{"id":72,"date":"2006-08-09T20:24:01","date_gmt":"2006-08-10T03:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2006\/08\/09\/leftover-beauty\/"},"modified":"2007-10-23T14:21:14","modified_gmt":"2007-10-23T19:21:14","slug":"leftover-beauty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2006\/08\/leftover-beauty\/","title":{"rendered":"Leftover Beauty"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last sermon I heard at Providence was the one Chris<\/a> preached the evening of July 30th. It was about how not necessarily everything from secular culture will be missing from the New Heavens and the New Earth, and that it may be transformed and glorified and brought into the new Jerusalem to glorify God. One point Chris made is that even though humanity, and through it, human culture, is fallen, it still carries the image of God, and therefore still reflects his glory in some way; flashes of that glory are sometimes still visible even in secular culture. I’m not phrasing it exactly the way he did, but I think we’re on the same page. The sermon really hit a few nerves with me, because this is precisely my approach to culture and criticism.<\/p>\n

I call it “leftover beauty.” Understanding this is vital to understanding the way I write about culture, and the way I react to film, music, literature, television. I know I take it too far at times, and that’s one of the reasons I was so desirous to go to a Christian university that values popular culture…I need that grounding. But if I sometimes tend to value too much the output of a fallen culture, it’s at least partially in reaction against a Christianity that denounces it without even recognizing what value it does have.<\/p>\n

My concept of leftover beauty is why I think American Beauty<\/i><\/a> is one of the greatest films in recent years, because, quite simply, leftover beauty is precisely what American Beauty<\/i> is about. It doesn’t know where beauty comes from or why, but it knows it’s there–it knows that somehow, in the midst of broken families, perverted sexuality, and isolationist despair, there is still beauty around, if we “look closer”. And that’s exactly how I feel about modern culture. There’s ugliness, sure. But there’s beauty, too…beautiful characters, beautiful scenes, beautiful technical skill, beautiful and skillful writing, beautiful acting.<\/p>\n

I understand that others don’t feel this way, and don’t feel the need to expose themselves to certain parts of modern culture. But for me, it’s worth it to look through piles of dren to find one beautiful rose–and when I write reactions and reviews, I may forget about the dren, because I’m focused on the rose. I once read a review of Saving Private Ryan<\/i><\/a> in World Magazine that basically stated “don’t see this film, it’s horrible because there’s a lot of swearing.” Granted, there is. And I know people who would avoid seeing it for that reason, and that’s fine. But to categorically say that no-one should see a beautifully made film because of one offense is heavy-handed and inappropriate for any reviewer, even a Christian one. And it’s something I refuse to do. I will meet films on their own ground, not lambast them for not living up to a standard they were never trying to meet. That’s unfair and underhanded criticism.<\/p>\n

Consider this my disclaimer for the times when I praise a film that includes scenes you think are offensive, or times when I don’t call attention to such scenes. Sometimes I may be ignoring them purposefully because I feel the rest of the movie makes up for them. Often, I may have simply forgotten them, because I tend to do that. Seriously, I convinced my cousin and his wife to watch Garden State<\/i><\/a> because it’s one of my all-time favorite films, and had to mention like four times that I had totally forgotten about such-and-such a sex-and-drug scene…they ended up ageeing with me, though, that the overall film was worth putting up with those couple of scenes. If such a scene seriously undermines the film, I probably will mention it. (And yes, despite how difficult it is to offend me, I have seen films that offended me so deeply that I refuse to review them, because I cannot judge them on their own merits–Quills<\/i><\/a> is probably the best example.) Bottom line, I am not ScreenIt<\/a>, though I do recommend ScreenIt if you want to know about every single “damn” and “hell” before you start a film. I am not a parent’s guide. If a reaction or review I write intrigues you and you want to know more specifics about content, ask me and I will tell you. And don’t think that just because I like a film or praise a book that I necessarily agree with its viewpoint or its message. Last month I loved The Unbearable Lightness of Being<\/i> while simultaneously disagreeing vehemently with most of its philosophy.<\/p>\n

I’ve been planning a post like this for a while, just to make clear my position and viewpoint when discussing film, literature, and television. But the immediate impetus is the July Watching Recap, which I’m about to post, and in which I praise a film called Transamerica<\/i><\/a>, whose main character is transgendered (a man who wishes to become a woman). Everything about the film, on a filmic level, is so extraordinary that I couldn’t in good critical conscience give it a negative review, no matter how much I may disagree with the content. I’ve known for a while that I give greater weight to style than content (to the eternal annoyance of my mom, I think, who gives utmost weight to content and would most likely hate Transamerica<\/i>), and that’s a bias that I’m trying to balance a bit. On the other hand, I really do think that it’s possible to disagree with a message while still respecting and enjoying the way in which the message is transmitted. Besides that, in the case of Transamerica<\/i>, the message really isn’t “it’s cool to be transgendered” or anything like that…it’s almost a side plot, in fact…and that’s true of a lot of films that get denounced by Christians who get so caught up in all the ugliness that they can’t see the leftover beauty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last sermon I heard at Providence was the one Chris preached the evening of July 30th. It was about how not necessarily everything from secular culture will be missing from the New Heavens and the New Earth, and that it may be transformed and glorified and brought into the new Jerusalem to glorify God. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[29,18],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":91,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2006\/09\/slight-retraction\/","url_meta":{"origin":72,"position":0},"title":"Slight retraction…","author":"Jandy","date":"September 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, Altick and Fenstermaker have redeemed themselves somewhat in the last couple of chapters of The Art of Literary Research, so I must back down a bit from my negative reaction to the book. All the things I said still hold true for the passages I quoted there, but check\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "School"","block_context":{"text":"School","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/school\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33595,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/2014-the-year-of-positivity\/","url_meta":{"origin":72,"position":1},"title":"2014: The Year of Positivity","author":"Jandy","date":"February 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This was mostly my husband's idea, but I figured I'd put up a little post about it so you know where I'm coming from this year. Current internet movie culture is all about extremes - everything is either the best or the worst thing ever made. I'm speaking in generalities,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/spirit-of-the-beehive-feat-e1448696911770.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":34172,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/american-movie-critics-the-introduction-phillip-lopate\/","url_meta":{"origin":72,"position":2},"title":"American Movie Critics: The Introduction (Phillip Lopate)","author":"Jandy","date":"June 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Reading David Bordwell's series of posts on criticism in the 1940s made me want to dive back into reading criticism, so I've pulled my copy of American Movie Critics back out (I'd previously made it into the middle of the Ferguson section) and started over, because I don't remember any\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Movie Critics"","block_context":{"text":"American Movie Critics","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/american-movie-critics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/American-Movie-Critics-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":131,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2006\/10\/i-just-met-azar-nafisi\/","url_meta":{"origin":72,"position":3},"title":"I just met Azar Nafisi!!","author":"Jandy","date":"October 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, if having her sign her book Reading Lolita in Tehran counts as having met her. I read the book back in June, and was absolutely captivated, and kept it in the back of my mind to see her speak if it ever become remotely possible. And then I found\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books and Reading"","block_context":{"text":"Books and Reading","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33571,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/against-evaluative-criticism-a-personal-manifesto\/","url_meta":{"origin":72,"position":4},"title":"Against Evaluative Criticism: A Personal Manifesto","author":"Jandy","date":"September 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"[Evaluation is] practically worthless for a critic. The last thing I want to know is whether you like it or not: the problems of writing are after that. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it has any importance; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of those derelict appendages of criticism. 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