Category: Pop Culture

Yes, the Culture Really Does Matter REPRINT

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From January 29, 2015

It looks like I won’t be getting the radio coverage I’d hoped for, to launch The Glass Bridge. They’ve got all this current events stuff to cover instead. Deflated footballs, for instance. The reason I get, boiled down, is, “It’s only a novel and we don’t cover novels, it’s not important enough.”

Okay–one novel, so what? Whose worldview is going to be changed by one novel? (In fact, that happened to me when I read Windswept House by Malachi Martin: changed me from somewhat pro-abortion to 100% pro-life.) My book is Young Adults fiction, which makes it even less important. Who cares what the kids are reading? And on top of that, it’s fantasy, which makes it less important still. That’s about as unimportant as it gets.

I wonder if any of our conservative, pro-family media commentators have any idea of just how much YA fantasy is out there. Boxcar-loads of it! Thousands and thousands of titles. Tons and tons of it.

And it’s only part of a larger pop culture entertainment matrix, along with movies, TV, video games, etc.

This is–and I do not exaggerate–a culture that embraces and promotes paganism, disbelief in God and His word, sexual randomness, and fosters rigid conformity (they call it “diversity”) while at the same time seducing the audience with visions of impossible personal autonomy. That’s why so many of those novels feature 11-year-old kids acquiring super powers or secret martial arts so they can beat up able-bodied adult men. That’s why The Invincible Female Warrior has become a fixture in this genre.

This is a popular culture that is shaping our world. This is the worldview being pumped into the brains of the next generation.

I don’t believe it’s possible for a child to consume thousands of hours of this stuff and still grow up to be sensible, responsible, thoughtful, and Christian.

One novel, one movie, so what–how much harm can it do?

But hundreds, or thousands, of novels, music videos, movies, TV shows, and video games–go ahead, tell me that has no effect in shaping the consumer’s mind.

I do what I can to push against the tide. What can I do? Not much. But, as Puddleglum said, that doesn’t let us off following Aslan’s signs.

The way the world is, is not decided by the stuff that’s in the headlines. It’s decided by what’s in the people’s hearts and heads.

But if you’re convinced it’s only fantasy, and really doesn’t matter… Well, please think it over. Because I’m pretty sure it does.

Some TV Shows That Didn’t Make It

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From May 25, 2019

If you think the programs they show on TV are bad, you should see the ones they don’t show. Here are three examples, compiled by Byron the Quokka.

Ringworm! Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dame Judith Anderson as a pair of Ponca City cops who track down people with skin afflictions. Reviewers complained it only made them feel itchy.

Is Anybody There? was a sitcom about invisible people whose voices can’t be heard. Mostly it was footage of empty rooms, which reviewers described as “intolerably boring.” Signing up and paying actors who are never seen or heard turned out to be an unwise use of studio funds. Executive Producer Tommy Plotz was put to death.

Jimmy Fraud Investigates. A local cable TV reporter, reputedly the most credulous reporter in the world, investigates “the unexplained” in his home town–e.g., sightings of a woolly mammoth in the Stop & Shop parking lot. Most of the “cases” turned out to be clumsy hoaxes perpetrated by not very bright teenagers. The others were of no interest to anyone.

On second thought, are these really so much worse than what we’ve got? You decide!

Why I Fear for Britain

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From February 18, 2016

I try to stay abreast of world events, but I pay particular attention to Canada and Britain. Canada, of course, is right next door. But why Britain? Because, like many Americans, I feel affection and affinity for the Mother Country: we are, as Churchill once said, two countries divided by a common language. But it also seems to me that the ills which affect Britain are common to all the Western countries, including my own; and that things that happen in Britain and Canada wind up happening here, too.

I have never been to England. I watch a great deal of British TV and movies, just about every day. I read a great deal of fiction by British writers, past and present. And I happen to think you can learn a lot about a nation by becoming familiar with its popular culture.

So I fear for the state of Christianity in Britain. What else am I to think, when episode after episode, in show after show, depicts Christians as at best irrelevant, at worst backward, evil, and dangerous? When actors like Hugh Laurie (atheist) and David Suchet (Christian) both say, in interviews, that Christianity in Britain isn’t what it used to be? Why should they lie about it?

