Today, Netflix released Marvel's latest Superhero Project, Daredevil. It's amazing, and you should be watching it right now. And since its Friday and its somewhat related, I thought I would bring this superhero into my TGIF for the week.
Mainstream comics typically shy away from being overtly religious. Some have vague allusions to some spiritual religiosity, but mostly it keeps things fairly secular. One case where that is not present is in the pages of Daredevil. In the comics, Matt Murdock (AKA Daredevil) is a Catholic. No vagueness about that. Religious language and imagery permeate the book. He's the only superhero who is seen entering a church on a regular basis, let alone confession.
I find this interesting. Since most characters of the marvel and dc universe aren't consistently affiliated with an organized religion, I would assume it would mean something to the character that he was. I would guess it would inform his actions and his belief system, and set him apart specially from other heroes in his moral code or methods of crime fighting.
But it doesn't. Not even a little bit.
Daredevil is not different at all, when compared to the moral code that most unaffiliated characters have. He fights bad guys, helps people, and keeps doing it no matter the cost. Same can be said of any superhero. If anything is different about him, its the fact that he is often more brutal and violent with assailents than others, and tends to be on the darker side of the street. Does he fight crime for the pope or jesus, or based on any scripture? Not in any obvious or even implied way.
So, why is he made catholic then? To me, its to give him a unique cultural flavor amidst his superhero bretheren. The visuals, rituals, and context of catholicism add a unique culture to the comic that adds some interest. Also, the fact that he belongs to a church that has a strong fixation with satan makes it all the more interesting that he would want to be percieved as a devil.
So why bring it up? Its there, and it ought to be looked at for what it is. Daredevil is a great character and a great hero. But he is a hero by his actions, not b his faith. His faith makes him unique, and gives him a cultural background that is less ubiquitous and more identifiable.
Go watch the show!
It's GOOD Friday, and I wanted to share some TGIF sympathy with you. Whilst perusing the novelties upon the shelves of the dollar store, I came across a bizarre item of holy hoo-ha. Here are Prayer hands sympathy chocolate.
I don't know either.
It appears to be a sacred cash grab of a nonsensical kind. who would give this to someone? why praying hands? Why is that appetizing? This was such a weird find I just had to buy it... but not eat it. I almost can't eat it. I have never seen one since. It's the only example, and not having it would make me telling stories of it seem crazy.
Ok, I might eat it eventually, when I'm really in need of chocolate sympathy. Double Crisp-Double-Christ!
Huzzah! The triumphant return of TGIF! And to celebrate, I'm bringing back a piece of animation I did a few years ago. For the uninformed, between Dayton and Cincinnati, OH, there was a gigantic/horrifying statue on the side of the highway that appeared to be rising like a kaiju zombie.
It was Jesus.
Because of its appearance, it was often called "Touchdown Jesus," or "Big-Butter Jesus." Being gigantic and terrifying, the only logical thing for me to do was to convert the second coming into a monster filled video-game idea with Jesus as the main Kaiju. I called the idea: Rapture, the Video Game.
Incidentally, it actually DID get struck by lightning. Sadly it did not come to life, but I weirdly made and posted that video a few months before it got hit and burned to the ground.
Now it has been replaced by "Five-Dollar-Footlong Jesus."
It may seem a little late, but this year, I made it my mission to really celebrate the festival of lights. So, my girlfriend and I got a Menorah, some candles, some dreidels, and some Latkahs and went for it!
Each night, the prayers were said, some psalms were read, and we covered our heads. We listened to some Hanukkah carols (which amounted to Matisyahu, Adam Sandler, and the Beastie Boys). There was something sweet about all of it, and Menorah got more beautiful with each night. We also exchanged gifts, and that was fun. They were smaller ones, but it was nice being able to share something every night with each other.
Getting into it this year, I had a nice thought: I'm probably the first Wolff to celebrate Hanukkah in who knows how many years. The last Wolff in our family to be Jewish, was my Great Grandfather Leslie Wolff. But, he married a catholic, and that was the end of it...
