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On Reading

-by Kyle Cupp

The philosopher Paul Ricoeur compared reading a text to the execution of a musical score, an analogy that highlights the plurality of possible readings while keeping those readings situated in the text. Just as each musical performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto differs from all others, even those others performed by the same musician, while still remaining true (or false) to the score, so too will each reading of Moby-Dick differ and realize new semantic possibilities of Melville’s novel. Each reading of a text and each execution of a score involves interpretation; each interpretation brings forth more than the intended and inherent meanings of the text and sheet. What the author and composer write functions more as a guide for interpretation than a dictator of meaning. Nevertheless, the reader has no more liberty to make the text mean anything he wants it to mean than the musician has the liberty to play impromptu melodies when performing Chopin. Reading is an exercise of pluralism, not relativism. It gives birth to a surplus of meaning, not its absence.

Kyle Cupp is an independent contributor to MetroCatholic publications. Kyle publishes the blog Journeys in Alterity, which features his thoughts on culture, hermeneutics, language, literature, moral dilemmas, personal life, philosophy, politics, postmodernism, and religion.

New Mythologies

By Kyle Cupp

My wife and I took a break this weekend from packing and cleaning to watch Up and Star Trek, two films we would have liked to have seen in the theater. Both were quite good.

I wasn’t sure how the whole time travel motif, common in the Star Trek universe, would play. I expected that Leonard Nimoy’s presence in the movie might annoy me, but it worked, and it actually proved a cunning way for the filmmakers to rewrite the Star Trek mythology, and even change its history, while remaining true, and even historically true, to the old mythology. Star Trek fans have reason to interpret the mythology with both a hermeneutic of continuity and a hermeneutic of discontinuity. Not being a convention-frequenting Trekkie, I wouldn’t have taken to the streets in geeky protest if Abrams and company had just started from scratch and written a whole new origin story for Kirk and company, but I was pretty much pleased with their choices.

Mythologies deserve rethinking and re-mythologizing. Doing so can enrich them and enrich us. I toast to the fact that Homer and Shakespeare didn’t frown upon composing their unique versions of twice told tales. I don’t share the disdain for sequels and prequels and creating new versions of old stories. Bring on the Batmans and the James Bonds and the Hamlets. Let the heroes and villains be given new life and new voice. Heck, let’s turn them topsy-turvy and see what happens. Would it take much to turn the soulless killer James Bond into a villain?

Personally, I’d like to see The Lord of the Rings get treatment by a filmmaker who actually understands holiness and magnanimity. Let’s have another round of Star Wars films while we’re at it, perhaps even new takes on Lucas’ imaginative but at times poorly crafted stories. I’d like to see the six episodes reduced three films depicting the rise, fall, and redemption of Anakin Skywalker. Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson or Joss Whedon.

What can I say about Up that hasn’t been said already? And is asking that question inconsistent with what I said above? I will say that Pixar has yet to make a bad movie, and if more companies had Pixar’s dedication to quality, our economy would be in much better shape. Up is first-rate movie magic, a comedy gravely serious about its emotional drama. Squirrel!

Kyle Cupp is an independent contributor to MetroCatholic publications. Kyle publishes the blog Journeys in Alterity, which features his thoughts on culture, hermeneutics, language, literature, moral dilemmas, personal life, philosophy, politics, postmodernism, and religion.

Sameness and Difference in the Blogosphere

By Kyle Cupp

The world of weblogs can be the propagandist’s dream world, a place where his talking points, simplistic narratives, and manufactured emotions find seemingly infinite repetition and affirmation. People repeat ideas and display emotions they find attractive but do not understand; their unique voices become lost as they speak only as a conduit for the propagandist. Blogs written by very different people nonetheless appear very much the same, full of the same phrases, buzzwords, and feelings.

I’m still a fan of the medium, though. For while the blogosphere can be home to the ugly sameness of hateful emotions and unthinking repetition, it also affords people the opportunity to speak as many, to share their uniqueness, their differences. Blogging can be a very personal activity. The best bloggers, in my opinion, have not only something to say and say it well, they also speak as no one else does. They communicate who they are in what they say. They may repeat, but they do so with understanding and with personal uniqueness.

