Here is a cut of a conversation that i had with my bro-in-law, jason, via facebook. i suggest reading his blog first here. or you could also read the Christopher Nolan interview on Wired here."Jason, this morning i was thinking about our conversation about inception and ambiguity. i just had a few thoughts that i wanted to share with you. while y'all were here i think i mentioned my frustration with art and how it seems to me that art is not "good" unless it has some abstract meaning that no one understands. maybe i didnt explain that very well, but i was thinking about it this morning and i think i was exposed to so much fake ambiguity. pushed to create art that doesnt make sense to anyone simply on the notion that that is what makes good art. or rather that it is what makes art good. this is an almost frightening idea. anyway i felt "cheated" as Nolan put it. but i was thinking about it in context to the bible this morning. i read psalm 5 where the psalmists lists all the things that the father cannot tolerate. deceitful, boasters, wickedness etc. then he says "but i through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house." to me there is a tension there. he doesnt enter because he is not wicked, but because of the fathers steadfast love. i love that. how there is something going on there that is so counter intuitive, but to those of us who know Him, it is so right. as a side note, i get really annoyed when people have things like sovereignty and elect nailed down. its also weird to me when people dont care. So anyway, i was reading that this morning and i was thinking about Nolans notion of ambiguity and realized how true it is for me. thats one of the the reasons i love fiction. When you read good fiction, you can't help but want more and more. I think of, for example, Tolkien or J.K. Rowling. The entire worlds of middle earth or harry potter are inside the imaginations of those authors. all they really do is give people a glimpse of that in their books. but what makes them great is the ability to create a world. you read them and you feel as if you are stepping into something mysterious that is there. you cant grasp the entirety of the worlds in which the stories are set but that is what makes them good. it is the difference between Tolkien and the millions of crappy fantasy novels that followed LOTR. People want more of middle earth so badly that books start coming out that try to give people an entire fantasy world.(or that dont convince you of that world) There is a reason there is near endless speculation on particularly LOTR and HP. in a way, it reminds me of the speculation that has centered around the Word for centuries. it also reminds me of .......... here it comes........ Job. Ch. 38. The father says things like "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" or "Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb" or "Do you know when the mountain goat gives birth?" "have you comprehended the expanse of the earth." I think of mountains and why they are are so stirring and never fail to give people such powerful experiences. That unknown that we face. is terrifying, comforting, and intriguing. in terms of movies I cannot think of one exception. Good movies are intentional, well thought out and ambiguous to a degree. Lack any of those and your movie is not very good. anyway, just some thoughts."
