Last week Jared and I were out almost every night only to plop down on the couch Friday evening in exhaustion from the week. We went to go see Il Trovatore at the Zürich Opera house Wednesday evening. I had wanted to see the opera ever since they featured music from it in, A Night at the Opera my favorite Marx Brothers movie that I used to watch when I was younger.
Except in the Zürich version there was lots of leather and even really buffed shirtless men fighting, which is always exciting;) The gypsy had bright red hair.
Then Thursday night Google rented out the theater for us to see The Golden Compass. I thought it was wonderful. Not too long, as fantasy movies tend to be. Despite the controversy, (you're only drawing more attention to the movie by speaking out against it,) we saw it anyway, which I would do with anything. Anyhow, there were not "religious under tones"...at least any that your young children would notice. Who cares if the author of the books is an atheist. C.S. Lewis was a Christian and I'm sure plenty of atheist parents took their children to see the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Those of you who won't take your children to go see this movie get over it and stop sheltering your child from the world so much. Disney movies are even worse with their propaganda for bare midriffs, large breasted weak "heroins" always needing to be rescued by some tight pants wearing or loin clothed unrealistically muscular male (unless you're my Jared. He has the perfect amount of muscles:) Also, not to mention how every step-mother is wicked which they're not in real life. Yes, I wanted to be a princess one day, then I realized it would be boring and hard work and I'd be confined to a castle...then I wanted to be a firefighter.
Those of you who won't take your children to go see this movie get over it and stop sheltering your child from the world so much. Disney movies are even worse with their propaganda for bare midriffs, large breasted weak "heroins" always needing to be rescued by some tight pants wearing or loin clothed unrealistically muscular male (unless you're my Jared. He has the perfect amount of muscles:) Also, not to mention how every step-mother is wicked which they're not in real life. Yes, I wanted to be a princess one day, then I realized it would be boring and hard work and I'd be confined to a castle...then I wanted to be a firefighter.
Comparison of the two..........really long intermissions in the middle of each show.
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23 comments:
Ah hahaha... ah....
Yea, the controversy only made my husband and I read the books and see the movie opening weekend. I loved how the RS president in our ward read the email being passed around like it was an official press release from the Prophet... Totally agree with you on LETS STOP TALKING ABOUT IT AND IT WONT MATTER SO MUCH!
I stumbled upon this blog and I must say that I can tell you do not have children. What's even more surprising is that you seem to be LDS and have the attitude that we should "stop sheltering your child from the world."
Isn't that what we are to do as parents? Protect our children from the evil of the world? If not us, then who? Society certainly won't protect our children. Parents have the solemn responsibility to care for and nurture their children in the gospel. This includes teaching them right from wrong and how to choose to stay away from things that would harm them.
When Moses finished teaching the Israelites he told them to teach the words "diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up" (Deuteronomy 6:7).
Clearly, all that we do from morning to night should teach our children what is right and wrong. Is it wrong to see a movie that supports an atheist, just because people said you shouldn't? Doesn't this show that we are rebellious? I don't think that's an appropriate lesson to be teaching, but that's up to you. As for me and my house we choose not to rebel. Should I make fun of my relief society president because she is trying to help guide me? Again, up to you, but as for me and my house we will honor and sustain our leaders.
I am quite sure that you will scorn me because I am "too preachy" or something like that. Oh well, that doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that you purport to be LDS, but then openly rebel by stating "we saw it anyway, which I would do with anything." How sad indeed.
Dear "sorrowful",
Thanks for chastening my wife. I hope it helped you feel a little less sad.
Sincerely,
Jared
With our little family we decided to not see it.(I blogged about it, because I kept getting so many emails) I also googled it and read a lot about the books and author.
I agree with you about some Disney movies not being all that wonderful. My daughters have nightmares as it is and we are very selective about movies with violence.
I heard the movie was watered down with it's anti-God undertones. Our RS President does not make any announcements that are not church related. Ever!
I am glad that you and Jared had a nice date night and enjoyed the movie.
Um.... hmm.... Mr. B.
OK, actually, I do have children. And everyday I "shelter" them from the world. But what right has anyone else to tell me specifically what they should be sheltered from and what not? Unless they ARE the prophet, or directly inspired from the lord with the PROPER and CORRECT authority? And as for a parents job to shelter their child, maybe the author of this blog was just saying that instead of just saying NO, parents should be better informed and not just blindly say no because somebody passed around an email. I agree, that when in doubt, it is the easier way to just avoid. But as children get older, that just won't cut it.