Kyle Cupp is an independent contributor to MetroCatholic publications. Kyle publishes the blog Journeys in Alterity, which features his thoughts on culture, hermeneutics, language, literature, moral dilemmas, personal life, philosophy, politics, postmodernism, and religion.

Understanding Death through Play

- By Kyle Cupp

My son Jonathan informed me yesterday that one of his lifelong toys named Baby Edward had died. He prefaced this sad news by asking me where he could find the Jesus that we had received at the end of his sister Vivian’s funeral. I directed him to our home office and to my wife’s desk where the crucifix was temporarily kept. He took the crucifix to Baby Edward, had Jesus kiss what he said was the toy’s boo-boo, and informed me that Baby Edward was healed. Jonathan and I, along with a couple of the characters from Bob the Builder, then took turns holding the healed Baby Edward.

Like the rest of us, Jonathan is trying to make sense of his sister’s death. We’ve told him how Vivian’s soul is in Heaven while her body rests in the garden until the time that Jesus will heal her. A few days ago, Jonathan mused that he might bust into Heaven and bring Vivian back.

It makes perfect sense to me that Jonathan tries to understand what cannot be understood through the act of play. While we adults may not play with toys – well, while other adults may not play with toys – we try to make sense of life’s tragic mysteries by telling stories, by creating fictions, forming myths, constructing symbols. The storyteller plays with words.

My wife and I are now faced with the question of how we respond to our three-year-old son’s playing and narrating. Do we want him entertaining the idea that Heaven is a place from which people ought to be saved? I would think not. It is strange, though perhaps not so strange, that just as we would ask if a story our son heard was in some sense true, we have to ask whether his play – a serious activity, to say the least – reflects the mysteries he is trying to understand.

Kyle Cupp is an independent contributor to MetroCatholic publications.  Kyle publishes the blog Journeys in Alterity, which features his thoughts on culture, hermeneutics, language, literature, moral dilemmas, personal life, philosophy, politics, postmodernism, and religion.

Consumer Spirituality

-by Kyle Cupp

 

In their book Radical Hospitality, Father Daniel Homan, O.S.B. and Lonni Collins Pratt say the following about American spirituality:

 

American spirituality is basically consumer spirituality.  God is a product with incredible benefits.  God helps us live well, live healthfully, be prosperous and emotionally strong.  God is like a great motivational speaker or talk show host who offers a banquet of options for successful spirituality.  You look over the banquet and select what appeals to you.

 

[…]

 

It is tragically and poignantly adolescent, with the deep emotion and angst that goes with adolescence.  It is a spirituality that seeks improvement for life—a better me, a better relationship—but it does not seek God and it does not move us toward others.  It just keeps us running on the treadmill of our little egocentric worlds.

 

Reading this reminded me of a telling scene in Woody Allen’s movie, Hannah and Her Sisters.  In the movie, Allen’s character, after learning that he doesn’t have brain cancer, begins a short-lived search for deeper meaning by exploring various religious faiths.  He encounters Christianity – Catholicism in particular – as nothing more than a well-marketed product for consumption.  We see him standing outside a Christian bookstore, looking through a window at a picture of Jesus.  When Allen sways to the left, Jesus’ eyes open; when he sways to the right, his eyes close.  Next we see Allen return home with a paper grocery bag.  He sets in on the counter and pulls out a crucifix, a framed picture of St. Jude, and a loaf of Wonder Bread. 

 

To Allen’s character, and probably Allen himself, Christianity is just a brand-name hyperbolically promising something it cannot realistically deliver.  Like Wonder Bread.  It may give comfort, but it doesn’t deliver real wonders.  I can’t really blame Allen’s character for moving on to another religion.  True, his chosen exposure to Christianity was too brief and way too superficial, yet this superficial consumerism is too often the mark of how Christians practice and market their religion.

