Black Hat Brigade: Episode 32
Apr. 15th, 2016 12:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wingedbeastSetting: Above the clouds. The golden coloration along the horizon indicates sunrise, though the source of light is off screen. Everything is bathed in a mixture of gold and white.
Aslan: I know we all have our disagreements.
A figure played by Morgan Freeman, in a white-on-white suit speaks up.: You've called me a distressingly unserious depiction.
Aslan: Indeed I have, and I stand by it.
Metatron stands in front of a woman in a flowing white dress: As you are aware that we have called you are what happens when people take a good idea and make it into a belief.
Aslan: I'm quite certain that I would have an argument, if that actually meant something. Yet, we are not here to debate or argue. We have a common issue.
George Burns wears a white golf-shirt and white pants, with a golf viser.: I don't think so. I don't even have any villains in most of my movies.
Aslan: Perhaps, but the Black Hat Brigade has engaged various versions of The Devil in their effort. It's only a matter of time before they take aim at something we all represent.
Cut to a picnic table in the BHB apple orchard. The table is set, the plates as yet empty.
Susan Pevensie is dressed in a knee-length skirt, displaying her nylons, a white blouse, and a wide-brimmed black hat. Her lipstick is a bright red.
Susan: We favor a number of trees, here, actually. The apples get the most attention, though. So, I've brought apple crumble as a standard. Although, there's this lovely pomegranate jam. And, these tarts are made using quince. I enjoy them for both taste and texture.
Peter Pevensie: All fruits that have been used for the forbidden fruit.
Susan: Leave it to you, Peter, to take all the subtlety out of it. Why are you here?
Edmund: Your invitation didn't say that I had to be here, alone.
Peter: And, you'd mentioned your objection over one line, before. I won't leave my brother vulnerable to even you, sister. And, who's this?
Peter points to the man at the end of the picnic table, wearing jeans and overalls.
Susan: This gentleman is a victim of the same thinking that has made you and I victims, Edmund.
Edmund: Victims of what?
Cut to Clouds
Metatron: But, nobody here represents the same thing. Sure, you and my employer are all characters called "god", but we all represent different ways of relating to the divine.
George Burns: The way of viewing me as an old comedian is a way of bringing me closer.
Morgan Freeman: And, I remind of the fatherly and the wise.
Metatron: And, for our franchise, the one who's voice is too great for mortal ears represents the unity of the close and the distantly powerful.
Aslan: Perhaps. There is a level of debate to be had in each. But, for all that we differ, we do share the very foundations of morality that the Black Hat Brigade seeks to destroy.
Aslan: Without a foundation, objective morality is impossible. That foundation must be something that is unchanging and transcends humanity, else it is nothing but fashions of the time. Without that foundation, there is nothing to stop the Nazis from being just another trend or to make Mother Teresa their moral superior.
Cut to Orchard
Edmund looks over to the man at the end of the table.
The man looks to be enjoying a loaf of fresh-baked bread.
Peter: Who is he?
Susan: If morality really is objective, everybody must be subject to it, to judgement. There can be no exceptions.
Peter: You're not answering me.
Susan: Peter, do be quiet and listen. I'm talking to Edmund, but you can learn something, too.
Edmund: Who is he?
Susan: In due time, Edmund. No exceptions to morality. Otherwise, it's not morality, it's just something aping morality for control.
Cut to Clouds
Morgan Freeman: You're saying that, even if the Brigade doesn't come after us directly, it still undermines what we represent, and, through that, morality itself.
Aslan: If mankind can find you wrong for putting a person in the place and conditions you choose-
Metatron: Or with the plan She chooses...
George Burns: With the purpose of serving Myself as I see fit...
Aslan: Then, how can morality even be?
Cut to Orchard
Susan: If nothing is wrong with demanding the execution of an eight year old child who had been compelled through magic, how can morality be?
The man at the end of the table: It can even be something smaller. Something like rejecting an offering. No reason given, not even for the sake of basic politeness.
