Sunday service 1.
LOKI
Leaving 'Alice in Wonderland' aside, look closely at 'Through the Looking
Glass' - particularly 'The Walrus and the Carpenter' poem: what's the
metaphorical meaning?
NUN
I wasn't aware there was one.
LOKI
Oh, but there is - it colorfully details the sham that is organized
religion. The Walrus - with his girth and good-nature - obviously refers to
either the Buddha, or - with his tusks - the lovable Hindu elephant god,
Lord Ganesha. This takes care of the Eastern religions. The Carpenter is an
obvious reference to Jesus Christ, who was purportedly raised the son of a
carpenter. He represents the Western religions. And in the poem. what do
they do? They dupe all the oysters into following them. Then. when the
oysters collective guard is down. the Walrus and the Carpenter shuck and
devour the helpless creatures, en masse. I don't know what that says to
you, but to me it says that following faiths based on these mythological
figures insures the destruction of one's inner-being.
BARTLEBY sits amongst a row of seats by one of the arrival gates. He eats
popcorn and stares at...
A steady stream of TRAVELERS, exiting the gate, meeting loved-ones, family.
OC LOKI
Organized religion destroys who we are or who we can be by inhibiting our
actions and decisions out of fear of an intangible parent-figure who shakes
a finger at us from thousands of years ago and says "No, no!"
Bartleby smiles at the meet-and-greets, warmed. Loki saddles up beside him,
kneeling on one of the seats, facing the Nun.
LOKI
'Through the Looking Glass' - a children's tale? I think not.
NUN
(really dazed)
I've... I've never really thought about it like that...
(beat; shocked; off her cassock)
What have I been doing with my life...?'.
LOKI
Don't look back. Just get out there and taste life.
Filed under religion.
Comments
The whole series is one metaphor after another... I think that book was written more to safely express the author's political and religious statements/challenging said establishments of the time period. Then again... what the hell do I know? I'm just a crazy person looking for sanity myself!
Posted by: Anne | March 7, 2004 1:27 PM
I think you are absolutely right. I was watching Dogma and just remembered how funny this scene was so I posted it. :)
Posted by: kat | March 7, 2004 2:53 PM
I too was watching Dogma, 'course you need to have seen the uncut version to be able to laugh at the Comedy Central version.
Unless you happened to be watching on DVD or video at the same time Comedy Central was showing the movie... if so, that's just scary or maybe it's a sign, like, God does exist! (Although I don't see Alanis Morissette to be the image of God; Fiona Apple: maybe)
Posted by: JFH | March 7, 2004 3:14 PM
I LOVE that movie. Love it love it. "I feel like I'm Han Solo, and you're Chewie, and she's Ben Kenobi, and we're in that fucked-up bar!"
Posted by: karri | March 7, 2004 3:16 PM
I was watching it on VHS. I love this movie. It's hysterical and it's all the things that people are taught about god except for the fact that she is a woman which if there was a god, it would not be a woman because women just don't fuck shit up this bad. ;)
Posted by: kat | March 7, 2004 3:18 PM
I knew you were a slut. *bong* ...lmao It's just too funny.
Posted by: kat | March 7, 2004 3:19 PM
Maybe this will shock you. Maybe it won't. But I think Dogma is one of the best depictions of what God is really all about. Ever.
Posted by: Solonor | March 7, 2004 8:12 PM
And that would be the beep on the nose she does at the end? A great sense of humor the Metatrone says.
I think the movie is what people want it to be. Some see it as the raging satirical comedy that Kevin Smith made it to be and some see it, as you do, as the message they are trying to get across.
There are things in it, you have to agree, that are simply far too funny to be 'biblical'.
The one part that I find most fascinating and that not too many people agree with, is the character Rufus. A long time ago, where Africa now sits, is where Jerusalem used to be. The people of that land were black. So when Rufus starts talking about how they changed things because people didn't want a black god, they were right. The people in most older paintings of that time, were dark skinned. The image of christ that we have now is what the church wants you to see. No one would pray to a black god and they knew it.
I would like to hear your take on the film. Explain if you want about what you meant. That it is the best depiction of what god is really all about. Your answer, just as the film, is open to many interpretations.
Posted by: kat | March 7, 2004 8:36 PM
Just so no one chews my head off about the black man reference, here is the scripture:
Revelations 1:14 and 1:15
"His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; 15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters." (Rev. 1:14 and 1:15)
"His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude." (Daniel 10:6)
Posted by: kat | March 7, 2004 8:49 PM