Friday, June 28, 2013

Blue Like Jazz- Blue and Despondent

I watched the move Blue Like Jazz yesterday. I'd heard about it, of course, and the book as well, as several friends love both- but somehow I never found the time or inclination to watch the movie, but finally I did yesterday. I tend to read movie reviews after I watch the movies, and so I did after watching this one. There is quite a bit written about it, and often somewhat vague reviews- like the movie and the title, they are usually without a satisfying resolution. So instead of a review I just thought I 'd share my feeling after watching this.

I'm a very feeling person- a movie, a book or a work of art is a visceral thing for me. Given that I'm a Christian, and well acquainted with the struggles of identity and conscience that many other believers have gone through (not to mention my own such struggles), this movie reminded me of that pain vividly.

My background being Indian Catholic, the Gospel of Jesus was virtually unknown to me until I attended Madras Christian College. In my final year at MCC, I came to faith. What was once a grey world without meaning, and resembled closely the highly liberal world of Reed in the movie, I found a shining, exciting, new thing. People who came to faith with me shared something special with me. Together we experienced incredible worship, joy, witness, healing and, for many, maturation that has been so Christlike.

Alongside this, something else happened- especially to those of us who had been raised in Christian families. They began criticizing their churches and other Christians. Eventually that evolved into calling themselves anything but Christian, evangelical, Baptist, Born-Again or other such terms. As the years passed I can see a little of why this happened. The secular, progressive world outside, especially in the US, hasn't helped either. While in Blue Like Jazz the antagonism is direct ('Do you have any idea what your hateful, bullying tribe has been up to?'), the real life opposition in my life has been more implicit. The suggestions are more inclined towards diminishing and questioning the sheen of my journey to faith, than a direct statement which would imply prejudice on the part of the questioner.

This movie, while somewhat realistic, mirrors the society's attitude towards Christians. But more importantly it mirror's our own faith. Hardened political Christians who use childish, pithy statements to explain the Gospel, and living hypocritical lives, worldly progressives Christians distancing themselves from their conservative brethren, and seeming in no way different from the world, ideas that are loose and vague, inclusive but not with compassion toward struggling Christians.

I found this to be a true picture of contemporary life. But is is depressing. I find in it and here in the US a world where Christians have lost their moral compass on the right and the left- political grandstanding, either sexual promiscuity or judgmentalism, salesmanship. Is there no hope for this country? Will God rescue us? Or should we bury ourselves and let the world take over?

Donald Miller, the author, has become a revered figure in the emerging movement. I find this movement depressing as well. I simply do not find meaning in the moral infallibility of Gen X and Y seeking to thumb their noses at the others through their acts of charity and generosity. First these acts are not in any way unique to such groups, except that they trumpet them much more, second, they seem to consider doctrinal clarity- even at a minimum- as a bad thing. Reading through the New Testament, there seems to have been no such lack of clarity in the apostles' preaching- or for that matter, in Jesus'. There was of course, love and compassion. Are these opposing forces? Why is it that the Western world with its comforts seem to hold itself up as the authority to speak for Christ, either in the conservative or in the 'liberal' movement?

I feel sorry for American Christians. In my darkest moments, I think of some friends in India who face threats to their lives daily, but who minister to those who are poor and sick- both physically and spiritually. Those to whom they minister consider them as not fundamentalists, but as angels. When I think of them I think of Jesus. Who can Americans think of? The protagonists in Blue Like Jazz? The chasm in my mind is deep and vast.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Fleeting Moment of Creation

The character of Professor Wilson (Richard Gere) from the movie Hachi- A Dog’s Tale is seen playing a piano before his sudden unexpected death. After playing a piece he talks about pianist Anton Rubinstein who refused to have any of his recitals recorded by Thomas Edison on his newly invented phonograph. Edison went ahead and recorded it anyhow. Wilson continues:

"I'm a lot older than you but I tend to think that there's an element of music that cannot be captured. Life cannot be captured. Human heart cannot be captured. The moment of creation itself is fleeting."

I wonder how much of recorded, amplified, electrified music we have come to accept as normal, even as being actual ‘creation’ of music. While these endeavors are incredibly creative, I cannot help but think that we are removing a part of the creative process from the body of work when we do these. My basement sound mixer accepts 7 inputs from different sources, including my guitars, microphones, computer and iPhone, carries with it effects, a little amplification and feeds the signals into a home theater which amplifies it even more. The home theater adds even more effects if necessary. When we add a completely electric instrument such as an electronic keyboard or electronic drums, where there is no analog sound at the moment of ‘creation’, the signals are converted into analog only at the speaker.

With the advances in science, perhaps we can look forward to a day when our ‘creation’ of music happens simply in our brains from where it is accepted as is, into a receiver as electric signals, modified on the fly with effects and fed into another person’s brain through wireless receptacles that eliminate the need for an analog sound. Anyone who can compose music in the brain can reproduce the sound of any instrument in her mind and present it to the world with no need for what we have so long known as ‘real’ music.

Professor Wilson’s understanding of the fleeting moment of creation is turned on its head under this scenario. When music is available to each of us in this way, there are great benefits. What was once privileged luxury has now been made accessible to almost everyone. But is this reflective of creation in the real sense? Doesn’t creation involve physicality? Helen Keller, though deaf, enjoyed music by it very vibration. But this points to an even greater truth. Our process of creating any music, analog or digital, is not ever creation ex-nihilo, though we claim it as such. We are tinkering with the tools we have been given. The digitalization of sound is an interpretation of the vibration. But what gives music richness and joy is a gift by the Creator.


Our oft-repeated claim of being able to ‘play God’ by arranging or modifying genes to correct ‘defects’ has often understandably led to serious discussions on bio-ethics. Let us not pretend that we can ever play God. We are tinkerers at best, and how we use our tools are all that is left to us.