This is the
story about the interaction of religion and movies in America over 4
generations.
Clarence
In the
first generation, god is essential – also to everyday life. When a Reverend
loses his faith, he is lost in life and movies are a way to escape reality:
“In the purifying sweep of atheism human beings
lost all special value, The numb misery of the horse was matched by that of the
farmer.” (Updike, 1996, p.7).
“In spite of the panic gnawing at his stomach,
Clarence felt in his mouth a welcoming rush of salvia.” (Updike, 1996, p.35).
“they have not just reason on their side, but
simple humanity and decency as well. Jehovah and His pet Israelites, that
bloody tit-for-tat of the Atonement, the whole business of condemning poor
fallible men and women to eternal Hell for a few mistakes in their little
life-times.” (Updike, 1996, p.61).
“Watching the “movies” took no strength, but
recovering from them did – climbing out of their scintillating bath into the
bleak facts of life, his life, gutted by god’s withdrawal.” (Updike, 1996,
p.107).
Teddy
His son
tries to avoid God as much as possible and the focus is on the world today. The
world we live in. And to him movies are simply entertainment.
“Always he loved this sensation, hard to
describe, of delivering, and then moving on.” (Updike, 1996, p.111).
“He was good in class and his grades were good
but not the best, not so good as to make him a star that way either, a future
millionaire. He enjoyed being one of the bunch, swept through the halls and the
day on the tides of young bodies, the others indifferent toward him but
accepting.” (Updike, 1996, p.113).
“‘This, too, shall pass away.’ It’s good when
you’re high, and good when you’re low.” (Updike, 1996, p.114).
“In both factory and college, there would be
all those probing, thrusting, jagged-edged other people to fit himself into,
somehow, to compete with. He didn’t want to have to compete, and yet this
seemed the only way to be an American. Be stretched or strike.” (Updike, 1996,
p.139).
“”I do,” he said, surprising himself. “But I’m
only eighteen, what’s everybody’s hurry? Does everybody have to do something
all the time? Isn’t it enough sometimes, if you just don’t make things any
worse?”” (Updike, 1996, p.143).
“And yet Teddy liked people, even the dumb fat
girls on the bottle-cap line and the ferret faced little Wilmington student
stenographers. He was happiest among people, if they weren’t crowding him.”
(Updike, 1996, p.153).
“The motion pictures, all made now in
California or Europe, three thousand miles away in one direction or another,
embraced the chaos that sensible men and women in their ordinary lives plotted
to avoid.” (Updike, 1996, p.146). “Always these films were trying to get you to
look over the edge, at something, at something you would rather not see –
poverty, war, murder, that thing men and women did when they were alone
together.” (Updike, 1996, p.147). “Life was not serious; it was an illusion, a
story, distracting and disturbing but at bottom painless and merciful.”
(Updike, 1996, p.148).
Essie/Alma
For the
third generation the focus on the individual goes further. And God becomes someone
to pray to for individual success. And to become a movie star.
“those
endowed with a splendid self, have a duty to be selfish.” (Updike, 1996,
p.214).
“The world was intact, it had not been torn
apart by her dream, full of yelling and fire and spilled things. The world is
like stones: dreams and thoughts flow over them.” (Updike, 1996, p.228).
“Almost the first feeling she could ever
remember was this joy at being herself instead of somebody else.” (Updike,
1996, p.229).
“but every morning she (her mother) was up when
Essie was still untangling herself from the sticky dark sweetness of sleep and
moving about downstairs making things tidy and cozy and bringing them to life.”
(Updike, 1996, p.229).
“it was
the dead, unearthly grandfather she aspired to. In his unreality he held a
promise of lifting her up toward the heavenly realm where movie stars flickered
and glowed.” (Updike, 1996, p.271).
“A one-to-one encounter seemed so dry and
meagre, after being the food for all those eyes at the center of the stadium.”
(Updike, 1996, p.273).
“Painted and oiled and every hair lacquered as
firm as the fibers in a hat. Essie felt armored in pretense, formless and safe
behind her face, like a rich filling of a stiff chocolate.” (Updike, 1996,
p.291).
“in this land of promise where yearning never
stops short at a particular satisfaction but keeps moving on, into the
territory beyond.” (Updike, 1996, p.333).
“In some corner of herself she was jealous of
Loretta; these two toddlers, round-faced and shiny-eyed, gazed up at their
idiotic mother in her cheap polka-dot sundress as though she was half the
world.” (Updike, 1996, p.337).
Clark/Esau/Slick
In the
fourth generation that individualism is taken to the extreme. In a world
seemingly full of individualists God is the only one not just taking, but
giving and hence listening. The only one providing potentially an audience. And
towards the end that is taken to the extreme, as the belief in God and one’s
personal and unique connection to God is being used to get a national audience
on TV.
“She observed in him what she already sensed in
herself, the danger of becoming a performer purely, of coming alive in
proportion to the size of the audience, and being absent-minded and remote when
the audience was small.” (Updike, 1996, p.353).
“She ought to retire on her money, your mother,
but she can’t. That’sthe penalty of success. Nobody knows when to stop.
Everybody always wants more.” (Updike, 1996, p.407).
“the pet Russian wolfhound lying out on the
terrace watching with a worried look and wanting to play with the chewed yellow
tennis ball between his long white paws but nobody playful, everyone too wasted
and self-absorbed and carefully moussed and pinned together to go entertain a
dog.” (Updike, 1996, p.411).
“He looked over the messages but Mom was right,
it was all people who wanted something, nobody who had anything to give him.”
(Updike, 1996, p.432).
“Oh, who can tell? When the ambition bug bites,
happiness stops being the point.” (Updike, 1996, p.462).
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