Fanboys around the world rejoiced today, as another comic book/graphic novel turned movie is released: The Watchmen. I’m the segment of the population that can’t wait to see this movie. That being said, I’m expecting to be disappointed by the big screen premiere, and today’s movie review on NPR accurately reflected my impending frustration with another cinema-adapted book. Here’s the excerpt I especially enjoyed:
Don’t get me wrong: I’m sick with anticipation over this movie, despite my fears that disappointment is the only possible outcome awaiting me. But that anticipation only began to grow once there was a movie to anticipate. Up until then, I would blissfully read the comics again every two years or so, confident in the knowledge that they were telling me a story as well as a story could be told.
See, there’s an assumption — a big one — that doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. And it’s this: Watchmen won’t be a fully-realized piece of entertainment, of literature, of pop-culture, or of art, until it happens on a movie screen. Film, the argument seems to go, is the natural apex of storytelling.
Do I need to mention that that’s nonsense? Or that it reveals an astonishing lack of respect for Watchmen itself? We’re supposed to act as though Watchmen is finally achieving its full potential, when the beauty of Watchmen, and the reason I love it so much, is that it’s fully realized already. In fact, that’s the precise problem that it’s faced on the road to the multiplex. Anybody who’s been waiting anxiously for someone to make it into a movie has sort of missed the point.”
I totally agree with the writer’s point that film is not the final culmination of every piece of art. (Don’t get me wrong: I look forward to movie releases with great anticipation-just ask my husband about my feverish countdown to The Dark Knight, or my post-Cloverfield research obsession, or my LOTR premier costume ).
The reviewer’s point, however, may have put into words part of my frustration while reading the wildly popular Christian fiction book “The Shack.” Please tell me you’ve heard of this book? If not, catch up through my favorite side-hugging blogger: http://stufffchristianslike.blogspot.com/2008/07/remix-92-shack.html
I’m currently reading through “The Shack” for the second time. My first read of William Young’s tale of a man’s encounter with God was several months ago, and honestly- I hated the book. Perhaps this makes me, cue the Paula Abdul music, a cold-hearted snake. Even Kathy Lee Gifford endorses the book on the back cover! The creator of America’s favorite child-labored clothesline was spiritually moved and challenged by this book, and I wasn’t. Even Smitty (Michael W. Smith to those who weren’t raised on “Go West Young Man”) gives the book two very holy thumbs up. I refuse to be spiritually outdone by Kathy Lee Gifford, so I’m reading through “The Shack” again. More accurately, my small group decided to read the book, and I begrudgingly gave it a second chance.
I’ll admit: I’m enjoying it. The dialogue created within our small group because of the book is enjoyable and thought provoking. My frustration is partly explained by the aforementioned Watchmen movie review. Are we expecting “The Shack” to be the apex of God’s story? Is God’s redeeming work not fully realized by our culture until it happens in a book or on a movie screen? Wasn’t God’s story amazing before The Passion of the Christ was ever released? The complexity, symbolism, beauty, and mystery of God’s work in the Bible, on the Earth, and in my life is amazing on it’s own. I appreciate that other mediums can better explain or illustrate God’s nature to our human understanding, and I don’t think the author of The Shack intended for his fictional tale to supersede the story of Christ redeeming history. But I do think some people have allowed the book to do so.
The NPR movie reviewer reminded his audience that The Watchmen was first created as a graphic novel, and therefore the story is fully realized in this form already. It doesn’t need a movie to bring the story to its climax. This is why the reviewer concludes, “Anybody who’s been waiting anxiously for someone to make it into a movie has sort of missed the point.” Maybe the same can be said for those anxiously waiting for a book, or a movie, or a certain event, or person, or thing to bring Christ’s work to completion? Perhaps we’ve missed the point? 
Or maybe I’ve missed the point, and have spent far too much time being frustrated by a book that is probably doing a lot of good for a lot of people. But that is why I’ve entitled this post “How I’ve learned to stop worrying and love “The Shack” (‘love’ is still a bit too strong). I’ve also always wanted to combine my love for Dr. Strangelove and Jesus into one post. Tomorrow I’ll interweave the analogy of my strange earlobe phobia with they mystery of the Holy Spirit.
