Oct 12 2009
Preach to Me!
I will start this post with my most humble opinion— I absolutely hated the first eleven chapters of Glorious Awakening. There were times when the words and, perhaps, the values expressed behind them made me cringe. Since I know that just writing a post on the fact that I hated something is not going to help anyone, I think I will spend the next 250+ words trying to deconstruct why I had such a strong, negative reaction to this piece. First, I felt like the writing was very childish and the characters are caricatures of people—they were a diverse bunch of “believers” who seemed to be diverse in a very superficial fashion. For example, there were “token” characters like Abdullah Smith and Chang who seem to fit certain stereotypes: the “Asian” ends up being the computer geek and Abdullah is a Jordanian who, people are amazed, is actually very smart. However, perhaps I’m missing the depths of these characters because Glorious Awakening is part of a series and the earlier books would probably have explained the characters’ backgrounds. Glorious Awakening read like a young adult novel meant to preach to children—it read like the Book of Revelation written into some modern action movie. Out of all of the works we have read thus far, this is the one that merely interprets the story from Revelation. Moreover, after reading this, I wonder if this is what some evangelicals might actually believe is a possible model for the Apocalypse. I remember that someone in class said that she had seen the books from this series on the “recommended books” lists in the South and this furthers my view that these books are just propaganda. Perhaps studying the story will tell us more about the lives of those who identify as “Born Again” Christians: I certainly understand the motivation for faith in Jesus Christ as Savior if this is how one views the fate of human kind.
PS. I’m on a flight and I have been watching MSNBC for the past five hours. Apparently, October is “Cult Month” and they are showing documentaries on Jonestown and Wako. I think we should check them out.
To add on to what Daniel was saying, all forms of propaganda/conditioning must be simplistic and easy to digest. Eleven chapters of Glorious Appearing went by way too fast and easy–the perfect formula with which to spoon-feed dogma to the masses.
I have do admit, I was skeptical at first, but I found myself enjoying Glorious Awakening much more than I thought I would. And precisely for the reasons you said you disliked it, Priya.
I like the book for the same reasons I couldn’t put down Twilight, and why I keep watching Supernatural week after week – it’s like junk food for my mind! As soon as I realized that it was, as you put it, the Book of Revelation written in to a modern action movie, I started looking forward to reading it.
My inner 12 year old boy is getting such a kick out of it. Hacking into the government media monopoly? Awesome. The description of the horses underground? Gross, but exciting. A giant army advancing on a force of a few hundred? ATVs and Hummers and helicopters? Everyone suddenly being healed? Crazy!
Yes, the writing is clunky, the characters are one dimensional and stereotypical, and the plot is far-fetched – it’s obviously not what I would call quality literature. And that can be grating at times. But, at the end of the day, I don’t eat ice cream because it’s high in calcium.
At the risk of overusing the food metaphor, I think it’s best to take this book with a large grain of salt, and try to enjoy the ride. Wasn’t it great when Carpathia was on the roof of his car, leading the charge, and then boom, Jesus just appeared? Well…I thought it was great, at least. Looking forward to debating in class!
Words like “propaganda” and “brainwashing” are political ways of saying “conditioning.”
The difference is that “conditioning” is neutral, while “propaganda” passes judgment.
In my humble opinion, all of our lofty ideas are the consequence of conditioning – fundamentalist, secular or otherwise.
This is not to say that I didn’t find the storytelling annoying.