Moses and Joel are back, with dad jokes in tow! We read the book Picture of Dorian Gray…and then we watched the 2009 Film Adaptation with Colin Firth and Ben Barnes. Now we compare and contrast.

We comment on the aesthetic of the movie and how, seeing the characters brought to life is cool, but the movie defaults to relying on spectacle, rather than allowing the profound concepts of the story to stand on their own. We discuss how the character of Dorian is altered by making him a victim of childhood abuse, and discuss how the character of Lord Henry is altered by giving him a daughter. We discuss at length the way the movie changed the ending…but you’ll have to hear the whole episode to find out what that change is!

Most especially we discuss the painting - oh, that fateful, grotesque painting! - that saves the body and corrupts the soul. The movie did some creatively creepy things here, and we reflect on how this changed the impact of the the image.

We definitively decide that this is not a kids movie. 

And if someone comes up to you and offers to paint your portrait….run away! Really fast!!

This podcast and all our wonderful conversations are made possible through your financial support, and through your rating, reviewing, and sharing of the show. Please do help us continue in this work!

To connect with Moses, find him at patreon.com/mosesbernabe or on instgram at @mosesbernabe.

To connect with Joel, and enjoy fine poetry, find him at www.joelhere.com at on instagram @joelhere 

Thanks for listening!

#book #books #novel #classic #classics #literature #movies #moviereview #film #movieadaptation #filmadaptation #doriangray #oscarwilde #portrait #trauma #hedonism #identity ##aging #portrait #spirituality #orthodoxy #orthodoxchristian #existentialism #nihilism #pleasure #novelty #addiction #icon #iconography #identity #persona #mosesbernabe #ifs #internalfamilysystems #exiles #secrets #isolation #downwardspiral #redemption  #opium #regret #remorse #shame #confession

Do you ever feel like, when you finish a book, it’s like a break-up?

Sometimes we feel this way. Sometimes it’s a good break-up…and sometimes not. Thus, Moses and Joel reflect on the worst books we’ve read, and allow ourselves permission to NOT finish a badly written book.

Meanwhile, we conclude the saga of Dorian Gray.

In this section, we follow Dorian on his downward spiral to the lowest levels of society, which, for Oscar Wilde, was the Opium Dens. 

“There were the opium dens, where one could buy oblivion. Dens of horror where the memory of old sins could be destroyed by the madness of sins that were new.” Opium, like any other addictive obsession, becomes a stand-in for healing, for intimacy, and for redemption. Dorian seeks his elicit fix, “To clear the soul by means of the senses, and the senses by means of the soul.” Rather than becoming an integrated person, his soul and body are pitted against each other, and he is hurtled toward destruction.

It hurts to live like this. It hurts to not face the deeper pain, either of how one has been wounded, or how one has harmed others. The only way to proceed is to deaden the soul.

Dorian’s other world is the party scene in high society. He’s removed from himself, caught up in the vapidities of his friends, and in this way distracted from his reality, until James Vane, the brother of the late Sibyl Vane shows up with a vendetta against Dorian. He symbolizes the way that the things we wish we could ignore and keep hidden always tend to emerge, and often at the worst times. 

Dorian is haunted by his past. He has corrupted women, killed men, lied, betrayed, and abused many others. He has put his own body and soul through reckless, dangerous, defiling experience after pleasure after thrill. He tries to hide in more pleasure and more sensation and more sensuality, but his past keeps creeping up on him. His life throttles toward unmanageability the more he tries to keep his past hidden, and pretend the decaying portrait upstairs is not as real as it is. He depicts for us the toxicity of secrets, the venom of unconfessed sins, and the severe handicap of lacking true friends, or any source of true intimacy.

Can we be better than this?

            Word and Journey is a community of readers in search of good stories that help us grow into excellent people. We save you time by saving you from bad literature. If you enjoy this kind of conversation, please join our community at patreon.com/mosesbernabe. Follow for more updates on instagram @mosesbernabe and on facebook in the Word and Journey Discussion Group

Joel shares his poetry on instagram @joelhere. You can follow him there and be greatly enriched!