But This year, we got back to it. Not just me, but my sister did as well. This could be the start of a trend.
So what did I think of it? I like it. It's a refreshing ceremony to be a part of that celebrates a historic re-dedication. I felt like I rededicated myself to some things. Will I be celebrate it next year? Absolutely.
Kumare, Kumare, Kumare! That is the chant in my head right now. I just saw this movie, and I have to say its really well made since it keeps me thinking about it. Kumare is a documentary about Vikram Ghandi, a New Jersey man who set out to discover what it took to be a guru. Vikram grew up in a Hindu household, but eventually grew away from it. He became fascinated by the fad of Guru worship that was (and to some extent is) sweeping the country. Since he doubted religion, and doubted thir credibility, he set out to prove that gurus, or really anyone appointing themselves as "holymen/women," are just regular people. What follows was a fascination examination into faith, fallacy, and human connection.
This movie is great, and on Netflix. When I saw it (with a group) there was much debate over the morality of his misrepresentation since he did develop a following with 14 students. I say that his performance was based off of stereotypes that many people buy into about "eastern wisdom," and that from the start, he preached that he was a fake and that a guru is not neccessary for self improvement. anyone who didn't accept that when he revealed his true identity clearly didn't get his message.
Ricky Gervais is a funny guy. He created The Office and has written for dozens of shows and movies. He's a talented stand up comedian as well, with his quirky mannerisms and delivery. He's a thoughtful guy too, often weighing in on world events and commenting on society, which is a comedian's job after all. He's also an Atheist.
I decided on Ricky Gervais as the focus for this Friday's post because I needed a laugh and he's a great person to get one from. Often times religious comedy is either harmless or harmful. With Gervais, he is usually goofy as hell. Take for instance his reading of the Noah story (Language advisory).
That was great! "Why did the dove get a second go and not the raven? Racist!" He doesn't think the Bible has much credence to it, FYI. You may have guessed that from a little movie called The Invention of Lying. In it, his character lives in a world without lies, and he, the first person to lie, also is the founder of religion.
That's some pretty funny stuff. I recommend seeing the rest of the movie too. I want to share a few more of my favorite bits of his. Come on it's Friday, have a laugh!
And This...
And this...
And Finally, this talk he had with Richard Dawkins...
Not just funny, but thoughtful. A good human being.
Have a splendid weekend!
Now that we've been introduced to Alan Moore, I'd like to share his rather refreshing view of religious belief and practice. He believes that spiritual pursuit should be decided by the individual, or that one religion for everybody doesn't make sense. Everyone is different, and since everyone id different, we each have our own spiritual needs that we should seek to satisfy on our own. If you don't have much of a spiritual hunger, then just get a salad and a diet coke. But if you crave exotic tastes, then look into the ancient deities of the Mayans, Inuit, or Roman snake deities.
Moore, as I've said before, is a bit of a weirdo. As a comic writer he has been incredibly influential on the medium, and has even been called one of the most in important contemporary writers in Britain. Many of his comics have been turned into films, though you'll notice his name isn't on it. Why? Because for him, the movie is something completely different than the comic, and he wants no part of it and thus, he gives his portion of the royalties to the other contributors. At least he practices what he preaches.
He supports an open view of reality, religion, and personal values. He also has some interesting views on the idea of magic and mysticism. Simply put, magic is Art. Magic is manipulation of symbols, words, and ideas in order to change the consciousness of yourself and others. This is so cool to me. To think that being a magician is to someone who creates with words, with colors, and with objects what was not before is empowering to me. I think I will be a magician.
Moore is a fascinating personality because he is at the same time mystical and rational. He has poetic air bout him that is almost intimidating, yet he has a gentle sense of humor and an open mind that would invite you to join him for tea. There are many great interviews with him on Youtube and other places, including an 80 minute documentary about him. Here is a few (10 minutes worth) words from Kevin Smith and friends on the amazing run on Swamp Thing that Moore worked on in the 80s.
