By the Book

“Materialism is a conviction based not upon evidence or logic but upon what Carl Sagan (speaking of another kind of faith) called a “deep-seated need to believe.” Considered purely as a rational philosophy, it has little to recommend it; but as an emotional sedative, what Czeslaw Milosz liked to call the opiate of unbelief, it offers a refuge from so many elaborate perplexities, so many arduous spiritual exertions, so many trying intellectual and moral problems, so many exhausting expressions of hope or fear, charity or remorse. In this sense, it should be classified as one of those religions of consolation whose purpose is not to engage the mind or will with the mysteries of being but merely to provide a palliative for existential grievances and private disappointments. Popular atheism is not a philosophy but a therapy.”

― David Bentley Hart, "The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss"

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Dear Kate,

Last night I had about an hour on hand and thought about doing the unthinkable to waste it and before the thought was over the hour was gone.

I've seen a few pictures from the animation "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" and thought that's how I am going to waste the hour, on something beautiful.  I knew I won't finish it, I knew it is Marvel and it'll be the same story, the Apple story, the Pixar story, the Amazon and Facebook story, of a person searching for oneself and finding the materials for self-actualization conveniently made available by the said enterprises peddling the narrative to very lucrative ends.

It's beautiful, well-made, everything one should expect from a Marvel movie by now, to keep the world we see small enough for us to stay comfortably insulated from the glory and horror of being truly human.

This is obviously not a review of the movie, for it was actually less than a full hour before I turned to something even more reductive, the news.  What's the story about?  Here's the synopsis from the peddler: "Teen Miles Morales becomes the Spider-Man of his universe, and must join with five spider-powered individuals from other dimensions to stop a threat for all realities."

I stopped at where the teen protagonist goes to the "tomb" of the "dead" Spider-Man, Peter Parker, and....prays to him for the power for his own becoming.  What leads him there was, like with some great religions, "by the book"; in this case, the comic book, which foretells the teen's destiny and promises blessing to his search.

When the teen goes to a shop to buy a Spider-Man costume, he meets the Creator of the comic book universe, Mr Stan Lee himself.  He asks Stan, "Can I return it if it doesn't fit?" Stan replies, "It always fits. Eventually."  Then the camera pans to the offscreen space to Stan's right and reveals a sign that says "No Returns or Refunds Ever," which, I suppose, is meant to be read as speaking about the teen's destiny, or even more deeply, his destiny as a lifetime consumer of goods, to be exploited for his longing to "find himself."  The tongue in cheek is only one lick away from unapologetic cynicism.

The moment made me thought of another observation from David Bentley Hart:  “Late modern society is principally concerned with purchasing things, in ever greater abundance and variety, and so has to strive to fabricate an ever greater number of desires to gratify, and to abolish as many limits and prohibitions upon desire as it can. Such a society is already implicitly atheist and so must slowly but relentlessly apply itself to the dissolution of transcendent values. It cannot allow ultimate goods to distract us from proximate goods. Our sacred writ is advertising, our piety is shopping, our highest devotion is private choice. God and the soul too often hinder the purely acquisitive longings upon which the market depends, and confront us with values that stand in stark rivalry to the only truly substantial value at the center of the social universe: the price tag.”

We all live life by the book.  What is your book?

Yours, Alex