I didn't leave the house at all yesterday. My grandmother's out of town for a week, and I wouldn't have spoken to anyone all day except for one brief phone call with my mother and some time in Second Life. But it's not like my grandmother and I talk much, so I've come to realise that Second Life and almost weekly visits to my parents and Tim's constitute the whole of my interactions with other human beings. Maybe that's why I was doing an image search for Batman yesterday. Doing so led me to this post about The Dark Knight by some Christian named James. James says The Dark Knight resembles the story of Jesus Christ sacrificing himself for the sins of mankind, and I have to admit, James has a point. In fact, it wasn't until the end of the post when I found something that rang false;
It is a compelling story and, I have to say, a surprisingly good film. Nevertheless, it is fantasy and fiction. Its elements are gripping, but far from life changing. However, the greater story (and cultural metanarrative) it echoes is infinitely better. Two thousand years ago, the greatest story happened in reality. In a world of darkness and moral chaos, the only sinless person substituted himself for the world he loved and bore the punishment for our sin. That story changed my life.
And I realised . . . Even if the story of Jesus was true, The Dark Knight is actually a better version of it, for the simple reasons that the sins Batman takes on in the movie have much deeper ramifications than the arbitrarily prescribed sins of Christianity, and the fact that pretty much everyone important involved in Christ's story knew Christ wasn't actually guilty of anything. When you add to that the fact that Jesus knew his existence wasn't really threatened, it can't substantially be denied that Batman is more hardcore than Jesus. Which isn't terribly surprising, given Batman's the one dressed all in black.
James' review of The Dark Knight also contains possibly the most impressively unselfconsciously obvious observations about a film I've ever seen; "However, in The Dark Knight, Batman stands out."
The grey cat's been hanging out in the backyard lately. It makes me happy to see her sleeping out there. Is it weird to be a cat voyeur? I'd like to make friends with her, but she's a lot more cautious than the white cat, who's become a bit wary of me. He tried to follow me to the store across the river a couple days ago and I took a quick step towards him to make sure he turned back. Now he doesn't run from me, but he won't come within petting distance, either.
Jury duty's on Wednesday. I'm irritated just thinking about it. This would otherwise be a perfect time to stay up late watching movies. But, then, I also have a lot of colouring to catch up on. I'm finding it difficult to remember where all of Wircelia's scars are. I may need to make a chart . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment