Sin in fiction and writing?

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shondrea said:
I can’t really say, not having read Fr Greeley
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I have though I have only finished reading one of his novels (An Occasion of Sin). He’s controversially sensual in his stories but that’s pretty much what I like about him. He paints a humanized, down-to-earth picture of the clergy compared to the people of holiness idealist Trads keep wanting us to have. :rolleyes:

I doubt I’ll ever have the guts to pull something like that… but I certainly do plan on contrasting those who are saintly with those who live in reality. ;)😃
Shin said:
That is where most of the very little that is harmless can sometimes be found.
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Really? Blues Clues? Sesame Street? Evil? Do tell! :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Seriously, out of all fiction I’ve consumed, those types are the only ones fit for the saints to enjoy. :rolleyes:

Oh yeah, and kiddie Bible cartoon adaptations. 😛

Not that that’s really a bad thing but not exactly something that floats everyone’s boat.
Shin said:
They are our examples and models, their writing is what we should read, not the writings of people who are separated from God in the world, or bad Catholics.

They have all the spiritual treasures we need with none of the trash. 🙂 All writers should learn from them and read them more than any other works for the sake of their souls.
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Too bad none of them ever had a hand in fiction. :rolleyes:
Nor had any of them seemed capable of reaching out to people lost in the despair of the human tragedy.

Then again, how can they? When one’s mind is so up in Heaven, they cease to become accessible and understood by those who are still down here on earth.
 
Lost_Wanderer said:
Nor had any of them seemed capable of reaching out to people lost in the despair of the human tragedy.

Then again, how can they? When one’s mind is so up in Heaven, they cease to become accessible and understood by those who are still down here on earth.
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Such nonsense. They are the people who have saved so many souls. They saints have done more for people in the depths than anyone else.

Show a little more respect. You might as well say Christ isn’t capable of reaching out.
 
I think that ys, th saints are very, very important people, and yes, we SHOULD read their works and give much thought to what they are teaching us. I wouldn’t even begin to deny that.

But I’m pretty sure enjoying the new Alice in Wondeland movie with my friends isn’t committing a grave offense against God.

Not everything that isn’t implicitly Catholic is evil. Something that is ANTICatholic may be, but there is a great deal of secual writings, movies and stories that aren’t Catholic, but still good works.
 
Shin said:
Such nonsense. They are the people who have saved so many souls. They saints have done more for people in the depths than anyone else.
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Doesn’t address my point. Give me one fictional story written by a saint and does not fall under something that I’d see on Nick Jr. :rolleyes:
Shin said:
Show a little more respect. You might as well say Christ isn’t capable of reaching out.
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Excuse me? Christ Himself used unorthodox storytelling concepts. (“The Samaritans as good guys!? Oh no! :eek:”)
 
And it’s telling me nothing I didn’t already know. That we need to be very careful about what we watch. That watching something that has a simulated sin is not a sin unless it provokes you to sin. Seeing a man be shot does not make me want to shoot a man.

I’m still pretty sure seeing The Princess and the Frog with my niece isn’t a crime.
 
Shin said:
The audio sermon entitled ‘Movies’ on this webpage tells a little about what makes a movie morally ‘good’ or ‘evil’, something which most people do not understand.
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Ever heard of reader-oriented theories? I said before you can mold the perspective your audience has towards something you write… but I also added to an extent.

Like it or not, there will be people who watch things for the wrong reasons and get the wrong impressions. But what can you do? They’re them. You’re you. You can’t completely shape everyone’s minds perfectly to how you see things.

I believe the condemnation of movies based on the assumption that they could draw people to sin seems to avoid reconciling with this.
 
Not everything is bad… but more is than people think:

kids-in-mind.com/p/princessandthefrog.htm

Especially with modern ‘kids’ movies.

Hearing what actually goes on described should give one a little more pause than just mindlessly taking it in. What we watch takes a certain control over us and we feel the way the people who made the movie desire us to feel – even when we should actually feel quite differently about what goes on. And then we become habituated.
 
Oh and for the record? As an advocate of vengeful violence in fiction, I must say that there has been ‘sufficient reason’.

For example, who wouldn’t want to see Hitler shooting himself? :rolleyes::cool:
 
I’m sorry, but you and I clearly do not hold the same standards regading what is or is not ok.

Kissing? In a kids movie? Morally evil? I don’t agree. Not one bit, I’m sorry. I think you are seeing wicked where there is no wicked, and I can’t agree with you. I think it would be best to just stop this discussion altogether.
 
Shin said:
Not everything is bad… but more is than people think:

kids-in-mind.com/p/princessandthefrog.htm

Especially with modern ‘kids’ movies.

