Thanks to all who responded to my question the other day, about movies that are better than the book they're based on. I got so much mail about it that it confirmed my "rule" that people are more eager to talk about movies than just about anything else. People feel that they have the expertise to talk about movies, while they don't feel that about contemporary art, fiction, music composition, and so forth. Its the one true remaining egalitarian art form.
What prompted this is that I think the movie "Prince Caspian" is better than the book. It fixes some of the book's flaws. I'd asked if I could review "Prince Caspian" but the editor told me someone else had already claimed it; however I was welcome to write on it if I came up with a different angle, so this is it. The piece will appear tomorrow at National Review Online and I'll send it out then. I'll tell you this: so far, the movie most considered superior to the book is "Gone With the Wind." Can you guess which is second? It also begins with a G. Below I've pasted in a mini-review I wrote for First Things journal, of "Encountering the Mystery;" it's written by Patriarch Bartholomew, Patriarch of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch of the entire Orthodox Church. today's podcast is a little different. About a year ago I was speaking in St Louis, and in town at the same time was Leonard Sweet, a well-known author and speaker among young evangelicals. The event hosts decided to put the two of us in front of an audience for an hour and videotape the questions and conversation. At one point Len began saying that the Bible doesn't only say light is good and dark is bad; it also says that light is bad and dark is good. This was a wholly unfamiliar idea to me, so I wrote to Len to learn more about what he meant, and did some bible study myself. In the podcast I explain that I found that scripture never refers to God as dark, but says that he "wraps himself" in darkness, while flashing out as light. It's the image of a lightning storm. Anyway, it's an interesting question, and you can hear more on the podcast at this link: http://audio.ancientfaith.com/frederica/fhn_light_pc.mp3 or at this phone number: 817-582-1598 I was recently interviewed by the Chicago Tribune about icons, too: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/religion/chi-relig_greek-icon_02may02,0,1913564.story here's the book review: ***** ENCOUNTERING THE MYSTERY: UNDERSTANDING ORTHODOX CHURCH By His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Doubleday, 249 pages, $25.00 The preacher who gets comfortable with rolling lengthy sermons off the top of his head may be an engaging speaker, but his writing is likely to be meandering and verbose. Likewise, the person who grows up in a religious minority, perennially aware of the real (if not official) hostility aimed his way, is apt to form a habit of vigilant verbal diplomacy. Thus, when Patriarch Bartholomew writes that "After the fall of Constantinople [to Ottoman Muslim invaders in 1453], Christian buildings could not be covered with prominent domes," it doesn't mean that the laws of physics had mysteriously altered. The passive voice enables him to finesse the awkward fact that the Turkish government lays stringent restrictions on expression of religious faith, including the forms of church architecture. I expect that he would agree with the contemporary proverb: You have to choose your fights. So how does he fight? Primarily through requesting dialogue. This is not as pointless as it sounds. The ground rules of dialogue provide the weaker party with a foothold, recognition and some safety, while obligating the stronger party to stop, listen, and at least pretend respect. (I learned this while dialoguing with abortion advocates, as a co-founder of the Common Ground Network for Life and Choice.) So when the Patriarch writes at length about the Christian obligation to "cherish" strangers and renounce petty nationalism, then concludes that "we emphasize that the religious rights of minorities must be duly respected, including and especially their right to worship and education," you may catch that he is deftly drawing a line in the sand, and drawing international attention to it. The Patriarch's alma mater, the Halki Seminary, has been closed by order of Turkey's Constitutional Court since 1971. Such jabs are subtle enough to be lost on American readers, however. While similar matters of poverty, freedom, and the environment occupy the book's latter half, earlier chapters do a good job of presenting Orthodox faith and life in the gentle, simple terms typical of Orthodox devotional writing. While I now savor such writing and find it genuinely inspiring, Western readers, who expect theology to be in the form of propositional jousting, are apt to find such talk too vague. (As a Newsday editor told me regarding a paragraph I'd written on theosis: "It just sounds so theoretical!") I can see how "Encountering the Mystery" would satisfy the aims of the author and publisher, but it wouldn't surprise me if ordinary American readers find the encounter still a little too mysterious for their taste. -- ******** Frederica Mathewes-Green www.frederica.com
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