I DO sustain my leaders. It is not their job however to personally give their own opinion AS IF it was from the Prophet. My husband actually read these books long before any movie or controversy ever came out. So I found it AMUSING (not making fun of her, she is a swell lady) when my RS president decided to share an opinion that she had done no real research on. My husband, an honorable priesthood holder, decided that it would be alright if we chose to go see the movie, not because someone told us not to, but because he enjoyed the books, said that after careful consideration he found that they were neither anti-god, but just the age old fight of good against evil, and anybody wanting to interpret pretty much any movie or book in an anti-God way, well, could. The truth is, the movie for me was boring, just as were the books. A bunch of hub-bub over nothing, and basically giving an otherwise blah movie much more credit than it deserved.
As for me and my house, we will serve the lord, I think that is actually how the scripture goes, and exercise our God given right to agency.
oooh, alice, loving the controversy on your blog. very fun to take a break from my hectic day raising your 2 little nephews to read your post and comments!
While I don't know if I agree with your comment about "we saw it anyway, which I would do with anything," I also know you well enough to know that you are an honest, good person with a golden heart, un-matched sensitivity and kindness towards others, a nurturing center....as well as one who listens carefully for inspiration from the Lord and prayerfully considers the decisions in your life...
so, I just had to write that, because I can't stand reading anything about you that would suggest you are not all those things. Oh, and you are an extraordinarily good and protective "2nd mother" to my 2 young children.
While I tend to agree with you on some points in this post, I probably would not be quite as blunt in my assessment, but then again, that is part of your charm and it was certainly fun to read. And, you certainly are not walking on the edge of Mormonism by writing what you did.
But, of course, I am your sister, so certainly not un-biased. And, I guess I'm one of those east coast liberal mormons....or something. though, the funny thing is--most people would say I am pretty conservative. But, if not getting all worked up about a chain email letter being sent around about the theoretical and eternally consequential dangers of a particular movie (I avoid most movies these days, incidentally---but certainly hope I never give off a "holier than thou" aura in my decision to do so) makes me all fringey and such, so be it. The makers of the movie are probably thrilled about all the attention and controversy it is getting. I certainly am enjoying this lively exchange right here in Alice's Wonderland! Sure beats cleaning up the mess of a house left by thing 1 and thing 2....
way to go defending your wife, Jared. Proud to be your sister-in-law....
Wow, well what I was gonna say after your blog Alice was, "Yah, down with Disney!" kind of anyway. The stuff I grew up on was good and hardy! or maybe not, but anyway...After reading B's I was like whoa, easy there. Good intention and scripture, not quite how I would have interpreted it. I think it shows how parents/adults ought to walk with their kids through life, keeping discussion open, leading through righteous example, sheltering but also prodding when appropriate, sacrificing, and loving unceasingly. NOT carrying your children in an electric heated blanket with blinders over their eyes and muffs on their ears. And NOT telling them exactly how and what to do at every moment, that sounds more like the opposite side if you ask me.
B, you make a good point, as did Alice. Children are very impressionable. We need to carefully guide them and teach them correct principles so that they may govern themselves when they are older and capable.
OK now I'm not allowed to look at this blog ever again, or else I will keep picking at what I said and my comments may never stop. I, no, stop, I'm done.
I didn't have much time to comment last night, but alas, I'm up too early again this morning, and my mind wandered back to this topic.
Every month or two, it seems, I receive an email forwarded by a well-meaning friend that contains misinformation. Sometimes they're about missing children, for example, and sometimes they're about faith or religion. Even though they are often started and perpetuated by well-meaning individuals, chain emails can be dangerous because most readers don't take the time to verify what's presented as fact.
The recent emails about boycotting the Golden Compass are a good example of this. They claim that "the children kill God" at the end of Pullman's series. In reality, they kill "a senile, pretender God who has falsely passed himself off as the creator of the universe" (Laura Miller in an essay for the Los Angeles Times). This should resonate with LDS folks. That's how the LDS faith characterizes Satan, after all.
Like Alice, I think a work of art or literature should be judged based on its own merits and not the personal beliefs of its author or creator. Frankly, the celebrated LDS author Orson Scott Card's Ender series has more dangerous ideas about religion than this one.
