Where the Wild Things Are

I love how Sendak’s style is consistent throughout his work. You can see how the characters all kind of have similar eyes and bodies, yet they’re all vastly different. I’m so impressed with his ink work. I wonder if he took time and drew out all the lines or if he sketched really quick and just let the ink do whatever it wanted. And it’s not just Sendak’s work that’s great, it’s the stories he can tell. Where the Wild Things Are was a favorite of mine growing up and still is. I was always so scared the monsters would eat Max at the end of the book and yet I wished I could be as fearless as Max, traveling into the jungle, living with the beasts. It’s such a heart-warming story because we all know what it feels like as a kid to just want to do our own thing, but then we grow up and we wish we could go back home. I definitely feel that way. When you can still relate to a child’s story after you've grown up it makes me think that maybe it’s not just a child’s story, maybe it’s something much bigger than that.

This is something that people from all over the world can relate to and not need to look too deeply into to understand. It’s for all times and all cultures. All ages all religions. It’s not trying to throw anything in anyone’s face; Sendak is just trying to tell the story of a wild little boy who got sent to his room. So simple yet so completely relatable. 

This picture scared me so bad as a kid

Students, the voice of modern religion

     After our class discussion about the teaching of the Theory of Evolution in public schools I reminisced back to my time at Westfield High School in Hamilton County. Personally, I couldn't imagine a time in my life where God hasn't been apart of it in some way, shape, or form. I didn't really notice, though, how much God was or wasn't apart of my schooling until the high school years came along. In particular, I think back to a day in biology where we were learning about evolution. The teacher tried to tell us that a penguin could turn into a giraffe and everyone was just like, "hold up, do you really expect us to believe that?". Now let me state this, WHS is a school filled with Christians.

     Using that day as an example, I question why both evolution AND creationism aren't taught in a public school setting. Students should be informed by as many things as possible and then their opinions and beliefs can be rightfully formed. That is a problem that I see in today's society. We aren't allowing the youth to grow in the best possible ways out of the fear that someone might be offended. Well guess what, those who use to be the ones offending are now the offended because of limits that have been brought upon by our tip toe society.

     As I had stated, Hamilton County is a predominant Christian environment. It is unfortunate that schools cannot officially teach religion because the students are clamoring for it. We had a student lead us in prayer at graduation, we had after school Christian groups, our sports team have pastors that lead us in prayer before and after games, and so on and so forth. We want to be able to learn, but the government does not allow it due to the fear of lawsuits from those who are offended. Well guess what, why not teach a Religions of the World class like we have here at HU so, again, the younger generation can be taught in an educated way instead of just one side of the spectrum.

     In conclusion, an article out of Texas was brought to my attention. A school had banned pre-game prayer before a football game because, as I have said, fear out of being sued by an atheist organization. What ended up happening, though, is that the cheerleaders lead the crowd in prayer anyone because they saw it as "the right thing to do". As a former mascot I couldn't be prouder of these girls. This story drills my point even further that students want religion incorporated into their education and I believe that we are doing a disservice by not allowing such thing to hold true.

     Younger generations have showed time and time again they will stand up for what they believe in whereas it is the older generation that tells them not to. If we had taught religion in the years prior then maybe the current generation wouldn't be discombobulated with where they stand in the realm of faith. I wouldn't say that we should be on a crusade of sorts to put Christianity in schools, but instead be on a crusade to educate in multiple realms of religion so an educated thought process can be concluded. What exactly are we teaching the youth of this world if they are prohibited from/don't have the freedom to learn in a way that they yearn for? If we want the world to be more accepting of others than we must first teach how to accept in the first place.

Article: http://insider.foxnews.com/2014/09/19/tennessee-cheerleaders-lead-football-crowd-lords-prayer-defying-schools-ban

