Rachel and Leeman discuss how they and their families regulated and self-censored the content of different media from movies and books to gaming.
Topics Discussed and/or Spoiled
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Harry Potter, China Mieville, the Star Wars roleplaying game, Vampire: Dark Ages
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
I enjoy your podcasts because they remind me of my youth and time in a private Christian school. My family – or at least my mother – was deeply concerned with the media my sister and I consumed, had the Disney Channel on cable and so forth. And she like many, was much more concerned with depictions of sex warping my sister and I than depictions of violence warping my sister and I.
I do have to take Leeman’s side about the books China Mieville, but I like his bleakness.
I am also curious as to what you think of the latest Superman movie, and its balance of violence and Christian imagery.
We have yet to see the new Superman film but given that this is the last Summer when we’ll be able to watch movies, we will endeavour to.
A parent-censorship memory from the generation preceding yours:
Shows my parents “banned.”
Love American Style (Blatant 1970’s Debauchery! 9pm! ABC Fridays!)
One Day at a Time (Bonnie Franklin as a single parent. GASP!)
Mary Hartman Mary Hartman (actually, that was probably a good idea. Thanks, Dad.)
Oh, and my Grandma REALLY didn’t like The Monkees. We had to sneak to watch it whenever she visited.
Maybe they were just trying to protect your sense of taste.
Hey, Bochuka didn’t just embezzle money! He also..set up hidden cameras to sell pornographic vids of Lucas’ character on holonet. Yeah, dysfunctional was the word for that group. Poor Mike (the GM).
Great show, lot’s of thoughts- Rachel, I do recommend giving Kraken a try, if you liked anything about him at all. I love urban fantasy, and it fits a micro genre of mine, “non-religious writers taking religion honestly and seriously.”
I also feel guilty every time I watch Married with Children! My parents forbid that, Simpsons at first (but it faded in the cultural tsunami), Friends (but we were to old to enforce it) and A Current Affair, a Fox tabloid journalism show that was a good idea to forbid to us.
I was talking this through with Rachel in the specific topic of gaming comfort zones, which for me is more “gming comfort zones”- what fictional worlds I am and am not okay with simulating. I would have thought that I was fine with anything, but on reflection I actually wouldn’t be okay with the new world of darkness mage game. This is set in a basically neo-platonic mysticism world, as opposed to old mage which is a “consensus defines reality” world that I have no problem doing. I also have no problem doing, say, Lovecraft, so the issue can’t be that I’m uncomfortable with worlds where Christianity isn’t true. Talking it over with Rachel, I realized the thing that discomforts me about New Mage is that the world is an apostate world, not a heathen world. It’s not a world that’s totally different from Christianity, it’s one that’s close but wrong, based on a metaphysic that has caused actual apostasy of Christians in the future.
As for kids, yeah, they change your comfort zones to. I was on team “traumatize the children!” then Billy had his first Disney-movie derived nightmare. Also, being the father of a daughter has made sexism and bad gender roles stuff bother me much, much more. Before, something like “Fake Geek Girls” would have made me roll my eyes and criticize it, now it makes me want to punch someone.
That’s an interesting defensive response to protecting your girl from bad gender roles and I like it. I would also now like to see Geek Purity Ring ceremonies. “Honey, I want you to wear this ring and promise Daddy that you won’t watch the prequels until after you’ve seen the original series.”
This s Tom! He means “has caused apostasy in the past!”
Incidentally, on the subject of the whole “is it better to avoid things with unwholesome content or watch them to engage in conversation?” question, one of my favorite Christian film critics has a few interesting essays:
Faith and Film Criticism, which is just a terrific essay all around.
Why I’m Glad “The King’s Speech” Won, which brings us this gem:
“Films about unwholesome people and situations can still be very good and worthwhile films. They can be cautionary; they can challenge us with our own capacity for evil; they can raise awareness regarding injustice and oppression; they can inspire hope for redemption. . . . [But] even when films are praiseworthy, disturbing subject matter, over time, can become corrosive to the soul. Occasional disturbing content in an R-rated movie may be a problem for some and not for others; a steady diet of disturbing films about unwholesome people in unwholesome worlds isn’t good for anyone’s soul. “