I'll leave you with a quote from the video I linked to in the last article. As Alan stands on stage a callous version of himself accuses him of having a messiah complex. He responds:
Today I get to combine Superheroes and religion into one post! I heard a story about this on NPR and I just had to tell everyone about it. There's a new hero in Pakistan and she is called " The Burqa Avenger" or "The Lady in Black." By day, she is kind, educated, and strong school teacher Jiya by day, and a costumed fighter for social justice by night. The Avenger uses karate that employs books and pencils as weapons and can glide with her Burqa. This animated series tackles social issues that are relevant to its audience, and wrap it up in the colorful and dramatic dressings of a superhero story. In other words, this is really neat.
Her creator, Haroon Rashid, had some pretty awesome things to say about this project. One of the things he addressed was the use of the Burqa itself. To many it is a symbol of oppression and not of a liberated woman. Here is what he had to say:
"We chose the burqa because of course we wanted to hide her identity the
way superheroes do. She doesn't wear the burqa during the day — she
doesn't even wear a headscarf, or a hijab or anything like that; she
goes about her business as a normal teacher would. And so she chooses to
wear the burqa, she's not oppressed ... and on the other end of the
spectrum, a lot of female superheroes in the West are objectified, and
sort of sexualized in their costumes, like Catwoman and Wonder Woman,
and that certainly would not work here."
He does have a point.
He goes on to explain that The Burqa in this case functions like Batman's costume, a disguise to protect her identity, which is actually functional in doing so. It's like the opposite of a Domino Mask.
So wait, you're not Ryan reynolds?
The animated series has gained praise from children and parents alike, much of which for what its creator talks about here:
"There's a huge space for children's entertainment in Pakistan. There's
practically no local entertainment; ... a lot of the entertainment is
imported from the West; it's not relevant, socially relevant or
culturally relevant, and most of it's just entertaining junk, like,
let's say, Ben 10. ... They don't have any social messages, and
I think it's important to have positive social messages and themes and
morals. And a lot of young children who don't get the opportunity to get
a great education need programming which is entertaining and yet also
educational."
I hope this show does really well. I think educational entertainment is a great medium to support. And I think the world needs more superheroes that everyone can look up to; girls and boys, young and old.
The animation is alright, but the concept is awesome.
For more info, check out the interview with the creator on NPR,
How many times have you met someone from the periphery of your own friends and somehow the conversation allows them to tell you that they are a Buddhist, and somehow you don't by it. It goes kind of like this:
Them ~ "Oh, I used to be Christian, but now I'd consider myself a Buddhist."
You ~ "Really?"
Them ~ "Yeah, I like the whole thing about peace and understanding and meditation, its cool."
You ~ "How ofter do you meditate, and what tradition do you follow."
Them ~ "I don't really meditate or anything, but I definitely like the religion."
Now its not for me to say that they are not a Buddhist, but... I don't know how to finish that sentence. Look, I'll admit that I knew about the same amount of info on Buddhism at one time, but when a real Buddhist gave a brief lesson in what its all about, I stopped thinking that I knew anything about it. I started looking into it, and I saw it as something Much more.
In that research, however, I discovered something troubling...
This jolly fellow is NOT Buddha.
Now when I saw not Buddha, I am talking about the man, not the idea. If we're talking Buddha the idea, which involves all conscious beings and says that they all have a deeper nature that is greater than the superficial material that makes up our ego, then yes, this is a Buddha.
BUT, if we are talking the MAN, Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, then no, it most assuredly is not.
This is a representation of Siddhartha Gautama Buddha, with a little less flab.
This is Keanu Reeves as Siddhartha Gautama. Yeah, that's what I said.
