A Quiet Place -- a few posts

Bishop Robert Barron writes at WordOnFire about the movie "A Quiet Place."

I don’t know if I can find the golden thread that draws all of these themes together into a coherent message, but I think one would have to be blind not to see a number of religious motifs in this absorbing film.

In juxtaposition to this, Armond White writes at NRO contrasting "A Quiet Place" with "Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc."  White much prefers Jeannette, writing of it:

The story of France’s patron saint who was martyred during the Hundred Years’ War is told through the joyful noise of a heavy-metal musical.

He writes of it further:

So when Bunch caught on to A Quiet Place’s nuclear-family theme, he made a considerable point

and

A Quiet Place, which merely updates the crude manipulation of The Blair Witch Project and never asks audiences to consider the narrative’s themes of procreation and self-defense.

Finally, Elizabeth Scalia writes, also at WordOnFire, about A Quiet Place and relates it to the Zuckerberg comments on extinguishing so called Hate Speech.

Stopping difficult, controversial, or “hateful” words before they are uttered or published will ultimately destroy authentic engagement between people. It may leave our feelings unhurt, but the price of insult-free living will be more loneliness, more isolation, not less. 

Then she wraps up by tying into Bishop Barron's article on A Quiet Place

Bishop Robert Barron recently wrote about actor-director John Krasinski’s new thriller, A Quiet Place, calling it the most “unexpectedly religious film of 2018.” He sees numerous religious motifs running through the film, and I suspect he is on the money.

But to me, the story as described sounds a lot like an allegory for a time when all speakers—for that matter, all artists and writers—are expected to exist uncomplainingly within a narrow lane of social conformity, or risk being eaten alive.

Perhaps instead of obsessing about suppressing so called bullying, and Hate Speech, we should teach our children, or in my case should have taught our children, what my parents taught my sisters, my brother and me:

Sticks and stones can break my bones, but names can never hurt me

I Hope you enjoy reading these articles.