Response to: The Real Monster

Original blog post can be found here: http://whatwouldchirstdo.blogspot.ca/2012/03/real-monster.html

Like ccandelario, I’m not a huge fan of monster movies. I am, too, a fan of “A Walk to Remember”. I was only 12 when the movie came out, so I never picked up on the real messages of the film until I watched it time after time over the years. As I grew up, I started realizing what the movie was truly about, and the messages really stood out to me.

Jamie deals with the realization of her death so calmly; I’m not sure I’d be able to do the same. It’s great to see a movie out there like this, to show a way in which death is dealt with tranquilly (as opposed to monster movies). Situations like this are very realistic, versus monster movies, which are not. Monster movies are more for entertainment; to put death in a different manner and to entertain the idea. “A Walk to Remember” shows the reality of death and perhaps how people should deal with their death. For people with terminal illnesses, they should be able to use the time they have left to do things they want to before it’s too late. For those of us who live regular lives, we should still use this lesson, and do the things you want to before it’s too late.

An important part of “A Walk to Remember” is religion, being that Mandy Moore is very devoted to her faith and her father is a reverend. The film shows that someone can be changed by the faith of someone else. Jamie influences Landon and it changes his life completely. All she does is live her life the way she wanted to, and through that, Landon falls in love with her and also changes himself. Because of her, he is given faith and something to believe in.

Eve: The Original Desperate Housewife?

I recently watched an older episode of my favorite TV show, Desperate Housewives. In the newer seasons, they do not have long opening credits like they did with the first few seasons. It is one of my favorite opening credits, as it is sort of like an art history tour. It begins with Adam and Eve, then to Egyptian civilization, Jan van Eyck’s “Arnolfini Wedding”, Grant Wood’s “American Gothic”, and a Roy Lichtenstein cartoon.

The opening credits (video shown below) begin with a parody of the story of Eve, the garden, forbidden fruit and snake. Adam is shown as well, and as a snake hands an apple to Eve, it gets bigger and crushes Adam. At the end of the credits, the four main housewives are shown in front of the garden (like a cycle), and apples fall into their open palms. The apple crushing Adam most likely denotes that men are not as important in this series, and that women have all the power (as the show IS called Desperate Housewives). It can also symbolize women being able to demasculinize men, with their manipulative ways. With Eve as the main character of this opening sequence, perhaps she is the representation of the original "Desperate Housewife", with her trickery tactics. 

Throughout these opening credits, the famous images depicted all show one thing: that women are devious, highly sexualized creatures with men as their prey. The use of these classic images show that men and women never change.

Many of promo shots for Desperate Housewives have something to do with apples, whether the women are lying on a bed of apples or standing and holding an apple. 

 

 

 I always knew Desperate Housewives had some religious influences, as one of the housewives, Bree, regularly attends Church and turns to her faith in times of need. There are also many episodes in which the housewives attend Church, attend confession or pray to God for help. However, it wasn't until just recently when I took a closer look at the opening credits and really noticed the Adam and Eve depictions. It is interesting to see the contrast in the show; how they use Adam and Eve as the premise for their credits, yet, the way these women usually act on the show are anything less than religious.

Response to: If Video Games Make You Violent...

You discussed how Christianity does and should look at violence with a critical eye, as well as how Christians have reacted negatively to violence in video games. In the article for this week’s class by Trothen, she discusses how hockey and Christianity both involve much violence. Even as Christians look at violence in video games as a horrible thing, shouldn’t they be worrying that they are teaching violence to believers as well? With the crucifixion discussed in such detail, shouldn’t people be worried that it is teaching people that violence is okay, because Jesus woke up even after being crucified?

Many people associate video games with violence, because those seem to be the most popular types. The Christian video game that we discussed in class, Left Behind, has the player shoot people with a laser which forces people to get down on their knees and pray, instead of being shot. However, as said in class, the game has been criticized by groups of progressive Christians who see it as a retrogressive game. This is because the idea of the game is that you convert or you kill; this means that you are still able to kill people, even though it points out that killing is the least successful way to win the game. This contradicts Christians’ idea of having non-violent video games, as this Christian video game allows killing. Even the promo picture looks violent, as there are men holding guns, with face masks or military gear. If I didn't know this was a Christian game, I would not have thought it was one by looking at the photo.

I agree with your point about how the relation between video games and violence should be studied more closely before people make such assumptions. As I mentioned in my post, people are exposed to violence in other aspects of life other than video games. I’m sure most of the violence people experience in their life is outside of a video game, so these games most likely do not have as big of an effect on children as people say they do.

Operation: Violence

I have a friend who is part of the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, and works as a consultant for films. His job is to make sure that military action scenes are depicted as realistically as possible. One of his more recent jobs was working on the set of the Call of Duty trailer for the mission "Operation Kingfish". Since he has military experience, he was hired as a consultant to make sure that all the action scenes were as realistic as possible. 

