Wow! I am not a big fan of super hero films, but your post makes me want to really see this one! Thank you, Professor Snyder, for a heart-warming and encouraging analysis in the midst of all the darkness currently enveloping the world. Now if we can just find our "superman" in real life ....
Imagine if you will (Twilight Zone lingo) a Time Machine, in which we could go back and give our current president good parents. To do that we might have to back and give THEM good parents, and as long as we're at it, why not go back to Eve and Adam...or I guess we could just stop at God's do-over, Noah and What's-Her-Name. When I worked as a therapist with abuse and neglect families, and encountered men with the current Leader-of-the-Free-Lunch's degree of narcissism, I knew family reconciliation was out of the question...a hundred percent of the time; that the the children's only chance depended on mom's capacity to gather them up and hit the road. Almost never happened; she was connected to him in the way America seems to be connected to Ginger Jesus. If ONLY Fred Drumpf had been more like you, who I have to believe, took your kids to see Superman primarily for THEIR enjoyment, we wouldn't even know who his son was, and the toxic river flowing through his offspring would have been dammed up long ago. Folks, TAKE YOUR KIDS TO SEE SUPERMAN!
You remind me, Chris, of Sarah Kendzior's exquisite book, "The Last American Road Trip."
This, from your experience as a therapist in family reconciliation: that " . . . the children's only chance depended on mom's capacity to gather them up and hit the road."
Sarah's book mixes the joys, contradictions, oddities, beauties, and lush awe at the American land, its small town communities, and its thorough corruption by over-lording money, techies, the rich.
So I'm glad to see Timothy here in his review also acknowledge how, in the movie, the forces representing our current rich all labor under the premises of racial supremacy -- that the U.S. can be saved only if white supremacists junk the law and put themselves as a (very small, and small-minded) group atop all.
And I'm extra glad to see Timothy's counter argument, that, no, humanity can win out, that we can learn the voices, the literacy to see and appreciate others -- blacks, brown-skinned immigrants, gays, untraditional women.
And such a big yes to the women, to "mom's capacity."
I couldn't agree more, Phil. Nearly all my fiction mixes those same joys and contradictions...unfortunately, probably more the contradictions. I love that Timothy has always made a distinction between freedom and democracy. Freedom requires that we all promote policy that allows us ALL at least the opportunity to reach our potential. We have to vote that way. Democracy without freedom, as Timothy says, allows us to elect Trump as our president. I'll be ordering Kendzior's in the next few minutes. I grew up in a town of fewer than a thousand citizens in lumber country in Idaho, so am very familiar with the real life contradictions. Nobody was ever homeless, nobody starved, nobody froze even though temps sometimes reached forty-below; at the same time, I probably didn't see a Black human being in the flesh 'til I was ten or eleven years old, but I heard the N-word everyday. Land and money equaled power. Still does. Thanks for the recommendation. I need another good read.
At 91, have concluded that a mother who loves (generally, that is not just specifically—truly “loving” mother), is what gives sons the possibility of being a loving human. Having never known a mother’s love, it’s been a lifelong research project.
Joesph Campbell and Carl Jung are smiling with your quest for meaning, understanding, and the effort to predict the path of closure. Perhaps The Lone Ranger is in the wings somewhere ready to do selfless service to mankind. The return of Kimmel has given many of us hope that the current saga has boundaries and limits.
You know, Tim, in reality we parents more or less roll the dice when we commit to conceiving and raising children. We get a combo of our genes (sometimes imperfect) and parenting efforts (ditto), which more or less are finished by the time our kids come of age and almost certainly by the time we finish paying off the costs of their higher education. And then there's the wider fate of whatever rides over the horizon at us, willy nilly. Yikes, egads and gadzooks that we do this anyway. But here's a thing: many, many worthies down through the centuries have agreed with you that, although we too often can act like the raving bonobo chimps who are our close genetic cousins, we can evolve to resemble something akin to the Angels on High--building wonderful structures, artistic creations, and relationships of care than transcend even family ties. And much more. Our most evolved teachers of 'the Way(s)' advise us that it's up to us to choose which evolutionary branch we'd like to be a part of--the one that reaches toward the heavens, or the ones that peter out from the sheer weight of evil and despair. It sometimes comforts me to realize that certain of those twisted by envy and malice tech oligarchs you mention look to soon be a party to their own extinction. May it be so.
