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{"id":203,"date":"2011-12-01T23:02:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-01T23:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2011\/12\/203\/"},"modified":"2011-12-01T23:02:00","modified_gmt":"2011-12-01T23:02:00","slug":"203","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2011\/12\/203.html","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

DO THE RIGHT THING<\/span>: I don\u2019t care much about Tolkein, but I liked how this post<\/a> (via Wesley Hill) delineates two different kinds of morality tale: the one about the difficulty of knowing which choice is right, and the one about the difficulty of doing<\/span> the good even when you know it.<\/p>\n

Tangentially: I\u2019ve just watched two recent adaptations of Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband<\/a><\/span> and The Importance of Being Earnest<\/a><\/span>. I really don\u2019t approve of how much they mistrust their audience (they\u2019re very tarted-up with chase scenes and self-referential inside jokes and that sort of thing, and the language is mostly simplified) so I don\u2019t think I recommend them, even though I did like a lot of things I think most people wouldn\u2019t, such as Minnie Driver. I always like her. Anyway, the story of An Ideal Husband<\/span> is strong enough that it\u2019s still very<\/span> moving. Earnest<\/span> is harder to get right\u2013so much of its humor depends on the contrast between the ridiculous triviality of its characters\u2019 scruples and objections, and the genuine emotional weight of those scruples\u2019 consequences. You have to make it both dizzy and poignant. <\/p>\n

Both of them are morality plays, of course; in Husband<\/span> the wrongdoing is really serious, while in Earnest<\/span> it\u2019s the exact opposite of that. There\u2019s a sort of meta-moral to be drawn from the fact that the forgiveness which makes the comedic ending possible is the same in both plays.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"