative status of
“I hate to say it, but each other’s all we got”
is so apparent,
yet still, apparently –
if you take
Father John Misty at his word –
is a perspective that’s
supposed to be embraced

the fact that he
even offers a
palliative at that point
is instructive, isn’t it?
it’s interesting that
softening the blow
is intuitive to him
at that moment,
isn’t it?

regardless,
he does offer it,
though he “hate[s] to say it,”
and concludes,
leaving us to feel . . .
sad.
so sad.
so understandably sad.
like him.

so that’s why
i’m so sad
after seeing
Father John Misty sing
on SNL:
sad cuz the song,
sad cuz he’s sad,
sad cuz it‘s sad
that he has
seemingly knowingly owned
the problem of
groundless trees
and “random matter”

the problem of:
God is dead.
So now what?

the problem he has no
fix for,
though he
grudgingly offers
an already-failed one

the problem,
in the end,
there is no fix for,
unless you just
deny it altogether,
and rediscover –
reimagine –
that purer, older,
original meaning
of “comedy”

Filed Under: Editorial, Television Tagged With: Christian, danielewski, father john misty, house of leaves, music, NBC, pure comedy, review, saturday night live, snl, spiritual, sub pop

See La La Land & Take Everybody Else With You

January 26, 2017 by Matt Hill Leave a Comment

a while back
(on another site),
i wrote about how
art begets art –
in that case how
love for the game Bloodborne
led to a renewed
dip into
Lovecraft

several whiles back
(on a currently dead blog),
i wrote about how
faves lead to proselytizing –
how when we love something
(in that case, Bloodborne’s 
forebear, Dark Souls),
we naturally want
to tell everyone,
so they may love it too

(i also,
in each case,
related what i was saying
re: art, proselytizing, etc.
to God
(surprise))

now, here, i want to
say (and do) something similar –
interrelated/interconnected –
re: current Oscar top dog
and Hollywood darling
La La Land

by way of micro-review
(micro since so many
words have been spilt
already along these lines),
lemme just say:
La La Land was great;
like, really great;
like, to me, it deserves
how ever many Oscar nods
it’s been nodded

i mean, somehow,
like a filmic magic trick,
La La Land managed to be
classic without seeming formulaic,
nostalgic without seeming disingenuous,
an homage without seeming cute,
timeless without seeming stale

was it the great casting?
music?
acting?
writing?
cinematography?
music?
choreography?
music?
its situatedness in place/time?
just something about it
that makes you want to
give in and go along with it,
right from the start?

yes.

anyway, it’s legit great;
greatly legit;
but that’s not really
the main thing i want to say
now, here

really, i mainly want to
say (now, here) five things

1.

you should go see
La La Land

2.

and you should
take everybody else with you

3.

cuz art that’s exemplary,
and amazing, and wonderful,
memorable and high quality,
carefully crafted and
expertly done –
art that’s truly artful;
art that speaks;
art that’s just plain good –
it deserves to be seen,
to be understood and appreciated
(not alone because
doing so also cultivates us)

4.

and cuz people collectively
need to know that kind of art
when they see it;
and cuz the best way
to help that happen
is to show them bunches of it

(i know my initial instinct,
upon realizing i was in the
presence of something special
with La La Land,
was to see it again
and take my kids;
to help them see:
this is how it’s done,
this is something
beautiful that means something;
understand,
appreciate,
be cultivated by it)

5.

and all this previous stuff –
about art,
about appreciating it,
about sharing it with others –
cuz God

cuz God made
and digs
and wants us to dig
great art,
not alone because
doing so also cultivates us
(Paul says in Philippians: “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.”)

cuz God made
it so that
learning comes by example –
speaking a writer’s
words after her,
following a
choreographer’s footsteps,
tracing a pianist’s keystrokes,
so that we may also
artfully write, dance, make music
(Paul says in 1 Corinthians: “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”

and,
therefore,
the world –
this world –
will always, always,
need more writers,
dancers,
music makers;
will always need more
artists;
will always need more
great art;
will always need more
things like La La Land,
and people to see them,
and people to tell others
to see them too

Filed Under: Editorial, Film, Reviews Tagged With: art, children, Christian, Emma Stone, example, God, Jesus, La La Land, modeling, movie, Oscar, Paul, quality, review, Ryan Gosling, spiritual