#novels #books #stories #writing #reading #classics #doriangray #oscarwilde #hedonism #aging #portrait #spirituality #orthodoxy #orthodoxchristian #existentialism #nihilism #pleasure #novelty #addiction #icon #iconography #identity #persona #mosesbernabe #ifs #internalfamilysystems #exiles #secrets #downwardspiral #redemption  #opium #regret #remorse #shame #confession

It's late at night and the Dad-Jokes are out in force!

Moses and Joel establish that “Picture of Dorian Gray” is a story about deplorable characters, some(Like Lord Henry) probably could not and should not be written in our current age. And yet, in the marvel of how stories work, even a story about bad people can teach us something true and important.

Dorian has been watching how his portrait takes on the burdens of his life. When the original painter, Basil Howard wants to reclaim the painting, in order to display it in a very public venue, Dorian fliiiiips out!

In this section, we reflect on trajectory. Nothing is neutral. Dorian’s story is the inverse of Glory to greater Glory, born out of pursuing one’s own pleasures instead of holiness.

Dorian’s life is marked by “consumption of the world.” In a way, his life resembles the Biblical King Solomon, who, likewise, did not withhold any pleasure from himself…and to him, it was a snare. 

But Dorian is not an isolated character. He lives in a world that glorifies pleasure and spectacle.  Everyone is superficial. No one knows each other. Everyone thinks Dorian is just great, and one can imagine him clinging desperately to the experience of being seen in this way. Dorian ends up doing what anyone would do who is addicted to intense experiences; he uses entertainment and sensory overload as a substitute for atonement and intimacy.

Joel introduces the question about how the souls of Dorian and Basil intertwine. We reflect on how Dorian uses people, which destroys his soul. As a counter part, we reflect on Basil, who obsesses over and even worships Dorian…which also ends up destroying him. Moses suggests that their souls are intertwined by patterns of obsession; one of the other, the other of himself, and both of fleeting things like beauty and youth. 

Moses can’t resist a chance to talk about coming of age rituals, and then addiction.

Inevitably, Moses also gets back on the Internal Family Systems soapbox, and read modern psychology back into classic literature. He talks about Dorian as someone who, deep down, really just wants connection and redemption…but that would mean being seen. And there’s this other part of him that is violently defensive against his inner life being seen…especially the way it is depicted on the portrait. 

Joel mentions how in order for Dorian’s life to function, he needs to continually up the ante of his “emotional addiction,” until finally he resorts to murder. 

In the end, we reflect on how secrets are deadly to the soul. Perhaps Dorian could have been saved, had he only exposed his darkness and inner ugliness. We see this in recovery work, and all over our spiritual traditions; confession, and being known, are essential to being truly loved, and truly healed.

            Word and Journey is a community of readers in search of good stories that help us grow into excellent people. We save you time by saving you from bad literature. If you enjoy this kind of conversation, please join our community at patreon.com/mosesbernabe. Follow for more updates on instagram @mosesbernabe and on facebook in the Word and Journey Discussion Group

Joel shares his poetry on instagram @joelhere. You can follow him there and be greatly enriched!

#novels #books #stories #writing #reading #classics #doriangray #oscarwilde #hedonism #aging #portrait #spirituality #orthodoxy #orthodoxchristian #existentialism #nihilism #pleasure #novelty #addiction #icon #iconography #identity #persona #mosesbernabe #ifs #internalfamilysystems #exiles #secrets #downwardspiral

            Rousseaux and I are spiritual grand-children of the Jesus Movement, from which came the

            For today's episode, we watched the Jesus Revolution film, and got together

            As we talk about the film, we discuss the plot and story telling, and the main

            We reflect on cultural nostalgia, on finding home and belonging, on flimsy

            Word and Journey strives to present you with stories that shape us and make us

Moses Bernabe (yours truly) can be found on instagram @mosesbernabe.

Rousseaux Brasseur can be found at [email protected] and rousseauxbrasseur.com

Thanks for listening!

#movie #film #jesusrevolution

This is a story about people being together and not seeing each other. 

