Thursday, December 08, 2005

the christmas abstract

Holiday carols reviewed by someone even more cynical than me:

http://www.trismccall.net/pop_music_abstract_xmas.html

Great laugh-out-loud stuff, even though I don't agree with all of it. He's a little too hard on the secular tunes, but he does share my distaste for the Rudolph story. He quotes liberally from scripture, lavishes praise upon the more solemn hymns of the season, decries the pagan influences and crass commercialism of the "non-theological" songs, and is.....a non-Christian. He admits that he sees Jesus as no more than a "literary construct," but makes some keen observations about the faith:

"Christianity has been and remains such a powerful religious idea because it answers this question: what the fuck is wrong with me?"

An astute comment, to be sure.

Unfortunately, Christianity also answers the question: what the fuck isn't wrong with me? (the answer, for those of you that didn't endure 13 years of Catholic school, is "everything")

Anyway, check out the article, not only for the funny, acerbic jabs scattered throughout the reviews, but also because he's also the only person I know examining Christmas songs through the lens of Foucault.