 

As violent as his job may be, he is not a violent guy at all. I asked him if he ever felt the need to be violent in his everyday life after playing violent games or having a violent job. He said if anything, it makes him less violent because as he has to deal with violence all the time, he does not want it a part of his normal life. He explained to me that some people find it entertaining because it’s something they would not normally do in real life, so being able to do it virtually satisfies their curiosities about violence. I should also mention that he grew up Christian – he still believes in the faith but does not attend Church regularly. He said that he was taught that violence is never the answer, and that his Christian faith taught him to use methods other than violence to deal with things. I’ve included the video that he worked on, titled “Call of Duty: Operation Kingfish”. 

The debate with this topic is whether violence is natural or cultural. I believe that most people have a violent side; it is just up to them whether or not they choose to explore it.  In class, we discussed ideas about whether or not these games provoke violence. While I believe that these games could potentially provoke some violent ideas, some people are simply naturally violent or learn violence in other aspects of life. Many people believe video games are the reason why their children are violent, but I believe that things you experience outside of your video games can influence you more violently.

Response to: "My take on GCB"

In an effort to continue procrastinating, I decided to watch GCB. A friend told me that it was like Mean Girls vs. Desperate Housewives (one of my favorite shows), so I knew I had to watch it. Personally, I don’t think it takes anything too far, however, I am not religious so I can see how this may offend some Christians.

I do see how the show can depict hypocrites, as there are many sexual references and innuendos. Amanda has to get a job and ends up working at a local restaurant that seems similar to Hooters, as she has to wear a low cut shirt and tight short shorts. With this job she is able to make quick money, but because of her scantily clad outfit. Then, there are also several scenes in which Amanda attends Church. This demonstrates the contrast in the show; how even though Amanda may be a devout Christian (and therefore should be relatively conservative), she does not follow her religion very closely, as many Christians do.

The girls often refer to the group leader as the “Queen Bitch”. Back in the day, the “Queen Bitch” was Amanda, but now Charlene has taken over. This “Queen” figure could be seen as the Christ figure in the group; the girls look up to her, envy her or see her as a role model and she has power and influence over everyone. One feature of Christ figures is blue eyes, which Charlene has. In Kozlovic’ article, he also mentions that Christ figures die and have a resurrection. I could see Charlene’s transformation from high school (in which she looked drab and was not fit) as her death, as well as her being tormented by Amanda. Her resurrection could be her, now, after having plastic surgery, and having the power over Amanda and everyone else. Cross associations are a vital part of this show, in which most of the ladies wear crosses. In the clip below, she is seen telling a girl that cleavage helps her cross hang straight.

I agree with Will when he says, “The show is simply an attempt to show the human side of Christians and reveals the flaws in a group of people who create a face of being perfect.” No one by any means is perfect, and there will always be those who do not follow Christianity closely. However, it is there for people to use as a guide; something to follow and believe in and give them a path in life. The show is just meant to show a humorous side of Christianity, and not to show it in a bad light.

Dare You To Move

This week in class, the topic was about Christianity and popular music. The title of the lecture, “It’s a faith, not a genre” simply means that Christian music is not necessarily a genre (as it is a faith), but it can be presented in all types of music. Immediately when thinking about artists that come from Christian backgrounds, Switchfoot comes to mind.

When I was in middle/high school, I remember being a big fan. They are often referred to as a Christian rock band, and are heavily involved with the Christian rock scene. When putting them into a category of Contemporary Christian Music as said by Brian Schills, Switchfoot definitely fits into the transformationist category. Transformationists are people who have some kind of Christian identity but their purpose is to be the best musician. In an interview with the Boston Globe in 2004, the band states,

"We've always been very open and honest about where the songs are coming from. For us, these songs are for everyone. Calling us 'Christian rock' tends to be a box that closes some people out and excludes them, and that's not what we're trying to do. Music has always opened my mind—and that's what we want".

They openly talk about their faith, but they do not want people to necessarily call them a Christian band as that leaves them with a smaller audience, whereas they want to reach out to everyone.

Their song, “Dare You To Move”, is arguably one of their most well-known songs. Here are the lyrics:

Welcome to the planet
Welcome to existence
Everyone's here
Everyone's here
Everybody's watching you now
Everybody waits for you now
What happens next
What happens next

I dare you to move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened before

Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
Tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be

[Chorus]

Maybe redemption has stories to tell
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here

This is quite an uplifting, encouraging song, saying that it’s time to change and to pick yourself up and move on. Even though there is no mention of God in this song, knowing that the band believes in the Christian faith, it is easy to put it in a religious context. The beginning of the song is saying that everyone is watching and waiting for you to do something. Then the lyrics, “dare you to move”, could be encouraging people to take a stand for Christ – stand up for what you believe in. The lyrics, “forgiveness is right where you fell” could be saying that God has forgiven your sins; the only escape from our sins is through the redemption of Jesus Christ. This is simply my interpretation of the lyrics, not necessarily how they are meant to be interpreted.

I’ve included the video below. I noticed that in the video that at the beginning, there are scenes where people are lying on the ground, in need of saving. At the end of the video when they sing the lyrics, “I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor”, the people in need of saviour wake up or are saved. 

What do you think about these lyrics and the video, and how they relate to Christianity?