Here we follow the life and death of Sibyl Vane, an actress, and the object of Dorian’s obsession. In their short relationship, we see a depiction of utter obsession, which initially thrills, then ultimately leads to crushing disappointment. 

Lord Henry displays a particularly potent version of toxic masculinity in how he regards the heartbreak and death of a young lady as just an inconvenient novelty. Once he says, “The only way a woman can reform a man is by boring him so completely that he loses all possible interest in life.” Also, “Women appreciate cruelty, downright cruelty, more than anything else…They love being dominated.” He really seems to see women as inferior, and to be trod upon. Meanwhile he idolizes Dorian for his beauty, the very surface of him, while scorning virtue. He objectifies everyone around him. 

Dorian tries to be idealistic, but learns how easily and how powerfully he can harm someone. Dorian wants to redeem himself and do right by Sibyl, but she’s dead and he can’t. There’s no way for him to be good again; only a way to defer and hide his badness. This then becomes the foundation for what will be come an intensely rigidly, obsessively hedonistic and nihilistic lifestyle

Finally, young Dorian begins to notice his portrait changing. The painting is not only aging while he retains his youth, but is taking on the burdens of his sins. Here we can ponder, what is the fullness of a person? Is it their youth beauty? Their accomplishments? The pleasures they imbibe? Is a person his or her virtues? Or sins?

The Dorian’s Portrait, and Sibyl’s Life invite us to ponder identity. Sibyl creates a stage persona that becomes more her than her, and ultimately when that persona fails, she loses herself irrevocably. Similarly, Dorian’s portrait is so lifelike, and so perfect, that it causes him to wonder if it is he or the portrait who is the real him. As the portrait begins to “Sneer” and absorb his evils, we see Dorian’s sense of identity becoming very confused. 

Speaking of portraits, in Orthodox Christianity, we practice the veneration of icons. An icon is a holy image depicting a saint in their glorified form - in their fullness. We behold the wood and paint and are pointed to see the Saint his or herself, and through the Saint, we are pointed to see the Lord Jesus.

But with Dorian Gray, his portrait  begins to depict his sins, his darkness, his corruption, and his frailty. In a way, it begins to function as a reverse icon, which begs the question - short of redemption, just who is the real Dorian Gray?

What is the most real version of any of us?

But lest we drown in the profound, along the way we reflect on 90’s sitcoms, particularly The Nanny. 

            Word and Journey is a community of readers in search of good stories that help us grow into excellent people. We save you time by saving you from bad literature. If you enjoy this kind of conversation, please join our community at patreon.com/mosesbernabe. Follow for more updates on instagram @mosesbernabe and on facebook in the Word and Journey Discussion Group

Joel shares his poetry on instagram @joelhere. You can follow him there and be greatly enriched!

#novels #books #stories #writing #reading #classics #doriangray #oscarwilde #hedonism #aging #portrait #spirituality #orthodoxy #orthodoxchristian #existentialism #nihilism #pleasure #novelty #addiction #icon #iconography #identity #persona #mosesbernabe

"What happens in Oscar Wilde's bedroom stays in Oscar

"...unless it happens on the stage, and then we call it

"To reveal art, and to conceal the artist, is the

            Who is

            Dorian Gray

            What kind

            Meanwhile,

            We're at

            Art

            Beauty

            Hedonism

            Youth and

            Wealth

            Obsession

            Dorian

            And the

            We can

            We ask,

            What is a

            The elders

            Dorian

            And as

            Word and

Joel shares his poetry on instagram @joelhere. You can

#novels #books #stories #writing #reading #classics

What makes a book good? And how does a story grow from being a good book to a great one, or earn the rank of classic literature?

         Is it by being a good plot, like The Passage Trilogy?

         Is it by building a fantastic world, like in Lord of the Rings?

         Is it by developing compelling and relatable characters as in The Book Thief?

         Is a book "Great" because the author does beautiful things with words, making each page beautiful just to look at, like Corman McCarthy's road?

         Or is a book great for the way its author teaches the reader to read a new language as they turn each page, as in Paul Kingsnorth's "The Wake"?

