Power and Responsibility

"Whatever life holds in store for me, I will never forget these words: 'With great power comes great responsibility.' This is my gift, my curse." -Spiderman

I guess I should preface this by saying that I haven't seen Spiderman, but this quote came to mind as I was thinking about a conversation I had awhile back with a close friend of mine.

If I may digress for a moment, I am a firm believer that people have different gifts, different strengths and weaknesses. This much is evident because I have witnessed its effects, not unlike how an earth-bound person is a daily witness to the effects of gravity. Since "what goes up must come down" (as the saying goes), a person is bounded by the effects of gravity on a daily basis. Say Steve jumps into the air, gravity takes over and pulls him back to the ground before he can float away. Steve is in no position to deny the existence of gravity (or at least something that is holding him to the ground!). Likewise, I am in no position to deny that various people have different gifts.

Back to what I was originally talking about. Each person has gifts and it's up to them how they are used. There is a story from Matthew 25 that illustrates the proper use of gifts. I'll use some of my storytelling skills to tell it to you in a modern setting.

One day, Mr. White, the CEO of a major company decided to go on vacation for awhile and he needed someone who would be able to look after the company while he was gone. So, he decided to call three of his workers together. Being the clever CEO that he was, Mr. White decided to devise a little test. He gave $1000 to Peter, $500 to Daniel and $10 to Mark.
Peter took the $1000 that Mr. White gave him and invested in the stock market. By the end of the week, he was able to bring $2000 back to Mr. White, who was very pleased. Daniel took the $500 and decided to purchase from a wholesale company, then sell the products he bought at retail price. He returned with $1000 for Mr. White. Again, Mr. White was pleased. However, Mark saw how little he had and decided to bury it in a hole.
Mr. White was not pleased. He immediately called Mark into his office and told him to dig the money back up and give it back to him. He then fired Mark.

Okay, this isn't exactly how the story in the Bible goes, but I think you get the point. These three guys were each given a gift by their boss and Mr. White trusted each to use their gifts to make more. Peter was entrusted with the most money, so Mr. White expected the most back from him.

Does this seem fair? I think so. Why? People all have gifts and can use them for a number of purposes, whether selflessly helping others or selfishly helping themselves... or furthuring the cause of Good or aligning themselves with Evil. I've seen people with very strong gifts and those people have used them for a variety of purposes. If someone has a gift (whatever it may be), it is their responsibility to use that gift to help other people. The greater a person's gift, the more responsibility they have to exercise. This is especially true because some gifts and talents can be abused and can really hurt other people. Those are the kinds of people who must exercise the most self-control and discipline.

I think I have said enough on this subject for now. Let me know what you think~

Human Ingenuity and Diversity

The topic for today's blog came to me while I was fixing my computer chair. I finally found the box with the rest of the pieces, so I was able to finish putting it together. After I'd given up searching for a screwdriver (there isn't one around!), I realised that I had several other items around my room that could function in the same capacity as a screwdriver. I ended up using a hair clip!

Because of that, I started thinking about how creative the human mind really is. Not only do humans find unique solutions to problems in real life, but this is also prevalent in the realms of fantasy and science fiction, where humans are not the only sentient species. For example, in Star Trek, humans are far more diverse than other species. They can do just about anything and are highly adaptable. Now I must be forced to ask myself why I don't write more human characters in my fantasy stories...

Back on-topic here. If you read my blog, I challenge you to pay attention to how different people react to various situations they're put in. How one person reacts might vary a lot more drastically from how another person acts than what you would've guessed!

This whole idea of people behaving differently and thinking up creative solutions to problems is especially important to writers. As you write, pay attention to reactions you observe. This will help round your characters out and make them more realistic.

New Mission~

I've thought a lot about this over the past few weeks and I've decided that I'm going to stop posting useless quizzes and memes here. This blog will be used for things that are actually of consequence and will only occasionally be updated with personal stuff.

Actually, this blog will then be holding up to what I originally intended it as... and what it is named for. Through the Wardrobe is a reference to none other than CS Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, probably his most well-known piece. Keeping in that tone, I will use this place to talk mostly about philosophy and religion with various insights from life and literature.