Hearing what actually goes on described should give one a little more pause than just mindlessly taking it in. What we watch takes a certain control over us and we feel the way the people who made the movie desire us to feel – even when we should actually feel quite differently about what goes on. And then we become habituated.
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No offense but your article?

bangs head on desk

Talk about prude with a capital P. :rolleyes:
 
To be uncomfortable with some of what is described there is not prudery, it’s decency.

The site makes an effort to describe anything that could trouble the viewer, and leaves it to the reader to decide what is a problem or not. This is a good thing, though I can’t approve at how explicitly the site perforce sometimes describes the movies and so cannot entirely recommend it, at least it is demonstrative only, and in this case for people in your state might help.
 
In our…state?

The day after I posted this topic, I also pm’d a father here about it. His reply was that he was surprised that I would be confused by such unfounded statements 🙂
 
Shin said:
To be uncomfortable with some of what is described there is not prudery, it’s decency.
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No, it’s oversensitivity and paranoia. If there are folks out there who actually think people are gonna be lusting in this movie, they need serious help.
Shin said:
The site makes an effort to describe anything that could trouble the viewer, and leaves it to the reader to decide what is a problem or not. This is a good thing, though I can’t approve at how explicitly the site perforce sometimes describes the movies and so cannot entirely recommend it, at least it is demonstrative only, and in this case for people in your state might help.
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I’m sorry what? If you wanna condemn a cartoon for indecency you’re better off targeting stuff geared towards teens. As a guy with a 2D complex myself, I find nothing attractive about Disney characters. :rolleyes:
 
Do we really need more people questioning the moral deccency of anime due to it’s sterotypes? Coming from an ex yaoi fangirl, trust me; I’ve seen the slums of the fandoms, but have also seen the great, good, decent sides But obviously not by EVERYONE’s standards.
 
shondrea said:
Do we really need more people questioning the moral deccency of anime due to it’s sterotypes? Coming from an ex yaoi fangirl, trust me; I’ve seen the slums of the fandoms, but have also seen the great, good, decent sides But obviously not by EVERYONE’s standards.
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I know right? I’ve pretty much been exposed to those slums too. But to post something that suggest the likes of kiddie movies such Princes and the Frog are on the same boat as those tells me a lot about a person’s sanity and scrupulosity level.
 
I am mentally comparing the morality of The Lion King to Okane go Nai, and am laughing hysterically
 
If you’re too deep in the dirt you can’t actually understand what a clean world looks like. But all I have to say really, is get out of it and see what it’s like. God’s standards are greater than ours.

If all your life you spend in dirt, how do you know what life is like without it?

But I don’t have to say just that, I can point at the standards of what are and are not allowed in regards to impurity and modesty, and what pleases God that way and what does not, and it is clear that you have to give up a great deal of the entertainment you now enjoy.

And if you can’t… even for a short time… That’s addiction, which is slavery… And Christ came to free us from that. Slavery to the world, the flesh, and the devil. 😃
 
Shin said:
If you’re too deep in the dirt you can’t actually understand what a clean world looks like. But all I have to say really, is get out of it and see what it’s like. God’s standards are greater than ours.
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Too deep in dirt? Is that how you always describe people with common sense? Hopelessly desensitized?

Lemme tell you something, if you want a clean world, go back in time to when God first made the Garden of Eden. Then again, like a time machine, such a world is no more but a dream. I say wake up and listen to the critics if you actually want to be in a position to criticize even upstart writers like me. They don’t want a censored, cheesy picture of sugarcoated, family-friendly fluff. They want reality. They want depth. They want humanization. They want characters who are just like them and not alienating mystics who talk like they’ve lived hundreds of years before they were even born.
 
Shin said:
If you’re too deep in the dirt you can’t actually understand what a clean world looks like. But all I have to say really, is get out of it and see what it’s like. God’s standards are greater than ours.

If all your life you spend in dirt, how do you know what life is like without it?

But I don’t have to say just that, I can point at the standards of what are and are not allowed in regards to impurity and modesty, and what pleases God that way and what does not, and it is clear that you have to give up a great deal of the entertainment you now enjoy.

And if you can’t… even for a short time… That’s addiction, which is slavery… And Christ came to free us from that. Slavery to the world, the flesh, and the devil. 😃
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Are you posting this from heaven? If not, you are in the dirt my friend, with the rest of us simple folks who are not in a heaven. What pleases God in the bible can vary from killing entire tribes of people that are not like you, and changing standards on incest. I’m not so sure your argument is really compelling.
 
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