Vampires and time wasters

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Disillusioned

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I thought it was rather eye-opening that a Catholic radio host was led up the garden path (is that what you say in the States ?) by a man who seriously wanted us to consider Bram Stoker’s Dracula as some kind of spiritually enlightening story.Worse too, he went on about the latest “Van Helsing” film.
Now when he began going on about the sacred host which in the depraved book is used quite illegally and talismanically to defeat the vampire, I thought the moderator was going to tell him not to confuse fiction with reality.But she didn’t!
It’s no prejudice of mine, but I really think that just because every bodice clad maiden wears a crucifix , and there’s as much garlic as holy water, it does not mean we are reading or watching anything of spiritual import at all.
Literature now consumed by Catholics has gone utterly downhill-the line between fantastic nonsense and faith itself has not been respected by someone like this caller.
Otherwise he was having a laugh at the expense of other people who were concerned with far more important things.
There have been other instances where this hostess has really lost control, but I suggest to everyone else that Van Helsing is a sadistic romp, not a spiritual treatise and in England, Dracula is dated sexually metaphorical and not worth most people’s effort.
Nowadays I don’t think anyone knows the basic difference between Christianity and folkish superstition.
 
Something tells me you’ve never read the novel.

Addendum: Aside from the questionable and fantastical usage of the Eucharist therein of course.
 
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Disillusioned:
I thought it was rather eye-opening that a Catholic radio host was led up the garden path (is that what you say in the States ?) by a man who seriously wanted us to consider Bram Stoker’s Dracula as some kind of spiritually enlightening story.Worse too, he went on about the latest “Van Helsing” film.
Now when he began going on about the sacred host which in the depraved book is used quite illegally and talismanically to defeat the vampire, I thought the moderator was going to tell him not to confuse fiction with reality.But she didn’t!
It’s no prejudice of mine, but I really think that just because every bodice clad maiden wears a crucifix , and there’s as much garlic as holy water, it does not mean we are reading or watching anything of spiritual import at all.
Literature now consumed by Catholics has gone utterly downhill-the line between fantastic nonsense and faith itself has not been respected by someone like this caller.
Otherwise he was having a laugh at the expense of other people who were concerned with far more important things.
There have been other instances where this hostess has really lost control, but I suggest to everyone else that Van Helsing is a sadistic romp, not a spiritual treatise and in England, Dracula is dated sexually metaphorical and not worth most people’s effort.
Nowadays I don’t think anyone knows the basic difference between Christianity and folkish superstition.
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I thought Shakespeare was dead. :confused:
 
Perhaps I should explicate:
The novel is not, as “Women’s Studies” professors would have it, a sexual metaphor; certainly it contains sexuality, but such is represented as the province of Satan, where Dracula acts as an obvious Antichrist figure.
Now, the illegal use of the Eucharist aside, can you say having read the novel and knowing its composition, main thrust and intentional Biblical allusions that it is not a work which if not commonly so, at least to those inclined might inspire a sense of Christian love (see the brotherhood of the men and the singularly–chaste–treatment of Mina by them) and victory over the Devil?
Van Helsing of course, I will not argue about; although seeing the Vatican in that movie portrayed as having within it Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists–an unintentional commentary, perhaps?
 
I thought that Van Helsing was a very good movie, and that it portrayed the Catholic Church in a very positive light.

But to each his own opinion . . .
 
You’ve all been very pleasant to me and I’ll leave off banging any more drums…but can I know why Shakespeare appeared in the reactions? No, I don’t believe Bacon wrote him and are you now going to tell me he was a Catholic ?

Can I say that films erase very badly theological overtones …Was I supposed to have gone and read this book again.?What worried me was that people are living in fiction, I could name another example , but I don’t think it’s healthy.

Never mind, does anyone know whether a heavier duty style of book is still written about religious problems? Some names and some authors would be welcome? Just a closing piece, my mother regularly was convinced by all the moral dilemmas of handsome Doctor Kildare.Now wasn’t he in a Catholic hospital? Those were the days!
 
I agree with the other poster about Van Helsing. It’s pure fiction and just for fun. And it DID shed a HUGE good portrayal of the Catholic Church and if you didn’t catch it, it also shimmered a bit on the cloning issue or man playing God (the creation of life by man, Frankenstein). A friar had to choose whether or not to save Frankenstein when he was ordered by the Vatican to destroy him.

Also, there is some huge history with the Catholic Church and I think (not for certain) the Anglican Church as well about Vampires…I saw it on the History Channel not long ago either.
 
