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Culture Vulture
Marlene Pietsch
From: The Lutheran
The other night I stepped out of the quiet cocoon of my car on a mission
to the local video store. My teenage son needed a video for study and I
had a rare free evening to enjoy a good movie. I entered a brash world
of bright lights, amplified music and the sound of gunfire from the
large screen in the corner.
After a cursory view, the videos seemed to be all trash, violence and
sleaze. For a few minutes I felt overwhelming alienation and even
disgust. What was I, child of God, doing here? And yet, I couldn’t
pretend too much other worldliness and pious judgment. I did borrow
Shakespeare in Love for my son, and now I’m looking forward to watching
it with him and learning from his analysis of its themes and technique.
And I finally enjoyed, with some reservations, The End of the Affair,
based on Graham Greene’s book on his tortured ‘affair’ with God.
My experiences illustrate, I think, our ambivalent feelings about
popular culture. On the one hand, we recognise that we are bombarded and
manipulated by a seductive philosophy of greed, comfort, self-interest
and sexual licence. In the popular media, the church and Christians are
rarely portrayed with honesty or admiration. (That, by the way, was what
marred my enjoyment of Chocolat). We hardly feel safe with the instincts
and directions of public culture, especially if we are parents of young
children. And yet, what is more pleasurable than curling up with a good
book?
The same applies to film and television. When Sea Change was our weekly
fare, Bob Jelly, Diver Dan and Laura became part of the family. Sharing
views on recent movies enlivens and enriches many conversations.
Survival by separation
One way to cope with popular culture is to separate our lives into
‘Sunday morning’ and ‘Sunday evening’ compartments.
Sunday morning covers the Christian stuff, our church family obligations
and feasting on the Word and Bread of Life. Sunday evening is a time to
relax in front of the television. There we are fed on the philosophies
of current filmmakers, or we face reality as seen through the eyes of 60
Minutes.
To prevent this half-hearted and segmented approach to discipleship,
there is a great need to relate God’s view of the world to the way the
world sees itself. Instead of viewing and reading critically, we have
become comfortable with excesses and ethics that would have shocked us
only a few years ago. We need constant reminders of who we are and how
we reflect Christ to family and friends by what we watch and what we do
in our spare time.
Survival by isolation
Another way to cope with popular culture is to avoid it as much as
possible. I do have sympathy with those who have thrown away the
television in favour of more constructive and communal activities. There
is great value in realising its insidious takeover of our precious spare
time and recognising our determination to ‘entertain ourselves to
death’.
But my prejudice shows, because I cannot imagine life without a book on
the bedside table. My library represents hours of pleasure, when I have
been lost in another world or another life, experiencing pain and
possibilities in a way that entered my very heart. And what if I’d never
seen Schindler’s List or Dead Men Walking or Babette’s Feast? They have
encouraged much personal reflection on the themes of suffering,
forgiveness and grace. Vivid images from them remain embedded in my
memory.
Can we really afford to ignore popular entertainment?
Even if we regard it as pollution, popular
entertainment is part of the air we breathe. This is the culture into
which we bring the gospel, and we need to understand its myths and
preoccupations. Perhaps it is films especially that provide an
interesting point of contact between young and old, Christian and
non-Christian.
What is true is that we always live as dual citizens. Being ‘in the
world’ but not ‘of the world’, we are a distinctive and holy people; we
nevertheless are involved in our community and immersed in the life of
our neighbour. This is a difficult but necessary balance.
It is true that we are called to live and work with feet firmly planted
in the real world, but some truths are most graphically faced when they
are portrayed through story. Story has a way of ‘sneaking into the back
door of our lives’. It is difficult not to be moved each time we hear
Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son, and C S Lewis’ Narnia series
smuggles profound theology into the fantasy world of a lion and a witch.
The best films and books edify and entertain.
Many common themes in popular culture reveal the basic desires of people
to belong, to be loved and to have meaning. The perfect lover and the
perfect body on television and cinema screens reflect our hope for
something better than life’s turmoil and our personal frailties. As
bearers of the message of God’s grace, we can speak with conviction to a
culture which seems obsessed with superficiality but is asking for
meaning.
If we can use films and books to address these questions, and if they
can at the same time delight us with their poetry or visual images, we
have a powerful tool.
Books
Music
Movies
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