There's No Place I can Be/Since I Found Serenity
Well, the weekend was pretty good, all things considered. Friday was uneventful. Saturday afternoon, I went with the gang to see Joss Whedon's Serenity. I won't spoil it, but let me just say a few things: 1) Wow. 2) The Reavers are fuckin' scary. And 3) sob. That being said, it is definitely a very fine film, and a worthy continuation of the saga began in Whedon's short-lived Firefly tv series. All the cast is back, and in fine form. Nathan Fillion's Mal Reynolds is a bit darker than before, but is not lacking for comic timing. The rest of the merry band of outlaws hasn't lost their touch either, and brings it all together for a rousing show. You can tell that there is real chemistry between all of the actors, reflecting the dysfuntional family dynamic established in the show. The new villain, The Operative, is positively chilling, and provides a good foil for the crew. At any rate, go see Serenity at all costs. And then go again, because it's that much fun.
At any rate, after returning, Ryan, Aaron B. and I began to reminisce about the old N64 chestnut, Perfect Dark. At which point, Ryan indicated that yes, in fact, he had a copy of said game at his place. Just as I was about to head over, Decken called. Now, it must be noted that freshman year, when Decken and I lived together, one of our chief past-times was in fact Perfect Dark. The two of us had gotten quite good at it back then, but had not played in some time. With room for a fourth player, I invited him over, and so it began. A good time was had by all.
Sunday rolled around, and that means church and laundry. Church was okay, laundry meant playing games. Also watched the first disc of Ghost in the Shell Stand-Alone Complex 2nd Gig. It was nice.
On a random side note, I really appreciate it when writers are willing to kill off a character, unless it's just some stupid shock stunt. But even then, there is only one thing worse than a character killed to shock the audience, and that is when said character is suddenly brought back to life. It just cheapens the whole thing. If you kill a character, have the decency to let him or her stay dead. That's where I think the whole Passion thing went wrong. Jesus' resurrection just totally felt like the dictionary definition of deus ex machina. To what is this world coming?
5 Comments:
Deus ex machina you say? That's exactly what the real resurection of Christ was. That said, yes it is always lame on screen. There just isn't a good way to portray that. Not to mention the name of the film is "The Passion" not "The Resurection". Perhaps this betray's Mel's bias.
The pastor of our church asked the adult sunday school class if they believed in conincidences. I didn't say anything because I didn't want to upset anybody. (Yes Will, I know... me not upset people?)But if you say there isn't any such thing, you in essence have said that God has complete control inside His plan. If this is the case, how do we have free will? I wouldn't be too upset if it turns out we dont' have free will because in the very least, God is gracious enough to let us feel like we do. But still, that thought got me thinking. What do you think Will?
In recognition of the last post, I thought I would turn you all on to the wonderful world of David Hall.
http://www.davidhalldavidhall.com/extras
Check out Funny Movie 1-4 in the right hand column.
DMZ
Understand that the above comment was made in jest, as so many of my statements are. As to the existence of free will, I am leaning more towards hard determinism (derived from an atemporal understanding of God). The way I see it is that it's either hard determinism or full-on agency indeterminism. All the middle-ground theories just don't cut it, if you ask me. Soft determinism (compatibilism) is just wanking with definitions until you can have your cake and eat it to, if by "have" you mean "eat," while simple indeterminism just collapses into a different form of hard determinism.
Wow, Keith's disciples are turning into determinists. He did, rightly, castigate compatibilism a few years ago while in coversation with me. I ended up moving from Free Will to Compatibilism to Determinism... of sorts. I think you have only one true choice, and that is to go with God or tell Him to F off. Oddly though, this cannot be of any real goodness and cannot contribute to our salvation. Paul, very rightly I think, makes very clear that we have no part in our salvation and have every part in our damnation. Maybe not fair, but thats the way the boat floats.
Have you ever noticed that we are never really worried about determinism for amoral actions? We are determined to wear the green shirt today because we wore the red shirt yesterday. This doesn't seem to bother anybody except me. Here is straight determinism and it can be far more controlling. Although if determinism is the right answer it shouldn't surprise us at all.
DMZ
I think the reason we are unconcerned with the amoral actions in determinism is that we aren't particularly troubled by them, even in an indeterminate setting. Usually. We only worry about it in situations where we believe that there is some greater significance to the decision. Basically, the rule of pragmatism applies. The fact that you are bothered by this may be a refelection of your own peculiarities.
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