Thanks for this. The review is wonderful, and its subtitle is the hook: A medieval movie review.
The late poet, Tony Hoagland, wrote wonderful, insightful, grave, and goofy poems with often striking turns, lines, and titles, like "Priest Turned Therapist Treats Fear of God," and "What Narcissism Means to Me." https://poets.org/poet/tony-hoagland
Your review conjures for me something like "Historian Reviews Superhero Movie and Advocates for Nurture Over Nature." Hoagland would have written something better than this, of course.
Seems like a great movie to support. And it also seems like the movie might provide some worthwhile “memes” for bolstering resistance while fending off fear and despair. (“Memes” needn’t be confined to social media. They can be catchphrases or talismans that lift spirts in a knowing, not totally naive, way. They can be rallying cries!)
Despotism and tyranny require regular injections of fear and despair — and a prime way of combatting these spiritual poisons is *IMAGINATION* as long as we don’t confuse investing energy in fantasy with the minuscule or dramatic ways we can make a nonviolent difference. It’s fear and despair, after all, that drive some to allow themselves to be consumed with the fury, loathing, and violence that fascism feeds from.
Imagination is not only about fairy tales and superhero lore. Nor is it only about long standing cultural myths which tap into the bitter realities of space, time, muscle, flesh, fire, sword, flood, disease, war, and climate change. Imagination can be about confronting long standing cultural myths emerging from the SAVING realities of joy, nurturance, solidarity, empathy, courage, responsibility, and forgiveness (the world of values). And Imagination should also be about envisioning ways to reify the power of “the world of values” into human institutions and habits of mind. That might be what John and Yoko were trying to get at when they crafted their song. Imagination is powerful — and it is what dictators want to control by instilling fear and despair. Salvific imagination is what despots fear most.
Seems like a great movie to support. And it also seems like the movie might provide some worthwhile “memes” for bolstering resistance while fending off fear and despair. (“Memes” needn’t be confined to social media. They can be catchphrases or talismans that lift spirts in a knowing, not totally naive, way. They can be rallying cries!)
Despotism and tyranny require regular injections of fear and despair — and a prime way of combatting these spiritual poisons is *IMAGINATION* as long as we don’t confuse investing energy in fantasy with the minuscule (or DRAMATIC) ways we can make a nonviolent difference. It’s fear and despair, after all, that drive some to allow themselves to be consumed with the fury, loathing, and violence that fascism feeds from.
Imagination is not only about fairy tales and superhero lore. Nor is it only about long standing cultural myths which tap into the bitter realities of space, time, muscle, blood, flesh, fire, flood, disease, war, hate, and climate change. Imagination can be about confronting long standing cultural myths emerging from the SAVING realities of joy, nurturance, solidarity, empathy, courage, responsibility, and forgiveness (the world of values). And Imagination should also be about envisioning ways to reify the power of “the world of values” into human institutions and habits of mind. That might be what John and Yoko were trying to get at when they crafted their song. Imagination is powerful — and it is what dictators want to control by instilling fear and despair. Salvific imagination is what despots fear most.
Wow! I am not a big fan of super hero films, but your post makes me want to really see this one! Thank you, Professor Snyder, for a heart-warming and encouraging analysis in the midst of all the darkness currently enveloping the world. Now if we can just find our "superman" in real life ....
