An Interesting Quote...

...that I repeat to make sure I get in my regular quota of criticizing conservatives:

The liberals in our faith could care less about orthodoxy and the radical conservatives seem bent on a course to return the Church to a time and place that exists only in memory. Both refuse to speak to people as they are now with the timeless truth of Catholicism. The radicals on both sides seek to either strip the Church of truth or dress it in a garment of irrelevance. All the while, the people leave.

--Msgr. Eric Barr, "The Decline of the Catholic Church in the USA"

Msgr. Barr on Prince Caspian

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian opens this weekend. Monsignor Eric Barr has been writing on the upcoming movie. His posts appear at the blog Anamchara where he suggests that the movie will probably get mixed reviews and discusses the movie's themes. Msgr. Barr has the scoop on the rest of us, as he has already seen the premier in New York. His opinion of the film is quite positive.

Msgr. Barr also has an article on the subject, "Film Tells Story of Faith Forgotten, Hope Renewed (PDF)," in The Observer, a Catholic newspaper:

The movie may appear to be for kids, but the adult-themed message takes on the modern, cynical, godless world view that all of us must encounter each and every day:that religion is for the immature, that faith is useless, that the very ideas of God, Jesus, resurrection and life everlasting are fairytales meant to help children sleep, and not for adult consumption. [more...]

Meant to help children sleep? I thought they were meant to scare the bejabbers out of 'em. I'm joking, of course, but I don't remember Bible stories ever helping me sleep at night.

Honestly, I didn't enjoy the first Narnia movie all that much, but then again, I'm no fan of the books, either. Msgr. Barr indicates the new film is good, so I'm hoping for an improvement over the last. He is undoubtedly right that it will get mixed reviews no matter what, as some critics will be unable to get over the religious themes or unable to reconcile a stunted perception of Christianity with the movie's action sequences. I doubt, however, that many people will attack the film out of revenge for the poor showing of The Golden Compass. Barr attributes Compass's poor showing to Christian outrage, but I'm more inclined to attribute it to the bad script and direction. Barr also notes the comparative popularity of the first Narnia film, but Narnia undoubtedly has a larger pre-existing fan base than His Dark Materials, so I don't think the comparison is valid.

Just a Little Bit Longer... (again)

Review is taking longer than expected. In the meantime, check out this post at The B-Movie Catechism, which Snuffles is planning to comment on in a few days.

My Thoughts Exactly...

...But I never had the guts to express them this way:*

The best art, in my opinion, is the kind that asks no questions and creates no uncertainty. True art is about creating graphical representations of objects calculated to provoke a specific, predetermined response.

Wait, did I say ‘art’? I meant ‘pornography.’

Thomas Kinkade isn’t an artist. He’s a purveyor of pornography. And the worst kind of pornography, at that: the kind without any naked people... [more...]

Hat tip: Crummy Church Signs

*Thomas Kinkade, in my view, is the visual representation of what fantasy-writing would become if the Harry Potter-hating anti-fictional-magic Christian thought police had their way.

The Sci Fi Pope

Readers have already mentioned it, but I would be remiss in my duties if I didn't direct your attention to the Photoshopped Pope/Star Trek mashup images at Shrine of the Holy Whapping.

Pokemon: Banned in Saudi Arabia

As a rule, I try not to get too bent out of shape about other religions, since this is as far as I know the only conservative Catholic blog largely dedicating to criticizing conservative Catholics. Nonetheless, when I learned from Lucky the Goldfish that Pokémon is banned in Saudi Arabia, I realized things have gone too far. Radical Islam has got to be stopped.

(P.S., Pokémon has also been criticized as "demonic" by the Catholic Church in Mexico. Perhaps they've been reading too much Michael O'Brien?)

Hat tip: Five Feet of Fury and The Amboy Times

SF Signal's Mind Meld

The blog SF Signal has a section called the "Mind Meld" that polls sf writers and enthusiasts on interesting topics.

The topic for the latest Mind Meld is, "Is science fiction antithetical to religion?"

They asked me for a contribution, so you can see my modest little essay on the subject wedged between much more substatial responses from big-name authors. Particularly, I recommend the lengthy essay from John C. Wright:

Science fiction thrives on the Horror of Darwinism. That sense of weirdness is a twin brother to the Sense of Wonder of American pulp fiction. We science fiction people like it when Copernicus yanks the world out from under our feet: to us, it is like a roller-coaster ride.

Is the disorientation of Darwinism antithetical to religion? Maybe or maybe not, but H.G. Wells, Progressive, is antithetical to religion. The last line of the book is telling. The narrator is looking up at the stars. "There it must be, I think, in the vast and eternal laws of matter, and not in the daily cares and sins and troubles of men, that whatever is more than animal within us must find its solace and its hope."