Edmund's eyes go wide.
Peter's eyes narrow: There was a reason. You did not give with a full heart.
The man: An explanation given to many a child in a Catholic school, before they even first attempt to read the story. But, that's not on the page.
Edmund: You... you had tried to come to God on your terms, not His.
The man: An explanation accepted by many a Creationist. That isn't on the page, either.
Susan: I think we've played coy enough for any readers who have already figured this out, so please do introduce yourself.
The man reaches out a hand to Edmund: Might as well be clear about it. I'm Cain, nice to meet you.
Cut to Clouds
Aslan: I realize the trechery of images. Reepicheep explained a touch of it. None of us are what we are meant to be. A painting can not be the item it pictures. We cannot be the One we are written to be. But, in that one's name, we must protect the vary concept of morality for humanity.
Cut to Orchard
Peter: How can you even be here? This is metafiction and the bible is-
Cain: The bible is a collection of stories from different genres. That's even the latin root of the word "bible", "biblio" referencing a collection, not a unified whole.
Edmund: No, this collection is special, it was guided and intended by God.
Susan: Let's assume that to be true, that the Bible was, for all intents and purposes, penned by God. The death of the author is still true. When reading, the relationship is between the words on the page and the reader. So, he and other biblical figures still apply to this world.
Cain: And, Edmund, I was rejected by God for doing what he told me to do.
Peter: Oh, that is definitely not on the page!
Cain: Actually, it was. God told Adam to work the soil to grow food. I followed in that obedient tradition. If you acknowledge the cultural context of the people who carried that as an oral tradition and then penned it, farmers were a city tradition, a place of law. The farmer was, in some ways, a social code for the one who obeys.
Cain: The rancher, which Abel was, was a little different. Not the completely uncivilized hunter, but out living by his own law, not being obedient.
Cain: If I can be denied on the basis of nothing. If you, Edmund, can be set for execution on the basis of magics you had no hope of resisting, then morality is hollow. It has to be changed in order to protect the very concept for humanity.
Aslan: I know we all have our disagreements.
A figure played by Morgan Freeman, in a white-on-white suit speaks up.: You've called me a distressingly unserious depiction.
Aslan: Indeed I have, and I stand by it.
Metatron stands in front of a woman in a flowing white dress: As you are aware that we have called you are what happens when people take a good idea and make it into a belief.
Aslan: I'm quite certain that I would have an argument, if that actually meant something. Yet, we are not here to debate or argue. We have a common issue.
George Burns wears a white golf-shirt and white pants, with a golf viser.: I don't think so. I don't even have any villains in most of my movies.
Aslan: Perhaps, but the Black Hat Brigade has engaged various versions of The Devil in their effort. It's only a matter of time before they take aim at something we all represent.
Cut to a picnic table in the BHB apple orchard. The table is set, the plates as yet empty.
Susan Pevensie is dressed in a knee-length skirt, displaying her nylons, a white blouse, and a wide-brimmed black hat. Her lipstick is a bright red.
Susan: We favor a number of trees, here, actually. The apples get the most attention, though. So, I've brought apple crumble as a standard. Although, there's this lovely pomegranate jam. And, these tarts are made using quince. I enjoy them for both taste and texture.
Peter Pevensie: All fruits that have been used for the forbidden fruit.
Susan: Leave it to you, Peter, to take all the subtlety out of it. Why are you here?
Edmund: Your invitation didn't say that I had to be here, alone.
Peter: And, you'd mentioned your objection over one line, before. I won't leave my brother vulnerable to even you, sister. And, who's this?
Peter points to the man at the end of the picnic table, wearing jeans and overalls.
Susan: This gentleman is a victim of the same thinking that has made you and I victims, Edmund.
Edmund: Victims of what?
Cut to Clouds
Metatron: But, nobody here represents the same thing. Sure, you and my employer are all characters called "god", but we all represent different ways of relating to the divine.
