Finally

"YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT YET??!????"

I can't tell you how many times I heard that in response to telling someone that I had seen neither Batman Begins nor The Dark Knight. Most often, I explained to these people that I am not, nor ever have been, a comic book reader. Though I did watch a Batman cartoon series as a kid, alongside old Justice Friends cartoons, superheroes never quite filled my imagination.

I mention all this because I've never before had such strong reactions for not having taken in a superhero story. At long last, after perhaps a year of the movie's publicity, I have seen both of the recent Batman movies in the space of a week. I was struck by their sobriety. If the story were true, it probably would have happened more like this than in any other Batman adaptation. People are complex, as here portrayed, and right and wrong are not often so obvious as would be nice, as here shown. But many people have analyzed these movies already, so nobody wants to read another such convicting analysis.

Perhaps my friends don't realize what they're saying in their great incredulity over my lack of inculturation. I think of my literature professor's pleas for literary fiction. As a critically thinking Christian woman, she has managed to find truth and wisdom in many more media than most people. More pointedly, I find that too many of my Christian peers refuse to read anything that wasn't written by either Marc Driscoll, John Piper, or God. The trouble is that, more often than not, God's the only one in that short list who knows how to write something that requires some digging.

Everyday life has plenty from which the astute person can learn, but it normally requires some digging. People say that you can learn something new every day, but who actually does that? I suggest that the type of person who's learned to study (i.e. learn from) Scripture should have learned principles by which he can "learn something new every day." In observing the people and relationships in the Bible, one can learn about people and relationships today. In observing one's friends and family today, one can learn elements of God's character that He's embedded in His creation. (Yes, that's a bit muddled, but I wrote this while watching Top Gear, so my articulation's a bit off. If you get over it, I will.)

My final argument is that literary fiction, as an accurate representation of real life, has more to learn from than just about anything in the "Christian Living" genre. I ask you, would you rather spend a whole day listening to a series of sermons or watching a series of real life situations? If you were paying attention, from which do you think you'd learn more lessons worth your while?

I don't expect to shake the foundations of anyone's thinking in one haphazardly typed blog post (actually, I started writing this on January 6, so it's not quite that haphazard), but I do hope to provoke a few questions. Interested? Let's go for coffee some time.