As a Christian, I cannot think any good can come to a nation that turns away from Jesus Christ–especially a nation that’s been Christian for some 1,400 years.

Do I take TV shows and crime novels as literal truth? Of course not. Do I believe every article I read in British newspapers online? No, despite what you may have heard. And I do stay in touch with email friends in Britain and Canada.

From all these different sources, I’m getting the same message: Britain is rejecting her Christian heritage, and–like our own–her culture is coarsening, largely as the result of self-destructive leadership.

Of course, if you’re a fan of “gay marriage,” growth of government, multiculturalism, political correctness, speech codes, and all the rest–well, you’re getting it. In all the Western countries you’re getting all that stuff, and then some.

And so I fear for Britain, as I fear for my own country, and for the same reasons. We as nations have sinned, and we need to repent. Instead, our leaders draft and pursue policies which seem to be based on the principle that evil is good, and good is evil; and the people seem content to have it so.

But not all of us.

No, not all of us.

Read It if You Dare

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From July 31, 2016

Wow, what a plot! I mean, is this a book or is this a book? And what kind of question is that?

In The Evolving Door by Melinda James Schlubb,  Gunto and Petunia are transgendered partners who, in the course of investigating their past lives in which they were frogs, fish, and millipedes, accidentally discover the secrets of Evolution, providing total and irrevocable proof that no one would ever dare to question.

But it’s not so safe to discover the secret of Evolution! Immediately after their discovery, an Amish hit squad begins to hunt them down. Haters and biggits torture them by using the wrong pronouns: these are harrowing scenes of hurt feelings and microaggression, surely not for the faint-hearted.

Will Gunto and Petunia succeed in arriving at the Safe Space, that is, the nearest college campus? Having changed their respective genders once already, can they find the courage to do it again–and yet again? Or will the Mennonite assassins finally catch up to them?

One of the great things about this book is how author M.J. Schlubb boldly breaks free of all those tired old conventions of grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure and vocabulary: there is, indeed, a 28-page chapter that is all one sentence. She or he puts quotation marks wherever she or he feels like it, and paragraphs are always up for grabs. Oh, it’s sooo postmodern! Or can you say illiterate?

Published by Bankrupt Press, The Evolving Door sells for $344.99, hardcover, and is available from your local drug dealer.

Shunning Movies Made by Immoral People

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People who know me know I love the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, and they’re always surprised to find out I’ve never seen the Lord of the Rings movies. Well, I don’t want to give any of my time or any of my money to Ian MacKellan, an unrepentant homosexual who brags about defacing Bibles. He plays Gandalf. That’s something I like to forget when I read the books.

So I can appreciate what some of you are saying when you say you don’t want to watch movies made by immoral people. We all have a suspicion, though, that that would rule out most movies. If you’re looking for virtue, Hollywood is probably not the place to start.

I do try to avoid movies that I know have been made by really sleazy people. But it’s not always so simple. In fact, God sometimes uses really sleazy people to do His will on earth. Can good things be done by bad people? I think we must admit they can.

Here at Chez Leester, we have a Thanksgiving tradition of watching two movies in particular: on Friday, Godzilla vs. Megalon, and on Saturday, Miracle on 34th Street. The one movie completely takes my mind off the dreary and disturbing news that I’ve been covering all year. The second never fails to remind me that there are truths that don’t–ahem!–lend themselves to factual analysis.

I watch lots of movies, including ones in which grossly immoral people may have had a hand in making. My calling in this life is to tell stories. To do it well, I must consume stories–lots and lots of stories. There are readers who say that reading one of my books is like watching a movie. Well, you can’t even guess at the number of hours I’ve put into achieving that effect. And I couldn’t do it if I didn’t watch as many movies as I can.

Don’t get me wrong. There is sleaze that I will walk a mile to avoid. And I’ll walk at least half a mile to dodge chick flicks, Serious Mainstream Dramas About Sophisticated People With Painful Personal Problems That They Can’t Solve Because They’re Pinheads, crime movies in which every character is rotten to the core, and several other kinds.

Anyway, I think we can all be thankful that God doesn’t require us to be absolutely perfect before He can make use of us. Serving Him in any way we can is both a glory and a privilege, and even sinners get a crack at it. Who knows? It might be habit-forming.