In other words, the soul of man (that which is more than animal in us) can find solace and hope, not in religion, but in the vast and eternal laws of matter, i.e. in physical science. Even though the book never mentions God, the moral atmosphere of the tale is rich with those odors that waft from Victorian notions of Progress, Eugenics, Darwinism, Materialism. The Progressives will instinctively recognize the scent and smile.

Progressives, let us not forget, regard religion as one of those things to be left behind on the junk pile of history, along with monarchy, slavery, femininity, personal property, marriage, death and taxes, and whatever else will not exist in the Brave New World of our loving Big Brother. [more...]

For the opposing view, the best probably comes from James Morrow:

To the degree that science fiction is the literature spun from human insights into the laws of nature, then it is indeed the last place a person should look for corroboration of the Christian worldview or any other frankly religious perspective. For better or worse - better, in my opinion - science has yet to provide a single molecule of evidence for the supernatural, and so far every attempt to make the empirical substantiate the ethereal, from the laboratory testing of the Shroud of Turin to the crude appropriation of particle physics by various self-styled mystics, has come to nothing. [more...]

Error Corrected

Sometimes we get linky love from people we don't know how to love back; this is a blog about Catholics, science fiction, and Catholics who like science fiction. Like most blogs, we maintain blogrolls (to your right) for sf and RC blogs (that's science fiction and Roman Catholic for you fellow acronym-haters, and I really need to go design that Acronym Haters Anonymous logo). Sometimes, when we get luv from those who aren't RC or sf, we give them a little post and then have no idea where to stick their blogs permanently on the site, so we don't.

Sometime back, TJIC from TJICistan linked us, and because we have a Persian emperor's record for showing magnanimity to those who benefit us, we promptly forgot to link him back. And as it turns out, TJIC over there is Catholic, so you'll now find his blog in our blogroll, listed as Dispatches from TJICistan. TJIC is insightful and also funny. See how he describes his blog:

TJICistan is an autonomous anarchic zone landlocked inside Arlington, MA, USA.

TJICistan covers approximately 7,000 square feet of space.

TJICistan has a permanent population of one humans and two dogs.

TJICistan seceeded from Arlington, Massachusetts, and the United States on 26 December, 1995.

After extensive utility computations, the non-government of TJICistan has chosen to pay foreign aid, to all three levels of government in the adjacent territories, as the alternative of armed confrontation, while certainly exciting and entertaining, sums to a lower total level of utility over time.

That's classic.

Let's Have Some Linky Love

An e-mail recently arrived to point me to a few Catholic resources for all y'all. We've got here the Aquinas and More Bookstore. I like bookstores and I like Catholic stuff, and it looks like they have good selection, so go check it out. They also have a blog, Musings from a Catholic Bookstore. It's a little disconcerting to visit this blog, I must admit, since I've never heard a bookstore muse before. It's alive! It's alive!!!

Speaking of blogs and bookstores, Polly Poppins of the blog If You Belonged Here has a post on how to pick up geeky men...that is, in the figurative sense. Weighing only ninety-eight pounds as we do, we geeky men are easy to pick up in the literal sense. Poppins's advice is as follows:

Go to the nearest bookstore. You want a bookstore, not a library. Make your way to the fiction area. Keep your eyes peeled. First good looking guy you see in the sci-fi section, grab him. That's your new boyfriend.

Unless he's wearing a size twelve wedding ring. Then that's Mr. Poppins and I advise you to stay at least ten feet away or I might have to stomp on your head. [more...]

You should also make sure it isn't me, because then think of what you'd be stuck with.

Hat tip: Moomin Light

Fan Fiction...Is It Wrong?

Frequent readers know we have brought up the question of fan fiction before on this blog. You can read some previous comments here and here. Recently, the blog It's All Straw posted links to some articles on the web about the legality of fan fiction. Also, Niall Mor, proprietor of the blog, links his own fan fiction piece.

The links start with an article at FindLaw, where Julie Hilden argues that original works must be protected so that authors can get their money. I imagine very few people would argue with that, even ones who favor fan fiction and fan art. Personally, I think fanworks should be considered fair use as long as they are noncommercial.

That brings us to the blog 43(B)log where Rebecca Tushnet responds to Julie Hilden's article. What I find most interesting is this claim: "Noncommercial fanworks are fair use, which is one reason there are already millions of them freely available online."

Is that true? Do we have any lawyers out there who can tell me if that's true? Because if that's true, I'm going to put my Bone fan fiction back on the Internet and shamelessly promote the heck out of it.

My understanding, after some searching on the subject, was that fan fiction is always technically illegal, which is why I removed my own works. Now that I've read Tushnet on the subject, I'm not so sure. Can I get a witness from the audience?

Oh, and go read Niall Mor's fan fiction if it's not illegal.

