Thursday, March 13, 2014

Interpretations

As I sit here waiting for my chemo to come out of the pharmacy and begin its slow drip into my veins, it gives me a rare opportunity to browse headlines, something I usually avoid.  Today, however, I am quite interested in the missing airplane near Malaysia and am anxious to learn what has become of it and the more than 200 souls aboard.

In searching for news on the plane, I was immediately distracted when I came upon a story about how the beloved Disney movie Frozen has been interpreted by some as forwarding the gay agenda.  I racked my brain to think of what could be in the film that might possibly be interpreted that way, as I have seen it many times with my kids and listen to the music almost daily when driving kids from place to place and have never noticed anything of the sort.  I came up with nothing.  So, I read this post by a fellow blogger but of the Mormon variety.

Based on the comments I found on that post (which really ran the gamut as you might imagine), I was equally interested to learn that someone else reported Frozen to be the "most Christian movie they had seen all year".  This post, in fact, describes the parallels between Frozen and Dante's Inferno.  It's amazing how people can see the very same thing so very differently, isn't it?

Both sides supported their arguments with evidence from the film and made semi-logical conclusions based on the facts presented.  Nonetheless, I thought I would take a minute a propose a crazy theory of my own:

What if this entire story is totally fictional, cleverly created for our enjoyment, without any underlying, hidden meaning at all?  What if the characters don't stand for anything except what they appear to be?  What if there is no agenda at all behind this delightful film?

People see what they want to see.  I, for one, want to see an entertaining film with something in it for all my children:  princesses, heroes, villains and, of course, a talking and singing reindeer and snowman.  I loved this movie and want only to see what it meant to all of us.  I highly doubt that my kids are going to dig for a deeper meaning as they sing, "Let it Go" over and over, nor do I fear that images of hell or homosexuals or (gasp!) beastiality will burn themselves into their brains without us being aware of it.  Let's face it:  in our current society, when those who want to promote these types of messages are busy promoting them, they are hardly subtle about it, and you don't have to look for them.  Rather, they assault you.

In conclusion, I want to thank the "Well Behaved Mormon Woman" and the writer who put forth the idea of Dante's Inferno on The Blaze for giving me something to blog about today and for their considered opinions that made me think about my own.




4 comments:

Ange.i.am said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ange.i.am said...

Thank you. I liked the movie about sisterly love.

Anonymous said...

Similarly, there has been a lot of media attention regarding national scout organizations. I notice every year around the cookie sale the news media puts out stories that make the organization look bad. I read a Yahoo article and then the comments. It was amazing/disturbing the things people were saying. People were saying that the groups have a liberal agenda that promotes abortion and homosexuality, that young people are being endoctrinated against traditional Christian family values. One person commented that the news only reports facts so what is being said about the scouts must be true--this was not sarcastic or tongue in cheek. How sad and scary that people would blindly believe something just because it is in print or aired by the news. People definitely can see things from very different perspectives.

Anonymous said...

I recall in my high school short story class asking "is it possible that sometimes a polka dot tie is just a polka dot tie"? Needless to say, I didn't excel in that class,:). I am with you ---in this case a talking snowman, is just a cute adorable talking snowman"!

Think of you often, Suzanne. Xoxo Tracey M