Stratovania

I was thinking today about fantasy movies, and of course The Wizard of Oz came to mind. Like a lot of fans, I'm not too keen on the "it was all a dream" ending, and Dorothy's conclusion before waking up that she shouldn't want to leave home again. It removes a lot of the magic from the adventure. This in turn led me to consider some comments I've seen on Oz forums throughout the years, and ponder the question of whether fantasy is dangerous. I recently made a sorta-joking comment on Twitter about how easy listening radio is intended to suck the life out of workers, and while I don't think there's any actual conspiracy going on there, I have to suspect there's a grain of truth to it. Is it the same way with fantasy? Are American workers not supposed to be dreaming of more majestic things, because it will give us ideas above our stations? Why work in a cubicle when you can imagine hunting dragons? I'm not saying this is a conscious thought on the part of the establishment, but I'm wondering if there's a subconscious element to it.


And while we're on the topic of control, what about religion? Karl Marx referred to it as the "opiate of the masses." A question I've pondered from time to time is why modern American conservatives are so big on Jesus, when he was a pretty radical liberal thinker for his time. One thing that comes to mind is that, while Jesus talked a good game, he also encouraged his followers to remain humble and not challenge the establishment. Probably a good idea in Roman times, considering what happened later with Simon bar Kochba's revolt, but also a good way for later Christian governments to keep the people in line. Oppressed? Don't worry about it! Just be patient, and things will be awesome when Jesus comes back! We don't know when that will be, but it'll be soon enough, right? Life is just temporary, while paradise is for eternity! I can see where old man Marx was coming from, you know? Of course, the countries that adopted communism just used Marx's own ideas to keep the working classes down, just like Europe had done with Jesus' radical notions. Funny how these things work.


Does fantasy have the same effect? After all, most fantasy that I've read, regardless of the author's political and religious beliefs, has more in common with Jesus than with Marx. It's rare to read fairy tales that actively encourage social revolution. And are we fantasy fans, as an essay I once read suggested, just waiting for the good fairy to show up and wave her wand instead of actually doing anything to solve the world's problems? Really, today's fantasy tales are often based on yesterday's mythology. Look at the Percy Jackson series, for instance. There's even fantasy based on modern religion, although perhaps it's too soon for believers to judge it based on its own merits rather than its position. Some (but by no means all) Christians who hate other fantasy works love Narnia, with C.S. Lewis' pro-Christian message. On the other hand, some of the same people are vehemently opposed to Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, which takes a more negative approach to Judeo-Christian mythology. Pullman himself is an atheist, but the universe of these books seems to me to be based more on Gnostic thought. I'm sure Pullman doesn't actually believe in angels, but they exist in his invented worlds. It's all fiction, after all. But considering there are people who are actually feel their faith confirmed by books with a talking lion and threatened by books with polar bears in armor, I'm not sure they all realize this. Harry Potter gets particular flak in this area, despite the fact that J.K. Rowling is a Christian, who's said herself that she believes in God and not in magic. The problem might be that her critics believe in both. Still, if you read some of the conservative Christian reviews of the Potter books and movies, it often seems like the Satanic panic is somewhat of a smokescreen. Perhaps what they're REALLY worried about is how they suggest that authority figures aren't always right, and there are times when it's not a bad idea to break the rules. Come to think of it, there might be some of that in Gnostic philosophy, too. The Demiurge claims to be the Almighty God, and perhaps even genuinely BELIEVES that he's God, but he isn't. Indeed, while we didn't see too much of this figure in The Amber Spyglass, what we did learn of him suggests he was somewhat misguided and naive, allowing Enoch to take advantage of him. This stuff fascinates me, but my point is that powerful conservative interests don't WANT people to think for themselves, and the idea that authority figures (perhaps even including God) can sometimes be wrong encourages just that. And we don't need that in our children, do we? If they ever go looking for their heart's desire again, they shouldn't look any further than their own backyards. Because if it isn't there, they never really lost it to begin with!


