"IT'S PURE EVIL"

There it is then. This week's oxymoron.

I began thinking about this today after seeing "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader", the third movie/book in the Narnia series. There are some very good sequences, some departures in a technical sense but not in a spiritual sense; and Lewis' sense of hierarchy, a real horror to the modern, seems to be here somewhat restored. What bickering there is isn't so irritating as in the second film, esp. for those who know the story and the role of Eustace, who was written as a complainer but not as a usurper. It is ironic that this may be the last of the series since we have seen a decline of interest in the project, particularly for those who see this as a sort of art project (or just entertainment to be compared to other entertainments), rather than as a pretty straightforward allegory. Coming up to art house standards of the kind that bears such dismal violent film festival kind of fare isn't really the point, is it? But the competition esp. by Disney is especially fierce this Christmas with a revised fairy tale which no one expects to be "faithful" to the original. Now that Disney is out of Narnia, they are out to beat the competition, of course--including torpedoing their ex-project at least for the time being.

Narnia has survived much worse attacks than from "The Walt"!!!

For my part, if "The Silver Chair" is not made, I won't be without a film version. The BBC version from long ago is of course very primitive on special effects but I would be pretty amazed if any actor I can think of could do a more convincing Puddleglum than was done by the Brits themselves. This, too, should be seen, by you,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

But along the way of this voyage, the semitropical island lair of the White Witch (implied) is described as "pure evil". This presents, to my mind, enormous and insuperable metaphysical difficulties.

Another favorite movies of the Schulers is "The Time Bandits," a post- Monty Python project financed by George Harrison, who also wrote the closing song. Dan asked us to send him the DVD for Christmas--hopefully with extras. The final bit is posited on a long gambit rather on the same lines of the Narnian invasions by men and shape-shifters; it has a "son of Adam" extruded into a multi- dimensional set of worlds and times, who is then escorted by the bandits, who seem to be a species of gnome, once in charge of certain bushes, but stealing a map of the universe that belongs to The Supreme Being has them being pursued inexorably, both by God and by Slewfoot, both of whom want the map, either back to the Creator or to plan a new universe: "Computers! Day One!" (And no slugs)

It's all very complicated but not rich for those who dislike fantasy, silliness, and irony conmixed. The boy and the bushmen are lured into hell by an excellent Satan--Shelley Duvall I think--and at the last are rescued ex machina by The Supreme Being who reduces his opponent to a smoking carbonized statue. The statue breaks up into smoldering pieces of -you guessed it--Pure Evil!!! "God", who is portrayed as a rather fussy businessman, takes over completely , produces a large bin, and declares, "I want every bit of this cleaned up! I don't want any of these pieces left lying about......" So the gnomes work albeit sloppily on cleanup, get back their old job, and are handily, but a little reluctantly, forgiven, but they all disappear leaving the boy in a hellish situation, "without so much as a by-your leave!"

The boy wakes up in his home but his room is filled with smoke; a piece of burnt roast in the microwave being the cause. When the fireman comes out with the appliance in question, his folks open it up to see a charred seething lump and the boy cries, "Mum! Dad! Don't touch it! IT'S EVIL!!!" Which they promptly do anyway, and equally promptly explode. There is a bit more at the end that I won't reveal. But if I haven't spoiled it for you, put that in your queue and smoke it...

I will think about this some more and perhaps add some flesh to these twice-burnt bones. I hope in the meantime that some of you can do your own speculation and perhaps share it here if you like. I trust that you trust that 2011 will be extremely interesting and a blessing at the same time. It's all Pure Gift, I know--and in this I can use the word "pure" without any misgivings whatsoever. Hard to ignore 61 years of so many blessings--starting with Mumsy and Dadsy of course-- DON'T TOUCH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!