The Invisible Library

Tristero reminds us that the Creepy Evangelical Video Game (Where you either convert or kill everyone in New York City) is not a product of some fringe White Supremacist Malita or some publicly disavowed wacko like Fred Phelps but a genuine article from the most vociferous of the Faithful:

[…] There is nothing about the worldview of this videogame that cannot be found in the writings and speeches of political operatives like Dobson, LaHaye, Robertson, Falwell, Rushdoony, and others in their milieu (here’s a paean to intolerance co-authored by James Dobson’s son. ). The particular balance of extremist positions varies to some extent among all these people, but the overall thrust is clear: they advocate replacement of a democratic American republic with a theocracy (Christian Nation)and the conversion or elimination of all non-believers.* The craziest of them - eg Rushdoony - are not merely cynical dirtbags trying to snatch every last nickel they can from ignorant rubes. The worst of them actually believe this stuff. But here’s the rub: even the less worse are willing to listen to the worse, and prominent politicians today are are also listening.

Troutfishing has all the skin-crawling details for those just tuning in:

The “Left Behind: Eternal Forces” videogame that lets players simulate converting to Christianity or killing the citizens of New York City has become a dead cow in the living room to leaders of the Christian right. James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, and The Southern Baptist Convention have not denounced the game and have refused to even comment on it

The best part though:

Tyndale House, which licenses “Left Behind: Eternal Forces” also publishes a book, by [infuriated Christian conservative attourney and activist, Jack ] Thompson, against videogame violence!

It’s easy to dismiss a Conservative Christian Publisher as being more about the Business of Publishing than the heartfelt lifestyle of a Conservative Christian, only out to make a fast buck exploiting the fear and loathing of the Evangelical market. But just keep in mind, that fear and loathing comes from a real source. And if there is one thing the faithful are good at, it’s inventing bogey men to exert control over their followers. If there’s two things they’re good at, it’s stirring the pot until it comes to a boil.

As usual, Warren Ellis is on to something:

I’ve long been interested in the chambara form, the Japanese stories of wandering heroic swordsmen. Chambara is a subset of what the Japanese called jidai geki, period drama. I bet you’ve all seen one of them — YOJIMBO, SEVEN SAMURAI, RAN. And you’ve all seen THE HIDDEN FORTRESS, though you know it better as the first STAR WARS film. George Lucas was, of course, a huge fan of Kurosawa.

It didn’t occur to me until I read this tidbit the other day that Lucas, […] in looking for his faded knights of dynasty, would have coughed and California-mispronounced jidai into Jedi…

This is hardly surprising. When not ripping off Kurosawa, Lucas was lifting straight out of John Ford’s films. But with every passing year another tidbit makes it into the stratosphere (and by stratosphere, I mean these here Internets) that Lucas was also padding his script with Jidaigeki tropes and Oh yeah, Joseph Campbell, too (wink). It’s only too bad he didn’t stick to ripping off Kurosawa and japanese mythology. Maybe then the prequels wouldn’t have sucked so bad. *

I’m still looking forward to the September release of the Un-Special Editions, maybe even more so, now that we know that Lucas had even less to do with them then we originally thought.