John C. Wright's Blog, page 75
April 10, 2014
An Imaginary Noah Film from 1950
Many criticisms can be leveled against Aronofsky’s recent antibilical film, NOAH. One which I thought at first was unfair was those who said God was absent from the film. I thought the criticism absurd. While He is not called ‘God’, He is called ‘the Creator’ throughout the film, which, in any case, takes place in an era before Moses, when no man knew the sacred name.
But on second thought, the critics were not being absurd. The Creator in this film is a god, but not the God. He is absent.
If the reader will indulge me, the gaping absence of God from Aronofsky’s NOAH can be best felt in this film if we imagine what it would be like if He were in it.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
Monday the 14th is NIGHT LAND day — and the Feast of St. Bezenet
I am pleased and humbled to announce that my anthology, AWAKE IN THE NIGHT LAND published by Castalia House will be available for purchase Monday, April 14th. This is a collection of my various tales and short novels written in homage to THE NIGHT LAND by William Hope Hodgson.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
Quote of the Day
“In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets, and steal loaves of bread.” — Anatole France
It also forbids rich and poor alike to bribe politicians, commit securities fraud, fix horse races, maintain unsafe workplaces, and engage in human trafficking. — Bob the Ape
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
April 9, 2014
Noah and Anti-Noah
I disagree, respectfully but rather sharply, with Mr. Greydanus’ review of Aronofsky’s NOAH. I wrote a review giving an opposite opinion, and he was kind enough to correct certain errors or oversights I had made. Nonetheless, there remains a point of polite disagreement between us which any reader who has seen the film, or toys with the idea of seeing it, might be edified or amused to hear discussed.
No spoiler warnings will accompany the essay below, because I want to spoil this film, and deter people from seeing it. The surprise ending is that mankind survives, despite Noah’s best efforts.
I submit that this movie was so bad that for Mr Greydanus to recommend it was an inexplicable lapse of judgment. I cannot explain why this film would be the one where his otherwise impeccable judgment was negligent, and I will not speculate.
In a previous essay in this space, I said was that the film was bad on three levels: first, the film was not to my personal taste, being drab and cheerless; second the film was poorly written ; third, because Aronofsky’s film portrayal of Noah falls somewhere between indifferent to actively hostile to the source material. By ‘indifferent to hostile’ I mean the film was at best a non-Judeochristian interpretation of the Noah story, and at worst an anti-Judeochristian interpretation of the Noah story.
The first is a point not open to debate, because tastes are personal. The second is a point which may or may be not open to debate, because this point involves matters of judgment, and matters of judgment are those where reasonable men can differ. In any case, I do not debate that second point here.
The third is very much open to debate, because one side has one theory of the meaning of the film and the other side has an opposite theory, so only by debate can either side present evidence to lend weight to its theory of the film. Whichever theory explains more of the basics and also the nuances of the film should be the one the jury find more convincing.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
Wright’s Writing Corner: Spock Versus Elf!
The lovely and talented Mrs Wright has returned to her popular writing tips column. Except:
I have been wanting to write about this for quite some time. Today seems like the day.
It has come to my attention that there are two kinds of readers when it comes to reading about emotions. (There may be more, but I’ve only discovered two of them.)
The first one, I shall call the Spock Reader. The second I shall call the Elf Reader.
Spock Readers disdain shows of emotion. Many men fall into this category, but I know some women who say the same thing. To them, emotion is barbaric, and calmness is a sign of advancement. Characters who show emotion are immediately dismissed as either feminine or weak. Cool-headed, collected characters are to be admired.
The characters admired by the Spock Reader embody the best of humanity—mankind’s ability to rise above the primitive and resist the animal passions, the triumph of the intellect.
