Tag: deconstruction

The Neverending Story

I believe it’s better to understand #hell more like the NOTHING in The Neverending Story, a negation of creation. I think Karl Barth would like that.

I predict The Duffer brothers are taking that motif on for season 5 of Stranger Things. They’ve already tipped their hat to the Never Ending Story in season 2. The upside down is like the Nothing. It’s a negation of the right side up and all things good and wholesome. De-creating chaos breaks its way into our world and creeps in. In the last episode of season 4, it shows the upside down breaking into the right side up, much like the Nothing was destroying Fantasia.

The main ingredient to New Creation is imagination (thank you Lennon and Dr. MLKJ, and Uncle Paul himself of course). We have to imagine together to create the next new moment as the collective deity (cross the streams like in Ghostbusters). If we don’t do that, then the Nothing destroys everything. Even though it’s Nothing, it acts as a positive entity (oh the irony), feeding off the vacuum that is formed while we’re not busy new-creating. It always has to be kept at bay by our imagination, imagining a new future that we can create together that is not hell.

The only thing that has to happen for evil to prevail is for good people to do, well, Nothing. So in the Never Ending Story,, the human child had to give the Princess of Fantasia a new name. He spoke a new world into existence by calling her name. A speech-act. He manifested it. He believed in another future and made it true. All the sad things became untrue. Atrayu’s horse Artex was alive again and the snail people were also bodily resurrected. When the Earthling child spoke her new name into the dark storm it was a sacramental act of New Creation. Kind of like when God brought order out of the chaos in the beginning by speaking out into the void (the Nothing). And then Man gave names to all of the animals.

It truly is the Never Ending story that we’re all a part of. We’re born into it and we have to say our lines and play our part while we’re here. The Never Ending Story is The Epic of our existence, and we’re all in it. Throughout the movie the child reading the Epic slowly realized that he was a character in the book as well. Now that’ll preach. Say your lines. Say them like the future depends on it. Because it does.

Related matters:
“Somethin’ filled up my heart with #nothin’
I can #see that it’s a lie.”
#wakeup and #adjust #somethins #happening #here everybody look what’s goin’ down. “I know there’s #something goin’ on. “I know there’s #something goin’ on.” “I’m always searching for #something.”

In which Habakkuk uses the myth of redemptive violence as a theodicy.

[the·od·i·cy
/THēˈädəsē/
noun
the vindication of divine goodness and providence in view of the existence of evil.]

The prophet asks God how long he’s going to let all the destruction and violence continue.

What good are laws if justice never goes forth?

The Lord answers that the violent nation Babylon is carrying out justice on his behalf, and the prophet answers that surely the everlasting one can do better than that.

God’s response? Well, the Babylonians will get what they deserve too, I’m in my temple so everyone can stop complaining.

So Habakkuk, like many before and after him, props up the myth of redemptive violence (MRV) as a theodicy, and goes back to singing worship songs.

And when Jesus’ life and teaching calls the MRV into question, they kill him for it, then centuries of Christians interpret that death through the MRV.

I believe “the Earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” when we finally stop adhering to the MRV. How long will that take?