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I'm an NF idealist, what can I say?

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New Fangled?
Never Fazed?
Naturally Funky?
Narratively Funny?
Narcissistic Fake? <---Not really
Nastic Flower?
Nascent Foal?





Edited by - Laika on 06/24/2003 12:37:50 PM

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Might be don,

You'd rather save issues for discussion boards, huh?

S.B.G.

To understand and to be understood is bliss.

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Austria! Well then, good day mate!

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LOL, that's good

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Hey Sarah! Thanks for joining the conversation!

Are you really a teen? You should find plenty of interesting conversations here and I'd be interested in your perspective since most of us posting (well, me and PoW and Greg Boyd) are old coots. How old? Well, I heard that Greg's social security number was "8".

Aaaaaanyway...

I totally agree when you say that you and your friends understand the message the movie is trying to relay and so you resist it. I think youth/teens these days are naturally postmodern or ironic in how they respond to culture--thus we get titles like Not Another Teen Movie.

However, I think a lot of messages are much more subtle than we think. We may resist the most obvious messages (Girls should be princesses) and succumb to the less obvious ones (Material wealth = happiness).

But, if you're out resisting the messages from movies, TV, advertising, etc., where do you draw your moral lessons from besides your parents? Are there any movies you'd say had a profound influence on you or helped shaped how you think about boys, dating, money, or other common topics?

Terry

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As a recent escapee from the terrible teens , I'd like to throw in my two cents...

My views of our culture of entetainment are moderate, as I try to take the middle ground on most important matters in my life. That would be the repressed Buddhist in me, but I think it's applicable in the important matters of life with Christ as well.

So, I am convinced that the "entertainment industry" is indeed dangerous, not only for the Christian, but for society at large, as the constant inundation of images and sound bites over the TV and radio, as well as in public, has demolished our concept of context while retarding healthy imagination.

That being said, I am a confessed film and music fan, even to the point of being somewhat elitist in the eyes of some. I honestly think it's healthy discernment on my part, but even then I know I make the wrong choices sometimes.

Anyway, I think the modernist assumption "Movies (or what have you) are just mindless entertainment" is seriously flawed. I would argue that there are several conscientious filmmakers and musicians who do indeed intentionally weave meaning and dare I say, even specific lessons into their work. I recently saw the trailer for Mel Gibson's THE PASSION, and I wept. I was literally brought to tears by the sheer, ugly beauty of what he's trying to accomplish in this film. That's an extreme example, I know, but the principle holds. The work of some Christians (Gibson, Kevin Smith, P. O. D., U2, Pedro the Lion, Lifehouse, Tolkien, and Lewis) and some non-Christians (M. Night Shyamalan, Pixar Studios, Martin Scoresese, Ang Lee, Miyakaazi, AFI, Foo Fighters, Natalie Merchant, J. D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, and Douglas Adams) in popular media and books have had an overwhelming impact on the thought-life, and sometimes faith, of our culture. To dismiss these as mere entertainment is folly (and decidedly modern, an antique relic of a worldview which disgusts me, although I have some problems with postmodernism as well, probably because of its transitory nature).

Anyway, my conclusion is that there is indeed a lot of garbage for teens to sift through today in their entertainment and information choices, but there are treasures to be found, even in unlikely places.

In essentials, unity; In matters of opinion, liberty; In all things, love.

Edited by - Blood Washed Heretic on 07/18/2003 11:19:35 AM

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Bono, as far as I know, still professes Catholicism, and U2's last album "All That You Can't Leave Behind" is a positive departure from the materialistic hedonism that plagued their work in the 90's. In fact, there's even a disguised Scripture reference on the cover.

Also, the Mel Gibson film you mentioned is THE PASSION, and the trailer is amazing. The word is that it's the most accurate portrayal of Christ on film yet...

In essentials, unity; In matters of opinion, liberty; In all things, love.

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Greg Boyd always reminds me of a cross between Mel Gibson, Michael Keaton, Tim Allen and maybe even a little Bruce Willis. I don't know if that combination will go to his head or not, though.