         Is a book good because it is wildly popular like the Game of Thrones?

         Or because it forces us to face our own ironies in edgy and offensive ways like Fight Club?

         Is a book great because it is laden with metaphor like the Picture of Dorian Gray?

         Or because it is old like The Odyssey?

         Or because is explores deeply spiritual and philosophical themes like the Brothers Karamazov?

         Do books require great heroes? Clever villains? Never before seen world elements? Are the classics classic because they have not yet finished saying all the need to say?

         Or are the great books great simply because people still enjoy them?

         Or could it be that a truly good story inverts the material world to reveal a deeper spiritual one, and pulls the reader out of their own head and facilitates and encounter with The Other, whoever that might be? Could be be that truly great literature leaves the active reader changed in some way?

At the peak of his career, Dn. Nicholas Kotar says he may have gotten it wrong, and he isn’t writing fantasy after all. He’s discovered that he’s writing Mythic Fiction. By this, he affirms the way an artist is continually discovering new dimensions of his or her art form, which is an extension of learning more and more about one’s self. 

In this episode, Nicholas Kotar and I discuss what is or is not “Good” literature. We talk about the necessity of having forms to follow(story structure, familiar plot points, recognizable character arcs) and the difference between inverting the forms and throwing them out altogether. We talk about how to write using forms and how this helps our stories speak to universal truths. We explore the balance or rigidity and chaos in how we read and how we write. Good literature balances the tension between total formalism and total freedom. Stories can be the form, that tells us who we are, and bridges the gap between form and freedom, between rigidity and chaos. 

Finally, as we consider how, as Orthodox Christians, to guide our children to stories that shape their character, we talk about the way the stories we take in begin to tell us who we are.

This podcast and all our wonderful conversations are made possible through your financial support, and through your rating, reviewing, and sharing of the show. Please do help us continue in this work!

To connect with Moses, find him at patreon.com/mosesbernabe or on instgram at @mosesbernabe.

To connect with Nicholas Kotar, visit his website at www.nicholaskotar.com, where you can sign up for his newsletter, find his patreon, his podcasts, and all his most recent writings. 

If you could make 10 people immortal, who would you pick?

If you could make some people immortal and not others…should you?

Who gets to choose?

As we conclude the Passage, we delve deep into the ethical conundrums of transhumanism, and it’s fun. We reflect on stories such as Jurassic Park, the classic movie Deep Impact, Battlestar Galactica, and LOST, all to further expound on the problem raised here in The Passage  of, “Who gets to choose who is worthy to survive?”

We consider some different rubrics, but ultimately come back to reflecting on how the Lord Jesus tended to choose the undesirables of society to make into Saints.

On another note, Moses thinks that resurrections in books cheapen the struggle. When we know people are just gonna come back, we don’t really savor the life, or feel the pangs or the weight of the suffering. We need stakes for a conflict to mean anything.

Moses reflects on the way Cronin handles the deaths and resurrections of the characters, and comes away feeling “messed with,” and says, “I don’t trust the danger.”

Moses and Nics compare and contrast the deaths of characters in The Passage and in the classic series LOST. We reflect on how the increased reality and presence of death heightens the connections we have with the characters. In this way, we can see how close relationships always involve risk, whether of harm or of loss. In a story, when we know we can lose a character at any time, we can tend to value our time with them moire.

Nics explores his love of mystery, provided there are sufficient “bread crumbs” to entice the reader along.

Nics also reflects on watching the characters work through conflicts and grow into a greater closeness. He talks about then taking their example and exploring how to deepen his own relationships.

In this way we see that the stories we consume have shaping power in our inner and outer lives.

Therefore, we both ought to read stories, and to be careful that those stories are good.

For more discussion, that we hope will be profitable to you, please keep listening! And please share the podcast, rate and review it, and consider joining our patreon community!

To connect with Moses, find him at patreon.com/mosesbernabe or on instagram at @mosesbernabe.

