Christian Ethos/Mythos: Art License?

[Abishai100]

In the American adventure-horror film Lord of Illusions (Clive Barker), a heroic private-investigator tries to help the leader (named Swann) of a cult protect himself from his brainwashed followers who scheme to overthrow him and kill him to resurrect the power of their fallen leader who Swann killed and bring to fruition dark and strange dominions.

This offbeat film directed the esteemed horror artist Clive Barker reveals a social fascination with perception distortion and metaphysics 'turbulence.'

Why do we want to talk about fear and panic? The Christian Bible states that at the end of days, the AntiChrist will rise to power to draw humanity away from wisdom. Maybe the AntiChrist is an agent of hysteria, taking our natural desires to focus on fear and making us vain about courage.

This explains why many metaphysics-intrigue films (such as Lord of Illusions) characterize fears with symbols/images of 'decision-making' acumen (e.g., mental orbs, illusory women, admonishing skeletons, shadow-sirens, etc.).

Perhaps a great folk tale that is very useful for Christian dialogue is the one of the 'itsy-bitsy spider' who kept trying to climb up the water-spout but kept getting washed down by the rain, forcing the spider to start all over again and again. This simple imagery-rich tale reveals a distinct human orientation towards resilience-fantasy inherent in the mythos omens of Christian verses (e.g., harlot of Babylon, power of the Dragon, the trials of Jesus, etc.).

It seems therefore that there is a way to coordinate metaphysics imagination with Christianity visualization, possibly implying that films about Christian ethos/mythos are not necessarily offensive to religious intellectuals.





Lord of Illusions

 

[jeager106]

I dunno. I'm still anxiously awaiting Armageddon.

 

[Abishai100]

Lake of Fire


"And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone" (Revelation 19:20, KJV).

The lake of fire is a descriptive area described in Revelation that exists as an aqueous region of pure angst and self-destruction.

The popular Seattle grunge-rock music band Nirvana covered the nifty Meat Puppets song "Lake of Fire" on their famous MTV Unplugged TV concert performance.

How does art relate to atheistic curiosity?

 

[Abishai100]

War

The Christian Bible describes a cataclysmic engagement between the kingdoms of Gog and Magog near the End of Days.

Human beings like storytelling about war and fighting, since it speaks to our history of survival.

What artistic license do we have in using Biblical images of war to circulate incendiary images of vicious conflict from Christian mythology?

We certainly circulate numerous vigilantism-daydream comic book adapted films.

Gog and Magog

 

[Abishai100]

Darkness & Drunkenness


The Book of Revelation states that at the End of Days, the AntiChrist will make war on humanity by forcing people to worship his false images of vanity and gluttony.

Roman Polanski's Occultism-oriented film The Ninth Gate presents the story of an unscrupulous book dealer who stumbles upon an underworld labyrinth involving incantation of the sensory power of the Devil.

Since there are numerous ideas out there about the quality of evocative images regarding the lure of sin and the mythological power of Satan, how should writers, artists, and film-makers think about the general marketing of incendiary figures from Christian mythology?

Such questions inform how movie studios recruit actors for controversial roles just as they would inform the ethics surrounding the recruiting of high-profile college athletes for professional sports. What would be helpful would be a framework for 'Church vs. State dialogue' regarding this issue.


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ACTOR 1: My agent got a script for a role for me as the AntiChrist.
ACTOR 2: Are you versed in Christian mythology?
ACTOR 1: I've read the relevant Bible passages and did some background research for this movie role.
ACTOR 2: What are you worried about?
ACTOR 1: I'm wondering if I want to effectively portray such an anti-human character (the AntiChrist).
ACTOR 2: People make many films about terrible subjects (e.g., rape, narcotics, murder).
ACTOR 1: Are you worried about censorship issues?
ACTOR 2: The American public may not appreciate overt images of blasphemy.

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The Ninth Gate (Film)