It fits in with my mission statement

However, since shirt.woot raised its t-shirt price to $12, I'm a little slower to hit the "buy" button.

Sigh.

Mark Tatulli nails it

Lío gives Maurice Sendak an entirely appropriate farewell.

A pagan Christ figure

Mrs. Curmudgeon may recall the anticipation and trepidation with which I looked forward to Superman Returns in 2006. I so wanted to be wowed by a big-screen Superman, but suspected it would be impossible to make a real human being, interacting with other human beings, take on the larger-than-life image the character requires in order to be successful. I knew that could easily be pulled off with the visual language of a comic book, but probably not in a film. Sadly, I was correct.

Interestingly, other film superheroes have been more successful. Batman, entirely human, is also entirely believable clad in what amounts to body armor. Equally successful have been the recent spate of Marvel superhero movies. Perhaps this is because Marvel's heroes have always been very human and entirely fallible; it hasn't hurt that computer graphics have become virtually indistinguishable from reality to the untrained eye. At any rate, I thoroughly enjoyed the Iron Man and Captain America movies; since they were obviously setting up this summer's Avengers, I figured I should also watch Thor before seeing the biggest hit of the season (thus far).

So it was I sat down with the curmudgelings with a rental copy of the Kenneth Branagh-directed (yes, that Kenneth Branagh) feature. The Norse gods came off as thoroughly believable, and although I've never once felt the urge to buy a Thor comic book, I found him a sympathetic character on film, and, for a deity, believably human. The really interesting bit came at the film's climax (SPOILER ALERT!). Thor was banished from Asgard by Odin for arrogance, divested of his power and, most importantly, the mighty hammer Mjolnir; now his brother Loki (the Norse god of mischief) has sent a really scary creature to kill him and anyone associated with him. In order to save fellow Asgardians and a group of American research scientists he's befriended, Thor presents himself to the creature to be killed. With this, his divine powers and Mjolnir are restored to him, and Thor proceeds to, well, you know where it goes from here. Thor's greatest glorification comes only after he's gone down the path of humiliation.

Only the American comic book tradition, I think, could turn a pagan Norse god into a Christ figure, because only a Christian literary imagination would find humiliation-before-glorification an intuitive character arc. This may be where Superman Returns failed. Though its Superman was clearly a messianic figure, he was only ever glorious and almighty. Only a lesser, entirely human deity like Thor could do the hard work of earning his glorification, a work which we always demand of our heroes.

Centuries from now, I will try to remember you

Science has discovered I will live forever.

Thanks, science!

As though I needed another reason to avoid Wal-Mart

Last week Wal-Mart once again lived down to my lowest expectations, which, for this chain of stores, is saying something. I went in to print a couple pictures, selected a few more items for purchase during the six minutes the little slip of paper I was given told me it would take for my photos to print, waited another 15 minutes, then put said items on top of the printer machine and walked out without making any purchases or having received my photos lest I arrive home even later than I had promised Mrs. Curmudgeon.

Nonetheless, next to this occurrence, my every trip to Wal-Mart has been pure bliss.

The Family in Crisis

On April 2, our congregation hosted a symposium entitled "The Family in Crisis: Three Pastoral Responses" in conjunction with the stated meeting of the Presbytery of the Dakotas of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Unfortunately, the hard drive recording the event crashed, depriving the greater world of the opportunity to hear the rather lively discussion between myself and the Revs. Shawn Mathis and Kevin Swanson in response to questions from the audience. I personally hoped the audio would open the event to a broader audience because I have found little serious interaction by proponents of the family-integrated Church movement with their mature critics; in God's providence, however, this was not to be.

Not all was lost, though: the three papers which provided a basis for the discussion are posted at Park Hill Presbyterian Church's SermonAudio site. Read, and reflect.

So what was the pitch meeting for this like?

I'd be stunned by this, but the truth is Hollywood beat me into irremediable jaded cynicism a long time ago. However, I must admit it never once occurred to me, while being loving and supportive through three pregnancies, that a preachy book written to make pregnant women feel bad for not eating enough wheat germ had the makings of a romantic comedy buried deep down inside.

I would like to think this is all a brilliantly clever joke perpetrated on the movie-going public. Maybe that would be the best way to view it.

A new ordination trial?

Greg Reynolds has been using his editorship of Ordained Servant to further his quixotic quest to get OPC Church officers to read fiction and poetry. To that end, this month he published "Why Read Literature?," in which Leland Ryken encourages pastors to, well, read literature. I agree most with his argument that literature puts us in touch with authentic human experience. As I heard Tobias Wolff say in an interview once, "The best fiction suddenly illuminates that thing that's been beside us all along and makes us see it for the first time."

I greatly admire these men for pursuing their noble end, but I rather think that by the time men are ordained to the ministry of Word and sacrament, the window in which they might be persuaded to change their minds or take up a new pursuit has been firmly closed until it opens up again a few years just prior to retirement. Better, I think, to go after candidates for ministry. Having seen much too much exegetical obtuseness over the years, I've often thought pastors would produce much better sermons if they'd spent some time with, for example, Hemingway, Tobias Wolff, and the short stories published by The New Yorker. So why not make a paper on The Sun Also Rises a standard requirement of licensure or ordination trials?

Never let it be said I'm not doing my part to keep the OPC distinctive.

The end: nigher than ever

Two words: Slurpee Lite.

"Lite." Of course.

What are we waiting for?

Nat Hentoff once again invites our fellow countrymen to WAKE UP.

Not bizarre at all

This is a wonderful new development in the history of pizza. The only hitch is you have to go to the Middle East to get it.

Sigh.