Finally, a quick note about sheltering. Yes, young children need to be sheltered from some ideas that might confuse them until they're a little older (e.g. the birds and the bees). People of all ages probably benefit from sheltering themselves from certain images (e.g. graphic violence). What Alice was venting about in her "stop sheltering your child from the world" comment was closemindedness. Closing oneself off from new or foreign ideas can prevent personal growth. It's even sadder when people shelter their children too aggressively because it can leave them unequipped to live effectively in society as an adult.
One common criticism of religion is that religious folks don't think for themselves enough. I've seen this myself, many times, in many different religions. As shocking as it may sound, I bet that some of the most faithful Latter-day Saints would probably be terrorists if they were born on the other side of the world because they're just the kind of people that are prone to ceding their power to analyze and filter ideas over to a religious authority. It's sad when Mormons of this variety get confused about when their leaders are speaking in an official capacity. It's also unfortunate when leaders intentionally or accidentally abuse their office to promulgate their personal opinions.
I'd better get off to work. If you're considering seeing the movie, well, you'll probably like it if you liked "The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe".
hello,
i know you don't know me. i too stumbled on your blog one day when i was bored. i am a friend of elise smith. i am a mom of two young children (ages 4 and 2), and i have also been an english teacher. i LOVE literature, regardless of the author's religion (or lack thereof). this story i have not heard of. i know my nephew has read it for school (a few years ago). my sister is a special ed teacher and she's read the book too. she told me (after all those emails circulated) that she did not catch on to any of the characters being adam and eve killing god. perhaps it shows up in the third book, but all they've read is the first one. i know the previews for this movie look AWESOME and despite my husband's rather harsh words, i too have wanted to see it. i am glad to hear that an active LDS member like yourself, one who i know is a wonderful person just from reading some of your blog posts (and from your association with elise, one of my all-time favorite people) enjoyed this movie.
i enjoy harry potter (a lot) and i know many, MANY (including my husband's family) who do not condone harry potter. did i use that word right? i am in a frazzled state today....very tired. my two year old has not been sleeping or eating!! anyhow, since meeting me, my husband has embraced harry potter and i bet if he saw this movie or even took time to read the book and form an opinion, he would probably agree with you.
i know this might not help, if my husband offended you, but i am sorry. he is studying for his gre, is working at a new job, just moved about 2400 miles away from a place we loved, and i think all that stress came out on your blog. i actually emailed him your post because i found it interesting. no way did i think he'd take it the way he did, nor have the boldness to write a comment. sorry. i won't email him anymore posts, promise and i won't stalk your blog anymore. occasionally, i look because my husband will be working at google and i just get curious about other "googlers".
thanks for reading this. press on! ignore him...i do :) hee hee hee.
--sara
Thanks for brining this controversy to my attention. I won't weigh in at this point, but reserve the right to do so at a later time.
What I really want to talk about is what you said about Disney. There is actually a movie in release at the moment that attacks the very stereotypes traditionally perpetuated by Disney that you, sweet Alice (my cousin by marriage and friend through common interests) point out in your blog. The movie is Enchanted, and it was actually produced by Disney. I think you'd like seeing all the traditional Disney virtues turned on their heads, yet reinforced at the same time. What I like about it is that Disney doesn't go too far. It openly mocks fairy tales, but still holds true to such Disney-isms as true love and good triumphing over evil no matter how impossible it may seem. I won't say more, in case you haven't seen it (I've always found hearing literary criticism about a work more distracting than actually hearing plot details).
Anyway, love the blog.
Sara - If your husband is to be a googler soon he is going to have to tame it down.
Google is a very liberal place with VERY opinionated people. Not always a bad thing, just different.
I wish you luck being a spoogler Sara. It is fun! What location?
I just thought I would switch things up a bit and post a kid's point of view. I have not seen the movie, but I intend to. I too have gotten these e-mails and I really think that even I, a sixteen year-old, isn't smart enough to figure out that a fantasy is trying to turn me away from God.
To put things in perspective, my 10 year old sister didn't even realize that Chronicles of Narnia had anything to do with God.
Do you really think that little kids are going to go into that movie, and come out hating their church that they have grown up in there whole lives?
For the parenting issue, I am glad that my parents let me have some experience in this "evil world" of ours. It helps me learn and realize how different our religion is and how I need to help spread the gospel to others.
Living in Utah is sometimes like living in a bubble. If I am not able to learn about the rest of the world, then I am never going to be truly educated.
Thanks alice!
Personally, I think I'll see the movie. I'm curious. If I come out hating God, please set me straight.
Thanks.
Wow--I must have my head under a rock--haven't gotten any of the emails about this movie or heard the controversy (but really, I don't get out a lot and ignore all junk emails that come my way). I'm now curious about what its all about.