Tigress

The Angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and He delivers them.
-Psalm 34:7

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However, I think a lot of messages are much more subtle than we think. We may resist the most obvious messages (Girls should be princesses) and succumb to the less obvious ones (Material wealth = happiness).

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I have to write an essay on a topic of my choice for an english class I'm presently in. Did I spell "english" right?

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You spelt it right, but you ended the preceeding sentence with a preposition. Proper english would be, "an english class in which I'm presently."

Enough errant pedantry.

You need immediately to switch your major to communication! Then you can study things like liberal bias in the media, channel overload, superabundance of meaning, resistant readings of televised texts, and so forth.

Much more practical than philosophy.

We've talked about media bias here before and I think you've raised the most interesting analysis so far. The complexity of liberal ideas versus the simplicity of conservative ones is well worth exploring (however, then I read conservative theorists and see that many of their ideas are really not that simple...no pun intended).

Does it seem to you that the media are liberal socially (abortion, guns, death penalty, gay rights) but conservative economically(supporting a capitalist economy since, after all, they need advertisers)?

Great idea to look at news throught the TMI lens. So does that mean that media are subtly reinforcing a captialist bias by encouraging us to be consumers of information? Cable and satellite TV could be seen as the textual equivalents of the supermarket where you have too many choices so you consume to fit your lifeplan/ideology/pre-existing biases?

Terry
Ending what has to be the longest answer to a non-question in CVM board history.

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You spelt it right, but you ended the preceeding sentence with a preposition. Proper english would be, "an english class in which I'm presently."

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Are you sure? Maybe that's the American way. Naaah...I think yer write. I think I could put it this way,

"An english class I'm presently in, I have to write to an essay on a topic of my choice." Ta daaaaa!!!

OK. Enough errant pedantry.

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You need immediately to switch your major to communication! Then you can study things like liberal bias in the media, channel overload, superabundance of meaning, resistant readings of televised texts, and so forth.

Much more practical than philosophy.

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Really. Hmmm...I may have to look into that.

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We've talked about media bias here before and I think you've raised the most interesting analysis so far. The complexity of liberal ideas versus the simplicity of conservative ones is well worth exploring (however, then I read conservative theorists and see that many of their ideas are really not that simple...no pun intended).

Does it seem to you that the media are liberal socially (abortion, guns, death penalty, gay rights) but conservative economically(supporting a capitalist economy since, after all, they need advertisers)?

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Right. I do not believe that conservatives have simple theories. I am merely saying that others think of conservatives that way and that is why they think that the news has a conservative slant. For example, in a thirty minute TV debate, those with the simple theories will have the sound bites and the zingers. Either way, complexity does not mean better.

Second, the left can reduce their ideology to sound bites. That is, they can be as adept at exploiting television as the right. As a matter of fact they have been as proficient in the past as some political "smear campaigns" of today found by those on the right.

Lastly, you may be right about the media being more liberal on social issues than on economic issues. However, this doesn't stop them from cutting off the hand that feeds them or at least attempting to try (even if it is done unwittingly).

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Great idea to look at news throught the TMI lens. So does that mean that media are subtly reinforcing a captialist bias by encouraging us to be consumers of information? Cable and satellite TV could be seen as the textual equivalents of the supermarket where you have too many choices so you consume to fit your lifeplan/ideology/pre-existing biases?

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In one (big) sense, yes. Actually, I should say, "Very much so." The media simply want to generate profit. They basically have to conjure up news in order to do so. Our world doesn't change that drastically. If you were to pick up the news say, once a month, you would conclude that nothing much has happened in the mean time. And yet, when people pick up the news (daily) they are convinced that they live amongst dizzying change. In one sense they do; their minds are kept in a whirl and their culture is churned. But the bureaucratic and commerical forces that run their lives remain unmoved. Basically the media create the illusion of change that we seem to have an insatiable craving for. So it has to be new and it has to be slick and it does buttress materialism if not capitalism.

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Terry
Ending what has to be the longest answer to a non-question in CVM board history.

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HA! Thats funny!




Brandon

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Umm. Don. It was a joke, man.

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So I was write! Dawg!

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Also, do a google search for the phrase "errant pedantry".

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Did a Google search and came up with nothing. Don't get it.

Brandon