Posted on 08/25/2008 10:36:39 AM PDT by NYer
I'm going with "Hot chicks with superpowers"
>>Wow. I could have never figured out that Buffy wasn’t real if you hadn’t pointed it out.<<
Yeah, I understand that.
I agree on all points and thank you for your kind words. The Ageless Elf has been something of my avatar for years now. His refusal to live safely within Melian’s Girdle, always insisting on guarding the margins of the realm, stood for me to be the same kind of valor St. Michael holds in heaven and I sometimes think JRR meant him as a kind of echo of that great archangel.
To share my entire feelings about Book would be a spoiler for those who have not seen ‘Serenity’, but suffice to say that the conflict between him and Mal illuminated the entire issue of the value of faith in adversity. Mal was once a very faithful man who turned away when his side lost the war. Had ‘Firefly’ gone on (as it should have done), I suspect that many characters would have undergone many fundamental changes, Mal finding some kind of faith being first and foremost.
BTW, I’m now finding a great interest in ‘Lost’. I have gotten near the end of the second season and my wife and I are completely wrapped up in it. We are plowing through the seasons attempting to catch up before the series resumes in a few months, perhaps getting closer than we got with ‘Battlestar Galactica’ (before that series went all soft inside). Thing is, I really tried to like the series when it first came on, but the multitude of commercial breaks interrupted the flow and I lost any sense of what was going on. I’ve got to hand it to those who could still follow the labrynthine plot while being visually assaulted with GEICO, et al, commercials at every interesting turn.
I know I stopped going to church when Pamela Anderson was on Baywatch. Just kidding!
Try netflix.
And Battlestar redeemed itself (to me at least) with the season finale where four people find out they are cylons and while it makes one question his loyalty, the other insists “I'm going to be the man I want to be!” The shows constant theme is that that it is not enough just to survive, we have to keep what makes life worth living.
Very well put on both counts. I am in fact a constant subcriber at NetFlix, which is where I’m getting my Lost/BG/Shield/Midsomer Murders, etc.
We will now not know what Joss really had in mind for Firefly because the movie had to sum up the Reaver subplot and thus work out the Simon/River relationship to the group too quickly. An important thread that arose in ‘Serenity’ and is being woven into ‘Lost’ is that society does not survive without heroes, but that heroes run a real risk that sometimes is paid not just in pain and part but in full. No one is indispensable or privileged in life, though some may be defended more than others (the defenders paying the price).
As for BG, a return to the crisp, relentless and even ruthless pace they began with would cap the whole saga most satisfactorily.
If I might boldly suggest: the danger is rather larger if one indulges in ‘Charmed’ than in ‘Buffy’. The latter is both better-written and less egoistic in application. Granting that both premises are that it is possible to have superpowers related to magic and fight evil, but the former tries to mainstream the behavior and contrast it as superior to ordinary reality. The latter never ventures into real space/time, but keeps the Buffyverse quite separate and points out that this is a burden Buffy and team carry, not an ennobling gift. The three ‘Charmed’ girls also heavily emphasize sexuality and flaunt their physical charms. This is a kind of spell being cast on the viewer and is very subversive.
i am a hypocrite how? i noticed I have been attacked on this since my comment. Notice everyone that has seems to be a Bible “thumper”.
Then today I see this thread. It's very true. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2068077/posts
Was that due to the religion or the fact that they were a bunch of psychos to begin with? From what I understand about Wiccan beliefs, such an action would be a violation of their views on morality (look up the rule of three, for example).
A little of both.
There is a guide to Wicca but it also, because it has it’s rules gleened and shaped to what the follower wants, it can be whatever that follower wants.
From the exact followers who study and follow what is written as pagan beliefs, to a bunch of guys in their thirtes who played D&D for years and never find a way to get out of mom’s basement, all are Wiccan.
On the Eastside of Cleveland, there is a huge group of people who follow Wicca. All are accepted no matter the flavor of pagan they think they are. Some are searching, some are wanting and some are psychopaths. All are okay in the big group.
And mostly they run around with pentagons and play pagan. They are not following anything but their own desires in a world where putting in an effort to fitting in is just too much for them.
Here is an example. I have a MySpace page. It’s for keeping in touch with my family back home. Last Christmas I got a Private Mail from some pagan priest wishing me a Happy Yule. In researching this person, I found that he was on my niece’s page as one of her friends. I wrote the guy and said, “I don’t know you and keep your pagan a$$ out of my inbox”
He of course wrote back, “Don’t slam my religion!” Turns out he is one of the D&D pagans who made himself a priest. He had no concept that Private Mailing a known Catholic stranger with pagan greetings, would be met with less than cheer. You know it, I know it, but this dude acts on his feelings and nothing else. Luckily, there is a block feature on MySpace.
