Everyone watches movies. It is considered a simple and innocent pastime of evenings, specially weekends. But is it really so? How innocent are the movies after all?
I love watching movies. Takes the thoughts off from the current problems of my miserable life. But how healthy are they actually. How many hours a day, a week, a month, a year does one spend watching tv and/or movies? I'm quite sure, my life contains years of watching movies, instead of hours. I have a huge collection of them, and I watch them over and over again. But what is the message that they send? After all, we are what we see, eat and hear. Everything around us affects us and our ways of thinking and living.
When I was about 11-13 years old, I started to read these books, that were probably not meant for my aged little girl. By that time, I had already watched every single Bond movie that there had been published (after all, their age limit is somewhere in 15). I specially got absorbed in fantasy novels written by David Eddings. They were imaginary and fun with action and all that a kid at that age would want. After reading all of his publishings by that time, I got somewhat scared and realized how bad all the fantasy books could be for a girl still growing, and quit that habit. But turned my attention to other books, which can't be said to have been much better, with all murders and 'soft porn'.
From that day on I didn't read any fantasy books, only watched a looooot of movies, which just may be fantasy or fiction, which is basically the same. It was not until about a year ago when I saw the Harry Potter movies that had been released so far. The first two didn't really impress me, but when I got to the third one, I was hooked. I watched all of them and read the books also. After Harry Potter I got absorbed in Eragon. Now that you start to think about it, along the years I actually couldn't stay away from the fantasy, but had been watching a lot of movies with nothing but fantasy in them. I've probably seen most of the well known fantasy characters on screen. Including all cartoon and novel characters; Batman, Superman, Spiderman, et. Zorro in a way is refreshingly normal, since in the original version, there is no superstitious acts, only a man with a lot of talent to stand up for the people.
What is then so wrong about fantasy? When you go to a bookstore or library to the fantasy section, you should automatically know that what you're about to buy or borrow is complete fiction with nothing realistic in them. What could be wrong in detaching yourself from the reality to fantasy and to forget your current problems?
Harry Potters are complained to be hazard and not recommendable books, among some Christians. The books are popular among children and also adults. But what are the effects of the book series? Every successful movie includes a lot of fan products and lots of sidekicks. People buy these to become their hero, their idol. Idol then again is, according to dictionary, an image of a divinity, false god, a representation or a symbol of a deity or any other being or thing made or used as an object of worship ( Webster's third new international dictionary, 1993). This is what makes it dangerous. Children with no guidance to any better idolize what they are allowed to see and watch. Adults with no firm believe in anything don't have direction of right and wrong, as long as the children obey them when needed, don't guide their children in any direction and don't warn them of any danger that may lie in believing fantasy. In America, I hear, in universities, they have started to play the game invented by Harry Potter's writer, Quidditch. Of course, in the books, this game would require flying, but since it is humanly impossible, they have somehow bypassed this little inconvenience. Also role playing is very popular. Specially in the UK children take a huge interest in Harry Potter role playing. But the question is, how healthy is role playing? A game where you identify as one of the character. And what is the point where too much is too much? When the children just imagine to be a which and use magic, or the point where they start to practice real magic with indifference to the consequences of their actions. After all, the world believes there is two kinds of magic, white and black, where black is the satanism and white is just ordinary, non-dangerous magic. There is no white or black magic. There is only magic which comes from the same source, the Devil.
I don't object to reading fantasy novels, as long as the reader knows where they stand; what is real and what is not, what is right and what is wrong, what can be done and what cannot be done. As long as they remember what is good and what is evil. Most of the people, even Christians, want to believe that you can choose to take some of this and some of that, but not that and not that. They do not realize that there isn't a third choice in the world. There is either God or Satan. There is no third field to choose from. You either choose God, or if you don't, you choose the Devil. So where does these passive Christians stand in? They do not take an interest in God, but not in Satan either. Isn't that exactly what the devil wants? He doesn't want to be the only one burning in hell. He takes as much people with him as he can, and those are the ones that don't keep their candles burning and take care where they are going. Those are the passive Christians who believe in God, but then again don't care about it.
