The horror of reconciliation
January 11, 2010 9:42 am Culture, PersonalI had an interesting discussion with my roommate a few weeks ago; he had told me about a conversation he had with a mutual acquaintance of ours about reconciling devout Roman Catholicism with enjoyment of the horror genre. Rather than get into the specifics of those conversations (one of which I wasn’t even a part of!), I’ll jump straight into offering my opinion on the subject.
You shouldn’t have to “reconcile” anything with your religion; I never understood why some folks believe that they cannot enjoy certain types of media due to their religious beliefs. Do you honestly think your deity or deities of choice would think less of you for enjoying fiction? A lot of horror media may be based on demons, Satan, or other such “evil” stuff, but the fact remains: it’s still fiction. It’s not real, and no religion priding itself on love, peace, and — most importantly — tolerance should begrudge you for enjoying it. Plus, if you want to take a scientific approach, you can logically argue that Satan himself is a work of fiction!
People need to realize that just because you enjoy certain works of entertainment, that doesn’t mean you believe in them as if they were real. This misguided belief is the cause of many problems in our society; whenever there’s a tragic school shooting, there’s a pointless focus on what kinds of music, movies, or video games the perpetrator was interested in. What nonsense! For crying out loud, I love black metal, but I don’t give a shit about any of the demonic or violent content found in many bands’ lyrics or imagery. I just enjoy the music. In fact, most of the bands themselves don’t believe in that stuff! They know it’s just an act, and they’re here to entertain.
Getting back to the original point, my stance is this: if your religion is claiming that you shouldn’t enjoy fiction for any reason, then it’s a problem with the religion itself, not with you, or the fiction you wish to enjoy. Religious beliefs that try to prevent their adherents from enjoying fictional constructs, even ones based on so-called “evil” ideas, are nothing more than an attack on independent thought and personal freedom. If less people fell prey to that, the world would be a much better place!
As a final note, I’d like to point out something that should lay any and all arguments to rest: one of my best friends is a Lutheran minister, and he loves horror movies! If someone who has devoted their life to their religious faith can work that out, I’m sure the average churchgoer can.
January 11th, 2010 at 2:06 PM
Ok, now that I’ve been brought up, I might as well say a word. The question here is about integrity. I am always amazed that you can find individuals who are terribly afraid of Harry Potter because the novels talk about magic and wizardry, but have no problem with real life torture of prisoners of war because the prisoners are “evil”. Evil is real enough and present enough on the nightly news that we ought not get in a dither about imaginary monsters. Art can tell powerful truth about human evil with monsters (ala Godzilla and the nuking of Nagasaki and Hiroshima). It can also help us to explore our own terrible fallen state (ala Kevin Spacey in Seven, or the Mall full of Zombies literally consuming the consumers in Dawn of the Dead). At the end of the day, a little escapism, even if it involves plumbing our subconscious fear of the unknown isn’t bad for us. The real question is whether we learn anything about ourselves in the process and take time to notice the darkness that exists in all of us. The path to righteousness begins with acknowledging our unrighteousness.
January 11th, 2010 at 2:22 PM
As usual, sir, you’ve knocked it out of the park with a clear, concise, and well-thought out explanation that puts my rambling posts to shame. Well done!