 

If spirituality is nothing more than a product that delivers comfort, then it’s an easily replaceable product.  A feel-good movie, a bar of chocolate, a cold beer, or a pill can do the same.  It’s with these things that consumer spirituality competes in the market place.  Genuine spirituality, Homan and Pratt remind us, “is not cozy, and seldom makes you comfortable.  It challenges, disturbs, unsettles, and leaves you feeling like someone is at the center of your existence on a major remodeling mission.”  Genuine spirituality involves risk and hospitality, opening one’s heart and one’s space to the stranger.  The writings of the saints and mystics attest to this deeper, harsher, but more rewarding reality of spirituality.  Spirituality takes us outside of our comfort zone and opens us to others, to what is foreign, alien, alternative, dangerous, and even to what is infinite. 

 

Kyle Cupp is an independant contributor to MetroCatholic publications.  Kyle publishes the blog Journeys in Alterity, which features his thoughts on culture, hermeneutics, language, literature, moral dilemmas, personal life, philosophy, politics, postmodernism, and religion.

Father to Vivian

-by Kyle Cupp

My wife and I learned during Holy Week that our daughter in the womb has a fatal condition called anencephaly; since then we have struggled to share with Vivian the little bit of life she has. My wife has done what she can to stay healthy, exercise, and eat well. She’s made our daughter birthday gifts to present to her at her hoped for day of birth. She’s felt her roll and kick in the womb, savoring those precious gifts from Vivian.

Prior to this experience, when pondering the meaning of fatherhood, I would have thought of showing my children affection, forming their character, teaching them their parts of speech, instructing them in the faith, or playing games of all sorts. I have been able to do these things and more with my son. My daughter will not likely have the opportunity to see me smile at her, hear my words of affection, or feel me holding her. Anencephaly doesn’t generally allow for such sensations.

I have come to the conclusion that what it means to be a father to Vivian is this: I am there with her, suffering with her, even if she cannot know me. Is this experience of fatherhood in any way akin to the fatherhood of God, who loves and weeps for his children? God doesn’t always get what he wants. He is our loving Father, not a cosmic engineer who prevents all disasters or fixes all breakdowns in the system. We certainly can’t fix our daughter’s condition. Nor could we have prevented it. It happened as many sad events happen. I love her and suffer with her, and therefore I am a father to her. I pray for the grace to be a good one.

Kyle Cupp is an independant contributor to MetroCatholic publications.  Kyle publishes the blog Journeys in Alterity, which features his thoughts on culture, hermeneutics, language, literature, moral dilemmas, personal life, philosophy, politics, postmodernism, and religion.

Persuasion

- by Kyle Cupp

In a recent post on abortion, George wrote:

There are those who think the Truth should be sugar-coated or watered down to make it more pleasant-sounding to others who are not willing to accept the Truth.

Certainly, all persons deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. We do not advocate violence, hatred, or ill-will of any kind to persons who do not receive the Truth. However, that does not change the mandate.

I don’t advocate sugar-coated or watered down language when speaking about the abortion procedure or those who defend or practice it; however, I believe we pro-lifers could do better at using language ordered toward persuasion. In the last few days, I’ve noted not a few instances of people remarking that they hold a pro-life legal philosophy, but shun the pro-life movement because of what they see as its use of divisive and alienating language. Not every complaint may be worth our attention, but some of these complaints have a valid point.

It’s a standard rule of debate that you present the opposing side in a way the opposition would agree is accurate, yet many of the descriptions pro-lifers use to depict the other side fail to correspond to what the other side actually holds. Inaccurate and demeaning terms such as “abortion enthusiast,” “baby-hater,” and “bloodthirsty baby-killer” don’t advance the discussion; they bring it to a grinding halt and convince abortion rights advocates not to give us the time of day. Such rhetoric also alienates potential friends.