Read more:
http://www.ljagilamplighter.com/2014/04/09/wrights-writing-corner-spock-vs-elf-an-authors-dilemma/
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
April 8, 2014
David Marcoe Announces TriCon
David Marcoe is organizing an interdenominational Christian conference for novelists, playwrights, screenwriters, comic book writers, game designers, and the like for late in this summer. Here is his announcement:
Studying here in Rome, I live in the the midst of ancient beauty. In fact, I’m just down the street from St. Peter’s square, which I walk through on the way to my job or architecture class. The church around the corner, where I attend several classes, is home to a lively local parish (the priest is a real character) not much different than my old congregation, except that the is Baroque building that could serve as a picturesque movie set. Indeed, we’re saturated in beauty, as we study the words of Virgil, Dante, and Shakespeare. I’ve laid eyes on wonders, on the works of Caravaggio, Bernini, Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo, and others. And you can see them quite by accident, walking off the street and into practically any church in the city.
And as I experience all this–that vast tradition of Christendom’s art and literature–I think of the business of “culture making” today; at least ninety-five percent of the major commercial works dealing with mythic, moral, or religious subject matters are being made by non-Christians, with Christians coming along to produce second and third rate “me too!” knock-offs. I think it needs to stop.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
Terrorists Hunting Christian Children Open Wrong Door, Meet Armed Americans, Die
“KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban assailants apparently thought they were attacking an unprotected Christian-run day care center. But they mistakenly burst into the compound next door, where an American government contractor’s employees were heavily armed and ready, according to accounts that the contractor and the Afghan police gave on Friday of a wild four-hour shootout here.
The contractor, Roots of Peace, which runs agricultural projects financed by the United States Agency for International Development, had taken the precaution of blocking its front gate with an armored Land Cruiser, which guards used to take cover behind and shoot at the attackers…
…Afghan officials said all five Taliban attackers were killed, including one who committed suicide. …
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
April 7, 2014
We invented the Crusade and the Inquisition
Mr. Eich has been fired as CEO of Mozilla because his opinions are heretical according to the Magisterium of the Mob.
For those of you who do not recognize his name, he is the inventor of the Javascript scripting language. If you don’t know what that is, it is the thing that makes your web browser able to do things that interact with the user.
The facts, in sum, are these: Mr Eich gave a thousand dollar donation to the cause of Proposition 8 in California, which confirms the purely logical proposition that marriage is marriage, and therefore not a legally-recognized alliance of persons to engage in what the law delicately calls ‘unnatural sexual acts’, which is the diametric opposite of marriage.
At the time when Mr. Eich gave, such donations were not a matter of public records. At the time when he gave, the Koch Brothers were in favor of Gay so-called Marriage, and Obama and Biden were opposed. At the time, a majority of California voters were opposed. The measure passed. It was struck down by an incompetent District Court level Judge who incorrectly identified the Declaration of Independence with the Preamble of the Constitution.
With the stroke of a pen, all the voters of California were disenfranchised of their right to amend their state constitution, and establish their laws on the basis of Common Law or common sense.
The names of those who donated to Proposition 8 were leaked by the IRS in 2012 to the pro-perversion Human Rights Campaign who then posted those returns on their website, so that political retaliation could be had against those who donated and supported the measure.
The greatest support had come from Blacks, but the Left dare not offend them, so the Mormons, whose numbers were smaller, and, more importantly, were not a special interest the Left supports, were selected for the purge. The betrayal of trust and the publication of the donors’ names allows for political retaliation.
The Sexual-Deviance-is-a-Civil-Right Lobby failed miserably in their efforts to boycott Chick-fil-A and the television show DUCK DYNASTY and the movie ENDER’S GAME. If you want to reciprocate, if you want to uninstall Firefox, you might want to install another browser, and you might want to write and tell Mozilla how you feel.
As for the unwisdom and incivility of engaging Americans, Christians, the Decent and the Normal in a war of intolerance by the Unamerican, Anti-Christian, the Indecent and the Abnormal, the illimitable and caustic Vox Day puts it this way:
http://voxday.blogspot.com/2014/04/spelling-it-out.html
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
We invented the Crusade and the Inquisition
Mr. Eich has been fired as CEO of Mozilla because his opinions are heretical according to the Magisterium of the Mob.
