Soul and the Cage

I lose faith every hour.
As I sap my willpower
Dandelions float in the East Wind.
Aimlessly looking for his friend;
Soul, light as a feather
It can't live in this red, stormy weather
Southern gale washes over me.
Ripping me apart like a dying palm tree

Dying and Lying
Trying and Crying

Naked, I trudge to a cavern dark.
Skin scarred with unseemly marks
What's my line? What's my line?
What's my line, oh, God divine?
Unable to speak, unable to hurt
Atrophied heart throbs in the dirt.
Trapped in a guarded cage
I lament my age...

American Vampire

American Vampire

They drain blood from the faint-hearted.

Predators who devour the innocent

Teeth glinting like the watch of a rich man,

Feasting on the fat of the land,

Bloated with bodies, bodies, and bodies

"From beneath it devours".

And this beast never breeds.

Only attending to flesh needs

Every day, it lives to feed.

Stomach churns with boundless greed.

It tramples beauty, squashes truth.

Destroying the hopes of youth

Its defeat will come anonymously.

We must Occupy the beast.

Leaderless, we remain.

Who will bring a new day?

Interesting Nietzsche Quotes to Ponder (Part I)

I am currently reading Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra for my Existentialism class at The Master's College. In the early chapters of the work, Zarathustra tells the people of the village that "God is dead" which they laugh at and later hate. Even though I may not agree with everything he says, Nietzsche is extremely quotable and makes you think about who you are in this world, what are the point of morals, and if you're really yourself or just going along with the herd mentality. Without further ado...

"Ten truths a day you must find; else you will still be seeking truth by night, and your soul will remain hungry." (Chapter 2 "On the Teachers of Virture")

"Ten times a day you must laugh and be cheerful; else you will be disturbe at night by your stomach, this father of gloom." (Ibid.)

"Blessed are the sleepy ones: for they shall soon drop off." (Ibid.)

"The creator wanted to look away from himself; so he created the world." ("On the Afterworldly")

"The body is a great reason, a plurality with one sense, a war and a peace, a herd and a shepherd." ("On the Despisers of the Body")

"Instruments and toys are sense and spirit; behind them still lies the spirit." (Ibid.)

"... in the end all your passions became virtues and all your devils, angels." ("On Enjoying and Suffering the Passions")

"But what matter your good people to me? Much about your good people nauseates me; and verily, it is not  their evil." ("On the Pale Criminal")

"Write with blood, and you will experience that blood is spirit." ("On Reading and Writing")

"We are all of us fair beasts of burden, male and female asses." (Ibid.)

"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness." (Ibid.)

"It is by invisible hands that we are bent and tortured worst." ("On the Tree on the Mountainside")

"But it is with man as it is with the tree. The more he aspires to the height and light, the more strongly do his roots strive earthward, downward, into the dark-the deep-into evil." (Ibid.)

"Nobody speaks to me; the frost of loneliness makes me shiver." (Ibid.)

"And even the liberated spirit must still purify himself." (Ibid.)

"Know that the noble man stands in everybody's way. The noble man stands in the way of the good too: and even if they call him one of the good, they thus want to do away with him" (Ibid.)

"You should love peace as a means to new wars- and the short peace more than the long... Let your peace be a victory!" ("Of War and Warriors")

"In sarcasm the prankster and weakling meet. But they misunderstand each other." (Ibid.)

"... man is something that shall be overcome" (Ibid.)

"State is the name of the coldest of all cold monsters." ("On the New Idol")

"But the state tells lies in all the tongues of good and evil; and whatever it says it lies- and whatever it has it has stolen." (Ibid.)

"All-too-many are born: for the superfluous the state was invented." (Ibid.)

"They are always sick; they vomit their gall and call it a newspaper." (Ibid.)

"The earth is free even now for the great souls. There are still many empty seats for the lonesome and twosome, fanned by the fragrance of the silent seas." (Ibid.)

"Flee, my friend, into your solitude!" ("On the Flies of the Marketplace")

"Where solitude ceases the marketplace begins; and where the marketplace begins the noise of the great actors and the buzzing of the poisonous flies begins too." (Ibid.)

"In the world even the best things amount to nothing without someone to make a show of them..." (Ibid.)

"Blood is what they want from you in all innocence." (Ibid.)

"... you are the bad conscience of your neighbors: for they are unworthy of you." (Ibid.)

"It is bad to live in cities: these too many are in heat." ("Of Chastity")

"Chastity is a virtue in some, but almost a vice in many. They abstain, but the bitch, sensuality, leers enviously out of everything they do." (Ibid.)

"It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters." (Ibid.)

"Our faith in others betrays in what respect we would like to have faith in ourselves." ("On Friends")

"In a friend one should have one's best enemy. You should be closest to him with your heart when you resist him." (Ibid.)