George Burns: The way of viewing me as an old comedian is a way of bringing me closer.
Morgan Freeman: And, I remind of the fatherly and the wise.
Metatron: And, for our franchise, the one who's voice is too great for mortal ears represents the unity of the close and the distantly powerful.
Aslan: Perhaps. There is a level of debate to be had in each. But, for all that we differ, we do share the very foundations of morality that the Black Hat Brigade seeks to destroy.
Aslan: Without a foundation, objective morality is impossible. That foundation must be something that is unchanging and transcends humanity, else it is nothing but fashions of the time. Without that foundation, there is nothing to stop the Nazis from being just another trend or to make Mother Teresa their moral superior.
Cut to Orchard
Edmund looks over to the man at the end of the table.
The man looks to be enjoying a loaf of fresh-baked bread.
Peter: Who is he?
Susan: If morality really is objective, everybody must be subject to it, to judgement. There can be no exceptions.
Peter: You're not answering me.
Susan: Peter, do be quiet and listen. I'm talking to Edmund, but you can learn something, too.
Edmund: Who is he?
Susan: In due time, Edmund. No exceptions to morality. Otherwise, it's not morality, it's just something aping morality for control.
Cut to Clouds
Morgan Freeman: You're saying that, even if the Brigade doesn't come after us directly, it still undermines what we represent, and, through that, morality itself.
Aslan: If mankind can find you wrong for putting a person in the place and conditions you choose-
Metatron: Or with the plan She chooses...
George Burns: With the purpose of serving Myself as I see fit...
Aslan: Then, how can morality even be?
Cut to Orchard
Susan: If nothing is wrong with demanding the execution of an eight year old child who had been compelled through magic, how can morality be?
The man at the end of the table: It can even be something smaller. Something like rejecting an offering. No reason given, not even for the sake of basic politeness.
Edmund's eyes go wide.
Peter's eyes narrow: There was a reason. You did not give with a full heart.
The man: An explanation given to many a child in a Catholic school, before they even first attempt to read the story. But, that's not on the page.
Edmund: You... you had tried to come to God on your terms, not His.
The man: An explanation accepted by many a Creationist. That isn't on the page, either.
Susan: I think we've played coy enough for any readers who have already figured this out, so please do introduce yourself.
The man reaches out a hand to Edmund: Might as well be clear about it. I'm Cain, nice to meet you.
Cut to Clouds
Aslan: I realize the trechery of images. Reepicheep explained a touch of it. None of us are what we are meant to be. A painting can not be the item it pictures. We cannot be the One we are written to be. But, in that one's name, we must protect the vary concept of morality for humanity.
Cut to Orchard
Peter: How can you even be here? This is metafiction and the bible is-
Cain: The bible is a collection of stories from different genres. That's even the latin root of the word "bible", "biblio" referencing a collection, not a unified whole.
Edmund: No, this collection is special, it was guided and intended by God.
Susan: Let's assume that to be true, that the Bible was, for all intents and purposes, penned by God. The death of the author is still true. When reading, the relationship is between the words on the page and the reader. So, he and other biblical figures still apply to this world.
Cain: And, Edmund, I was rejected by God for doing what he told me to do.
Peter: Oh, that is definitely not on the page!
Cain: Actually, it was. God told Adam to work the soil to grow food. I followed in that obedient tradition. If you acknowledge the cultural context of the people who carried that as an oral tradition and then penned it, farmers were a city tradition, a place of law. The farmer was, in some ways, a social code for the one who obeys.
Cain: The rancher, which Abel was, was a little different. Not the completely uncivilized hunter, but out living by his own law, not being obedient.
Cain: If I can be denied on the basis of nothing. If you, Edmund, can be set for execution on the basis of magics you had no hope of resisting, then morality is hollow. It has to be changed in order to protect the very concept for humanity.
no subject
Date: 2016-04-15 08:16 pm (UTC)