Though we settled on Seinfeld when deciding what we might watch last night following a day of being out of the house, The Cinnamon Girl and HJ, jr and I considered a film that, I suspect, was popped into all kinds of DVD players or streamed to thousands of televisions over the last few days: Angels and Demons. A quick check on the Internet Movie Database – IMDB – shows that interest in the movie on the popular website increased almost 200% last week. That’s what the selection of a new pope will do for your movie, Ron Howard.
We have two copies of the novel and I don’t know why… we must have liked it!
I am a fan of the Dan Brown Robert Langdon books. Actually, to be clear, I am a fan of The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. The Lost Symbol seemed to me to be going back to the well once too often and seemed to cripple Brown as a writer. He’s not published anything since as far as I know. As a Catholic, I guess I am supposed to be upset and offended by some of the more heretical suggestions in the Langdon trilogy, specifically in Da Vinci and Demons, but , unless I missed something, I think these books are categorized as fiction, so I never have understood what the furor was all about. I do remember that the Catholic high school where I work was contacted by the local media when The Da Vinci Code film came out for comment on the controversy. I thought that was kind of funny.
I like Dan Brown’s story – by that I mean I like the story that Dan Brown tells about himself and getting Angels and Demons published. Because The Da Vinci Code was so massively popular, it is often forgotten that it was actually the sequel to Angels and Demons. To hear Brown tell it, no one wanted to publish either Angels and Demons or The Da Vinci Code and, after a very small print run for the former, Brown and his wife self published the latter and sold copies of it out of the hatch of their station wagon. Or, at least, that’s how I remember hearing the story.
As a frustrated novelist with rejection letters to fuel my consternation, I find this story highly romantic.
I have no doubt that Brown’s novel was pulled of many a bookshelf in the last week and the movie was, likewise, screened time-and-again in homes world-wide.
I remind myself again that it’s fiction, but it’s fiction that, with the election of Pope Francis I, seems relevant.
Pope Francis has been termed the first Jesuit pope and, though that is technically not true – all ordered priests who become bishops are required to renounce their affiliation to their respective orders when they are elevated – it is very true that Francis’ formation and the majority of his ministry was conducted when he was a member of the Society of Jesus. Graduating from and teaching in a Jesuit high school has left me fairly familiar with the Jesuits and I can say that I am ever impressed by their mantra of being in the world but not of the world. It’s a tricky business that has gotten them in trouble with the Vatican over the years… being IN the world means to me that Jesuits tend to be very connected to the real challenges of people around them, especially the poor, and try to find ways to help them. Not being OF the world means Jesuits reject the values of the world and substitute the values of Christ.
As I say, it’s a tricky business.
I am no papal scholar – I leave that kind of stuff to The Magister – but I do know that, so far, I like what I’ve seen from Pope Francis. I like that his first homily wasn’t in Latin. I like that he asked his fellow Argentinians to forgo trips to Rome and, rather, to give their money to the poor. I like that, after his election as pope, he walked from the Vatican to his hotel to pay his bill.
Good stuff.
I hope he found time to watch some movies before his election. He may not have time, now. Maybe he’s seen Saving Grace (one of my favorite movies of all time) or The Godfather III (everything by Sophia Coppola’s performance is better than you remember – her performance is worse). Heck, maybe he’s seen or read Angels and Demons. There will be books written and, likely, movies made about him in the coming years. He ascends to the position of pontiff in a very difficult time for the Catholic Church. I cannot think of anyone who would envy him the task.
As far as I know, he didn’t engineer a scheme to rig his election, parachute from a helicopter into St. Peter’s Square, survive a tsunami or slice Darth Maul in half to become Il Papa (I may be getting my Ewan McGregor movies confused).
He may have been one of the men in the room who didn’t want the job.
I hope so.
And There Came a Day... 