Westworld & Trump, Optimism & Hope

November 16, 2016 by Matt Hill Leave a Comment

westworld_2
i’m highly optimistic about
HBO’s new hit show, Westworld
 
(if you’ve not seen it,
imagine a
sort-of sci-fi,
cyberpunk Western,
steeped in
J.J. Abrams style
cerebralism and cliffhangery;
a deliberately paced show
full of sweeping
panoramic shots,
shootouts, sex, robots
(rinse, recombine, repeat),
acting clinics put on
by a superb cast
(Anthony Hopkins
can do no wrong),
and enough intrigue to
[insert your own
cowboy-themed
capper here]
 
of course,
i’ve obviously seen the show,
so it’s not its
continued quality or excellence
i’m expressing optimism about, no
 
i’m optimistic that –
though at present
the plot has the
titular theme park
twisted into a knot
so dense and
so tending towards a
negative, gloomy,
“dark” view of things
(the future,
human nature,
etc.) –
it will
(eventually, ultimately)
take a turn towards a
positive, upbeat,
“bright” view of things,
or at least
use this view
to sweetly temper itself
and give us that
at-least bearable last look
 
i have this
optimistic opinion
for multiple reasons, chiefly:
i’m familiar with people
and with stories
 
i know the
showrunners,
the creators,
the people behind
Westworld
will want that
at-least bearable last look,
because that’s what people want;
so too this is what
watchers of Westworld will want;
so too this is
what stories uniformly give us
(why this is so
is a great question, though
attempting an answer
belongs elsewhere)
 
i have this
optimistic opinion,
in other words,
based on evidence –
previous knowledge,
experience, etc. –
and it seems to me
that it makes sense to be
optimistic in such cases
 
d6d107341a8cb99e2fe6be48fff69ee56898ed8a
on the other (small, orange) hand,
i’m not highly optimistic about the
USA’s new hit show,
Donald Trump, Prez Elect
 
(if you’ve not seen it,
imagine a
post-truth “reality” TV show
so unimaginable,
you’d never be able to
imagine it happening
in actual reality,
and then
imagine it happening
in actual reality)
 
if it makes sense to have an
optimistic opinion
based on evidence –
previous knowledge,
experience, etc. –
then it seems to me
that it doesn’t make sense to be
optimistic in this case
 
quite the opposite, in fact,
unfortunately
 
however
 
though there may not be
reason to be
optimistic about
the prospect of a
President Trump,
there is always
reason to be
hopeful
 
hopeful in that old
Bibley, Christiany, Jesusy
way, where –
despite current
circumstantial evidence,
despite lack of evidence
that might lead to an
optimistic opinion –
you still know that
*it’s going to be okay*
because how things go down
in this world (and beyond)
isn’t ultimately up to us humans
 
hopeful in that old
it’s-Friday-now-but-Sunday’s-coming
kind of way,
that old
“in this world you’ll have trouble,
but i’ve overcome the world”
kind of way,
that old
“God will wipe away every tear”
kind of way
 
hopeful, in other words,
in that old kind of way that
optimism,
for all its
sometimes sensible charms,
can only aspire to
 
are you hopeful like this?
not optimistic, but hopeful?
if not, you can be;
would you like to be?
 
would you like to have
an option beyond
understandable pessimism?
justified fear?
anger?
an option beyond
bemoaning on social media,
assuaging pains with
Obama Biden memes?
 
an option beyond
the current
irrationality of optimism?
an option beyond
just another shot in
just another four years?
 
you can;
would you like to?
 
all it takes,
humbly, hopefully, friend,
is a ride west of
present perspective,
on a horse of a different color,
made just for you,
just for all of us
 
a horse with a new name
for a new world
 
a horse that you don’t have to drive
alone
 
a horse that alone can take
us to a place
where actual action can happen
 
from here
right now

Filed Under: Current Events, Editorial, Reviews, Television Tagged With: Christian, Donald Trump, HBO, hope, Optimism, President, review, spiritual, television, Trump, TV, Westworld

The Witness (to God)

February 26, 2016 by Matt Hill Leave a Comment

jonathan-blow-the-witness-game-wallpaper

[Note 1: The following includes mild, implicit spoilers. Note 2: This is not an in-depth review of The Witness and assumes some prior knowledge of and interest in the game. For an excellent, straight piece that describes the game’s mechanics, contextualizes, etc., please see Jonathan Clauson’s article at Christ & Pop Culture here.]

dots and lines
intersect in the trees,
asking:
just what
is the meaning
of these?

i walk and run
through forests,
past streams,
among architecture
conjured from dreams,
across platforms
suspended from cliffs,
seeking the meaning
of all of this

you see:
the dots and lines,
each and every time,
bespeak reason,
betray rhyme,
without words
and without sign,
still they speak
each and every time

and so i ask
as they demand:
what is the meaning
of these things
in this land?

why am i here?
how did it start?
what’s just the thing
that sits at the heart?

and then at the end,
i circle, ascend,
a mountain that beckons
from island horizon

it is tall, it is wide,
it has secrets hid inside

and now i know:
the dots, the lines,
they pointed upward
the entire time

the contraptions work
the mountain’s door,
to allow safe passage
to the mystery’s core

and then, deep inside,
eyes wide,
mind plied,
the puzzles cease,
the speaking stops,
and the game . . .

resets

and that’s it . . .
. .  … ..
. .
.

however:
the point?
it’s already been made . .
has already been being made . .

the point:
that there’s such a thing as points

that things mean things

that in The Witness,
as in the world,
there is an
ever present
invitation to
understanding everything
afoot at all times

and though our
interpretations
be
difficult,
varied,
incomplete,
frustrating,
they are
nevertheless prompted,
demanded,
because
words are occurring . .
as long as we have
ears to hear

and . .
if we’re being honest . .
doesn’t this
point also
point to another
point?

doesn’t the
existence of points
point to the existence
of a point maker?
a pointist?

isn’t it the case that
that there is no
speaking machine
without a
machine designer
who speaks?

isn’t it the case
that there’s no
speaking without
language
(whatever it may be)
and no language
without a
master linguist?
a prime languager?