The real identity of the Chubby one is that of Hotei, an eccentric Zen monk out of China. His name literally means "Cloth Sack" but its not supposed to be referring to him, but to the bindle he carries with him everywhere. He would wander around, shelling out things from his sack for people, even sweets for children. So that makes 'cloth sack" here a zen Buddhist Santa Claus, only, he doesn't judge you like St Nick.
And I'll bet santa never hid in his sack from dancing mice before.
To be honest, making this distinction isn't as important as the distinction between the historical Buddha and the living Buddha. The Living Buddha, that is each on of us, is what is more important than any historical figure. You are the Buddha.
It's out! The best movie that I saw all of last year is out on DVD n'such this week and I wanted to commemorate it with a extra special post. For those of you who still haven't seen it, you should for 2 reasons:
1. It's a great film.
2. You can't read this blog post without seeing it.
Seriously, you can't. If you need further reason to see it, here is the trailer that will give you goosebumps.
So, now are you going to see it?
Well go on then, I'll wait here. Seriously, don't read any further...
I was hoping to avoid saying it, but...
Spoiler Warning!
Ok, you've seen it. Good, so for everyone who has seen it, lets begin.
What does it all mean? With a movie this massive, its not always easy to tie everything together. Cloud Atlas' particular goal as a movie is to show how everything's tied together, from one person to another, and across time and space. There is a certain level of vagueness to how they string everything together that one could draw any conclusion that one wished to. That, I believe, is the strength of the film. After seeing it once, I developed two possible ways of seeing the film, and upon talking to my girlfriend, I saw another. For this TGIF, I wanted to share with you three ways that I see that Cloud Atlas shows that "Everything's connected."
The Atheist View
This view, I must admit, was given to me from an outside influence. Prior to seeing the movie myself, there were several things I had read and interviews I had seen that talked about this perspective on the movie. This perspective is that the film portrays life interfered with by any metaphysical influence, and that our actions in life have a ripple effect across the planet that reaches beyond our time. This logic sees each actor's portrayal of an individual character as being unrelated to any other role they played. So Hugo Weaving's hitman character has nothing to do with the evil nurse character, and so on. Watching the movie this way, you see quite plainly how the writings of the hopeful abolitionist inspired a composer, whose love affair led a journalist onto the truth, whose novelization of her work motivated a publisher to make some mistakes, whose film portrayal gave confidence to a clone, whose insight formed a faith that gave solidarity to a fractured people. Now that I think of it, this version is saying, "The only way to achieve immortality is to get published." Now I know I'm over-simplifying the story, and there are many other influences on these events, but this is the basic connectivity of the stories. What one can take away from this interpretation, as in the following two, is what you do matters. Beyond ourselves as individuals, what we do, and what we are inside and out, has an effect on everything around us. So, without the need for any deity, we can see our relationship to the past, present, and future.
This view of the story is quite possibly the simplest, but it is still profound. While it works, there were other factors at play as I watched the film that made me see the stories in a more complex way.
The Hindu Veiw
I'm good with faces, so following the actor through their many roles wasn't too hard. As I was watching, I noticed a pattern within the characters, that I thought, was trying to show me something. To sum up this view of the story, I have chosen to refer to the Hindu belief in Reincarnation: Specifically, that each individual carries the deeds and misdeeds from their previous lives until they either become aware, and become one with Brahman, or not. What I saw in the film, was that each character played by a certain actor was a reincarnated form of the previous character that actor played. The characters themselves have some trait that sets them either on a path to awareness and harmony, or spiraling down to hell. You may not exactly see what I mean, so I'll give you an example. I'll use Tom Hanks' characters since the narrative thread is easiest to see.
When we first meet him, he is digging up corpses to steal their teeth. And later in the same story, he poisons a man to steel his chest of gold. The Trait that Tom Hank's soul has attached to it is greed. The end of this life, sees little to no progress.
The next life, he is still hung up on his greed, taking everything the broke composer has left, even his clothes. We see a little remorse from this life, but not much.