Just Something to Think About

I'm definitely not trying to start an argument one way or another, because I haven't put much thought into it myself, but when I got back from class and started doing some reading for my Biblical History and Literature class, I was reminded of something Leeper said in class. When we touched on evolution v. creation, he basically said that we often consider the two things to be at completely opposite ends of the spectrum, and that religion and evolution can't have anything to do with each other. He went on to say that he trusts the science of it - the facts, but that's not to say that God wasn't behind human evolution. God created the world, so wouldn't it be in his power to use science to create the world and the life on it? In my BitHitLit class, we've discussed how Genesis 1, and the chapters that follow it, could be a narrative myth that stands for the creation of the world in general, that has a story deeper than the creation of Earth itself (our role as humans and our relationships with God, the world, others, and ourselves). In the book we are reading, The Drama of Scripture by Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen, on pg. 62, the authors talk about the plagues God sent to Egypt when the Pharaoh refused to release the Israelites. They mention that there are people who argue all sorts of scientific explanations that account for many of these plagues, which build upon each other and have sort of a domino effect. After they presented that argument, they said something that I found really poignant:

"It may well be that this kind of understanding of the plagues is correct. What we must not do, however, is to resort to a merely naturalistic understanding of them, in which God cannot be explained naturally. God sustains the whole of creation in existence, and the laws of nature are part of his order for creation."

I don't know if what I'm saying right now makes any sense to you, because I'm kind of winging it and trying to put it into words as it's coming to me. Maybe you're reading this like

 I just wanted to throw this out there for people to take into consideration in their own time; this isn't a film related post, which I'll do later, but I thought it was interesting nonetheless. 

Gustave Doré

Have you ever been asked, "if you could have had dinner with anyone (dead or alive) who would it be"?  Some say Jesus, others say Moses. (and then there is that one weird guy who says George Washington).  I would have chosen my my great, great, great, great, great uncle, Gustave Doré.  Gustave Doré was one of the greatest illustrators of his time.  If you haven't heard about Gustave Doré you probably have seen his art works that have been placed in art museums all over the world.  He has his own gallery called "The Doré Gallery" in Bond Street, London.  He is a french illustrator that impacted the world with his art.  

In the Christian Universe, he is known for his Bible illustrations done in the English Bible..

He started his career when he was fifteen working at a French newspaper as a caricaturist.  Continuing in his work, he illustrated for Edgar Allen Poe (The Raven), Lord Byron's Poems and Lyrics, and mostly Bible Illustrations for the British Publisher. 





Most Christian viewers ignore that he has done other work besides the Bible.  In 1883, Gustave started getting into fairy tale illustrations such as Little Reg Riding Hood, Cinderella, Puss in Boots, and so much more!


Growing up as an aspiring artist, it is a lot of pressure to live up to such God given talent.  But I learned that you don't learn over night.  Just like me, Gustave started from scratch.   Here is my favorite picture that he created.  I don't know why I love it, but I do.  I would love one day to meet him.  Hey forget dinner, why can't we just draw together?




And this is another favorite of mine!

Here are some of his other works:










And here's the man himself:

Father and Daughter

Father and Daughter was a very touching mini-animated film to me. I am really close to my own father so I felt very connected to this little girl and her loss for her father. I never knew that I could get all teary-eyed from a “silent” animated film with only sound effects and no dialog. I really enjoy connecting to this film in a way not a lot of people can. I know not everyone is close to their own fathers and it is a real shame upon each circumstance. I personally almost cried at the end of this film until the author did something amazing. I absolutely loved the ending where the little girl grows old and finally reunites with her father the way he left her. It was definitely a very sad film.. and it was also very easy to connect to if you do have that father figure to base it on. Ahhhh how I love animated films and each of the unique qualities they all obtain. Animated films are so touching and very relatable most of the time. Did anyone else get really emotional during Father and Daughter or am I just a weirdo for it?? xD

We Live in a Land of Fairy Tales

“Once upon a time...a whole lot of crazy stuff happened but they lived happily after anyways.” - Life in a nutshell

A fairy tale is described as being a story of someone encountering the extraordinary by way of the ordinary. In our case, this is the story of an impossible God doing impossible things with very possible people. This theme was further exemplified through the films we watched in class. Though I am just going to use one to make my point here.

Oh the films we have seen!

"Bunny" told of an old rabbit, who while remembering her late husband, attempted to deal with a moth who kept bothering her whilst she tried to bake a cake. This is the ordinary because, after all, who hasn't been a rabbit baking a cake with a pesky moth bumping into your light fixtures? Then the moth is struck and falls into the cake mix, the rabbit goes rage happy and quickly mixes the poor creature into the batter then throws the whole thing into the oven. But then the oven bursts open revealing a portal to a great light. And guess who is there...the moth.

