Buried Under the Plot Twists

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Will to Art on 4 August 2014.

Thomas Merton at his hermitage

So Arthur is a child in the embrace of his mother' Old World Catholicism which feeds him a rich supernatural view of the world, plus his mom obsessively serves the poor (although in a misguided way), which makes Arthur feel that service to the poor is as natural as breathing, which it is in the Sweet World.

Then Arthur is an adolescent in a post-Vatican II world that replaces the organs with acoustic guitars and pianos, flips the altar around, replaces oil paintings and stained glass with felt banners, the stone and marble with drywall and pine.

Then in his autumn years, the Church becomes an extension of people's right-wing political affiliations! Meanwhile, angels are singing the triumph of Christ, demons are fleeing in terror and trying to knock as many of us over as they can as they are rounded up, Jesus is inviting us to walk on water, etc!

I've been looking at the project in terms of what it should say to non-Catholics, but you have nailed what it should say to Catholics! So many of us are Will Witkowskis, viewing our faith like it's something we ought to do but not absolutely necessary to live good worldly lives, like saving 10% toward retirement, exercising, or flossing. We don't get that God is our life itself, not the bonus prize at the end of an esteemed career and well-funded retirement.

By the way, regarding this:

Maybe we visit Arthur in a small hermitage. Maybe he has even become a priest through some special dispensation (he wouldn't be able to get through any of the heavy theological study--I'm sure there is some example of this in history).

How about St. John Vianney, whose feast day is today?! We picked a good day to pray the daily readings!

So how do we keep these messages in the right places in the story so that they aren't buried under the the plot twists or spelled out by some lame chorus? I don't know that the messages peek out clearly in every podcast, but prolonged exposure should clarify them.

I'm inclined to say that Joe Lazarus, Sr. and Jr. are the mechanisms. That Joe Sr. is destroyed by his pursuit of God (as Arthur experiences Him) and that Joe Jr. is saved by it.

Also, Joe Jr.'s parents are inversions of Arthur's. Joe Sr. was an absentee dad where Stan was about moving heaven and earth for the misunderstood good of his family. Joe's mom is what Fr. Joe calls "The Frozen Chosen," where Arthur's mom is an activist.

I also think back to Kierkegaard. In some ways, the religious sphere is closer to the aesthetic sphere than the moral sphere. Maybe the story can reach people in the aesthetic who long for the truth and beauty only the religious sphere can offer. And maybe Will demonstrates the absurdity and banality of the moral sphere.