New Year's Resolution #1: Blogging Hiatus

I cannot believe 2007 is over. Or that I've lived on earth for over a quarter of a century. Or that I have a 6-month-old nephew. Etc., etc...time is so strange.

So: in the interests of gaining a greater perspective on eternity (and/or of improving my chances of actually finishing my dissertation and graduating -- take your pick), I'll be taking a break from blogging for a while. I hate to leave this creative outlet that I've really enjoyed for the past two years, and I will miss the community of bloggers that I regularly read and exchange comments with. But I have to remind myself that it's only temporary -- please God, not more than six months -- and the sooner I get this monstrosity of a paper finished, the sooner I can move on to other kinds of writing.

I will be back sometime in the summer of 2008. Until then, this blog is temporarily closed. In the meantime: may the road rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back, the sun shine warm upon your face, and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, may God hold you all in the palm of his hand.

Sweeney Todd (2007)

Too tired for complete sentences. Will send you to Peter Travers' review instead. Pretty much says it all.

GO SEE SWEENEY TODD. (If you have the stomach for it, that is. :-)

Silent Night

Lord our God,
With the birth of your Son,
your glory breaks on the world.
Through the night hours of the darkened earth,
we your people watch for the coming of your promised Son.
As we wait, give us a foretaste of the joy
that you will grant us
when the fullness of his glory has filled the earth,
who lives and reigns with you forever and ever.
Amen.

The New Atheism

Here's an interesting piece from Chicago Tribune cultural critic Julia Keller. Not profound, but interesting. (Perhaps I'll have more to say about it when it's not one o'clock in the morning...)

The Golden Compass (2007)

I don't think fantasy books generally adapt well to screen. There's always way too much material to cram into a two- or three-hour block of time, and no amount of CGI can substitute for what the human imagination creates in response to the words on a page.

The Golden Compass, based on the first book in Philip Pullman's trilogy His Dark Materials, is no exception to the rule. Everything feels abbreviated and rushed -- the film is less than two hours long, absurdly short for a fantasy piece. And that isn't the only irritating thing about it. These fantasy adaptations are starting to feel rather cookie-cutter and perfunctory. The special effects here are competent but by no means original, and the score is forgettable.

Nevertheless: despite the breakneck pace and the cliched cinematography, I have to say I enjoyed watching Golden Compass. Maybe that's because, this time, I didn't read the book before seeing the movie. I could tell things were being left out, but I didn't know exactly what was missing at each moment. So I was able to appreciate the movie for what it is: a teaser-trailer for an unusually interesting book. Think of it that way, and you can take its rushing in stride.

The story in a nutshell is as follows: in a universe parallel to our own, Oxford University -- oops, I mean, Jordan College -- and the Catholic Church -- oops, I mean, the Magisterium -- find themselves at odds with one another. The independent thinkers at Jordan want to find out the truth about the universe. The Magisterium wants, at all costs, to keep people from finding out the truth. Caught in the middle of this struggle is Lyra, aka "The Child," who in this movie begins her journey toward breaking the chokehold that the evil Magisterium has on the world. Her first task: find a way to thwart a plot by the Magisterium to separate children from their daemons, aka their souls, which exist outside their bodies in the form of animal companions.

The sheer originality of its fantasy world is one of Golden Compass's biggest strengths, but of course it owes this to the book on which it's based, and not to anything the filmmakers did. Thus, the movie definitely made me want to read the books, which I guess is the definition of a successful trailer. I'm hooked. I'm intrigued by the power of Pullman's imagination, and I want to see, on paper, how nuanced (or not) is his handling of the religious and philosophical themes he's playing with. He tosses around concepts like authority and free will; I want to see how well he really understands them. And I want to see the movie's bare-bones outline of the plot filled in with all its original detail.

Also strong in this movie is the acting, especially Nicole Kidman as a chillingly malign Mrs. Coulter. Ian McKellen, too, is delightful as the voice of the polar bear Iorek. One expects such convincing intensity from mature A-listers like Kidman and McKellen, but the pleasant surprise in Golden Compass is newcomer Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra. She is already a better actress than any of the Harry Potter kids will ever be: there is a self-possession and authority to her performance that gives the character credibility, and she does defiance frighteningly well. Her eyes really do burn when she's angry. I had no difficulty believing that this was a child with the strength of will to go to hell and back; I'd probably follow her there, too. As child actresses go, she's close to the level of Ivana Baquero (from Pan's Labyrinth), though her performance is not quite as effortless.

As far as Pullman's atheism goes: I don't feel I'm equipped to comment on that until I've read the books, which I plan to do very soon. If they are, as seems to be the general consensus, an atheist allegory much as the Chronicles of Narnia are a Christian allegory, then I can't see why Christian parents would give them to their children to read, any more than I can see why atheist parents would give their children Narnia to read. Allegory is meant to provide a set of images that make an abstract belief system accessible to the imagination. It's more overtly pedagogical in intent than most art forms are (or should be). So, why you'd want to provide your child with a set of images designed to reinforce a belief system with which you do not agree, I'm just not sure. As for children old enough to engage with the ideas being presented and discuss them intelligently, well, that might be another story. I'll just have to wait and make up my mind when I've read the books.

But there is one point, at least, on which I am in perfect agreement with The Golden Compass's worldview: truth matters. Many brave men and women have lived and died for it...and with good reason.

Sanctuary

"We do not need to look in a place for the sanctuary, but in deeds, in life, and in customs. If these are according to God, if they conform to the commandments of God, it matters little whether you are at home or in the public square . . . what am I saying, 'in the public square'? It does not even matter if you find yourself in the theater -- if you are serving the Word of God, you are in the sanctuary, have no doubt."

--Origen

Dreams of Good Weather

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Good News & Bad News

So I met with my dissertation advisor this morning. (Can I say, by the way, that I think I might have the best advisor in the world? I'm pretty sure that without such a kind, insightful, and supportive mentor, I wouldn't have made it as far as I already have...)

Anyway. There was good news and bad news. It doesn't look like I'll be able to finish in May, and that is extremely disappointing. However (and, thank God, there is a however): what's been stressing me out most is that I thought if I didn't make it to defend in April, I'd have to wait until September. But my advisor says that the department can often finagle summer defenses, so that I might be able to defend in, say, June or July rather than waiting till the fall semester. So I'd just be extending this ordeal by a month or two rather than yet another half a year. And that's awesome news.

Thanks to all of you who've been praying for me! I'll be dissertating just a little longer...but, I hope, the end is in sight.