Fan fiction

Modern renditions and tellings of scriptural stories are not uncommon in modern cultures through multiple forms of media. A quick Google search of “movies about the Bible”will reveal a long list of movies dating back to mid 90’s. The obsession we have towards understand biblical scripture is evident in the works produced. Each person directing a new film or writing a spin of fictional story adds their own interpretation and spin on biblical stories, pushing our boundaries of what we think we understand. The manga series Let’s Bible by Youn In-Wan depicts Jesus as a busty blonde while Lucifer is a slightly androgynous brunette, helplessly without any agency, tries to escape Lucifer and her descendants. I can’t imagine this manga series to have too much support or fans who are conservative Christians. Some might say that the manga series bastardizes the image of Jesus, but really the series is just another person’s interpretation of biblical scripture. Who is to say that Jesus was not really a cross-dressing women in antiquity?

For this week’s reading we watched Noah (2014) and read The Stowaway by Julian Barnes, both a take on the story of Noah and the Ark. The story of Noah has always intrigued me. Why has God chosen this specific person to be the shepherd of the new world? Why is his family granted amnesty? In The Stowaway, Barnes explains the selection process of Noah to be that though Noah was not the best person, he was the best of the worst. Sticking to the original story, humanity has gone downhill and God wanted to cleanse the Earth of evil and sin. But rather than viewing the Ark as holy salvation, the woodworm sees it as a prison. The woodworm griefs over how Noah is an abusive alcoholic with a dictatorial command over the animals and his family, largely contrasting the traditional depiction of Noah being a holy pious man who was handpicked by God because he was just so good. The biggest takeaway from The Stowaway for me is the argument that it is ok to be flawed. Noah was a horrible, abusive, egotistical person who slaughtered animals for the smallest things, he also did follow God’s instruction of saving (most) of the animals in the end. The woodworm argues that there seems to be a dichotomy of the image of Noah in scripture, the Noah before the flood was a drunkard, but the Noah after the flood was a good pious man who did no wrong. My interpretation of the woodworm’s argument is that it is ok to be flawed and still loved by God. The hilarious, satirical take on the story of Noah attempted to explain many things (like the Bible does) such as the evolutionary gap between species was amazing since it not only casts a bad light on Noah, but also debunks the creationist theory and favors evolution.

The film Noah (2014) also does something similar, but not to such a great effect. Noah begins with the recounting of the fall of humanity and immediately cuts to a scene of Noah and his sons, skipping all in between biblical stories and events that take place. It also leaves plot holes such as why the shiny material they easily dig up from the ground is so precious and scarce. Being a Hollywood film, of course there is gross heterosexual romance that makes it way into the narrative. I honestly can’t believe that Emma Watson agreed to do this film after reading the script. It’s not a bad story, just poorly executed.