Our language will not always persuade, but persuasion should be its purpose. There’s no clear formula to persuasion, as what persuades one person may not persuade another, but in general persuasive language is accurate, clear, and true. Sugar-coated or watered-down language, on the other hand, is inaccurate, obscure, and false. Ultimately, it’s counter-productive. So is language that demonizes and alienates.

Kyle Cupp is an independant contributor to MetroCatholic publications.  Kyle publishes the blog Journeys in Alterity, which features his thoughts on culture, hermeneutics, language, literature, moral dilemmas, personal life, philosophy, politics, postmodernism, and religion.

Tonight – End-of-Life Decisions and Advanced Care Planning

Frisco, TX (MetroCatholic) – Today’s “Baby Boomers” face a new reality: their own aging and most importantly, the illness and eventual death of their parents. In this Modern Age of medical possibilities, it is often extremely difficult to figure out which decisions we should make for the care of those we love. Many are in the process of choosing assisted living or nursing home care options for parents. Others face even more crucial and immediate decisions regarding end-of-life treatments and care.

Tonight, May 11th at 7:00 PM, Deacon Charlie Stump, Director of Pastoral Services Catholic Diocese of Dallas, will offer a workshop covering these issues in the San Damiano Room of St. Francis of Assisi in Frisco.

Please contact Kyle Cupp at the parish office or kcupp@stfoafrisco.org to register.

Suffering with Us

- by Kyle Cupp

God doesn’t always get what he wants. I realized this truth a while ago when reflecting upon the idea that, while God wants us all to be saved, we can choose to reject his gifts of grace. I thought about this truth again recently, but in response to an event that can’t be traced to human freedom or decision. On the Wednesday of Holy Week, my wife and I learned that our daughter in the womb has a fatal condition known as anencephaly. Something caused this condition, of course, but we can only speculate within a range of known possibilities about what the causes may have been. When it comes to answering the question of why God allowed this condition to happen, we really have no range of possibilities in which to speculate. No one knows or has any clue.

I don’t envision God as watching us from a distance, but nor do I see him as a cosmic engineer tinkering with the world so that he gets what he wants. God doesn’t always get what he wants. He is present, though, in a way more important than preventing catastrophes or fixing breakdowns in the system. Ilia Delio writes, “Too often we want a God who will hear our cries, who will be strong enough to push our experiences away. It is not that God is deaf to the cry of the poor. It is rather that God himself weeps. God himself is poor. The poor one cries out to the poor God and the poor God answers, ‘I am here!’” Christ on the cross shows us that God humbly bends low to embrace us in love and to share our suffering. He humbly suffers with us. As my wife and I prepare for our daughter’s birth, baptism, and burial, this is the image of God to which I tightly hold.

Kyle Cupp is an independant contributor to MetroCatholic publications.  Kyle publishes the blog Journeys in Alterity, which features his thoughts on culture, hermeneutics, language, literature, moral dilemmas, personal life, philosophy, politics, postmodernism, and religion.

Choices Now

by Kyle Cupp

(MetroCatholic) – It is a seemingly dismal time for those of us who seek to secure the unborn protection under the law. As expected, the past weeks have seen bans removed and policies implemented that undo the progress made in the past decade toward outlawing the destruction of unborn life. The pendulum has only begun to swing.

Still, we have choices for how we will respond to the Obama presidency. We can oppose him and other pro-choice leaders as enemies, or we can work with them as allies. We can react to them as if they were demons intent on making sure the unborn never see the light of day, or we can respond to them as human persons advocating immoral solutions to their legitimate moral concerns.

Given the vastness of important moral and social issues, there are many opportunities for us to work with President Obama, his administration, and our senators and representatives in Congress. Cooperating with them on matters of shared concern shouldn’t prevent us from critiquing and opposing where appropriate, but it should mean that antagonism is not the basis of our relationship. Culture war-making will only keep the pendulum swinging.

Kyle Cupp is an independant contributor to MetroCatholic publications.  Kyle publishes the blog Journeys in Alterity, which features his thoughts on culture, hermeneutics, language, literature, moral dilemmas, personal life, philosophy, politics, postmodernism, and religion.

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