Many thanks to @PLeithart for inviting me to kick off a @_Theopolis symposium on theology & horror.

I'll 🧵a brief tour of my argument for reading Christ as the archetypal horror monster. 1/
theopolisinstitute.com/conversations/… What is "horror"?

Nöel Carroll names the emotion one experiences when encountering a monster like Nosferatu in film or fiction “art-horror.” The object that art-horrifies, he argues, must be construed as both threatening and impure. Drawing on Mary Douglas, Carroll characterizes an object or being as “impure if it is categorically interstitial, categorically contradictory, incomplete, or formless.” 2/

Anyone more concerned about evangelicals using foul language than about the Church embracing sexual depravity—e.g., gay drug orgies in the Vatican—is huffing the smoke of Satan. 1/ Evangelical raunchification is a real phenomenon worthy of scrutiny. But Graham's article is a boondoggle. It spurns nuance, collapses distinctions w/ impunity, & can't sustain a coherent thesis. 2/
nytimes.com/2024/03/17/us/…

Zendaya's Chani nearly ruined Dune: Part II.

I've resisted carping about this because I enjoyed the film so much, but I'm in a carping mood this afternoon.

A few thoughts on why she sucks both as an adaptation & on the film's own terms: 1/ In the novel, Chani is the daughter of planetologist Liet-Kynes, an off-worlder, making her only half-Fremen. Her consequent liminality is what makes her such a great match for Paul. The film's portrayal of her struggling to trust him because he's an outsider is just hokum. 2/

I love @SohrabAhmari, but I have to take him to task for this boondoggle of an article on the "Unabomber Right."

THREAD: 1/
newstatesman.com/comment/2023/0… First, though, I'll give credit where it's due. This is a great line, the best in the article:

"You might enjoy the occasional steak tartare. When these guys do the same thing they call it 'resisting the Great Reset'." 2/

David French has jumped the libertarian shark.

His reasoning also applies to prepubescent child marriage & pedophilia, neither of which necessarily constitute "abuse" if what matters is "the good faith & desires of the parents, children & caregivers involved." French would never press his principles to their logical conclusion. But his present position is monstrous enough.

Compared to "affirmative care," child marriage & pedophilia at least have the virtue of leaving their victims' genitals & reproductive function intact.

Are you living out a cultural script so clichéd that even ChatGPT can narrate your "journey"?

If you're an evangelical toying w/ "deconstruction," the answer is probably yes.

Here are 3 versions of the same story: Me: "Write a personal essay from the perspective of a thirty-year-old woman who has recently 'deconstructed' her evangelical Christian faith and wants others to do the same."

ChatGPT:

"As a matter of logical necessity, if one accepts medical assistance in dying—especially for infants—one should feel free to impose MAID on anyone."
americanmind.org/salvo/canadas-… "To take this argument to its own absurd conclusion, one may justifiably impose MAID upon its most impassioned advocates, like Dr. Roy. His support for infanticide, after all, might be taken as unambiguous proof that he is experiencing “hopeless and unbearable suffering.”