The Lost Tribes of the Whole Foods Parking Lot

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From May 17, 2022

A s the actual community breaks down, a host of mini-communities, created artificially, springs up in its place. When we lose America, we’ll have a thousand fake “communities” instead.

It’ll be like one gigantic Whole Foods parking lot.

Our local Whole Foods has reserved parking space for all sorts of special people. Reserved for Parents with Small Children. Reserved for HOV (“high occupancy vehicles”) with Three or More Passengers. (Were they expecting the Beverly Hillbillies to stop by?) Reserved for Fuel-Efficient Vehicles. Reserved for Vehicles Carrying Heads of State Who Are Traveling Incognito.

If you took these signs seriously, you’d be a long time looking for a parking space.

In the broader scheme of things, each and every one of our mini-communities demands and expects to be appeased. Hence segregated housing and segregated graduation ceremonies at our colleges. Not imposed by any Southern Democrat, but howled for by the Far Left Crazy.

Reserved for Persons Who Resemble U.S. Senators With a Lisp.

I’m Reading ‘The Hunger Games’

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Finally I’ve got a copy of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games. Published in 2008, it has taken four years to translate the book into the box-office champion movie of this year (so far).

The imaginary dystopian world of The Hunger Games has some features which I find disturbingly familiar: rationing of electricity and health care; manufactured food shortages; abolition of the right to bear arms; no one owns a car–but they do have high-speed rail! Jerry Brown would be so proud of them.

Also: no one has a right to travel from one “district” to another, and even if they were allowed, they’d have to walk; public schooling is the only from of education allowed; and the government has taught its downtrodden serfs to spy on one another.

All of these things are right out of the Agenda 21 “sustainability” playbook. They are all “progressive” dreams come true. When such dreams do come true, we quickly discover that they’re nightmares–but then, of course, it’s too late.

Welcome to Obummah’s second term…

From May 16, 2012

The Cause of… Well, Everything

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They gave a Global Warming–or Climate Change, or whatever–rally in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, and nobody came. “Nobody” is not a figure of speech: nobody came.

But they didn’t pitch it right. They’re drifting off-message.

Why don’t they tell you that Global Warming causes bad dating experiences? Not to mention racism, homophobia, and phobia about homophobia. Global Warming is why major-league baseball never made it to Mongolia. Global Warming is why movie remakes are never as good as the originals. Do you wonder why Anthony Wiener can’t be trusted with a camera? Global Warming.

Global Warming caused the Kardashians. Global Warming is why you never won the powerball. Global Warming is why your next-door neighbor puts up that ghastly green plastic leprechaun–the one with the face like Nancy Pelosi–on her lawn every St. Patrick’s Day and then forgets to take it down.

But here’s the good news: it can all be fixed by higher taxes!

I’ll bet you feel better already.

From August 24, 2013

And Here’s an Even Worse Book

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I’ve found one that’s miles worse than Misfit. This abomination is Blue Moon by Alyson Noel. This one, too, is pitched to teenage girls.

You may well ask what I’m doing, reading these. I’ve been invited onto a radio show to discuss teen-lit and its predilection for witchcraft, New Age, the occult, etc. So I picked these two books at random off the library shelf, just to prepare for the discussion.

What are these authors and publishers trying to do to their readers? OK, they’re trying to enrich themselves; but there are more honorable ways of doing that, such as selling used cars or operating a roulette wheel.

Continue Reading “And Here’s an Even Worse Book” →

When We Were All Little Sages REPRINT

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Sometimes what you knew turned out to be not true.

All this bowing down to children and asking them to please tell us what our public policies should be, reminds me of how wise we all were when I was in fifth grade.

Out on the playground, which was our grove of Academe, we liked to discuss weighty topics with one another: the more philosophically abstruse, the better. We especially liked scientific subjects.

One of the topics we discussed at great length went like this: “Ya know, every time they talk about shooting a rocket to the moon, these two dubular clouds appear on Mars…”

Dubular? What does that mean? Well, nobody asked! Each of us took it for granted that everybody else knew exactly what it meant. I didn’t know, but that didn’t stop me from repeating that baloney. It got so I didn’t have to know what it meant! Just saying it made us sound so wise.

If only adults had listened to us, back then! Obviously they had no appreciation for our childly wisdom.

But that seems to be changing fast.

Keep your eyes peeled for dubular clouds on Mars.

From November 2019