Also, see Eve Tushnet on the subject. Her thoughts are quite deep and a little trippy. I wish I were that deep (or trippy) while talking about fiction. She makes an interesting comment: she can't write fan fiction, she says, because she wants so much to write about original characters who are her own creations. Not a bad dilemma to have, if you think about it.

And don't forget to see Niall Mor's thoughts. I have to add that because I just stole all his links.

This Blog Rated E for Excellent

We are proud to announce that the blog Moomin Light has awarded us the Excellent Blog Award. Thanks, Moomin!

What's Wrong with Star Trek?

In yet another attempt to alienate a sizable number of our readers (alienate--what a fine word), I must pass along this fine little piece from io9. Entitled "The Worst Thing Star Trek Did to Science Fiction," it explains one of the many, many, many reasons Star Trek really kind of sucks. Yeah, you heard me.

There are many things that annoy us about science fiction: godlike beings, lazy time-travel paradoxes, actions that don't have consequences... but luckily, there's one thing that epitomizes all of them: the reset button. Whenever the unthinkable happens, you can be pretty sure science fiction will unthink it. Click through for the many evils of the reset button. [more...]

Actually, I like the original series, but the spin-offs suck bad. I see that one commenter on io9 is of the same opinion as myself: "Star Trek has sucked since they started having star ships with carpeting." Yeah, whose dumb idea was that? Spaceships should have exposed bulkheads and pipes and slime dripping off the walls.

A Couple of Links

Readers have sent me a couple of things I need to pass on to you. Peter Gardner of Martian Monastery has sent us a link to the Orthodox rite chanted in time of attack by aliens. Seems like a handy ritual to me. In particular, I like this part:

With thy mighty arm destroy the army of aliens which now besetteth us, O Mistress, as the army of Sennecherib was destroyed.

Also, Simon Owens of the interestingly named Bloggasm has noticed our post on free online books. He has a more extensive article on why Tor is offering free books and what that might mean for online publishing.

Blog: Crummy Church Signs

I have recently been laughing to the point of tears (because it is both uproariously funny and quite sad) over the blog Crummy Church Signs. Joel, proprietor of this unique blog, takes submitted photographs of weird writings on church signs and adds wry commentary.

It's an observable fact that when you try to take a religion or a moral precept and distill it into a bumper sticker and try to make it clever, bad things often result. A church sign isn't much longer than a bumper sticker, so when it contains anything other than the schedule of services, Sunday schools, and Bible studies, and maybe a Bible verse, it can be wince-inducing. Church signs just aren't a good place for polemics or cutesy proverbs.

At least one sign posted on Crummy Church Signs was controversial enough to become a news item, and you can see it here. It reads, "Lying in bed shouting oh God does not constitute going to church."

It's easy to see how that sign could offend people. Look at the way it misuses the word constitute! Other than that, I see nothing objectionable; obviously, the sign is referring to Psalm 149.5, "Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds." The sign is just reminding us that the saints should get up and go to church afterwards.

Joel isn't Catholic (though The Ironic Catholic is a frequent contributor of sign photos), but he likes comic books, so I feel justified in anointing him a Sci Fi Christian (I've been working with my bishop to design an appropriate ritual for that, but so far he is cold to the idea).

Joel is doing something I've seen a lot of Catholics do, something that makes me cringe even as it makes me laugh--taking photographs of some absurd Christian practice, posting it on the Internet, and criticizing it. Traditionalists are fond of doing this with liturgical abuses or ugly icons. Sometimes, this kind of thing may be necessary to get people's attention, to point out real problems, and to get the problems solved. Other times, however, it crosses the line into mere mockery. Whether Crummy Church Signs crosses that line or not is something I'll let you decide.* Mockery or not, it sure is funny.

*The same churches seem to show up over and over again at Crummy Church Signs. Would somebody please contact these churches and tell them they're inadvertently offering chuckles to hundreds on the Internet?

The Mass...in Sci Fi

Ever wonder what a Sci Fi Catholic Mass might look like? Well, our friend at The B-Movie Catechism has produced images that might give you an idea....

House on Haunted Hill

As yet another excuse for putting up a fast blog post so I can run off and deal with some important and exciting projects, I refer you to The B-Movie Catechism, where EegahInc has given his thoughts on the film House on Haunted Hill for his monthly film club.

In discussing the failed marriage at the movie's center, EegahInc says something interesting:

Maybe the Lorens could have avoided all this heartache by popping over to YourFriendlyDivorce.com where they have 10 helpful hints to make sure your marriage ends nicely. They include insightful tips like #3 Seek common goals with your spouse, #4 Learn to see things from your spouse's perspective, and #5 Have a parenting plan. "Let's face it: divorce is painful." the website explains, "But with proper planning and a desire to reach agreement, you and your spouse can achieve harmony, fairness and mutual respect." (Look, if you can't make your own smart aleck remark here, you're just being lazy.) [more...]