The problem of the world is that they don't want to believe. The western culture has turned into paganism itself. At least the Muslims still believe in their cause. The Christians have forgotten what their's is. Their current believe is being good looking and rich and celebrity. People worship those who have money and power and undermine those who actually have lives and reason to life for.
This people worship is seeing in all of the fantasy movies. Their main point is, that because praying God doesn't bring answers, there is a human, with extraordinary powers, who can save the world from the evil. in Star Wars there is Luke Skywalker who 'has the power' to face his father 'Darth Vader' aka Anakin Skywalker and the Dark Lord, and defeats them and saves the universe. In Harry Potter there is Harry Potter, the young wizard, who has something else than what the rest has to defeat 'Voldemort' aka Tom Marvolo (or what ever) Riddle aka 'The one that must not be named'. In Eragon, there is this young boy, Eragon who finds a dragon egg that hatches to him and he receives powers through her to defeat the evil ruler Galbatorix. Also along the way he has to fight his brother he didn't know existed and his inheritance. In Lord of the Rings there is Frodo Bagings who has the unbelievable tolerance for the Ring and thus saves the world from the Eye. The list goes on forever. They are all claiming the same one thing. There is no God to believe in. The God we should worship is somewhere amongst us. No unseeing God can save us from the evil and terror on the planet. Only a man we can all see and worship can defeat the evilness of the world.
The storyline is old and used. And it is always based on the one and same story from the bible. Christ our savior was born on earth, a man amongst us came and defeated the evil. The only problem is, that the one and only savior has already been born. And he was born of God, not from human conceiving. And he died and rosed from the dead, and he lives on. Still the people don't believe it, and keep on creating new fictional characters to save themselves from the boredom and dullness of their lives. Boredom, as I have said to some of my friends, is a self inflicted state, where the person is not sensible enough to do anything. If you are bored, do something about it. The boredom is only in that one person, only because they don't do anything or have the sense to do anything.
[spoiler: if you haven't read the ending of Harry Potter and don't want me to spoil the ending for you, DON'T READ THIS CHAPTER]
The last book of Harry Potter ended much as I suspected it to end. I didn't see that there would be a horcrux inside the character, but I knew he would somehow be killed by Voldemort and still live to tell the tale, and have some sort of conversation with the already-dead Albus Dumbledore to explain the whole situation. This is the biggest reference to the bible that I have come across reading fantasy novels. The writer actually equalizes Harry Potter to God who was born on earth and died for the cause of all the people, as the main character does in the end of the book, and still rises 'from the dead' to save the day and kill Voldemort.
No wonder children these days don't believe in God nor want to read bible. Bible is after all, a very old book, which main plot everyone already knows, specially from the books they have already read, but without any excitement. The bible tries to give impression to follow Gods loving ways and teachings, but people these days are looking for violence and action. You can't find anything calming these days from the television. Everything is plotting against each others and killing or stealing from them. All the music is filled with hectic pulse and words of love which actually only indicate sexual conducts. Nobody believes in anything anymore. Fiction and fantasy is filling the heads of the children and boredom and nonsense the heads of the adults. There is something seriously wrong with this world.
Now is Christmas time, time of goodwill etc etc and time of Santa. How many actually realizes that when you rearrange the letters in Santa, you get Satan? People are worshiping the devil itself. A while ago I watched an episode of Bones and I learned a new meaning for Christmas. It is all about lying for the children. At Christmas time, it is okay, it is allowed, even recommended to lie to children, to make them happy and believe in things. This was said by an FBI agent (of course an actor) who was also acting a devoted catholic. What has happened to the ten commandments? All of those commandments are being broken and even recommended to be broken. What has this world come to?
/Mira
