ideas of the day:

we should give it the classic greek epic treatment, ie, we should have a chorus. maybe a chorus of angels. someone to hang around and explain shit, or narrate flashbacks.

also, jesus should have flashforwards.
posted by gxyz at 10:56 AM

there was an amusing little subtitle that i generated for this blog, but this particular manifestation isnt displaying it. fuck it. its dead. anyway, i think we need to straighten out the themes and the charachters first, and then decide whether or not it would "thematically consistent" to begin with the ending. also, i am generally unhappy with our somewhat cheesy concept for an ending. also, i hate the title, and will entertain suggestions for new titles (for the blog)

anyways, a prelude to it all:

the foundation of western modern thought, or western ontology (i think) is the dialectic. hegel's dialectic is probably most famous and comes to mind, but the ideas based upon it can be found in goethe's faust, a little earlier. it also appears in plato and aristotle's views of thigns and their properties. anyway, the principle hegelian dialectic is one of nothing and something. these are simplifications for german words that imply more than their english counterparts. its more like "the force that negates" and "the force that is"... these two forces combine to create. goethe extended this concept to God and mephisto, in ways that i hope i've made clear. this concept will extend to our charachters for our movie. so, the characters that represent mephisto and jesus must reflect these two principles.

that's point one.

point two, is an explanation of goethe's added flourish. from the perspective of the devil, goethe reasons that the devil is probably tired of simply negating gods creation by generating strife and pain and sufferng. instead, his interest is in negating it all. so he works to find a seam in god's perfection that he can crack. in faust, it was a bet about dr. faustus. in the bible, it was a bet over job. in our script, we assume that the devil has gotten a little more sophisticated since a couple of hundred years ago. he sees that god has given man reason so that man may separate god from evil and choose god. (why doesnt god just make everyone good? here's why: we've already established that all things can be created through a dialectic, so it is with god, and these are his tools, to create a perfect form of man, he needs to devil to negate, and he needs men to choose) anyway, the devil hopes to exploit all this by eliminating reason (he rails on reason in the prelude to faust). this explains his manifestation as a pastor or religious leader. he preaches absolute, unqestioning faith and elimination of reason. in a world without choice and with blind devotion, there can be no free will and no progress. god's plan comes to a halt and the devil can rest. this is his motivation. it's complicated, but we are depending upon the poetry readings as elucidation and a lot can probably be explained through poems.

which brings us to point three...

we havent thought out at all why jesus is who he is. or exactly who is he and why he is motivated. the only think i can think of is his desire to stop what the devil is doing. our problem is mainly theological... since the second time jesus comes to earth, incredible shit is supposed to happen, ie the rapture. this needs work.

anyway, this is the philosophical and theological framework of the concept, so you should probably get comfortable with it. everything is in flux, so if you wanna tweak and redo, tweak and redo. i gotta go and wash the smell of soy sauce and ribs out of my pants.

recommended quick read: anthony bourdain's kitchen confidential... a drug fueled ride through the underworld of highstakes restaraunt cooking.
posted by gxyz at 12:01 AM

our story begins thirty years ago, admist the madness of the second world war...

or maybe not.
posted by gxyz at 5:13 PM