"Compassion for the friend should conceal itself under a hard shell, and you should break a tooth on it." (Ibid.)

"As much as you give the friend, I will give even my enemy, and I shall not be any the poorer for it. There is comradeship: let there be friendship!" (Ibid.)

"Humanity still has no goal." ("On the Thousand and One Goals")

Thoughts of a Dying Christian Part I

"Religion is the opiate of the masses."- Karl Marx. Ok, so what if all of this is just a trip or a dream? I'm Alice stumbling down a rabbit hole into a world of fantasy and wonder. Maybe all this Bible stuff is just a construct. I mean there are so many denominations, sub-denominations, and sects. Is just one of them "right"? Right and wrong seemed to be so simple once upon a time. Now, as I look out at the world, it is colored grey like a rainy morning in England. The Book of Mormon may have historical and linguistic inaccuracies, but Mormons are usually the nicest people one could meet. And why are some of the most socially conscious rappers Muslim? (Talib Kweli, Lupe Fiasco et al) Aren't they all terrorists? *sarcasm font*

Why do churches pass offering plates every Sunday? I thought that God didn't desire sacrifice and burnt offerings. Why are some Christians obsessed with owning guns? Aren't Christians supposed to go the extra, give away the outer garment?I wonder what these "God and Guns" people are going to do with their gats? Kill communists, I don't know.

A favorite Christian pastime is "bitching" about the government, especially President Obama. Excuse my language, but this activity annoys me that much. They tweet and post their complaints on Facebook continually but do nothing. First, the recession started in 2007 so if you want a government scapegoat, go after the former President Bush. But remember the rule of causality vs. correlation. Some of the wisest words I have heard in my lifetime were from a speech by columnist George Will at Roanoke College. He said, "The government can't save you. If you want salvation, get religion." These people who complain the government "have religion" so why can't they be happy in God and not get worked up about the government. Humans are too flawed to be messiahs.

Humans need to belong. That's why we have families, cities, and Liger Appreciation societies. We find pleasure in the the company of our fellow creatures. Individualism can feel good for a while, but we need someone to confide in. So is religion another community or club? Maybe. It brings people together who find truth and comfort in common beliefs. But if you don't believe in what I believe, does that make me right and you wrong? Every human believes in some form of objective truth, but it is subjective to that person's own personal philosophy.

"What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us. Just a stranger on the bus trying to make his way home."-Joan Osbourne

Tintin Film Review

The Adventures of Tintin (2011; dir by Steven Spielberg; prod by Spielberg and Peter Jackson; starring Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, and Daniel Craig)

Ok, so I finally got around to seeing to this movie. On paper, it looked like a hit. Adapted from one of Europe's most beloved comics (maybe we'll see an Asterix and Obelix movie soon), it also boasted two of the greatest directors of our generation in Spielberg and Jackson. But what really struck me about this film was the quality of writers on the project like Steven Moffatt, who is the show runner on two of my favorite current British TV shows: Doctor Who and Sherlock and Edgar Wright, who has had experience in comic book films like the underrated Scott Pilgrim against the World. But I also had my doubts. From the trailer, I knew that Tintin would be using a “hyperreal” animation style pioneered by Robert Zemeckis in films like Polar Express and Beowulf. I thought that maybe there was a chance this animation style would be disgusting like Mars Needs Moms, but I was definitely wrong.

Visually, Tintin is a treat. The character models are vividly detailed. I could see all of Tintin's ginger hairs, and Snowy moved and acted like a real dog, not a cartoon. The same level of detail is also I found in the lush locales that Tintin goes to including my favorite location: the North African palace. I liked this location the most because of the intricate costumes and wall hangings along with the beautiful architecture of the palace building and models of boats in it. John Williams contributes a score up to par with his previous work that gives the film an even more adventurous tone.

Tintin also boasts an excellent voice cast made up of a prominent British actors. Jamie Bell played a believable teenager, but the supporting cast blew me away. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (co-stars of comedies Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead) had hilarious cameos as bumbling Interpol agents in roles that could have been throwaway plot devices. Andy Serkis again reveals his acting range as the drunk but noble Captain Haddock and makes even the lamest comebacks (“Ten thousand thundering typhoons “) memorable and plays the character's ancestor in flashbacks.

As far as plot, Tintin doesn't break any new ground, but it is still a fun globe (and time) trotting adventure. The Macguffin is a unicorn, and there is the occasional plot hole like a character remembering what his ancestor did after a day traveling in the desert. However, unlike recent “classic” style adventure films like National Treasure: Book of Secrets and Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, Tintin intermixes humor with the sometimes ridiculous set pieces to keep the film fun and moving quickly. There is a good mix of dry humor and slapstick.

Finally, Tintin is a rollicking neo-Imperialist adventure film in the tradition of Raiders of the Lost Ark and more recently Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (especially the flashback sequences). It also shows that the hyperreal animation style can be used to make movies that would be too costly in live action. I give it 4/5 stars.