————————–

if i were
Jonathan Blow,
designer of
The Witness,
i might have included
the following
in one of those
beguiling bits of recording
found scattered
throughout the island . .
it seems to belong . .

“The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they reveal knowledge.

They have no speech, they use no words;

no sound is heard from them.

Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,

their words to the ends of the world.” (Psalm 19:1-4)

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: braid, Christian, design, game, God, interpretation, island, Jonathan Blow, language, meaning, psalm, puzzle, review, spiritual, the witness

not knee-jerking over Deadpool (or in general)

February 19, 2016 by Matt Hill Leave a Comment

ty0neic0o4jqee5oms8e

what do you think
the “typical Christian review”
of Deadpool is like?

[Google if you wish . .
go ahead, i’ll wait]

perhaps you correctly predicted
that many “Christian reviews”
focus on its rating

[UNNECESSARY SPOILER:
Deadpool is unabashedly R-rated,
prolifically profane,
conspicuously sex-laden,
intentionally irreverent,
vehemently violent,
et cetera, et cetera]

in fact,
maybe surprisingly,
not only are
“Christian critics”
focused on the rating,
so are most other critics
and the film industry
in general,
leading to a
digital deluge
of conversations
and articles about how
Deadpool is
“kicking the door open”
for R-rated superhero flicks

[Google it if you want . .
go ahead, i’ll wait]

but here’s the thing:
why?

why has this become
the conversation to have
about this movie?

for the larger culture,
perhaps we can
chalk it up to just the
basic need to have a fresh story

i mean,
if the story isn’t
“dirty Deadpool!”
or whatever,
what else is there to say?
the movie itself,
in fact,
sells itself this way

and just think:
how boring would it
be to have some
same-old-same-old
conversation just about how
Deadpool is super well made
and impeccably cast,
even by Marvel standards?
how Ryan Reynolds nails it?
how the writing is
consistently hilarious
and refreshingly original?
how the action is
viscerally satisfying?
how the meta, fourth-wall-breaking
snarky tone – so easy to mess up –
is spot-on here?

super boring.
that won’t do.
what we’ll do is
focus on the rating.
spin it.
click bait it.

for the “Christian culture,”
however,
the issue isn’t the
focus on rating
so much as it is
the fact that
*you knew*
the rating
would be the focus

we’re used to the
Christian focus
on the rating,
and that’s the point

nevermind that –
if you care to look –
the web is full of
Christian takes
that focus on
redemptive elements
(like this or this),
what’s important
is that the
“Christian culture”
has taught us
to expect
rating-focused
takes like this or this

in other words,
the “typical Christian review”
of a movie like Deadpool
reflects what’s
(unfortunately)
seen as the
“typical Christian response:”
to focus on rating,
morality . .
on calling out and
counting up
and valuing according to
sins first

but here’s the thing:
should it be this way?

should the
“typical Christian response”
be to immediately
focus on sins?
to immediately
focus on the negative?

i submit that it should not

i submit that this
(unfortunately) typical,
“Christian”
knee-jerk reaction –
focusing on,
calling out,
counting up,
valuing by
sins first,
as opposed to
focusing on,
calling out,
counting up,
valuing first
by positive,
redemptive elements –
needs to change

to be sure,
as in the links above,
seeking for redemption
in dark, R-rated stories
currently gets done often
by Christians,
and has for years,
but the problem is
that it’s certainly
not what the
larger culture expects
from us . .
they expect
sin counting . .
a focus on the negative . .
and unfortunately
we often oblige

and sure,
sin counting
*does matter* . .
it’s important
to discuss the negatives
of a movie like Deadpool,
but not at the expense
of discussing positives . .
and again,
when it’s expected
of us to focus
on the negatives first,
there’s a problem

however,
as most are,
it’s a fixable problem

and,
as usual,
looking to Jesus is instructive

i notice, when dealing with
sinners like Deadpool,
Jesus seemed to like to say
things like:
“I do not condemn you, either.
Go. From now on sin no more.”

i notice that he offered water
before rebuking sin

i notice that both are present . .
the positive and the negative,
the redemption and the judgment . .

but i notice that one comes first

Filed Under: Editorial, Film, Reviews Tagged With: Christian, Deadpool, Jesus, Marvel, profanity, R-rated, religious, review, Ryan Reynolds, spiritual, violence

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