"Now I take my revenge..."-Moth

The moth leads the rabbit into a portal in space where all the cool moths go, and the rabbit grows a pair. of wings and flies into the light. 

Moths are supposedly drawn to light sources because animals, especially them that fly, guide themselves by using the stars and are thus distracted by human's lights which seem like stars that you can actually knock into.The idea they seem to be getting at here is that we are all like moths in that we all seek to go into the light of the unknown in hopes of a greater life. So all the moths at the end  also winging their way into the bright portal are souls moving on to the afterlife. Who'd of thunk such a deep film would be made about such a regular annoyance. 

When you see life for the fairy tale it is, there is no such thing as "ordinary" or "normal". 

 

So yeah, fairy tales. Crazy stuff eh?

Dreaming is good for the soul

Fairy tales are a work of art themselves. They harness that ability to make the impossible, possible and the imagination run wild. I have never seen anyone not love a good fairy tale story. I also think sometimes when I am reading the bible, some of that seems to sound like it could be out of a story as well. During class we watched many films, one of my favorites being the father and daughter. This film made me remember of a moment in time in my life when I was growing up. I was constantly waiting for my cousin to come home from overseas and he said that he would write to me and for days I would sit and wait, checking the mailbox multiple time a day to see if a letter was there waiting for me. Of course this was when I was little and before I discovered that the mail only came once a day, but the story matches it perfectly. I believe fairy tales are made to be uplifting and inspiring to someone else and to show them that there are awesome things that happen in a person’s life that can show you that you’re not alone. I believe that people need to dream, otherwise life gets boring and drowns your own personal spirit. Dreaming I believe keeps us all young. 

Fairy Tales Rock!!

So this Tuesday we talked about Fairy tales which I love.  I had my dad buy me the complete and unedited book of the brother Grimm's Fairy tales.  To say the least it is awesome.  I haven't been able to go through the whole thing yet but to say the least Disney left somethings out for our benefit as children.  So I was wondering why do more people know and care about fairy tales then the bible.  As Leeper pointed out that the bible stories are fairy tales in a way.  So why do people like fairy tales and follow them better.  Well I think that it is because we know that when we are lost in a forest going to grandma's house we won't run into a wolf or a house made of gingerbread.  So no matter what you can add crazy elements that don't seem to work with reality.  Now the bible on the other hand is to be taken as truth.  Now when I read the bible and have heard the stories there are stories of the earth flooding with rain that lasted for 40 days and nights, parting the sea and virgins giving birth.  Now to believe that kind of stuff is very hard especially when most of the times rain goes for a day or two and not over a month.  Yes it could of just been a storm like hurricane Katrina that washed the area a way New Orleans style (sorry if I offended you with that comment).  It says rain strictly with maybe some natural events thrown in because of it.  Then Moses parts the sea just by slamming his staff into the ground.  That is impressive and highly impossible unless he had some great special effects crew to pull it off.  I don't even know where to find logic in that since it happened.  Now for a virgin birth I know can't happen because my biology class told me about reproduction.  We are then told to believe it as if that's normal and are just suppose to believe it like that stuff just happens when it doesn't.  The thing that makes it most sad is that I want to believe I can go to the lake on campus and go "hey guys check this out" slam a stick into the ground and part the lake.  After all if Moses could do that how many thousands of years ago we should have the technology to do that by now.  But I can relate with more with fairy tales because I know that at no point in time was there a princess put to sleep by a curse and a princess waiting for an apple wedge to come out of her mouth(Snow White, right less romantic).  Maybe I'm looking at things to harshly but till I see some non illusion magic I can't start my hunt for fairies.  Or maybe I can't find the fairies and unicorns because they didn't make it on Noah's ark.  Who knows?

