And the answers to the trivia...

[katster]

(Please refer back to this post for the picture in question.)

Anyway, I broke up laughing at the shot because the flags in the shot, for those of you who don't have any idea at all, are the provencial flags of Canada. (Best response to it was shannonwest who immediately said, "Quebec's in the UN?!" as her first response.) Credit given to her, phenyx for guessing it without help, and zibblsnrt, who just needed to realize that *his* provencial flag was there to get it. So yeah, Canada is the entirety of the UN these days.

This is doubly funny when you consider that the flick is basically 'bad Revalations fanfic'. Yeah, as in the book of Revalations in the bible. Yeah, your humble correspondent has a thing for bad Revalations fanfic, which is why I have the movie version of that wonderful fundie series Left Behind, which means that, yes, mrfnord gets credit for a proper guess. :)

(Oh yeah, and Luns would like to inform us that the UN is apperantly Toronto City Hall -- he had fun watching the movie on my laptop with the sound on mute, just trying to get an idea of where things might be taking place -- which led to my amusing crack about Mel Lastman, Toronto's mayor, being the Antichrist. We knew Canadians were evil, we just didn't know how much. *grin*)

I know half my friends are staring at me in horror, and I'm about to say one more thing. I like 'em. And that's *despite* agreeing with everything Slacktivist is saying about the things. They are bad. They're bad Revelations fanfic. They're also a fun way to kill a few hours.

And I should state that I was raised in a fundie church. No, my folks aren't churchgoers. My mom's a lapsed Catholic and my dad's an agnostic, I think. So, jillcaligirl and I used to go to church with our grandmother, and that side of the family is mostly fundamentalist. (Strangely, they've got the idea that I'm a good Christian girl. I don't try to dissuade them of this notion too much.) So I had my phases of devout religion. The problem is, I've always been a near voracious reader, and a thinker, so I've never managed to stick with it for a long time, which is why I find that I have a better spiritual home with the Unitarians. Anyway, about sixth or seventh grade, I stumbled across the book 666 by Salem Kirban at my aunt's house (and if y'all think the Left Behind series is *bad*, I got news, there's *worse* out there). I was starting to acquire a taste for dystopic fiction, and what's more dystopic than the Rapture and the Tribulation Period, seriously?

I don't believe the theology. I don't like the preachyness at times of the Left Behind books. But...maybe I can enjoy them because I know the mindset. Besides, to each his own, no?

Comments

[katster.livejournal.com]

Not as into movies as I was in the printed word, and I'm seeing that my education was sorely neglected by those who were supposed to be teaching me.

This would be a fun English thesis, though.

I sorta want to get back into this now, more again.

-kat

Congratulations

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

You've sufficently wierded me out that I have nothing to say...

Reverlations fanfics ?!? just when I thought life couldn't any stranger.

Ah Shucks

[shmuelisms.livejournal.com]

I found it odd, that not one of the flags looked familiar, except the Canadian maple leaf in the foreground. But then I doubt I've even seen pictures of the Canadian provincial flags (I have been to Vancouver & Toronto though). I love photos/scenes like that, were things are terribly wrong if you really look at them.

When I moved into my apartment a few years ago, I knew that all phones in this new neighborhood began with 999, so being the silly chum that I am, asked for a number ending with 666 to make it nice and symmetrical. Phone Co. wouldn't give it to me for free :-( So I ended up one off ==> 999-4665. Regarding the Rapture et al. :-p I've always liked the Rowan Atkinson as the Devil sketch:

Atheists, over here please. You must be feeling a right bunch of charlies.
Christians, ah yes, I'm afraid the Jews were right.

Re: Ah Shucks

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

That sketch is pure gold. That line's one of the only things I remember out of it. :)

Good LORD--You read *Salem Kirban*???

[lirazel.livejournal.com]

Isn't he just utterly twisted?

I ran into him when I was in the process of converting to Christianity--a little old lady in a nursing home I worked in just loved him. She'd been a missionary to the Palestinian Arabs, and regarded him as one of hers. Of course, she also believed the English were really the Lost Tribes and that Jesus visited England when his uncle, old Joe Aramanthea, was in the tin trade...

Incidently, I'm now an Episcopalian, so I guess I'm going to Hell anyway. I came up with a good slogan for us, however; "Join the Episcopal Church; we know who our gay priests are." ^__^

[fairoriana.livejournal.com]

I was horrified, at my grandfather's funeral, to realize that to a "sanctified" old Nazarene preacher, I was completely acceptible! At least in the facts of my life, if not my opinions.

I wanted to go get a tattoo then and there.

Re: Good LORD--You read *Salem Kirban*???

[vacheestfachee.livejournal.com]

I may have to borrow that line.

Funny Thing Is...

[shmuelisms.livejournal.com]

That I have never seen this particular sketch. But I've heard it quoted SO many times that it stuck ;-) It's like Monty Python's sketch with the Bruces of Philosophy, which I have also never seen. That don't stop me, of course, from constanly asking people:

"Mind if we call you "Bruce" to keep it clear?"

But then I am a very twisted person.

[vacheestfachee.livejournal.com]

Here's another fun bashing of the Left Behind series. The highlight, for me:

Fundamentalism in Christianity is characterised by fear of "the other", which is ironic, given that Jesus encouraged us to see, as Jung later elaborated, that darkness comes from within, rather than from what we see or touch or welcome.

Somehow we need to find different stories, or at least different ways of telling our own stories; to tell them in ways that liberate rather than enclose, that express love rather than fear, that welcome rather than ostracise. The story in John's Revelation has been misunderstood as one about cataclysmic endings, when it is better read as the ultimate tale of hopeful beginnings.

I, too, grew up in what might be called a "fundamentalist" home. At least, it was fear-based and I didn't understand (nor did I feel encouraged to think about) what "my" theology was or meant, but I knew what I was "supposed" to believe. What I heard about the "rapture" or whatever came in little snippets through "Christian" media... unexplained... confusing... and whenever I wouldn't be paying attention and everyone would leave the room, I would be terrified that the rapture happened and I wasn't "good enough" or something. *sigh* Yep, I'm a recovering good-Christian-girl-who-does-and-believes-what-she's-supposed-to-whether-she-knows-why-or-not.

I like the "fanfic" moniker... although I think there's a lot of fanfic out there that's closer to the original than Left Behind is to Revelations. ;)