If You Must Watch the Star Wars Prequels…

Quick backstory: I was in middle school when I heard about the prequels and, too young to know any better, I spent the next few years in breathless anticipation. (Yes, years in breathless anticipation. It’s a miracle I survived, but I had Magic: The Gathering to tide me over.) When tickets for the first movie came out, I got my sleeping bag and hopped into line in position #5. I played Star Wars Trivial Pursuit in that line and I won, in that line. So yeah, I’ve got my Star Wars credentials.

Then I watched Episode I in the theaters six times, willing myself with fervent desire to enjoy the films. I couldn’t.

Then I went on my mission and let the go.

I have watched some weird iMax version of Episode II that apparently skipped several bits and I did end up watching Episode III because, you know, might as well. Both were pretty terrible, and I’d essentially given up on the entire franchise forever. (The only Star Wars novels I like are the Timothy Zahn ones, and I haven’t played any of the video games since the 1990s either.)

But with the announcement that Disney has purchased Star Wars and there are going to be some new films, I’ve allowed a faint flicker of hope to be rekindled. I’m not exactly excited, but I’m not pretending Star Wars doesn’t exist any more either. I want to give Disney a chance, but I also don’t want to get my hopes up.

So, now that I”m reading articles on Star Wars again, here’s a good article about the “correct” order in which to watch the series if–for some reason–you insist on watching the prequels: IV, V, II, III, VI.

I’ll let the article explain the reasoning  behind that order, but I’m pretty convinced. My kids will be ready to watch the movies in a couple of years, and this is probably the order we’ll watch them in.

Bonus: did you know these exist?

Painstakingly recreated by fans, these are 720p versions of the original theatrical release. I must have them, unless Disney does us all a favor and releases 1080p restored versions from that vault of theirs.

I did not.

Euthanasia As Hedonism

Canticle for Leibowitz CoverThere’s a gripping scene near the end of one of my favorite books, Canticle for Leibowitz, where a priest tries to convince a mother not to kill herself and her daughter after they have received a probably lethal dose of radiation during an atomic war. The government has set up euthanasia festivals–looking for all the world like state fairs–where parents and their children can go to ride a carousel or a Ferris wheel before going to the final tent to end their lives. He begs and cajoles her not to go, but in the end is left to watch, powerless, as she takes her little girl’s hand and leads her toward the colorful tents, the delicious food, and the end of their lives.

Walter M. Miller, Jr (the author of Canticle), you will not be surprised to find out, was a Catholic. I am not a Catholic, but I have a deep love and admiration for the moral and intellectual courage of that tradition, and nowhere is that courage and sensitivity in starker display than in Catholic teachings about suffering and death. The Catholics understand, as so few in our modern age do, that suffering itself is not the measure of a life. They realize that, no matter how deceptively noble and sympathetic the arguments for euthanasia may be, in the end condoning suicide is indistinguishable from embracing shallow hedonism.

A heartbreaking news story brought this back to the forefront of my mind on Monday. Two brothers, aged 45, were killed by Belgian doctors at their request after finding out that they would go blind. The identical twins were born deaf, and they were unable to face the pain of never being able to see each other again. I have absolutely no condemnation for their decision, tragic as it might be, but I am deeply disappointed at the behavior of the doctors who ended their lives. 

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One of my Favorite PA Comics

I didn’t keep up with my Google Reader feed over the last week, so I missed out on a lot of my usual webcomics until I started catching up last night. So, even though it’s from last Friday, I didn’t see this one until yesterday. And it’s a classic.

If you play Call of Duty (any of them, really), you’ll recognize this!

It’s not quite my all-time favorite, but it’s close. I think I might get a printed version for my cubicle at work (along with a little sticky note to avoid getting in trouble.

Oh, and if you’re curious, this is my all-time favorite PA comic. I even bought the hoody. (Not a euphemism.)

Mormon Eclecticism vs. Pop Art

A Motley Vision has an interesting piece asking whether Mormon bands that “clean up” pop songs are expressing a genuine Mormon aesthetic or corrupting the artistic vision of the original artists. The prototypical example, of course, is Clean Flicks. Before being shut down due to law suits, Mormon families could purchase their very own censored editions of popular movies. I think the problem with that approach is that it treats the moral content of art as more or less equivalent to after-market car products: you can add on or take off what you like in discrete chunks. In reality, however, the “bad parts” of movies that Mormons might find objectionable are embedded into the narrative. So on that front, I think the effort to try and reclaim pop art can be essentially a lost cause.