Yeah, I can come up with one of those. How about this: Hey, if you can have harmony, fairness, and mutual respect in your divorce, couldn't you, um, have it in your marriage? I mean, really.

A Catholic on Anime

I just discovered an interesting essay on anime by a Catholic, "Anime for Catholics" over at the blog Moment of Reflection.

Some of what he says is interesting, and potentially arguable.

It is at this point that I would like to speak to Catholic men about anime. Be careful guys, Japanese thought and culture has a very different perspective on nudity than we do in the west, and even more so than what the Church teaches. Purity and chastity is something that is not easily come by in this day and age, I struggled with it myself for a long time.

Five years ago I had a massive conversion that saw the start on the path towards those two ideals, four years ago I discovered a proven and reliable method which has kept me pure and chaste ever since. [more...]

I don't pretend to have a good overview of Japanese thought and culture under my belt, nor do I believe I could get one from watching anime. As for nudity and sex in Japanese comics and cartoons, it isn't any worse than what you can find in American novels and film, though I say that based mainly on secondary sources; the anime and manga I gravitate toward is generally pretty tame, and I usually avoid the ones with "mature content" advisories. Though I don't appreciate gratuitous or gross content, I have to admit, you can see more naked artwork on a pilgrimage to Rome than you can see in a lot of anime. The usual discretion is necessary.

Blog: Got Medieval

I've been much enjoying the blog Got Medieval over the last few days. Yesterday, I mentioned the review of Beowulf on that site, and I've since then been enjoying numerous other, similarly funny posts. Also related to the Beowulf are a snidely funny post making fun of Neil Gaiman and a post entitled "Breastowulf" that speaks for itself.

Also worth reading is the funny dismantling of Kingdom of Heaven, which takes apart the film's inept writing and inept history while repeatedly referring to Orlando Bloom's unusual hotness. Then there's the article making fun of the use of Latin in Harry Potter. More serious is an article on some debunked Joan of Arc relics. Also see his article on the art of "Wikigroaning," a term I hope to see in the dictionary within ten years.

But the best part of the site is the Medieval on-line dating ads listed in the sidebar to the left. My favorite is from st_wannabe: "Fill in the blanks: Converting to Christianity is sexy. Forcing my husband to convert so that we may enjoy holy celibacy is sexier."

Dang, that is kinda sexy.

Blogrolls

I've begun the process of performing some much-needed blog maintenance. You'll see that our Sci Fi Blogroll is now divided into three categories: author, news, and fan blogs. There may be some objections to the placement of certain blogs, as the boundary between these three categories is sometimes blurry. Nonetheless, I feel this will improve the blogroll's utility, and future tweaking is always possible. I may divide up the Catholic Blogroll as well if I can come up with a useful way to do so.

I've also added a feature so that the word UPDATED! will appear next to a blog when it's been updated within the last three hours. At the time of this writing, a number of the Catholic blogs have update notifications but none of the sci-fi blogs do. I assume that's because all the sci-fi fans are in church.

C'mon, Tell Me This Isn't Awesome

So, after the Deej went to work this morning, I did the usual thing. I got up around noon, made a breakfast of Oreo Cookies and milk, and read a few volumes of manga while listening to the metal station. Anyway, while I'm listening, the D.J. comes on and reminds me that yesterday was the anniversary of Charles Schulz's retirement. So I think to myself, that's a good opportunity to show you this:



Now, granted, some of you have seen that already. This guy who goes by the name of gNAW mostly draws furries, sometimes erotic furries (and if you look on the Geek Hierarchy, you'll see you're really scraping the bottom of the geek barrel when you get down to erotic furries), but he has also produced sketches of how he imagines the Peanuts characters as teenagers--manga teenagers. These pictures have already made the rounds on the Internet. Stage 6 has a positive reaction and a sizable collection of the images. Bento Box has a selection of pictures with some of gNAW's own comments. The B-Movie Catechism and quixoticals both have strongly negative reactions.

Now, in my humble draconic opinion, what gNAW is doing is pure, undistilled awesome. I mean, look at it! Look at the detail in the clothing. Look at the emotion captured in the faces. Look at the dynamic yet natural poses. Look at how hot Lucy turned out. And these are just concept sketches. You may not like it, but you gotta admit this gNAW guy is good. Makes me wish he'd stop wasting his time on those stupid erotic furries.

Now, granted, gNAW will get the rights to do a Teennuts manga when Hell freezes over (I mean the other parts, not Cocytus), so if your reaction matches that of quixoticals, you can just chillax cuz it ain't gonna happen anyway. I do hope the guy illustrates his own comic sometime, though, if he hasn't already. Preferably one without erotic furries. *Shudder*