O Brother, Where Art Thou?

[aunt_zelda]

 Tonight I procrastinated some more (this is becoming a thing with me, I never used to procrastinate, and suddenly this month I am!) by watching O Brother, Where Art Thou? as it is the only vaguely religious movie I own, in case tomorrow really is Judgement Day.
Not really understanding the mechanics of that whole business, I basically know enough to know that if it does happen tomorrow I'm pretty much screwed. So I hope it doesn't happen. I'm not ready. I haven't done enough stuff in my life (for example, I have yet to travel to New Zealand!) and what I have done is pretty much setting me up for Hell according to most Christians. And I'm still agnostic. And why May 21st of all things? Not even the turn of a year, or a Holiday or something? Just ... May 21st, huh? 

I also finished off a thing of Ben and Jerry's tonight. Just in case. 

Comments

[freya-sacksen.livejournal.com]

Wow. Look. May 22nd. No Apocalypse, Ma.

[aunt-zelda.livejournal.com]

Hurray!

(I didn't actually think it'd happen, but watching a good movie and eating ice cream is hardly overstepping myself.)

[freya-sacksen.livejournal.com]

I know, but it was pretty much a given that I had to make some sort of sarcastic comment, especially considering that I was meant to be one of the first people to 'suffer' the Rapture or whatever.

[aunt-zelda.livejournal.com]

I'm still not clear on the mechanics of that. So I get that if the Rapture had happened certain devout Christian people would have been spirited away to Heaven and the rest of us would have ... uh, had five months of 'hell on earth?' What's that supposed to mean? Why not send all of us to Hell right off? Are those five months meant to be one big "see, I told ya so!" to force people to convert? Who's supposed to convert the left-behinds if all the 'true' Christians got Rapture'd? Who's gonna do baptisms of people who never got baptized? Does 'hell on earth' mean epic fights with demons or speeded-up global warming or what?
Plus I've never been very clear on the whole 'you go to hell if you sin' thing. Surely Satan would reward sinners for using their lives to flip off God, and organize them into a second army to attempt to overthrown Heaven?

[freya-sacksen.livejournal.com]

Don't look at me, my knowledge of Revelations is negligible. You'd be better off asking a theology scholar.

[aunt-zelda.livejournal.com]

*sighs* I'd research, but at this point I haven't the time and I sense that it'd take a very long time.

Personally I like the Norse Mythology idea of the End of the World: gigantic epic battle of DOOM where everybody and everything fights each other to the death ... and humanity gets started again by a couple. Makes perfect sense to me!

[valentine-beach.livejournal.com]

Except the women and children. They don't fight. I also find Ragnarok rather depressing just in how fatalistic it is.

[aunt-zelda.livejournal.com]

What, we wouldn't fight? Fuck that noise! *grabs battleaxe* I'm supposed to just sit around and watch the big burly Vikings duke it out while the seas boil and a wolf eats the moon and the gods kill each other? No way!

I also find Ragnarok rather depressing just in how fatalistic it is.
Eh, everything has an end, even the world. And humanity does restart according to some versions of it!

[freya-sacksen.livejournal.com]

You're surprised? You are aware that according to Nordic traditions, the main way to end up in the icy depths of Niflheim was to die dishonorably (read: not in combat) unless you were a woman or child.

Even in spite of my namesake being both goddess of love and war, some people think that the reason the goddess of love was also responsible for war to an extent was because of the fact that women bleed once a month.

None of the goddesses participate in Ragnarok (with the possible exception of Frigg, who is mentioned to suffer her second great sorrow). The idea of viking women being fighters is an invention. Nordic mythology and beliefs were just as sexist as the rest of them.

The main reason I find Ragnarok depressing is because it's pre-scripted. All the gods know exactly how they are going to die, where they are going to die and who will kill them, but rather than fight their fate, they just go 'eh' and go with it. Odin knows Fenrir will swallow him whole. He doesn't fight it, though.

[aunt-zelda.livejournal.com]

The main reason I find Ragnarok depressing is because it's pre-scripted. All the gods know exactly how they are going to die, where they are going to die and who will kill them, but rather than fight their fate, they just go 'eh' and go with it. Odin knows Fenrir will swallow him whole. He doesn't fight it, though.
Strangely enough, that's the reason I like it. Usually I hate the "you can't fight Fate" argument, but that's because I'm just a regular human being, not a god or goddess. I don't know how to really put this into words, but to me the idea that the gods all know what's going to happen and accept it is very ... comforting? Inspiring? Makes them less 'big bad superpowerful creator of the universe' and more 'yeah, I'm a god, but even gods have to die' kinda thing? I really don't know.

[freya-sacksen.livejournal.com]

Also, wow, I should really do something to make sure I don't end up commenting on a post with the wrong account again. *facepalm*