Further Up And Further In
Now Playing: The Cocteau Twins--"Persephone"
I've been to see two wide-release movies in the past year (both, curiously enough, with my brother): March of the Penguins, which was great, and Alien vs. Predator, which... wasn't. This cinematic monasticism (which only really applies to the googolplex--I still rent plenty of movies and see several small-scale indies at the Michigan and State) may see a number of exceptions in the coming month: probably King Kong (even my fervent hatred for remakes can relent sometimes, particularly when Peter Jackson's involved), definitely Syriana, and perhaps The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Even in the throes of Tolkien-worship, which, for me, peaked when I was around twelve, I always preferred C.S. Lewis' Narnia to Middle-Earth. I put this down to Lewis' superiority as a stylist and the inclusion of talking animals, and I loved the chapter illustrations by Pauline Baynes (in my late elementary and middle-school days, I always found Jill Pole of The Silver Chair disturbingly hot). The Christian allegory stuff, if I recognized it at all, went in one ear and out the other, and had very little to do with my feelings toward the books. Even as a cardcarrying agnostic, I think obsessing over the Christian symbolism's ominous import is a mistake, as seen here. Does this mean we should ban references to Michelangelo in high school art classes because he painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling? Besides, how Christian is Narnia, really? Adam Gopnik has a terrific New Yorker article on both Narnia and Lewis in general in which he makes the critically important observation that Lewis' Aslan myth isn't Christian but Mithraic. After all, the New Testament doesn't portray Jesus returning to Earth and immediately wiping the floor with his former persecutors like Clint in High Plains Drifter (1973--another possible religious allegory). I think Philip Pullman went a little overboard in some of his criticisms of Lewis (and suffered from the same didactic overreach on behalf of atheism in His Dark Materials, much of which I liked anyway), but the whole Aslan thing is definitely bizarre (and a little creepy). That said, I'll probably go see the movie anyway. Here's some more.

January 2006 is National Oatmeal Month. People, get ready.