Imagine if you will (Twilight Zone lingo) a Time Machine, in which we could go back and give our current president good parents. To do that we might have to back and give THEM good parents, and as long as we're at it, why not go back to Eve and Adam...or I guess we could just stop at God's do-over, Noah and What's-Her-Name. When I worked as a therapist with abuse and neglect families, and encountered men with the current Leader-of-the-Free-Lunch's degree of narcissism, I knew family reconciliation was out of the question...a hundred percent of the time; that the the children's only chance depended on mom's capacity to gather them up and hit the road. Almost never happened; she was connected to him in the way America seems to be connected to Ginger Jesus. If ONLY Fred Drumpf had been more like you, who I have to believe, took your kids to see Superman primarily for THEIR enjoyment, we wouldn't even know who his son was, and the toxic river flowing through his offspring would have been dammed up long ago. Folks, TAKE YOUR KIDS TO SEE SUPERMAN!
You remind me, Chris, of Sarah Kendzior's exquisite book, "The Last American Road Trip."
This, from your experience as a therapist in family reconciliation: that " . . . the children's only chance depended on mom's capacity to gather them up and hit the road."
Sarah's book mixes the joys, contradictions, oddities, beauties, and lush awe at the American land, its small town communities, and its thorough corruption by over-lording money, techies, the rich.
So I'm glad to see Timothy here in his review also acknowledge how, in the movie, the forces representing our current rich all labor under the premises of racial supremacy -- that the U.S. can be saved only if white supremacists junk the law and put themselves as a (very small, and small-minded) group atop all.
And I'm extra glad to see Timothy's counter argument, that, no, humanity can win out, that we can learn the voices, the literacy to see and appreciate others -- blacks, brown-skinned immigrants, gays, untraditional women.
And such a big yes to the women, to "mom's capacity."
I couldn't agree more, Phil. Nearly all my fiction mixes those same joys and contradictions...unfortunately, probably more the contradictions. I love that Timothy has always made a distinction between freedom and democracy. Freedom requires that we all promote policy that allows us ALL at least the opportunity to reach our potential. We have to vote that way. Democracy without freedom, as Timothy says, allows us to elect Trump as our president. I'll be ordering Kendzior's in the next few minutes. I grew up in a town of fewer than a thousand citizens in lumber country in Idaho, so am very familiar with the real life contradictions. Nobody was ever homeless, nobody starved, nobody froze even though temps sometimes reached forty-below; at the same time, I probably didn't see a Black human being in the flesh 'til I was ten or eleven years old, but I heard the N-word everyday. Land and money equaled power. Still does. Thanks for the recommendation. I need another good read.
A very fun piece, thank you Prof. Snyder.
At 91, have concluded that a mother who loves (generally, that is not just specifically—truly “loving” mother), is what gives sons the possibility of being a loving human. Having never known a mother’s love, it’s been a lifelong research project.
Thank you for the detail.
Your children won't remember the movie. They'll remember that you went to a movie with them. That's a good dad.
Joesph Campbell and Carl Jung are smiling with your quest for meaning, understanding, and the effort to predict the path of closure. Perhaps The Lone Ranger is in the wings somewhere ready to do selfless service to mankind. The return of Kimmel has given many of us hope that the current saga has boundaries and limits.
I realized just now that I think of the Lone Ranger as looking like Superman, but then we never saw his face.
You know, Tim, in reality we parents more or less roll the dice when we commit to conceiving and raising children. We get a combo of our genes (sometimes imperfect) and parenting efforts (ditto), which more or less are finished by the time our kids come of age and almost certainly by the time we finish paying off the costs of their higher education. And then there's the wider fate of whatever rides over the horizon at us, willy nilly. Yikes, egads and gadzooks that we do this anyway. But here's a thing: many, many worthies down through the centuries have agreed with you that, although we too often can act like the raving bonobo chimps who are our close genetic cousins, we can evolve to resemble something akin to the Angels on High--building wonderful structures, artistic creations, and relationships of care than transcend even family ties. And much more. Our most evolved teachers of 'the Way(s)' advise us that it's up to us to choose which evolutionary branch we'd like to be a part of--the one that reaches toward the heavens, or the ones that peter out from the sheer weight of evil and despair. It sometimes comforts me to realize that certain of those twisted by envy and malice tech oligarchs you mention look to soon be a party to their own extinction. May it be so.