Justice and Revenge: A Vicious Cycle

     Justice and revenge are two of the strongest ideals that any human being could aspire to. This is why works of literature and film with these ideas in them can be compelling and speak to the human psyche. For example, in the Greek tragedy Eumenides, the Furies practice chaotic justice that demands blood for blood. This is balanced by Athena's democratic justice, which is also in the punishments in Dante's Inferno. However, in the film V for Vendetta, chaotic justice is espoused by the protagonist.

The main theme of Eumenides, the third play in Aeschylus' Oresteia trilogy, is justice. The premise of the play is that Orestes has killed his mother (who killed his father Agamemnon) and flees from the Furies to Athens where Athena's court will decide his fate. But the Furies and Athena have vastly different ideas of justice. The Furies are ancient Earth spirits, who believe in the law of equal retaliation (lex taliones) requiring death in exchange for death. This form of justice was practiced by the pre-classical Greeks and allowed each individual to take the law into his own hands and kill a murderer without a fair trial. In contrast, Athena is a younger Olympian deity who believes in the system of democratic justice, which is when a group of people administer justice as a community, not as individuals. The conflict between the two forms of justice is shown during the trial where Apollo, god of rationality, defends Orestes, and the Furies defend themselves with their principle of blood for blood. The new form justice triumphs when Athena herself breaks the tie vote of the court and acquits Orestes. Because individual revenge has no place in this new democratic society, the Furies become the Eumenides (Kindly Ones) and act as guardians of Athens' future prosperity as the principles of orderly, communal justice triumph over the older form.

The idea of orderly justice continued long after the fall of the Greek city-states through the Roman Republic and Empire and into the Middle Ages. One such work that illustrates this principle of justice is Dante's Inferno. In the poem, Dante is a struggling pilgrim who travels through the nine circles of Hell in order to get on the road to salvation. He sees souls punished in a variety of ways (E.g. Gluttons eat each other, the lustful are blown away) but with the same underlying principle: symbolic retribution. Symbolic retribution means that sinners receive a punishment that corresponds to their sin. For example, because the lustful were “blown away” and consumed by their desires in life; they are blown around by the wind in Hell. This may seem like the Furies' “blood for blood” justice, but there are two big differences: Hell is orderly and has a form of due process. Dante's Hell is organized into nine circles that descend in order from lesser greater sin beginning with the virtuous pagans in Limbo and concluding with the betrayers in Cocytus (ninth circle). Therefore, unlike the Furies' endless revenge killings, the punishments in Hell are uniform, infallible, and only apply to the actual guilty party. Finally, Hell was created by God as a prison for Satan and the fallen angels and even has a sub-judge Minos “who stands, hideous and growling/Examining the sins of each newcomer:/With coiling tail he judges and dispatches” (Dante V.3-5). In obedience to God's authority, Minos uses his tail to direct sinners to the circle of Hell that corresponds to their sin in an orderly manner. But this trend of orderly justice does not last long in the arts.

In the latter half of the 21^st century, films containing forms of individual revenge espoused by the Furies in Eumenides became popular. One such film was 2005's V for Vendetta based on the legendary graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. Beneath its lofty premise of premise of one man (V) leading a one man revolution versus the future tyrannical government of Britain, there is a basic revenge story at its core. As a youth, V had been experimented on by the government which gave him “super abilities” but destroyed his appearance and life. Therefore, he wants to take revenge on the people (government) that made him this way and eventually sacrifices his life to blow up the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben in order to motivate the people to overthrow the government. Like the Furies, who demanded a life for every life taken, V kills many leaders and foot soldiers and eventually takes his own life to satiate his need for vengeance. Instead of attempting to set up any kind of new government, V decides to take manners in his own hands by killing many government officials including Peter Creedy, the head of the Finger (secret police) and Lewis Prothero, the “Voice of London” who spreads pro-government propaganda to the people. V displays his relish for anarchy and equal retaliation when he tells his lover Evey that “there is no court in this country for men like Prothero” (V for Vendetta).

It is very interesting to find the chaotic, revenge based justice of the Furies in antiquity in the dangerous, anarchic actions of V. Why do you think that revenge stories remain popular in the past 20 years? (The Crow, Kill Bill, Taken, even Magneto in X-Men: First Class) Do you watch revenge films to live vicariously and escape our “boring” justice system, or do you think that these violent avengers might have a point? Does the idea of blood for blood vengeance attract you? Why or why not?

Rise

Stalking his prey in the shady jungle

This hunter is skilled and cunning.

As he sits alone in a cloak of shadow,

His mind burns with rage and sadness.

But he continues to fight daily,

Evil cannot hide from his dark wrath.

Once dead and broken,

Now reborn and wearing a token

Of justice grim and powerful

He rises