apparently peace passed by understanding without waving.

We watched Miranda and Miranda last night, two stories told once as a comedy, and once as a tragedy. The idea was to convey that one story has both comic and tragic elements. It failed miserably, because it was one of those movies that didn't actually make collective SENSE, by which I don't mean common "sense" but logical "sense". Ultimately, both the stories were tragedies. (Hah. But, they really were)

Movies are meant to evoke our emotions, have us cheer when the bad guy "gets dead", or cry when the child dies, or sundry other tragic elements take place... the truth is, artists have us almost completely in their hands with movies.

Running through a list of different art forms, we have cinema, visual art, music, and literature. Science, as we know it, is not an art. It is research. Not an actual act of creation.

Music we hear, but do not see. Literature, we tend to feel most profoundly. It is, after all, a more obvious form of "conveying". Visual art excites our pupils... unless it happens to be minimalist abstract. But movies take all these, hear, sight, and storyline, and have control of almost all our senses. ("Touch" is left so that we may adequately feel the sinking of the couch cushions, and "taste"... well, popcorn, of course) Is that dangerous?

I couldn't cheer for the comedy because in the end, the characters got what they wanted, but the history of the romantic couple told me that they wouldn't last, not even in bed. Why is it that people tend to think their partner is disposable, like an Ikea lamp. (Why are you crying for this lamp? The new one is much better!) Of course, that's humanity. But sometimes we give ourselves over to humanity, especially in the form of movies. I tend to be of the liberal thinking that all art is good. I mean, look at the damn word: "art". It just screams "goodness".
And maybe the movie was right, and that it depends on who's perceiving the art.

As for me, it's a constant struggle to "feel out" what God wants. Anesthetized-Christian art seems to be inappropriate, if there is such a thing. God clearly created darkness beside the light.
That movie didn't reflect what God wanted in a marriage, which is what we tend to take away. The obvious thematic elements. (For that reason, I appreciate movies with abstract plot-lines and too many elements too count. After all, certain movies tend to force their ideals on you more than others.)

All this to say, art seems to be one of those things completely without a Christian structure to "reduce" it with. There are only Biblical guidelines of whatever is righteous, pure, &co, to -think- on these things. Does that imply not exposing ourselves to controversial, at least to our faith, elements?


I shall, of course, go get something useful done, now that I've discovered that there is nothing to discover in philosophizing. Enjoy art, both the painful kind and the beautiful kind, and attach a "God is love" sticker to every piece.


Hey... what the hell is "culturally appropriate" anyway? Aesthetics.