Great post about parallels. Let's all be humane, no matter our genetics or our pasts.
Thanks for this. The review is wonderful, and its subtitle is the hook: A medieval movie review.
The late poet, Tony Hoagland, wrote wonderful, insightful, grave, and goofy poems with often striking turns, lines, and titles, like "Priest Turned Therapist Treats Fear of God," and "What Narcissism Means to Me." https://poets.org/poet/tony-hoagland
Your review conjures for me something like "Historian Reviews Superhero Movie and Advocates for Nurture Over Nature." Hoagland would have written something better than this, of course.
Loved this! What conversation did you have with your kids regarding the movie?
My favorite part of this piece is learning that you were a punk rocker. Somehow, that did not at all surprise me! Thank you for keeping it real.
"For this relief, much thanks."
And may all our apocalypses be redundant ones.
I love this guy!!
Seems like a great movie to support. And it also seems like the movie might provide some worthwhile “memes” for bolstering resistance while fending off fear and despair. (“Memes” needn’t be confined to social media. They can be catchphrases or talismans that lift spirts in a knowing, not totally naive, way. They can be rallying cries!)
Despotism and tyranny require regular injections of fear and despair — and a prime way of combatting these spiritual poisons is *IMAGINATION* as long as we don’t confuse investing energy in fantasy with the minuscule or dramatic ways we can make a nonviolent difference. It’s fear and despair, after all, that drive some to allow themselves to be consumed with the fury, loathing, and violence that fascism feeds from.
Imagination is not only about fairy tales and superhero lore. Nor is it only about long standing cultural myths which tap into the bitter realities of space, time, muscle, flesh, fire, sword, flood, disease, war, and climate change. Imagination can be about confronting long standing cultural myths emerging from the SAVING realities of joy, nurturance, solidarity, empathy, courage, responsibility, and forgiveness (the world of values). And Imagination should also be about envisioning ways to reify the power of “the world of values” into human institutions and habits of mind. That might be what John and Yoko were trying to get at when they crafted their song. Imagination is powerful — and it is what dictators want to control by instilling fear and despair. Salvific imagination is what despots fear most.
Seems like a great movie to support. And it also seems like the movie might provide some worthwhile “memes” for bolstering resistance while fending off fear and despair. (“Memes” needn’t be confined to social media. They can be catchphrases or talismans that lift spirts in a knowing, not totally naive, way. They can be rallying cries!)
Despotism and tyranny require regular injections of fear and despair — and a prime way of combatting these spiritual poisons is *IMAGINATION* as long as we don’t confuse investing energy in fantasy with the minuscule (or DRAMATIC) ways we can make a nonviolent difference. It’s fear and despair, after all, that drive some to allow themselves to be consumed with the fury, loathing, and violence that fascism feeds from.
Imagination is not only about fairy tales and superhero lore. Nor is it only about long standing cultural myths which tap into the bitter realities of space, time, muscle, blood, flesh, fire, flood, disease, war, hate, and climate change. Imagination can be about confronting long standing cultural myths emerging from the SAVING realities of joy, nurturance, solidarity, empathy, courage, responsibility, and forgiveness (the world of values). And Imagination should also be about envisioning ways to reify the power of “the world of values” into human institutions and habits of mind. That might be what John and Yoko were trying to get at when they crafted their song. Imagination is powerful — and it is what dictators want to control by instilling fear and despair. Salvific imagination is what despots fear most.
A brilliant comparison. Makes me want to go and see this Superman film and listen to Wagner's "Ring". Thank you.
My son would say only the best parents take their kids to superhero movies. I agree with him.
Thank you so much for your posts. I share them very frequently