Pattern Pattern Apocalypse: A Rant

 

This, this scene right here, should have gotten a loud cheer from the "conservative Christian" crowd, particularly the Catholic and Orthodox crowds. The above scene is a masterful climax to an epic space fantasy, where the value of the nature of life itself is affirmed. If you believe in the communion of saints this scene should have reduced you to fucking tears. Rey, an obvious reference to light, takes on a damningly obvious image of the soul as conceived by apostolic Christians. The soul, which is usually depicted as female, channels the light and goodness of the nature she shares with the world and with God, using this light to defeat evil, with a cross. Two seconds of ascetical reading should have made this image obvious. This image would not work with a man claiming to be all the Jedi. Because the human soul is female, not male; the soul, working properly, receives its light and life from God, and its this reception, in and of itself, that is salvific to itself and to others nearby. If there is one image in modern cinema that is Christian it is this one. This is Analogical Reading 101, it is blindingly basic.

Should I be shocked that the Right missed it???

No, I should not. 

But I am.

Because somehow, someway, using classical Christian imagery in an inventive way counts as SJW NONSENSE. Blind idiots!

The thing that really confuses me about conservative reads on the sequel trilogy is that, in theory, they have preserved the truths and tools from the past that would make this whole Skywalker Saga not just a simple tale, but a profoundly beautiful and hopeful one. Dead or alive, we all matter, one way or another. 

And honestly, if it wasn't for the absolute destruction of an actual spiritual sense in our culture, I think more people could see it. As Spengler puts it, we are in the Civilization phase of our society; we are all, by default, atheists at this point. Atheists do not see with the soul, they see with the mind. Which means that, if you're going to not be an atheist, you have to learn to turn your nous, the perceiving instrument of the soul, back on. The nous sees in repetitions, patterns, and sudden apocalypses that re-contextualize what came before, changing it irrevocably.

Oh, if you don't know, apocalypse originally referred to the moment in a Jewish wedding where the woman takes off her veil for her husband for the first time. The word essentially means "a sudden revelation that was only barely hinted at".

The nous (what us Americans call The Third Eye) sees life in terms of patterns and apocalypses.

So does the Skywalker Saga.

DEATH OF THE MENTOR

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Pattern 

Apocalypse

FACING THE FAILED FATHER FIGURE

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Pattern

Apocalypse

FACING THE DEATH OF A LOVED ONE

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Pattern

Apocalypse

Look folks, this is tiresome to me. I don’t enjoy being angry. I don’t find rage entertaining and try to avoid it as often as possible. I’ve avoided writing about Star Wars because I have gotten so annoyed with the popular reception of the sequels that I just don’t want to be bothered. I'm two decades ahead and I know it. And that annoys me. Knowing that in two decades people will have figured that the entirety of the Skywalker Saga is awesome does not make me feel superior, but lonely and inhumanely peeved. I can't just go with the flow, I have to put up with two decades of whining.

Yes, whining.

Yes, you're all acting like children.

Now, the thing is that you could tell me I'm supposed to act with patience about this situation. After all, children need that quite a bit, don't they? If I think you're acting like a child I should calmly and sweetly explain, over and over again, what it is you're missing and then let you put the rest of the puzzle pieces together. After all, that's what adults do, right? They help children grow up.

Whoever says that has clearly never had children. Children are narcissists on a good day and assholes on anything less, and it's frequently less. Yes, patience and niceness can help.... but usually I find you have to hold up the standard of behavior that you expect, let the kid know what it is, and then become as granite in the face of the oncoming storm.

So here's the deal, you supposed guardians of a culture that's been dead for at least a decade now:

The storytelling methods of The Skywalker Saga are the patterns of Western Civilization. Yes that includes the sequels. I get that the corporate buyout of Disney is the deathknell. Yup. I hear you. But the thing they completed? They actually did their job. And you know how I know that? Because I sat down and watched the hell out of all nine movies and think every last thing you'd want a Westerner to relearn to see is not just in these movies but it's the only spot where it's being done currently. This is your shot! You got nothing else! And irony of ironies, a corporation gave it to you!

So you can either sit down and look at the object objectively, without your bullshit lenses, or you can just whine. 

Like a child.

Oh, and progressives, don't think you're off the hook. I don't take your positions seriously enough to comment on them.

So take that as you like.