FAIRY TALES

Referring back to our class discussion this past Tuesday it is interesting to see how fairy tales can be related to the Bible.  I love fairy tales, and in some respects, I think that the Chronicles of Narnia is in fact apart of that category.  The Chronicles of Narnia, though it is if you will the "main stream" Christian "parallel", the series has been a huge part of my life.  There may not be too many people familiar with the audio books on tape for this series.  If anyone is interested in listening to them, I'd highly suggest it because they are not just your ordinary books on tape.  There is a particular book on tape series that has sound effects that goes along with what's happening throughout the books and doesn't read entirely word for word what the original book says, however, it does stay true to the plot line.  Anyways, back to the point, when I listen to these books I am extremely engaged.  When I listen to them, in my head I have mapped out what every scene from every book looks like.  It is as real to me as real life is (in the moment of course).  Each book takes about 3-4 hours to listen to and the entire time all I can think about is what's happening.  In other words, I'm probably a little to obsessed with them.  One of most important things that I have taken away from these books, is (strangely enough) a stronger faith in Christ.  Though Christ is symbolized through Aslan in the series the words that are used to describe Aslan also pertain to Jesus.  For me I almost wish that these books we're not a fantasy I wish it was reality.  How cool would it be for there to be hundreds of different pools you could go into that would lead you into another world?! My point is that even though fairy tales are in fact false realities, they still have real world meaning.  They affect us in ways we can not imagine, and the life lessons that can taught and learned from fairy tales are in fact lessons we can take away and use in the real world.

Fairy Tale: Or How I Can't Come Up with Something Witty

This is a hard one to talk about. Not because I don't like fairy tales--or how I like to call them fantasies, the proper definition! (drinks tea snobbishly) Anywho, I can't really think of anything to say about the subject or, like my other posts, how it relates to being an artist. I mean I guess that I can bring up how it connects to God and the Bible but there are two things to that; one, despite me considering myself a Catholic, I'm not that much of a religious person, and two, I don't have that much experience with religion and I don't want to talk about something I don't really have that much knowledge of. Unless you want you and me to go into a heated argument on which Hüsker Dü album is better, Zen Arcade or New Day Rising (I prefer New Day), the you're on!

What I do know is that fairy tales, or whatever you like to call them, is that they are good for telling whatever story you want, whether it is a literal fantasy set in the typical Medieval times, or have it take place in present day, like with Harry Potter and…the Twilight Saga (shutters because that’s what every guy does when that comes up in conversation AM I COOL YET?!?!). Or, with the examples shown the other day Father and Daughter, Man Bought a House, and Bunny, they can have fantastical elements that is gripped in reality and doesn’t have witches, warlocks, knights, princesses, and dragons. And can be rather sad. Father and Daughter brought you to tears! DON’T LIE! There are so many ways to tell a fantasy story that really no one way is right or wrong. It’s rather broad when you do think about it.

And that’s all I can think of…

Yeah…

…

…

…

BYE!!!

Resonance

DMA class this past Tuesday really hit me. Yes, I'll say that post-modern buzz word: it resonated with me. All of this about fairytales and humility and restraint and remembering what we have forgotten struck a chord in my soul and I cannot look at some things the way I did before. I'm not saying this for drama's sake, but because it's true.
The idea that "humility and restraint" are a way of thanking God for the gifts he's given us and not just the conditions under which we receive them... that revolutionizes the way I see temptation. When we as humans exercise sexual freedom or have reckless lifestyles, we're not just breaching a list of do's and don'ts. We're throwing away true blessings of God and are making them commonplace. Restraint isn't holding ourselves back from something better because God says so, it's valuing what we're given as it truly is and taking the focus off of ourselves.
And what we have from God isn't even what we were given. As Chesterton wrote and Prof. Leeper elaborated on, All that we have that is beautiful and good is salvage from a shipwreck. At least that's the summary I have scrawled in my notes from class. There was so much in this lesson.

"The fairytale understands the value of water because it calls it wine and turns it into a river."

"If it's worth doing, it's worth doing badly."

"...that glimpse into where we belong, or the idea of it."

I couldn't write fast enough to catch it all.
All at once I'm blessed and confused and angry at the world and the church and myself, and I'm just afraid I can't hold onto this all.

Cue Leeper:

In all seriousness though, I never want to lose these ideas. I realize how much I need to think them through, analyze them, and see how they translate into my life and my relationship with God. How will this look in my art? (That I do as a hobby, as I'm not a dma major.) My career? Lord knows what I'll be doing after college.

So yeah, not really a response to the films, but I had to kind of throw this all out there because I couldn't hold it in.

Not Just the "Happily Ever After" Part

I think that comparing a fairytale to the Gospel is a fantastic way to convey the story of Jesus and demonstrate what being a Christian is really like. Not only does the Gospel point to the ultimate victory, the light at the end of the tunnel; everlasting life, but it also notes the intense struggles that must be overcome to reach this light. Every fairytale presents challenges to its characters, and sometimes I think that we as Christians believe that once we have Jesus on our side, its smooth sailing. However, this isn’t always the case.