I read something else entirely into Bram Stoker’s Dracula:

Social commentary about the disease ridden Eastern Europeans (ie Catholics) polluting the “pure” bloodlines of “true” Englishmen.
 
Keep banging on those drums Disillusioned, I agree. Horror stories and the like don’t add to our Christian spirituality. There is plenty of good exciting Christian reading out there. Though there is a severe lack of good movie viewing IMHO
 
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BryanW:
Keep banging on those drums Disillusioned, I agree. Horror stories and the like don’t add to our Christian spirituality. There is plenty of good exciting Christian reading out there. Though there is a severe lack of good movie viewing IMHO
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There is nothing wrong with viewing fiction movies as long as the viewer can determine between what’s reality and fiction. And it’s not up to me to decide what each individual will or needs to watch (unless it’s my child). It’s all about personal responsibility, which this nation lacks at the moment.
 
Films like Van Helsing that combine church with fantasy, as long as they arent trying to paint the church in negative light, or throw negative messages at me…like: Dogma, Stigmata, Priest, Crime of Padre Amaro, etc… are harmless… VH was a goofy fun romp thru monster cheese land, and shouldnt be looked at as scandalous… theres other flicks to be scandalized over for attacking Christainity and Catholics… currently in theaters: SAVED
 
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potterygirl:
There is nothing wrong with viewing fiction movies as long as the viewer can determine between what’s reality and fiction. And it’s not up to me to decide what each individual will or needs to watch (unless it’s my child). It’s all about personal responsibility, which this nation lacks at the moment.
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It’s not fiction I have a problem with. It’s movies/books that glorify evil. A story that made a rapist or serial killer the hero would disgust everyone. How much worse is a story that glorifies demons, witches and those that worship darkness.

The wizard of Oz had a witch in it, she was potrayed as a villian though. Glenda could easily be looked at as an Angel or Mary figure.
 
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BryanW:
It’s not fiction I have a problem with. It’s movies/books that glorify evil. A story that made a rapist or serial killer the hero would disgust everyone. How much worse is a story that glorifies demons, witches and those that worship darkness.

The wizard of Oz had a witch in it, she was potrayed as a villian though. Glenda could easily be looked at as an Angel or Mary figure.
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agreed. And I enjoy the Harry Potter books and I don’t see the evil that the book burners do in it other than the evil characters that are demonized in the book. The only religion portrayed in the book is Christianity as every winter the children go home for Christmas. LOL

I taught a group of Catholic students art lessons one year and when one of the books was the latest buzz they were all chatting about their tables in some very intellectual discussion. Many were relating themes from the book to real life problems or instances.

I asked them if the books are real and ALL of them looked at me like I was an idiot. (ALL agreed that it was all imaginary and flying on brooms and making potions don’t work in real life). And I have found that the most intellectual kids are the ones who are cracking open the books and getting the true story out of it. It takes a lot for a kid these days to get through an 800 page book.
 
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BryanW:
Keep banging on those drums Disillusioned, I agree. Horror stories and the like don’t add to our Christian spirituality. There is plenty of good exciting Christian reading out there. Though there is a severe lack of good movie viewing IMHO
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Fiction or non-fiction? I’d really like to find some exciting Christian “fiction”.
 
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Angelus:
Fiction or non-fiction? I’d really like to find some exciting Christian “fiction”.
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Have you read any of Michael O’Brien’s “Children of the Last Days” novels? They’re very good.

I’d like to see more exciting CATHOLIC fiction out there. In general, I find “Christian” fiction to be based either in completely bogus theology (i.e. Left Behind) or based in a theology that is watered down so much that it becomes boring.
 
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Socrates:
Have you read any of Michael O’Brien’s “Children of the Last Days” novels? They’re very good.

I’d like to see more exciting CATHOLIC fiction out there. In general, I find “Christian” fiction to be based either in completely bogus theology (i.e. Left Behind) or based in a theology that is watered down so much that it becomes boring.
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Try the books avilable from catholicity.com. They are some of the better Catholic Fiction that I’ve read. However, the best Catholic novel I’ve read was “Devil’s Advocate.” I can’t remember the author though, and it may be out of print, but it is a very good, albeit short, novel.
 
Big powerful unquestionable evil vs. overmatched but determined good guy(s) fighting it because it’s evil…sorry but I like those.
 
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chevytruck:
I read something else entirely into Bram Stoker’s Dracula:

Social commentary about the disease ridden Eastern Europeans (ie Catholics) polluting the “pure” bloodlines of “true” Englishmen.
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Aren’t most Eastern Europeans Orthodox?
 
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