Transcript
Great Writing Grips You
Hello, My name is Shaun McMillan, and this is the Best Class Ever.
Reading the Bible
When I was a child I often read the Bible, but not for its entertainment value, but out of a sense of obligation. Required reading is not usually enjoyable, but every now and then you get lucky, and what you have to do turns out to be what you want to do.
Once I forced myself to begin reading the Bible, continuing to read was easy. Because these stories are so powerful. Each line grips you and forces you to contend with what is said and what is not said.
You know the text hasn’t changed, these stories are old, yet somehow it is totally fresh and new every time you read it. This is because the text itself hasn’t changed, but you have. The meaning is not there in the scriptures themselves, but emerges from your interaction with it. You are as necessary an ingredient as the scriptures themselves.
Sometimes I read a line from the Bible and wonder, my God what is this? Has that always been there? How could I have missed it before?
You know great writing when you see it because there seems to be no end to the layers of depth you can discover when reading again and again.
Meaningful Entertainment
People spend a lot of time these days caught up in an endless stream of entertainment.
I also find myself wasting a lot of time meaningfully, watching these carefully crafted dramas.
When my life leaves me feeling forlorn, lonely, or lost, I find myself by getting lost in the woods of an imaginary man’s troubles. Oh this poor soul on the screen, this guy is truly lost. I laugh at his lack of insight, sympathize with his suffering, marvel at his incompetence, and encourage his persistence through the perils of life.
My troubles blend with his. And by the end, I find I finally know where to begin. He is me, and though I cannot find the forest for the trees, perhaps his map will guide my way out.
We all waste a lot of time, meaningfully, watching these carefully crafted dramas. Like you, I too, am a walking contradiction.
Dante’s Inferno
In great writing you often find beautiful contradictions, oxymorons, and paradox. Take the opening line from Dante’s Inferno, the great allegorical fiction of the 13th century in which Dante Alligheiri climbed through the 9 circles of Hell…
“In the middle of my life, I found myself, lost in the woods.”
He found himself. Lost.
Is that not the way we all find ourselves, by getting lost? And are we not always in the middle of our life, the hero of our own story in the here and now. Yet it is centering on ourselves, and not on God that often leads us astray.
Paradox
The Binding of Isaac
The Bible too is filled with seemingly superficial contradictions, carefully crafted paradoxical lines with double meanings. It tells stories of great depth with very few words. Implying as much or more in what is left out and not said. Or saying twice as much with half as many words. A person might be too intimidated to read the Bible because it is too long. But ironically its stories are extremely short, and ingeniously so. Just look at the implied, contradictory, double meanings of this line from the binding of Isaac, a story in which God asks Abraham to sacrifice his one heir, in whom lies all the hope of so many promises this very God has yet to fulfill.
Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”
Genesis 22
What does this last line mean?
Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering – comma – my son.”
Is Abraham just ending the sentence with an address to his son? There are already so few words in this story, so anything that is included must surely be there for a deep reason. Is Abraham brazenly telling his son that he IS to be the burnt offering? Or is Abraham revealing some clever insight into the unexpected plot twist? Is the author winking at us asking us to read between the lines so that we can cleverly nod and acknowledge their hint at foreshadowing? How much does Abraham know or not know? Is there some difference between what Abraham explicitly knows consciously and what he intuitively knows only implicitly or unconsciously? There seems to be no end to the psychological depths we could discover in this cleverly written line.
Et Tu Jesus?
Trapping Jesus
Jesus was notorious for giving such clever responses. Just when the Pharisees thought they had the perfect trap for Jesus, he often outwitted them at their own game.
“Jesus, the Bible says to stone such a woman. What say you?”
It’s the perfect trap, because he is merciless if he agrees to follow Moses’ law and stone her to death. But he’s a heretic if he says not to. Damned if you do. Damned if you don’t. What does Jesus say? “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
And then, one by one, they all left, dumbfounded and defeated.
Burying the Dead
When a responsible young man was asked to follow Jesus he first asked Jesus if he could go and bury his father. This seems like a very reasonable request. How do you think Jesus answered? How would you answer? Do you know this story? Take a moment to see if you can remember.