            Even though Romans 8 talks about, “If God is for us, who can be against us,” it leaves room for us to realize that it is going to be stinking tough to be a real Christian. There will be huge waves and storms for us to overcome, but if we stick our guns like fairytale creatures and trust in Jesus, we will weather these storms.

            I believe the above thoughts are essential for a brand new Christian to know. So many times people view Christianity as only the “happily ever after” part of the fairytale. In reality, Christianity is the, “travel through the dark woods, fight the wolf, run from the dragon, and then live happily ever after,” part of a fairytale. I don’t think we stress this enough when we are helping new followers of Christ. In order to avoid new converts slipping back into their old ways like the seed choked by thorns in the parable of the sower, we must explain this concept to people.

Reality Check

The other day, I was in the Dining Commons, and I sat next to a guy I didn't know, a senior majoring in Math. With me, I had some reading for my History class, a book called Sport and Recreation in Ancient Greece. When I explained my assignment to the senior, he scoffed and said, "The Greeks were so weird. They just made up their gods." And gosh dang it, I was almost OFFENDED.

This guy was so CERTAIN that his God is the "right" God. I've never been that way, and I've always tried to keep an open mind about religion, so I tried to make him understand that not everyone believes what he does. At this point, he patronizingly asked me if he could help me with anything, as if I needed fixing because I was asking him not to criticize an ancient culture; he asked if he could pray for me as if some part of my soul needed cleansing because NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO QUESTION GOD, NOT EVER.

This has little, if anything, to do with fairy tales, but something about this conversation combined with today's class made me assess my own beliefs, and I believe that there's a possibility--even if it's very, very small--that religion, and maybe even reality itself, is a purely human construct. I do not believe that reality is concrete but, rather, that it has been divided up into little sections of clay and distributed out to each and every one of us and that our beliefs are the hands that are used to mold that clay to our liking. Of course, sometimes, the clay of reality gets stuck on Belief's hands, and reality affects beliefs instead of the other way around.

For example, there is a brick wall. You, me, and everybody else knows it's a brick wall. Except for one man. This man believes it's a concrete wall, and because he believes that, he walks along that wall thinking, "What a nice concrete wall," because that is his reality being affected by his beliefs. However, if he touches the wall, reality will affect his beliefs because he will see that the wall is, in fact, a brick wall. Surprise!

I believe that religion is much the same way. God is real to us because we believe in Him, but the Greek gods were very real to them, too. I don't think there's a reason to be so gosh darn patronizing about it. I don't think we have a right to say their gods are fake. After all, our belief in our God is the only proof we have that he exists. What if there are alternate realities that we go to after we die based on our religious beliefs? What if all of the gods ever are real and simply exist on different planes? We have absolutely no way of knowing.

I wish I could tell the whole world to keep their hands out of other people's clay, and again, I don't know what part of today's class made me think about all of this.

I guess, if you think about it, it has to do with fairy tales because fairy tales are real if you believe them? If you believe there's a Prince or Princess Charming out there for you, there probably is, and then the fairy tale would be real, so... I don't know.

Or maybe it was something about how we can't be too certain about anything. Just like we can't say for certain that there aren't alternate realities after we die because none of us have actually died yet.

I probably exceeded the blog word limit by a whole bunch, but I needed to say this because it's been on my mind for over a year now, and it's certainly something to think about.

The Trip

The Trip is an interesting film with beautiful scenery and comedic scenes that you giggle about. I liked the fact that the film took it's time so that the audience could get to know the characters and see them open up to one another throughout the entire trip and while they try the foods and make fun of them. This film was a wonderful way to see character development.

Yojimbo

Yojimbo is an interesting film that combines the western with the Japanese tradition.  The film had many funny scenes and goal that the samurai said and wanted to happen to the gangs. One of the scenes is when the samurai is watching the two gangs try to fight each other and are both afraid to do it. Both gangs are very cowardly and don't want to die.  The samurai does a few good deeds that help the people in the village and reunite a family and help them escape, which makes him honorable even though he's a samurai without a master. This film was funny and had a very interesting story.