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May 11, 2006
Rainy Thursday Links
It has been raining off and on all morning here in DC. Combine that with a late night, and I'm starting slowly today. But here are a few links that I found while drinking my morning coffee (soon to be followed by my late-morning and early-afternoon cups of coffee).
First, I came across a New York Times list of the best American fiction of the last twenty-five years (with the added bonus of linking to the Times' original reviews of the top novels). No surprise that Toni Morrison's Beloved tops the list. I haven't read Underworld, which finished second, but I was glad to see his White Noise make the list. Off the top of my head, I'd likely add Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and perhaps Russell Banks' The Darling. Notably, the list has very little genre fiction (science fiction or horror or other pulp genres). I'm sure the list is missing some glaring omissions, but I really haven't kept up with recent American fiction like I should (too many late nights in darkened art house theaters). So what books should be on the list?
Second, an indieWIRE article on recent documentaries including a discussion of the Nader doc, An Unreasonable Man and Werner Herzog's confession that his favorite recent film is The Real Cancun, which he appreciates because of its lack of pretension.
Finally, a documentary I'm incredibly curious to see. Brian Brooks reports on a new doc called Jesus Camp, which focuses on Evangelical Christian children's pastor Becky Fischer. As many of my readers may know, I was raised as an evangelical Christian. In addition, my younger sister works as a children's pastor, so the film taps into some issues that are close to home for me. The documentary touches on many of the "cultural divide" issues of politics and religion, as well as issues of religion and education, but what seems interesting about the project from reading the article is Fischer's self-consciousness, her willingness to engage with how certain actions might be read by "secular," or perhaps more accurately non-evangelical, audiences. During one scene, Fischer holds a life-sized photograph of President George W. Bush and asks audiences to pray for him. During screenings of the film Fischer has expressed some surprise that viewers would regard this action as explicitly political:
"All you have to do is mention words like abortion, homosexuality and President Bush to [garner] strong feelings from people," said Fischer who maintained that using images of the U.S. President the flags of the U.S. and Israel were not meant to be overtly political. "We are commanded to pray for our leaders and we're commanded [by the Bible] to pray for Israel. So it was a surprise to me because we don't think of this as political. But from a secular point-of-view, I can see how it's viewed politically."Of course I don't want to evaluate the film before I see it, but I'm incredibly curious to see how the film explores Fischer and her ministry. Having spent some time in those churches, I do think that the prayer for Bush has a politics (I wonder if Fischer would have a life-size photo of Kerry under the same circumstances), but I'm intrigued by Fischer's attempts to recognize children as more fully human than most people assume (she comments at one point that "Kids have been sidelined within the Christian circle").
Posted by chuck at May 11, 2006 11:21 AM
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Comments
How curious that the list is almost all men (in fact, almost all the same men). Of course, I'll undercut that comment by suggesting the works of another man: Richard Powers. Several of his works would qualify, I'd imagine, though Plowing the Dark remains my favorite.
Posted by: Jason at May 11, 2006 1:08 PM
I had a sentence complaining about the lack of women but for some reason deleted it. For some reason I never got into Powers' Plowing the Dark, but I think that I tried to read it at a bad time. Maybe this summer.
Posted by: Chuck at May 11, 2006 1:17 PM