Faith from a bloodsucker

While not my favorite book, Anne Rice's fifth installment in her Vampire saga, "Memnoch the Devil," is definitely in my top five. What is interesting, though is why this book has such a deep impact on me. When I was reading the book, I was completely at odds with my religious side and had no idea what I believed in anymore. This book didn't create my new beliefs, but I do consider it to be what got me thinking.

"Memnoch" is once again told from the words of the Vampire, Lestat, as he meets a creature who claims to be the devil and attempts to recruit him against God. He is taken to the creation of time, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and even to Purgatory, as Memnoch explains the real relationship between God and the Devil. This relationship is what got me thinking.

According to Memnoch, the Devil....erm...him and God are on better terms than most people think. The great divide that came between the two was when God granted humans free will, but not the Angels. While everyone else in heaven followed God as they were told, Memnoch was puzzled why humans were given such a divine gift when the angels were far greater servants to their creator. God then  decided to entertain the Devil and allowed him the opportunity to give those who do no make it to heaven a second chance, where they would spend their afterlife learning forgiveness, until they moved on.

While I do not believe all of this, nor do I believe the author herself believes this, but rather uses Memnoch as a character to simply get people to question what they know. For me, I don't know what I believe in the Bible should be taken literal and what is just simply a story with morals to live by. What I do believe is that every time someone blames God for something terrible happening, or when something unexplainable happens, people say God has a plan. I have a problem with this, because God doesn't let these things happen. People do. All the evil in the world comes from God's gift to us: free will. 

So, by allowing something to happen if that person means God lets people make their own decisions, then yes they are right, but if by then saying God planned that to happen, then I have to disagree. I may very well be wrong, but I disagree. the only thing God allows to happen is for people to make their own choices. Do I believe God is all powerful and could step in at anytime? Yes, but I believe he won't, because of our promised free will, which started at our creation and was first exercised when Eve took the apple...if you believe that sort of thing.

Of course what makes all of this complex in "Memnoch the Devil" is the ending. I won't give it away, but we all know that Satan is the king of deceit and could be lying to Lestat the entire time....

The state of creativity

The other day I went to see J.J. Abram's Star Trek in theatre. While i'm not a Star Trek fan, I loved it. I admit i'm a little bit of an Abrams fanboy, but that is what drawed me in, but what made me love it was the originality in an otherwise completely bloated and drawn out franchise. Without giving too much away, they come up with a very cool way of explaining why this new take on Star Trek isn't just a retelling, but instead kind of a parallel timeline that is different than the old Star Trek tales (which now gives them an excuse to make sequels and do whatever the fuck they want without pissing off Trekies and even gain their support).

What wasn't so enjoyable was what was shown before the movie began. There was a trailer for a movie version of G.I. Joe, The Land of the Lost, and the sequel to Transformers. Adapting cartoons, tv shows, and action figures to live action Hollywood blockbusters is nothing new, but it seems as if these films contribute to about 90% of what Hollywood creates now. 

What is more unsettling is that the writers just came off of a strike and demanded more money. In return, they create garbage like this? The argument could be made that these films are coming out, due to the strike and making films based off of other mediums with a story already intact was easier to work on than an original story, but this has been going on for a while. I know that unions are created to stop workers from being bullied and protect them, but what happens when the unions become the bully? The Writers Guild should have stood up and fought against having to write crap for the studios rather than money, but then again people continue to watch this crap.

When I was a kid, big summer blockbusters were films, like Jurassic Park. Yes, that is an adaptation of a book, but literary adaptations just feel right, whereas having Will Ferrel star in a Land of the Lost movie just seems like someone wanted a paycheck for as little creativity as possible. Quentin Tarantino is a non guild member and his Inglorious Basterds looks to be like one of the few original films out there this season.

The only way I can think to end this first blog is to ask the writers, what happened? Alan Moore never cared about money. He just wanted to write the best stories he could and in fact has recently refused paychecks for the movie versions of Watchmen and V for Vendetta. Stop writing crap for Michael Bay to turn into another hideous film full of explosions and bring back the creativity!