Finally...Another Post - Chick Flicks and Fairy Tales

All right, all right...I'm updating my blog. All of you people who've been complaining that I never post anything - you know who you are, Linda :) - here it is. And wow, I can't believe it's been over a month, and a long month at that - what can I say - March was very busy!

Anywho...even though my "scholarly" (yah right) treatise on The Brothers Karamazov is long overdue - I still haven't finished it yet (on page 670 - about to read the speech in Dimitri's defense) but expect to be posting on that within the next week.

In the meantime - from the heady, philosophical realms of Russian literature to the more...well, not really mundane...what's a good word...ah, frivolous. I saw the film 27 Dresses on Saturday night, and I loved it!!!!!! Now before you rush right out to see it (or if you're in America inform me that it's been out since January), let me qualify - if you don't love chick flicks - you'll not like it. If you can only tolerate romantic comedies if they're quirky or more realistic or based on a novel written 150 years ago - you won't like it. This is a classic chick flick, which some (you know who you are) might say is code for "formulaic, predictable, cheesy, fake, unrealistic, and setting forth a false view of love based on lies, appearance, lust, selfishness, etc."

And yes, many chick flicks, just like all other film genres, have aspects that are either blatantly sinful or promote an unBiblical worldview. Yes, some of them portray a warped view of love, just like action movies can portray a warped view of killing, or period dramas can portray a warped view of the purpose of life, or comedies can portray a warped view of humour. We live in a sinful world with sinful men and women whose worldviews are, as my dear professor used to say, "messy". That's why we have to use the Bible to interact with films and music and literature and sort the good from the bad and think on whatever is true, beautiful, good etc. and not necessarily throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Are chick flicks unrealistic? Maybe. But maybe it depends on your perspective. There's an awful lot of girls in love with frogs they see as princes; and an awful lot of girls with princes they only see as frogs. And anyway, whose to say that realism is all it's cracked up to be. A friend of mine said today that when he goes to the cinema he doesn't want to go see Seven - yes, a head in a suitcase may be reality, but he wants to go to see a film for a bit of escapism.

I love chick flicks - I love every predictable bit from the start to the happily-ever-after ending, because I love fairy tales. But I have a theory that fairy tales and chick flicks and fantasy, all that great escapist stuff, is actually based in reality - a Puddleglum reality (see previous post for direct quote). Only God can make something out of nothing -