Our Shrinking Culture: Movies and Cultural Literacy

BreakPoint ^ | 4 August 03 | Chuck Colson

[Mr. Silverback]

Critics were very hard on the recent film THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN. Roger Ebert, citing the movie's "idiotic dialogue . . . and general lunacy," proclaimed, "What a mess."

But what a colleague of mine, who saw the film, found most troubling about his experience was not what happened on screen but in the audience -- something that illustrates our incredible shrinking culture.

THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN is based on a comic book series of the same name. It is set in 1899 in a world where the great characters of nineteenth-century fiction are real. You have Jules Verne's Captain Nemo interacting with H. G. Wells's Invisible Man and Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray.

As a result, the film, like the comic, is filled with amusing references and allusions to nineteenth-century literature. At least, it would be amusing if the audience caught the references. In his review, Washington-area film critic Joe Barber wondered if the audience could be expected to be familiar with these books.

Judging by the showing my colleague attended, Barber's concerns are correct. Early in the movie, Nemo introduces the others to his first mate who tells them, "Call me Ishmael" -- the first line from MOBY DICK. The audience around my colleague had puzzled expressions on their faces. The joke, requiring cultural literacy, flew right past them.

Historian E. D. Hirsch would not be surprised. In his great book CULTURAL LITERACY, Hirsch writes that American children, including those from affluent families, are not being taught "the basic information needed to thrive in the modern world." Not only do they not get references to classic literature, but words like carpetbagger, Waterloo, and Alamo mean nothing to them.

It shouldn't surprise us then that this "cultural illiteracy" would be reflected in our popular entertainment. Forty years ago, THE MUSIC MAN featured a song whose lyrics went, "I hope, and I pray, for a Hester to win just one more 'A.'" Most of the audience today would miss the reference to Hawthorne's THE SCARLET LETTER and the meaning of the lyrics that, in this case, glorify adultery.

To accommodate our illiteracy, this summer's fare is taken from comic books, television shows, video games, and even a theme-park ride. As Thomas Hibbs of Baylor University has noted, movies, like the rest of popular culture, are being dumbed down: They are entirely self-referential.

These pop-culture references are increasingly the only shared references in our culture. The participants on VH-1's I LOVE THE EIGHTIES know more about the hairstyles worn by musicians in that decade than they know about the Declaration of Independence or the great books of our history.

The problem is not only that this glorifies the trivial and the fleeting, but it deprives us of the moral guidance and wisdom that only knowledge of our own heritage can provide.

Thus, Christians should act counterculturally by setting an example of cultural literacy for our neighbors to follow. Call us here at BreakPoint (1-877-3-CALLBP), and we will suggest some good resources. Not only is it a good way to preserve our moral heritage, but it will even enable you to go to the movies and enjoy the jokes.

[T'wit]

Depending on how old and cranky :-), you may remember how routinely classical passages were used as radio show themes. Classical themes died off in the TV era, but for a time, at least, you could still hear them regularly in kiddy cartoons and occasionally in TV commercials.

[B-Chan]

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[Cronos]

the old Looney Tunes cartoons are densely packed with classical references

AND nifty bits of Latin shoved in, like, 'he's definitely non compos mentis' (Bugs describing Elmer!). Looooooooove those toons! (Disliked the Disney sugary sweet stuff though:-P

[IYAS9YAS]

I was introduced to classical music by the Looney Tunes. My parents didn't really listen to it at that age (Mom liked country and easy listening and Dad...well...he's why I like the Stones, Steppenwolf, Beetles, etc...).

[T'wit]

I can almost sing Bugs Bunny's lyrics to the Second Hungarian Rhapsody :-)

[Mr. Silverback]

I think the Watchmen is the best story ever told in comic book form.

I would say instead that The Watchmen is one of the best-told stories ever in comics, but the further I went along, the less I liked it. This wasn't the main reason for my dislike, but one thing that sticks with me was how Moore viewed all conservatives as scum, except for Rohrshach who was totally nuts. For instance, I vividly remember how the conservative magazine in the story was overtly anti-semitic. I think your assessment of the Moore-Miller-Gaiman effect on the industry is right on. Between that and the collector bubble, we're lucky we still have comics at all.

[discostu]

Like many artists Moore has a distinctly liberal bent. But one thing to remember is that the paranoid freak-out conservatives like Rorschach and the New Frontier (I just reread it a couple of months ago) were right on the money. They had it all worked out, and the holier than though liberal do-gooder killed 3 million people, you could even take it step further back and see that Nixon was right in his distrust of these costumed vigilantes who had put themselves above the law.

I think my favorite aspect of the whole story is Dr Manhatan. He's effectively God, but because of his prescience and the fact that he sees all these future events as unchangable he winds up being the least powerful person in the story. But there's really so much that's amazing about it, the story has amazing depth and is highly original (I can't think of anything like it on more than a superficial level).

I'll never forget picking up that first issue, I was heavy into the comic addiction, had a reserve bag at the local store and everything. Part of my list was all limited issue series. So I found Watchmen 1 in there, looked at the cover thought it was pretty unique bought it, took it home, read the first page and stopped. I knew I wasn't in the right mind set for this one, so I watched TV for a while and got myself in a less comic book frame of mind then went back to it. I knew after 5 pages that the industry would never be the same again, it was like Star Wars in the fact that it was obvious right from the start that it would have a dramatic effect on it's part of entertainment. And to this day you can look at it and see Watchmen as the dividing line, you can pick up a comic and without looking at any date information know immediately if it's pre or post Watchmen.

I should give credit where it's due. Some lady on the DVD extras of Unbreakable is where I stole the idea that Moore-Miller-Gaiman killed the industry (through no fault of their own). I forget her name but it's in that documentary on comics on the second disk. I think she's absolutely right and my own collection proves her right, that's why I stole the line.