To connect with Justin, find him on instagram and facebook as Justin Nichols, and on his youtube channel, and at www.gracechapelonline.org/soul-care

#books #reading #novels #thepassage #justincronin #vampire #adventure #fiction #adventure #ensemble #community #relationships #character #trauma #endoftheworld #death #resurrection #family #apocalypse #postapocalyptic #impact #legacy #family #colony #remnant #aging #loss #history #ritual #story #tradition #legacy #abuse #neglect #trauma #conflict #reconciliation #brothers #ethics #humanity #survival #team

Moses and Nics are back at it again - we’re almost done with The Passage, and the action is getting intense!

More interesting, though, then car chases, and viral hunts, and intrigue among remnant tribes of militia are the concepts played out among the characters.

What would it be like to erase, edit, or misunderstand most or all of which came before us? How does our understanding of history and the decades and centuries leading up to our present moment inform how we approach our day-to-day living? Our relationships? Our civil engagement? Our education? Our child-raising?

In our discussion today, we talk about how hearing other people’s stories helps us to humanize them. We also talk about how when we have history, story, tradition, we know who we are. Moses riffs on the ancientness of the Orthodox church.

We both agree we need our parents and grandparents to tell us stories about themselves. And we need to tell our kids stories about ourselves.

For more discussion, that we hope will be profitable to you, please keep listening! And please share the podcast, rate and review it, and consider joining our patreon community!

To connect with Moses, find him at patreon.com/mosesbernabe or on instagram at @mosesbernabe.

To connect with Justin, find him on instagram and facebook as Justin Nichols, and on his youtube channel, and at www.gracechapelonline.org/soul-care

#books #reading #novels #thepassage #justincronin #thriller #horror #vampire #adventure #fiction #adventure #ensemble #community #relationships #character #trauma #endoftheworld #death #family #apocalypse #postapocalyptic #impact #legacy #family #colony #remnant #aging #loss #history #ritual #story #tradition #legacy #abuse #neglect #trauma

How do you make a monster? No, it’s not through viral injections, nor radiation, nor supernatural curses - Monsters are made by hate, anger, resentment, and wounds that never get healed.

Moses and Nics are back, talking monsters and heroes, love and hate, abuse and attachment, trauma and legacy. We talk about what it means to be a parent, and to hold the power to shape multiple future generations with just our words.

We talk about what makes a family, with an emphasis on shared struggles, and shared rituals.

In the story itself, we come to showdown scene in the long story of the Passage, in which the monstrous vampire The Babcock enters the arena with the mysterious, and small-looking Girl From Nowhere Amy. It’s a super fun scene, with a lot of build up and context.

As we follow the characters, we get into the mind and backstory of the chiefest of viral vampires, and we see(multiple times) his childhood trauma played out over and over. Moses reflects on the character of Giles Babcock, once a man on death row, now the First of Twelve great Virals, and his backstory of growing up with an abusive mother. Of all memories to survive the boy’s childhood, genetic transformation, and a century of being a vampire, it’s this story of being hurt and burdened, and it’s this story that now contaminates The Many.

In this, we see depicted, a very dark legacy. Let the reader consider the ripples they spread through centuries into the future with their harsh words.

Babcock is contrasted with Amy, who was loved, who was valued, and who experienced secure attachment.

We have no idea how far-reaching are our actions, and our words. Perhaps we should be disturbed by how much power we have, but certainly we should not ignore it.

Trauma never stays contained to one relationship, and abuse never stays contained to one household. But likewise…neither can love and respect, and having gratitude for life, and compassion for others be contained by any force imaginable.

For more discussion, that we hope will be profitable to you, please keep listening! And please share the podcast, rate and review it, and consider joining our patreon community!

To connect with Moses, find him at patreon.com/mosesbernabe or on insagram at @mosesbernabe.

To connect with Justin, find him on instagram and facebook as Justin Nichols, and on his youtube channel, and at www.gracechapelonline.org/soul-care

#books #reading #novels #thepassage #justincronin #thriller #horror #vampire #adventure #fiction #adventure #ensemble #community #relationships #character #trauma #endoftheworld #death #family #apocalypse #postapocalyptic #impact #legacy #family #colony #remnant #aging #loss #history #ritual #story #tradition #legacy #abuse #neglect #trauma