Wow, that was a lot more rambling and all over the place than I originally intended. I have a few other thoughts on related subjects, but I'll save them for future posts.

So, I finished Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series yesterday. Yeah, that was pretty quick, wasn't it? But they were definitely good books, full of adventure, humor, and all that good stuff. And Riordan definitely did his research on Greek mythology, working a lot of characters and references into a modern setting. I think part of its success is that, while it did modernize things, I don't think it tried to be overly hip about it. It just showed a fairly logical progression as to how the Greek gods and monsters might have adjusted to the present-day United States. Ares is a biker and Apollo's chariot can change into a sports car, but there's no suggestion that they were ALWAYS like that. The plot was also interesting, coming across as somewhat reminiscent of Harry Potter (for instance, there's a hidden training place for kids with special powers, and a major villain who's been neutralized but gains in power throughout the series), but it's not like most of the themes in the Potter series were original with Rowling.

Another cool collection I've gotten recently and would like to say a bit about is I Wanna Go Backwards, the box set containing Robyn Hitchcock's first three solo albums, plus a lot of bonus material. Robyn was always someone I thought I should check out, based largely on his collaborations with Scott McCaughey. The first album of his that I picked up was Respect, which wasn't that great, although it had some tracks I quite liked. (I guess that's why I could buy it for only $5.) But I'm definitely enjoying these earlier albums. Some of my early favorites include "The Man Who Invented Himself," "Do Policemen Sing?", "Uncorrected Personality Traits" (which I was actually already familiar with, through a live version that I got from eMusic), "Ye Sleeping Knights of Jesus," and "Cynthia Mask."

Finally, here's a quiz that I learned about from doktor_x, and ended up getting the same result he did.

( Read more... )

Finally, happy birthday to countblastula, happy one-week-belated birthday to colbyucb, and happy one-day-early birthday to kristenjarrod!

Hey, how about some reviews of three books I read recently?

Watership Down, by Richard Adams - I'd been meaning to read this one for a while. Actually, I did read the first few pages when I was waiting for a computer at the local library some years ago. Recently, though, I saw the book on therealtavie's shelf and read an interview where Neko Case said it was one of her favorite books, so those things together pushed me into trying it again. And it really is a good book, describing the lives of rabbits from their own point of view. Adams' introduction said that he wanted to have rabbits who would think and communicate like people, but wouldn't do anything rabbits couldn't actually do, and I think he succeeded. And the idea of rabbits having their own religion and mythology was rather fascinating.

The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan - Speaking of mythology, this is the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, which was recommended to me by rockinlibrarian. It's in much the same vein as Harry Potter, in terms of having an adolescent boy discover he has both magic powers and deadly enemies, as well as in there being a special training place for people like him. The similarities don't stop there, but it's not like Rowling invented these ideas. Anyway, Riordan definitely has his own style, simultaneously more modern and more faithful to traditional mythology than Rowling's. I like his view of the gods in the modern age, in that they have adapted somewhat with the times, yet still maintain their traditional personalities. And there's a good dose of humor, one of my favorite throwaway bits being how one of the only two songs Grover the satyr can play on his pipes is Hilary Duff's "So Yesterday." I'll definitely have to read the rest of this series. In fact, I've already started on the second book, The Sea of Monsters.

The Black Cauldron, by Lloyd Alexander - The second book in the Prydain series (honestly, the fact that the first book has "three" in the title still tends to confuse me) is an improvement over the first one, at least to my mind. Since Alexander has already introduced his main characters, he's able to have more fun with them. We can definitely see Taran maturing in the course of the adventure, and Fflewddur Fflam and Doli have some good moments. I also found the three enchantresses to be pretty amusing characters.

bethje has told me that enjoys being in the middle of a good book. I can understand that, but I usually like to finish as quickly as I can. After all, that's when I can move on to the next one, right? {g} Also, I like to look back on books I've finished reading. And I don't think I'm going to run out of things to read anytime soon. I might eventually run out of new Oz stuff, though, so all you aspiring Oz authors need to get to work! {g}