If you really want to see all those useless memes, they will still be on dA and Facebook. Or I might stop doing them altogether. We'll see.

Now, to boldly go where no one has gone before!

Overview of Lewis' Works

I should let all of you know that I'm still alive. As I was unpacking my boxes, I came across a treasure: CS Lewis' The Great Divorce, as well as my copy of Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters. And as a tribute to this journal (and what it's named after!), I'll talk a little about the CS Lewis books I've read and what I've thought of them.

Books I've Read: The Chronicles of Narnia (all seven), Miracles, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters

Favourite Piece: The Great Divorce. I love the first person narration style that Lewis uses and this book is much deeper than his Narnia series (as it's for older teenagers or adults and not children!), but it's not as difficult to read as Miracles.

Favourite Narnia Book: Tie between The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Silver Chair. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was the first book that I actually remember reading (though I was reading before that) and it remains one of my favourites to this very day. The Silver Chair is another one that is dear to my heart. It's probably not the best thing for a young child to read right before bed; the first time I read it (and even now!) it creeped the daylights out of me. 0_0

Least Favourite Piece: The Horse and His Boy, hands down. And no comment to go with that other than the fact that I've noticed that people either tend to really like it or really not like it. <_<

And I guess that's enough to let you know that I'm still alive and probably give you a taste of what's to come in the future. Especially since I'm planning to get a bit more serious about this blog and since I'll be reading a lot more CS Lewis come this fall!

Star Trek Movie: A Review

Star Trek was nothing shy of amazing yesterday! Even though I'm not sure I liked what they did with Uhura, it was good and it made sense, based on what I know about TOS (the original series). Here's my honest take on the movie. I'll try not to include spoilers as far as the plot goes for those of you who haven't seen it yet, but no promises, alright?

Casting: They did such an amazing job of that! Being a fan of the old stuff and having seen every movie with the TOS crew and all the episodes (except for two or three), I was a little skeptical about how well they were going to match up the actors and actresses with their original counterparts. Seeing Karl Urban in the LotR movies and then seeing him as McCoy didn't really bother me; he looked and sounded almost completely different! That was a pleasant surprise. I'll have to admit that the only character I was slightly disappointed in was Uhura.

Antagonists: The Romulans are probably my favorite ST race (except for maybe the Vulcans), so I have to say I was pleased to see them. The one thing that is very different from anything I've seen before is these Romulans were not part of the Romulan Star Empire. In other words, they were not nearly as disciplined and deliberately malevolent as the Romulans in "Balance of Terror" or "The Enterprise Incident" were. Nero, the main villain, seemed to have a bit of Khan-feel to him, as well as his Romulan heritage and even a bit of what I'd call stereotypical Klingon personality. Nice namesake, by the way.

Characters and Series References: I'd have to admit that I was fairly pleased to see many of the characters return from TOS. Some of the exchanges that I've grown to love between the trio (Kirk, Spock and McCoy) were present in this movie, as well as several references from various episodes and different movies ("Wrath of Khan" comes to mind here!).

Special Effects and Sound: Excellent. I normally don't like too much special effects (one of the reasons why I love TOS so much!), but they were very good. I've found that in some movies (the first ST movie!), an extreme amount of special effects can compromise the overall level of quality of the movie. The effects were good and I was very pleased to hear some of the original music from TOS getting incorporated into the soundtrack for this movie. Intense graphics, though.

Best Part? Some of the arguments between Kirk and Spock... and seeing how McCoy treats other people exactly the same as he does in TOS. Manipulative jerk.

Worst Part? That one scene with the Orion girl. It didn't really need to be in there, even if it did stay true to character.

General Feel: A bit of TOS, a bit of "Wrath of Khan" combined with some of the time-travel stuff you'd see in "First Contact" or "Generations" and you've pretty much summed it up.

The Verdict: Not a movie I'd take kids to see, but definitely enjoyable for teenagers or adults and for just about anyone that's a fan of the Star Trek series. Or for people who aren't. For those of you who are already fans, take it in stride and don't complain if you see any discrepancies. It's an excellent movie overall.

Grade: I'd give it an A- for a fun storyline, good characters and a decent plot. (By comparison, I would've given "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" an A- and "Prince Caspian" a C+.)