On the other hand, there’s no denying the awesomeness of this song:

And that makes me wonder if another side to the issue is a kind of authentic Mormon eclecticism: taking  what we love and claiming it as our own. Spoiling the Egyptians, one might say. And as far as the artistic vision of the original creators: as long as you’re not claiming the work as your own or copying it wholesale than we’ve got a happy coincidence of Mormon  eclecticism and art-as-remix.

And that might be the real difference between the song above and Clean Flicks. Instead of trying to give you a sanitized version of the original, they’re taking what they like best and making their own art with it. Not only am I OK with that, I think it might even be something to be proud of.

So, About Rape Culture…

I’ve been meaning to write a short piece about this for the longest time because it bugs me to no end. And now’s as good a time as any.

Please consider the following:

Exhibit A: How To Stop Rapes (But Not So Much Other Crimes)
Exhibit A: How To Stop Rapes (But Not So Much Other Crimes)

Now, this might be a waste of time because the folks who seem to use words like “rape culture” are pretty passionate about it, and my friends who tend to be skeptical of this consider it generally unworthy of response. But I’m going to go for it anyway. 

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Do You Cross Off the Last Item?

The point of crossing items off a shopping list is to keep track of what items you have left to      get. So there’s absolutely no reason whatsoever to cross the last item off the list. I realized that today when I put the yogurt into my cart, and I hesitated. But then I crossed it out anyway. Wouldn’t you?

Snark and Testimony: Funny Mormon Gif Roundup

I’ll let you check out this page for the full list of amusing gif’s (which you’ll find funny even if you’re not a Mormon), but I’ve got to paste my favorite here:

When you and your spouse make it through all three hours of church.

Seriously, 3 hours of Church might have made sense in 19th century Utah (what else were they going to do in that desert anyway?), but in the 21st century it strikes me as cruel and unusual punishment. Can’t we just alternate Sunday School and Relief Society / Elders Quorum? I’m a Gospel Doctrine teacher, and I’d be Ok with that…

Outraged Anonymous

One of the chief responses I’ve gotten to my posts (mostly posted at Times & Seasons) about epistemic humility is that going around thinking that you could be wrong all the time saps your resolve. There are evils to be opposed, wrongs to be rights, and stances to be held and doing all this work requires conviction. If you spend all your time thinking about how you could be wrong, how are you going to have the gumption to go out and do what needs doing?

I’ve thought a lot about this, and about some grand unifying theorem of epistemic humility to cover all my bases, but if such a theorem exists I haven’t found it yet. Instead, I have a somewhat different suggestion. 

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Why I Listen to Screamo

One of my favorite movies ever.

At this point in my life I really should know better than to play the music and  movies that I like for other people: I have a terrible track record. Starting with playing a Bloodhound Gang song for a girlfriend in high school (I still think Asleep at the Wheel is sort of catchy, but I’m deliberately not linking to it out of shame) and going up through playing Voices of a Distant Star for my parents a couple of years ago. At the conclusion my mother–my own mother–responded with “That was supposed to be good?” For the record: it is very, very good and I highly recommend it. See? I know better, but I still can’t stop.

In that vein, I wrote a long piece that I’m inordinately proud of called “Why I Listen to Screamo” and posted it at Times and Seasons last night. I had misgivings about posting it, but I thought that the piece was interesting even if you didn’t listen to the music. Then again, with several YouTube videos embedded of Thrice, Underoath, and Emery, folks probably will listen to the music. And if you haven’t listened to that kind of music before, it can sound a bit like sonic assault and battery. (The fact that I drew a direct parallel between “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “The Artist in the Ambulance” probably didn’t win me any new friends either!)

I know that, in a sense, I should stop. But I’m not sure if I really want to or not. Playing eclectic music and movies for people backfires more often than not, but I’m sort of hoping it’s like a high-risk / high-reward activity. Maybe the “hits” will be fewer, but the connections formed will be all the sweeter for it? Who knows, but if any of this has drawn your interest, go read my original piece and let me know (there) what you think.