Celebrity-ism

Apple Jac's previous blog about "New Moon" has inspired me to discuss another fascinating phenomenon surrounding the recent release of the film: Twilight fans, aka Twilighters.

It is expected that any successful story features likeable characters. We've all experienced that dissapointing feeling when we finish a good book and realize that we will no longer be able to see the world through our beloved characters' eyes. I often procrastinate reading the last few chapters of stories I've loved, just to allow its world to continue a little longer. In the end however, it is just a fictional story, with fictional characters and fictional events.

I read and enjoyed the Twilight saga, and can understand why teenage girls relate and fall in love with its characters. What I have found interesting through this entire pop culture craze however, has been the Twilighters' intense devotion to the cast of the movies. The actors in Twilight and New Moon have been under intense security over the past few months, due to their growing fan base. One of the actors, Taylor Lautner, summed it all up during an interview I caught on television when he stated that "[he] hopes [he] can live up to the fans' expectations". Fans of the books finally have people to attribute their beloved characters to. Whether they have realize it or not, to Twlighters, Bella, Edward, Jacob ect., can now live on through the actors' personal lives and stories. It definitely does not take a genius to see what the problem is with this situation. Fans of the story are idolizing a regular actors and attributing to them the qualities of purely fictional characters. Welcome to our culture of celebrity entertainment.

Twilight is not the only example of the celebrity phenomenon. Our culture has created an entire industry based on celebrity-ism. We admire their fame, know their favorite passtimes, follow their relationships and admire their appearances. Celebrities have become the heroes of our generation. The problem is that these "regular" people are in very few cases heroes at all. Is our focus on them distracting us from true present and past heroes? Who are your heroes and why? What do your heroes stand for?

And the Church said...

The Church has spoken on the newest movie in the Twilight saga. Monsignor Franco Perazzolo of the Pontifical Council of Culture said, on Friday, "The theme of vampires in Twilight combines a mixture of excesses that as ever is aimed at young people and gives a heavy esoteric element. It is once again that age-old trick or ideal formula of using extremes to make an impact at the box office. This film is nothing more than a moral vacuum with a deviant message and as such should be of concern."

Admittedly, I saw the film opening day (before hearing what Msgr. said), and after thinking I wasted time and money on the first one, was pleasantly surprised to be entertained watching the second, with no real scandalizing content. The one thing my husband and I discussed afterwards, was the fact that this young girl, continues to disrespect her father, be driven entirely by her emotions and has a seriously disordered attachment, to the extent that when her relationship is in jeopardy, she endangers her life with reckless actions. Her beloved goes so far as to attempt suicide when he thinks she is no longer alive. Throughout much of the movie, I kept thinking, "Man, this girl needs the Lord." Her entire world is Edward.

In a society where young girls very easily give their hearts and more to young men when there is no potential for marriage in the near future, a film like this can be dangerous. I do not think any adult woman would be scandalized by these films, though for a single adult woman it could propagate ideas of a whimsical romantic ideal based on emotion rather than reason. I've not read the books in their entirety, only parts, and I've heard the series has some redemptive pro-life and pro-chastity elements, so I'm thankful for those. I will say, though, for a pro-chastity series, there is some very sensual language in the parts of the book I've read, which might explain why the theater was full of girls moaning and groaning inappropriately every time Jacob came on the screen. I am, however, quite glad to see teens being crazed over a film that doesn't have any sex, nudity, foul language, or drug use, rather than the average teen film.

That said, I can see why the Church is cautioning parents about this film. Bella, is begging Edward to change her into a vampire, and says, "I don't care about my soul, I care about you." The Lord says, "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" (Mark 8:36)

My favorite movie review site has a great review of the film here: http://www.movieguide.org/box-office/7/10049/the-twilight-saga-new-moon

Today is a gift...

I was recently trying to explain our current NFP situation to some friends when a realization hit me: NFP forces us to live in the PRESENT. That's the hardest thing ever!

A therapist I was talking to told me that not only is our generation more future-oriented, but and upper middle class upbringing also stresses goals and furture planning (ie. this group of people puts tends to focus on setting and meeting goals, but not really enjoying them once they're met).

So here's my thinking: unlike many couples, we truly do not know how many kids God has planned for us. Honestly it's a little bit scary because the unknown always is, but He only does what is best for us!

Now that we're expecting baby #2 (I'll let you know the sex on Thursday) we are getting a LOT more people asking us if we are done or if we are planning more. Most people are also hoping we are having a boy so we'll have our boy and girl and be done, but I'm secretly hoping for another girl. The response I've been giving people is "We honestly do not know how many children we are going to have. I'm only 23 and I don't feel the need to make a final decision right now. Even though we know we know we need a break for now, we don't know how we're going to feel in 1, 2, 5, or 10 years." Most women seem receptive of this answer and find it reasonable as long as I don't automatically hit them with the Church teaching about abstaining for grave reasons and such.

So I guess this is my "live in the present and leave the future to God" pep talk of the week. Any thoughts?