The Message- Critical Reflection

Robin Sylvan’s chapter “The Message” is about the spirituality that can be found within hip hop culture (Sylvan 2002). It forms a section of Sylvan’s book “Traces of the Spirit: The Religious Dimensions of Popular Music” which looks at the spiritual and religious sides of various genres of music.

The chapter is split into two halves, with the first a very dense look at the history of rap music, hip hop culture and its influences. The second half is a look at the religious components taken from interviews Sylvan has conducted with practitioners and fans of hip hop in the Bay Area of Southern California.

The interviews shed light on little known aspects of hip hop culture, most notably the sense of community and transcendence it creates (Sylvan 2002, 210). The reason why hip hop has become so successful is illuminated as interviewees discuss their own experiences and the positive effect hip hop has had on their lives (Sylvan 2002, 212). However, Sylvan admits that this can depend on the areas where the practitioners come from, as hip hop is different from city to city (2002, 202). Sylvan does discuss the differences between East Coast and West Coast rap but doesn’t go into much detail. A message of the love and peace in hip hop’s messages and community results from the interviews but interviews with those involved with hip hop in other areas may have resulted in a different view of the culture, and would be an interesting follow-up to this chapter.

Work Cited:

Sylvan, R. “The Message.” In Traces of the Spirit: The Religious Dimensions of Popular Music, 182-213. New York and London: New York University Press, 2002.

Seduction

Prompted by Jean Baudrillard's work on the power of "seduction" in media, Sylvie plays a clip and asks: "What are you seduced by?"
I have not been able to watch or listen to anything since then without considering this question. Is it the witty and surprising script of a new film that excites and seduces me? The actors within the film? The new Game of Thrones trailer (which sent me into spasms of geek-out)?
Emotion, for me, is the real seduction. The tears that result out of empathy for someone's plight on the news or talk show. The elation of perfectly realised film. The fear of not knowing what will happen to a character that I genuinely care about.
Seduction, is indeed, a powerful tool that the media has at its disposal and I fall for it almost every time.

Image retrieved from:
http://www.freeimageslive.com/galleries/nature/flora/pics/daffs01479.jpg

Finding Jesus in All Things

 At Xavier Catholic College in Hervey Bay this is the school motto: finding Jesus in all things. Students are encouraged to look for the good, the decent and the Christian in all people, places and situations. It is interesting, then, to find that some people are doing exactly that with cinema: finding the Christian aspects and the Christ-figures in films (Pepple 2009). On the other hand there are academics like Dr. Christopher Deacy discussing how trying to find Jesus or Christ-like figures in films can detract from the film’s original message and theme (2006). It can also detract from the messages within Christian scripture if they are trivialised in order to find a comparison within a film, so it is interesting some Christian film critics find this helpful, rather than a hindrance (Deacy 2006).

Works Cited:

Deacy, C. “Reflections on the Uncritical Appropriation of Cinematic Christ-Figures: Holy Other or Wholly Inadequate?” Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, 13, Summer, 2006: http://www.usask.ca/relst/jrpc/art13-reflectcinematicchrist.html.

Pepple, S. “Sacred and Profane: A Survey of Christian Film Criticism.” 15 October 2009. http://www.gettherefromhere.org/2009/10/15/sacred-and-profane-a-survey-of-christian-film-criticism/ (accessed March 20, 2012).


Picture from:
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/agree-terms.php?phid=37417&photogname=watcharakun&photogid=2265&refurl=http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Religion_g302-Christ_The_Redeemer_And_Open_Cloud_p37339.html

Disenchantment

The wonder of childhood disappears and is replaced by an unwelcome cynicism. The grass is itchy. I'm going to get burnt. I should have brought a cardigan... is that lizard going to bite me?!

The 'beautiful lake' is reflecting a glare that hurts my eyes. When did this happen? When did apathy replace curiosity? Can I get it back? Do I want it back???

Then, a spark of outrage... someone has thrown their plastic bottle into the lake!!! 

Perhaps there's hope for me after all. 

Image source: http://www.freeimageslive.com/galleries/nature/woodland/pics/cumbriawoodland02861.jpg 

Fact or Fiction- reflection on this week's reading

In modern Western society, "mediatization" has rendered a change in the representation of religion with a trend to the more secular and “banal” religion (Hjarvard 2008, 9). Christian Churches that were once the authorities for all things “other” or “sacred” now have to compete with modern media (Hjarvard 2008, 11). Stig Hjarvard has identified this form of representation of religion in mass media as “banal religion” and also the overall affect of audiences with a fascination in the spiritual and, to a lesser extent, organised religion (2008, 22).

If these representations are not coming from the religious organisation itself, is it still valid?

Or should it be questioned and ignite further exploration from those audiences who become interested (can religion be enjoyed as simple fiction)?

Works Cited:
Hjarvard, Stig. “The Mediatization of Religion: A Theory of the Media as Agents of Religious Change.” In Northern Lights Volume 6, 2008: 9-26.

A Single Flower

When I was travelling overseas what first struck me, especially in Europe, was just how different nature and the environment is over there compared to Australia. There's no harshness or feeling of danger (except the occasional sighting of poison ivy!). I had my first wild blackberry picked from a bush in rural France.

As soon as I step outside I am always struck by the beauty and serenity of nature, but never more so than when I stopped at a farm and found this flower, a poppy, I think, sitting in a field of green. This is on the sight of the Battle Of Normandy and is a perfect example that as humans come and go, nature lives on as a permanent reminder.

"Sure As Hell Not Jesus" - Cosmo Jarvis

This is a fun tongue-in-cheek poke at the resent issues in Catholic and Anglican Churches. I thought I would share it because I believe Cosmo Jarvis is incredibly talented and he's presenting a very serious topic in a way people can engage with it (much like the representation of religious traditions in most fictional T.V. shows).

Do monsters embody a divine power?

Birgit Meyer in her article Media, Aesthetics and the Study of Contemporary Religion consider the whole area of embodiment and religious expression and mentions the possibility of embodiment as 'divine power' (2012:161). Do monsters also embody a divine power of some sort?

Throughout her article Birgit Meyer discusses the experiences grounded in “bodily sensations” and how “audiences” react to the visual presentation of religious processes in television (Meyer 2012). In this sense monsters can embody a type of power in the reactions they invoke in audiences watching shows such as Supernatural (Padalecki 2005). Whether this is divine or not is another question as the show’s demons and monsters all come from various religious traditions but are presented as fiction. Something to consider is the amount of fans that discuss the show as if it is real life and not fiction at all (something discussed in the show itself). Line Nybro Petersen also discusses how the show presents these monsters as part of everyday life and by presenting them as “banal” gives them a heightened power as audiences can imagine them as part of their own everyday existence (Petersen 2010).

Works Cited:
Meyer, Birgit. “Religious Sensations.” In Religion, Media and Culture: A Reader, by G., Mitchell, J. and Strhan, A. Lynch, 159-170. London and New York: Routledge, 2012.

Padalecki, Jared. 2005. Supernatural, television program. Vancouver: Kripke Enterprises and Warner Bros. Television.

Petersen, Line Nybro. “Renegotiating Religious Imaginations Through Transformations of "Banal Religion" in Supernatural.” Transformative Works and Cultures, No. 4, 2010: http://dx.doi.org/10.3983/twc.2010.0142.