I read the series a couple years ago, LOVED them, and obviously misinterpreted much of what the author wrote because I actually came away with the impression that they fit in with the religious thoughts I have. Maybe I need to re-read them. Neither my faith or myself certainly wasn't disturbed by them and I've been pretty excited about seeing the movies (although probably when they come out on DVD since I have only seen one movie in the theater in the last 18 months.)
Hi all, Jared, Alice... My wife and I saw Golden Compass on Monday night for our "family night." Blashemous right. :) We both really enjoyed it and for someone who reads the entire trilogy like I have, an LDS person would find some very close similarities between "dust" or what the Magesterium is on a mission to destroy and "inteligence." Eerie coming from a Author who actually isn't Atheist but rather openly openminded. Pullman in an interview with Entertainment Weekly said about his personal belief is he simply hasn't found anything yet that he believes. Sounds like he could use a pass along card. Cheers,
-Dustin
Oh Alice, you make me so happy :) Love the controversy and I love that you always speak your mind, no matter what! I heard a recent conversation about this between two people - a friend of mine and a woman who was saying that she refused to take her children to the movie because of the author's Atheism and attemps to "pass it on to the public" through the movie. My friend simply said, "Why don't you use it as a teaching tool to open up conversation about God and Atheism and all of the different beliefs in the world. Would that be so bad?" The woman dropped the subject immediately :)
Alice, I did not realize how much I missed you until I ready this choice thread. You are the BeST! Except, maybe, for Jared. I guffawed at his post. We saw the movie last night for Christie's birthday. We have read all three books. I know the fellow comes from a position of athiesm. I know his perspectives REALLY shake traditional religion. However, they don't shake LDS doctrine in the same way, at ALL. If anything, he really, although unwittingly, reinforces much of our doctrine. His harsh commentary on organizations, including organizational religion still applies to the LDS church, but the doctrine is suprisingly unscathed.
Two cheers for JARED. Three votes for Alice as Keeper of the Vault of UnFiltered Perspective! yay!
well, i'm sure you're ready to put this subject to rest but since I think I actually forwarded you one of the e-mails about this movie I'll just say I appreciate your (and others)insights on the whole deal... I guess when something came along that said "This movie promotes atheism!" I just kind of took it at face value and joined the boycotting frenzy. It's good to hear some other perspectives on the whole deal and realize that maybe all this hype and hoopla is really not necessary. If you want to see it, great. If you don't, then don't. end of story. Can I just say one other thing without causing more hoopla? This is not directed towards any one comment but to this whole discussion in general--it makes me smile when I see people get so riled up on-line :) Can you imagine the drama if this conversation was in person? :)
Way to go Alice and Jared!! I loved your comments and the sparks they created. As we talked about the book and the movie, Chase, Krista,Josh, and I decided we'd not see it if admission money was funding a 'cause' promoting atheism. Did Harry Potter fund witchcraft? Here in the Bible belt, To Kill a Mockingbird is still on many middle school book banning lists. Fortunately, Chase's 7th graders had to pick a book from the list and write report on it. The exercise was about censorship.
Although I don't necessarily agree with Jared that LDS conservatives are geographically displaced terrorists, I do cringe at much of what passes as unofficial but leader-sanctioned ('a' RS presidency, 'a' General Authority, 'a' ward or stake priesthood leader) guidance on how to think, parent, vote, read, spend, or pray 'correctly'. Although I was born in Utah, I'm now a Southerner, and misbegotten LDS narrow-mindedness sometimes rears its head here also. As my children are accused of being non-Christian by their friends, though, we may be more attuned to the more ridiculous pronouncements of the 'faithful and chosen'.
Back to the movie, we decided that we'd watch the movie and talk about its religious symbolism afterwards, just like we did after Chr of Narn. Then 9 yo Josh got the symbolism of that movie, as I'm sure he will with Golden Compass. Maybe we'll see it again with Jared and Alice next week when they come home!! Glad the Petty's and Jacobs' raised no fools!
Now, about Disney....
Dean
Hey did anyone see "No Country for Old Men?" I'm not really interested in seeing the "Golden Compass" but I gotta say, the Coen brothers have produced their finest bit of work to date with their latest feature. It's filled with death, violence, beauty, God, evil, and eery silence...not for the faint of heart, but if you can stomach it, the finest bit of filmmaking I've seen in a while...thanks for the great posts, Alice...J
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