You can read about them but it’s not like being with them. The majority of the ones I know are not Wiccan in the traditional sense of studying and believing the pagan rulebook. Just like being “Goth”, there are no hard fast rules.
>>Sure. I’ve been saying for years that the most important quality to be a lib/Democrat is to be gullible. That and they lack the ability to think longterm.<<
Truth be told!!!!!!!!!
What's interesting is that these neo-pagans don't tend to flock to the serious historic pagan faiths, such as the Norse and Roman ones, that had well-defined rules of morality, ethics and virtues. Those ancient beliefs grew organically to serve the needs of their cultures and societies. The neo-pagan religious beliefs are artificially created and lack many of the aspects that made those ancient beliefs viable.
I'm an Agnostic myself, but if I were to pick a religion, I can't see the point of going with a made-up neo-pagan one that serves no purpose other than making its followers feel better about themselves.
I agree with you.
I would have much less of a problem with these people if they followed something that could be researched. That was set in stone.
Most of them spout references without substance. I can’t tell you the amount of people who would walk into my house, look at my Christmas tree and spout the pagan talking points.
Pity of it was, I kept the Christian talking points with references in a handy place. Most were blown away that the idea that everything Christian came from “pagan” traditions was just not true. And when I then showed the origins of their own beliefs, they would walk out knowing that some of us didn’t think too much of their made up ways.
They all group together and feed of each other’s whims. Luckily, all but one of my nieces and nephews grew up and got out of it. The one left is the one that lived with me and after she was taken to task by “the group” for crossing a couple of the leaders (really boyfriend problems), you would think she would learn.
A C.S. Lewis poem, which is kind of appropriate (though it deals with some Christians who, in Lewis’ view, compare poorly to ancient pagans):
A Cliche Came Out Of Its Cage
1
You said ‘The world is going back to Paganism’. Oh bright
Vision! I saw our dynasty in the bar of the House
Spill from their tumblers a libation to the Erinyes,
And Leavis with Lord Russell wreathed in flowers, heralded with flutes,
Leading white bulls to the cathedral of the solemn Muses
To pay where due the glory of their latest theorem.
Hestia’s fire in every flat, rekindled, burned before
The Lardergods. Unmarried daughters with obedient hands
Tended it. By the hearth the white-arm’d venerable mother
Domum servabat, lanam faciebat. Duly at the hour
Of sacrifice their brothers came, silent, corrected, grave
Before their elders; on their downy cheeks easily the blush
Arose (it is the mark of freemen’s children) as they trooped,
Gleaming with oil, demurely home for the palaestra or the dance.
Walk carefully, do not wake the envy of the happy gods,
Shun Hubris. The middle of the road, the middle sort of men,
Are best. Aidos surpasses gold. Reverence for the aged
Is wholesome as seasonable rain, and for a man to die
Defending the city in battle is a harmonious thing.
Thus with magistral hand the Puritan Sophrosune
Cooled and schooled and tempered our uneasy motions;
Heathendom came again, the circumspection and the holy fears . . .
You said it. Did you mean it? Oh inordinate liar, stop!
2
Or did you mean another kind of heathenry?
Think, then, that under heaven-roof the little disc of the earth,
Fortified Midgard, lies encircled by the ravening Worm.
Over its icy bastions faces of giant and troll
Look in, ready to invade it. The Wolf, admittedly, is bound;
But the bond will break, the Beast run free. The weary gods,
Scarred with old wounds, the one-eyed Odin, Tyr who has lost a hand,
Will limp to their stations for the last defence. Make it your hope
To be counted worthy on that day to stand beside them;
For the end of man is to partake of their defeat and die
His second, final death in good company. The stupid, strong
Unteachable monsters are certain to be victorious at last,
And every man of decent blood is on the losing side.
Take as your model the tall women will yellow hair in plaits
Who walked back into burning houses to die with men,
Or him who as the death spear entered into his vitals
Made critical comments on its workmanship and aim.
Are these the Pagans you spoke of? Know your betters and crouch, dogs;
You that have Vichy-water in your veins and worship the event,
Your goddess History (whom your fathers called the strumpet Fortune).
That was wonderful. Thank you for sharing!
I would urge you to give prayerful consideration to your own life in light of your original comment on this thread.
Good point, though I have never seen an episode of “Charmed”.
What you read, watch, and enjoy will affect how you think. That is what keeps advertisers in business. I just find it odd that so many people think that while ads obviously work to some extent, watching the show won’t change how you think.
He and I talk quite a bit about such things, and he often laughs that all these idiots would be in quite a bit of trouble if they ran into some real Norse.
Ya got that right!
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