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Theoden and the Wraith: Looking Along Death and Immortality
Death and Immortality: two words that men contemplate, and shudder. Yet, these two words have occupied the imagination of men since, at least, the epoch of flickering fables orated around fires in Bedouin camps of contemporary man’s long dead ancestors. From The Epic of Gilgamesh and Moses’ Torah to the Bhagavad Gita, from Homer’s Iliad…
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Ironic Nihilism in The Big Lebowski
Nihilism? What is that? For those who have never had the displeasure of a run-in with Friedrich Nietzsche, I will give a quick rundown of nihilism: There is nothing; nothing . . . nothing . . . nothing; no purpose; no reason . . . nothing—at least there is nothing beyond the perspective of the…
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Post Modern Pragmatism: O’ Brother Where Art Thou and The Dark Knight
O’ Brother Where Art Thou and The Dark Knight are two relatively contemporary movies that are quite different in overall cinematic approach; yet, both are products of their post-modern age, and both rework older stories to present a modern message. O’ Brother is a comedy that humorously reworks Homer’s Odyssey. The light-hearted mockery of the film, along with the often ignorant…
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Pride is Self-Destructive: Imagery in Macbeth
Modern culture is dominated by the belief that having pride in one’s self is one of the great sources of strength and comfort in the face of adversity. Conversely, pride in the Christian worldview is the great sin that “leads to every other vice” [1] and “goeth before destruction.”[2] It is for this reason that…
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Inception: Is Fiction a Firm Foundation?
Are you really reading these words? Are you really sitting in that chair? Did you wake up this morning? Take a deep breath. Did your diaphragm just contract and your lungs expand? Look around and listen close. Is what you see and what you hear more than a figment of your imagination? Is your imagination…