Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them? Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity. Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa McPhail.
F Trope: good vs evil If you’ve never read THE DARK IS RISING sequence by Susan Cooper – you should! (https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Rising-Sequence/dp/0689829833)
On October 7, 2007, I started this blog. Seventeen years later, I am revising and doing some different things with my blog. My wife and I are now retired senior citizens, our kids are both married, we have a bonus daughter and her wife and we have three grandchildren, the oldest of which just became a teenager. I have forty-five professional publications, plus countless other publications as a slushpile reader, and sometime essay contributor to Stupefying Stories https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/ These days, I write whenever I want to – or when I’m not busy exploring the world with my wife or kids or grandkids. I write and read constantly. Then I discovered that I was writing longer and longer pieces. My new focus is to write shorter; and to write HUMOR. On purpose. Maybe I can still irritate people while being funny. It works pretty well for John Scalzi! We’ll see what happens.
By the way – I’ve been offline from the blog as well as some emails and Face Book because my computer all of a sudden stopped working a week ago. It just turned off and wouldn’t turn back on. After talking with my son, he made a few connections (he built his own computer from spare parts when he was 12 or 13; it’s been part of his job on the Army for the past 12 years, so he “sorta” knows what he’s doing around computers. Anyway, he had me try a few things, including a charger he’d ordered; and was set to come over yesterday to take it apart and start testing if certain components were fried…when the stupid thing just started working again. He said something in mysterious Computer Mumbo Jumbo which I didn’t understand at all except for a word that might have sounded like “bios” from the Lenovo corporation…and now I’m back online. So, here goes:
I'm almost positive to offend a certain kind of person who would read this...so be warned if you are either a Christian or an Avengers fan.
My wife and I finished watching AVENGERS: Endgame for about the fiftieth time, and for the twentieth time when I suddenly realized that there were startling parallels between AE (Avengers: Endgame) and ETE (End Times Eschatology).
First and foremost, is that Thanos (Greek, short for Athanasios, or “immortal”) causes half of all life IN THE UNIVERSE to vanish into a cloud of gray dust with a snap of his fingers after he gathers the Infinity Stones. Their divinity didn’t matter. Their power didn’t matter. They were gone.
In the Christian Church, there is a doctrine called “Escatology, the part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind.
‘Christian hope is concerned with eschatology, or the science of last things.” A BRANCH of eschatology is called Dispensational Futurism. “The futurist interpretation of the book of Revelation is one of four approaches to understanding the prophecies of Revelation…The basic premise of the futurist viewpoint is that the majority of the prophecies in Revelation still await a future, literal fulfillment. This view of interpreting Revelation is very popular today, particularly among dispensationalists. It is the method used by the authors of the bestselling Left Behind series. Those who hold this view generally believe that everything after Revelation 3 will be fulfilled in the future.” (https://www.gotquestions.org/futurist-Revelation.html)
Within DF, you’ll find the peculiar variety that attracted me as a kid who loved science fiction. Because the belief is that the Church will suffer a world-wide, all encompassing persectution during which Satan attempts to destroy all Christians. Its duration is divided into three arguments: Pre-Tribulation, during which the Church would be Raptured or “taken up”, and NOT suffer at all. This point of view is based on a single Bible verse: 1 Thessalonians 4:17. Other arguments are that the Church would be taken from Earth DURING the Tribulation (mid-Trib); where the Chuch will suffer for 3.5 years then be Raptured; or Post Trib, during which the Church will suffer for seven years, then the survivors be released without suffering death.
This is eeriely similar to what Thanos did to half of all life in the Universe. With a snap of his fingers, all suffering of those released was stopped – though if you were in the Quantum Universe, you’d apparently survive unscathed.
Before, during, or after a period of suffering, Christian Eschatology sees a huge war between the powers of Good and Evil. In AVENGERS: ENDGAME, the battle comes at the very end of the movie. The remaining, battered, broken, and hurting Avengers and their allies, stand before the numberless throngs of Thanos’ minions.
Then the Lost return, albeit through Magical Portals, including all of the vanished of Earth’s Greatest Heroes – including Spiderman, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, and others, equally dear and valued. These heroes engage the armies of Thanos (which also include a High Priest as well as various other generals and monsters).
When the head Archangel Michael…er…Captain Marvel, returns with her God-like powers from protecting the Rest of the Universe, she arrives with Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, as well as Salathiel, Jegudiel, Barachiel, and Jeremiel, to effortlessly slaughter the minions of Thanos/Satan. Together, they not only VANQUISH the forces of Thanos/Satan, but Tony Stark/Iron Man, snaps his fingers to destroy Thanos and his army. He has given his life for the lives of the rest of the UNIVERSE and dies from the irreversible damage the Infinity Stones cause to his body.
Please don’t get me wrong – I LOVE the movies in the Marvel Universe (like everyone I have my favorites!), but Infinity War and Endgame are by far and a long shot my favorites – partly because I can see my own beliefs in the end times in the stories. The movies NEVER fail to bring me to tears when the wreath remembering Tony Stark/Iron Man is pushed out into the pond at the farm he and Pepper Pott had retreated to parent their little girl.
But where some may be thinking that it’s great story telling and a fine ending to a great story line, I AM SEEING the end of the universe as we know it and the defeat of NOT just a guy with an ugly face who claims, “I am inevitable!”, by a guy in a rocket-powered, self important, sometime jerk…
I am seeing the defeat of the one who claimed he was master of the universe, the one who tricked the universe away from Humanity (and however many OTHER sapient peoples Satan tricked); and, who was saved from destruction by the true Son of God, who like Tony Stark, gave his life to redeem the universe from evil, but lived a life a bit more...HOLY than Tony ever thought of doing.
Inspiration: Re-watch of AVENGERS: Endgame