In the next life he is working for a corrupt businessman with very little scruples, but, once he meets the journalist, he starts to come around. But his chance for redemption is cut short by a bomb on a plane.
In 2012, he has regressed to his greediness in the form of a criminal turned author who kills in cold blood to sell more books. At this point there is little hope for redemption.
But, in this final life, we see his redemption. Note the green jewel on his neck. That's the same kind of stone that he stole in the form of the button when we first saw him, the same color of vest that he stole from the composer, etc... The pivotal point where the cannibal has a knife to his throat and he literally breaks away from it's hold to save himself and another is his moment of release from Samsara, and he has lost his attachment to greed.
I know what you're saying. "Dan, does it work for other characters?" Why yes it does.
Hugo Weaving's characters make a beeline descent. He starts as an upholder of the slave system, then he persecutes the composer, then he becomes a killer, then a cold overbearing nurse, then a callous bureaucrat, and finally, after his soul has become so corrupt and deformed, he had become a demonic spirit of temptation.
Hugh Grant's characters all live off of people. He goes from living off their slave labor to literally eating them.
It works for other characters too, but I won't spoil the fun of it. Try and find what the narrative curve is for other characters.
This was my broad vision of the movie, but even though it's more complex than the first view of it, it still has the same idea at heart: What you do matters. Who you are inside and out and what you do has an effect on everything around you and far beyond.
The Soul Mates View
In the third view of Cloud Atlas, we have my girlfriend to thank. It is more complicated than the first but not as complicated as the second. This theory also holds to reincarnation, but unlike the Hindu version I saw, this is not about a group of people but only two: The lover in trouble and the one who saves them. In this vision, you just need to follow the birthmark.
The one with the Birthmark in the story is the the Lover in Peril. They are the protagonist, and the one in need of rescue. And in every case, their true love, in various forms, attempts to save them through force, affection, or inspiration. And the two lovers are not always together romantically in each story, sometimes they can't be together, or don't need to be. It begins with the young man saving the slave and in turn the slave saving the man. Then we have the composer needing the love of a man he s forced not to be with. The story of love goes on from each life, just follow the birthmark. And in each and every case, they are the same pair of souls, just in different bodies. In the end, they save each other, and they get to be together. And, as always: What you do matters. Who you are inside and out and what you do has an effect on everything around you and far beyond.
These are not the only ways to see the film. A infographic breakdown on the themes and archetypes at play in the film has shown a more literary breakdown of the story. You can also have no particular view of it I suppose, but I think a movie like this makes you think more than others do.
Because the sound of it is so joyous and uplifting, here's the song that played out the trailer.
Thank God it's Friday! And to celebrate, I thought I could recommend a comic for you that will not only satisfy your religious needs for the weekend, but all your non religious needs as well. What I'm referring to is Robert Crumb's Illustrated Book of Genesis. That's right, every chapter, including the boring "begats" part, is illustrated completely and 100% literally.
God never looked so majestic.
When I say the word literal, I mean it literally. Crumb has left nothing said in the Robert Alter translation of the Bible as metaphor or symbolic. So we see Noah and the arc, as it is described.
You see, most animals can be folded up for storage. With his literal visualizations, Crumb strips down the story to what it inescapably is: A story.
A story about love.
Love.
But aside from this indictment of the text by merely presenting it literally, Crumb gives us a a gorgeous set of pages to look at that make the oftentimes tedious text fall away from your consciousness. Simply from a visual standpoint, the comic itself is gorgeous, full of texture, drama, and gloriously narrative images.
The comic rightfully had a lot of praise when it was released. He received several award nominations and public praise and even scorn. The scorn. to me. is hilarious, since it came from religious fundamentalists who think its all true anyway. If they don't want sex and violence in Bible adaptations, they need to get a new bible. I mean, Crumb is only trying to accurately translate world mythology into his own art form.
What a Jerk!
Have a nice weekend. Hope we don't get wiped off the face of the earth on a whim.
.JPG)
