Where Have I Been?
I started to title this post “Where Have You Been?” . . . But then it occurred to me that maybe that’s not a question anyone is asking, but that I kind of am. Suddenly, it’s been months since I wrote anything new. Where does the time go? Oh. Looking back, I see that my last substantial piece was written just before the birth of my son. I wasn’t prepared for two children to be more than twice as time-consuming as one. I also started a new job in August (which you’ll notice is the last time I even posted), and I’ve been doing some additional work on the side, so whatever microscopic amounts of free time I’ve had has mostly been spent sleeping like the dead or staring blankly off into space.
But there’s nothing like Oscar season to make me sit up and say, “Hey, I have a movie blog!” And, okay, maybe that description of my free time isn’t quite accurate. It just feels like it. I’ve still watched quite a few movies in the intervening months, for one thing, so I’m still quite active on my Letterboxd account . . . Y’know, in case anyone was interested in keeping up with what I’m watching and how many stars I felt that it merited.
And that’s not the whole story behind my blogging hiatus. In July I submitted a proposal to the Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture’s call for papers for their 2014 conference on Faith and Film. It didn’t seem like that big of a deal. I’ve presented at conferences before, and this is well inside my wheelhouse. But after I was accepted I had a minor attack of nerves, realizing it had been over four years since I wrote an academic paper. Every time I sat down to write for Moviegoings, I thought, “No, I should put in some time on that paper!” But progress was slow, so I was pretty much stalled out on everything until a few weeks before the conference in late October, when, motivated by sheer panic, the writing juices started flowing again.
I called my paper “Theodicy at the Movies: The Problem of Evil Through a Lens of Faith,” drawing heavily (obviously) on the work I did developing my “Theodicy at the Movies” series last year. However, rather than just pull material that I’d already written (which would probably have been smart), I tackled two films that I hadn’t gotten to yet in my series: Noah (which we discussed in the 2nd episode of The Moviegoings Podcast) and Calvary, both 2014 releases. I’m not a gifted public speaker, but I think the paper turned out well. I haven’t shared it here yet because I plan to use it as I continue my series.
I presented in the 2nd session of the conference, which allowed me to relax and enjoy the rest of that experience . . . Which was incredible. I met lots of great people, heard some excellent papers, saw some fantastic films, and had more awesome conversations about movies than in the entire previous year combined. It was an amazing and all-too-rare experience to be among so many like-minded people for a weekend. I’m so happy that I took advantage of the opportunity. I was absolutely right in thinking that I just couldn’t pass it up.
I also worked on a 7th episode of The Moviegoings Podcast, but unfortunately it fell apart due to various factors, the chief of which was my house losing power after a massive storm while we were in the midst of recording. The outage lasted for 2 days, and by the time we were able to reconvene, our previous material was unsalvageable, and the moment was gone. However, we have since regrouped, and a new episode will be ready soon.
As I resume semi-regular blogging activity, I plan to continue my “Theodicy at the Movie” series, as well as The Moviegoings Podcast. I’ll be doing my usual Oscar speculation and commentary during the next two weeks, of course, and then hopefully carrying on as usual. The “Southern” Project is not dead, either, though it will be quite awhile probably before there’s anything new related to that on here.
Meanwhile, now that I’ve finally gotten this “I’m Back!” post completed, watch this space for exciting new content soon!
Moviegoings 