For those of you who do not recognize his name, he is the inventor of the Javascript scripting language. If you don’t know what that is, it is the thing that makes your web browser able to do things that interact with the user.
The facts, in sum, are these: Mr Eich gave a thousand dollar donation to the cause of Proposition 8 in California, which confirms the purely logical proposition that marriage is marriage, and therefore not a legally-recognized alliance of persons to engage in what the law delicately calls ‘unnatural sexual acts’, which is the diametric opposite of marriage.
At the time when Mr. Eich gave, such donations were not a matter of public records. At the time when he gave, the Koch Brothers were in favor of Gay so-called Marriage, and Obama and Biden were opposed. At the time, a majority of California voters were opposed. The measure passed. It was struck down by an incompetent District Court level Judge who incorrectly identified the Declaration of Independence with the Preamble of the Constitution.
With the stroke of a pen, all the voters of California were disenfranchised of their right to amend their state constitution, and establish their laws on the basis of Common Law or common sense.
Then a law was passed retroactively making the private donations public, so that political retaliation could be had against those who donated and supported the measure. The greatest support had come from Blacks, but the Left dare not offend them, so the Mormons, whose numbers were smaller, and, more importantly, were not a special interest the Left supports, were selected for the purge. The betrayal of trust and the publication of the donors’ names allows for political retaliation.
The Sexual-Deviance-is-a-Civil-Right Lobby failed miserably in their efforts to boycott Chick-fil-A and the television show DUCK DYNASTY and the movie ENDER’S GAME. If you want to reciprocate, if you want to uninstall Firefox, you might want to install another browser, and you might want to write and tell Mozilla how you feel.
As for the unwisdom and incivility of engaging Americans, Christians, the Decent and the Normal in a war of intolerance by the Unamerican, Anti-Christian, the Indecent and the Abnormal, the illimitable and caustic Vox Day puts it this way:
http://voxday.blogspot.com/2014/04/spelling-it-out.html
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
We invented the Crusade and the Inquisition
Mr. Eich has been fired as CEO of Mozilla because his opinions are heretical according to the Magisterium of the Mob.
For those of you who do not recognize his name, he is the inventor of the Javascript scripting language. If you don’t know what that is, it is the thing that makes your web browser able to do things that interact with the user.
The facts, in sum, are these: Mr Eich gave a thousand dollar donation to the cause of Proposition 8 in California, which confirms the purely logical proposition that marriage is marriage, and therefore not a legally-recognized alliance of persons to engage in what the law delicately calls ‘unnatural sexual acts’, which is the diametric opposite of marriage.
At the time when Mr. Eich gave, such donations were not a matter of public records. At the time when he gave, the Koch Brothers were in favor of Gay so-called Marriage, and Obama and Biden were opposed. At the time, a majority of California voters were opposed. The measure passed. It was struck down by an incompetent District Court level Judge who incorrectly identified the Declaration of Independence with the Preamble of the Constitution.
With the stroke of a pen, all the voters of California were disenfranchised of their right to amend their state constitution, and establish their laws on the basis of Common Law or common sense.
Then a law was passed retroactively making the private donations public, so that political retaliation could be had against those who donated and supported the measure. The greatest support had come from Blacks, but the Left dare not offend them, so the Mormons, whose numbers were smaller, and, more importantly, were not a special interest the Left supports, were selected for the purge. The betrayal of trust and the publication of the donors’ names allows for political retaliation.
The Sexual-Deviance-is-a-Civil-Right Lobby failed miserably in their efforts to boycott Chick-fil-A and the television show DUCK DYNASTY and the movie ENDER’S GAME. If you want to reciprocate, if you want to uninstall Firefox, you might want to install another browser, and you might want to write and tell Mozilla how you feel.
As for the unwisdom and incivility of engaging Americans, Christians, the Decent and the Normal in a war of intolerance by the Unamerican, Anti-Christian, the Indecent and the Abnormal, the illimitable and caustic Vox Day puts it this way:
http://voxday.blogspot.com/2014/04/spelling-it-out.html
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
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