“No,” Jesus told him. I mean he did not exactly say no. But he definitely did not say yes.
Jesus knew that once the young man got home, his mother would ask him to stay, become the man of the house, and take up his family responsibilities. There was no chance this young man would be able to follow Jesus, and his opportunity to make history would have been lost. But how could Jesus directly tell a young man to neglect his family responsibilities in front of a crowd of good, parent abiding Jews?
Jesus responded, “Let the dead bury the dead.”
It’s not a yes, but a very clever no. A longer interpretation might read, “Let the spiritually dead bury the physically dead. HINT: Take up your one chance at spiritual life and follow me.”
Death – The Ultimate Antagonist
Iconoclastic Statements
We need words that shock and make people think. Like this great example from 선생님, my favorite teacher…
“Remember or you will die.”
This is a great proverb because it grabs you by the shoulders and shakes you up with its bombasticness. It forces you to take it seriously, and then provides great relief once you realize it’s just a reminder.
Contrasting Contexts
I take great joy in posting these iconoclastic phrases in contradictory contexts.
When I became a high school teacher I had to decorate my room. I wondered why other teachers would clutter every inch of their walls with positive motivational cliches, but I realized that students do in fact get so bored that they will read every single line you post on those walls.
I chose not to clutter up the walls. I instead posted the line from Dante’s Inferno. The one that loomed over the gates of Hell when he entered them. In English it reads,
“Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.”
I posted it in big bold gothic letters. Inspiring right? But in this case it’s all about the context.
If you looked close enough at our poster you could see the signatures of various students who attended the year before. My class was a game design class. The poster itself was above my book shelf filled with adult designer board games. It was next to some of my favorite movie posters including the Hunger Games & Ender’s Game. The poster was from a megagame my students had played the year before. And the signatures were from all of the students who had died in one part of the game, and were cast out into another part to play as ghosts against the living players. In the context of a classroom, these words are every bit as ironic as the great line from the Hunger Games, “May the odds be ever in your favor.” Because we all know, odds are indifferent, and unpredictable in all ways but one–they are almost always NOT in our favor. Because the house must always win. But it is that little bit of hope that keeps us playing.
Hope – A Beautiful Lie
Hope is one of the most mystical paradoxes of human nature. It just might be the single most irrational feature of human thought, but ironically, hope proves itself time and time again to be rational as hope itself turns the odds in our favor. Like a self-fulfilling prophecy, it is the beautiful lie we tell that against all odds becomes a truth. As the architect said in the third Matrix,
“Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness.”
The Architect – Matrix Revolutions
Great literature, scriptures, and well written entertainment provide us the maps we need to navigate our social, psychological, and theological landscape. Ultimately we need more than google maps to find our final destination.
Death Personified
Death is the ultimate obstacle we must overcome. In my favorite allegorical fictions death itself is personified as a place or a character. Physical death is inevitable, but places and characters are obstacles we can escape and overcome.
The Book Thief
If you have not read or seen the movie, “The Book Thief,” I highly recommend it. The book itself is narrated by Death and takes place during World War 2. I am always moved when I read Death’s final lines about human nature.
“I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about these things that she didn’t already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race–that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.
None of those things, however, came out of my mouth.
All I was able to do was turn to Liesel Meminger and tell her the only truth I truly know. I said to the book thief and I say it now to you.
The final words of your narrator.
I am haunted by humans.”
– Death, narrator of the Book Thief
Wasting Time Meaningfully
We all waste a lot of time, meaningfully, watching these carefully crafted dramas. Like you, I too, am a walking contradiction.
So the next time you find yourself feeling forlorn, lonely, or lost. Find your self by getting lost in the woods of an imaginary man’s troubles. Laugh at the poor soul on the screen. Laugh at your lack of insight, sympathize with your self’s suffering, marvel at your incompetence, and persist through the perils of life.
Let his troubles blend with yours, and perhaps in the end you will know where to begin.
I would love to hear about your favorite way to waste time. If you would like to share feel free to drop me a line at www.BestClassEver.org.
