A Christmas Carol | Mockingbird

Another Year Ends: Xmas Wars, Twitter Blues, Reznor’s Recovery, Hume’s Legacy, Bad Seeds, Scrooge Syndrome, and Mbird Subscriptions

by David Zahl on Dec 22, 2011 • 1 Comment

1. You can’t blame Matt Zencey for trying to put the “war on Christmas” in perspective over at The Huffington Post, recalling the 18th century Puritan campaign against the holiday. While contextually more than a little glib – apples and oranges and all that (our cultural conflict has two equally doctrinaire opponents, theirs had one, and arguments could be made for casting the pilgrims as the corollary to either). Still, the historical details are undeniably interesting:

The Puritans who landed at Plymouth Rock knew how to wage war on Christmas: They banned it. As historian Stephen Nissenbaum documents in his 1997…

Christmas / Identity / Music / TV

Scrooging Glee

by Ethan Richardson on Dec 16, 2011 • 1 Comment

An amazing catch by the Atlantic this week on NBC sitcom Community‘s festivus-unloading on Glee. I’m not sure their analysis that the two very different shows’ similarity is quite as convincing–Community has a self-awareness that Glee has never touched, nor tried to, as well as relatable characters, relatable backstories, relatable conflicts. No need to get hot about the whole thing–as much has been said about Glee already. The gauges by which the article validates both shows is kind of unreasonable–everyone knows that sometimes the least-watched shows are the best ones, and not necessarily because they’re highbrow. Anyways, that’s not the…

Christmas / Literature / Suffering

Charles Dickens’ Other Christmas Ghost Story: “The Haunted Man”

by David Zahl on Dec 14, 2011 • 5 Comments

Some say that Charles Dickens invented Christmas as we know it. At least, that A Christmas Carol rescued the celebration from post-Cromwell piety and prompted the Victorians to introduce many of the traditions that we have come to cherish: the tree, the presents, the holly and the ivy, etc. A little less well known is the fact that A Christmas Carol rescued Dickens’ career as well, proving so popular that he would go on to write four more Christmas novellas, three of which had supernatural elements but only one of which was an out-and-out ghost story a la A Christmas…

Christmas / Film / Literature / Theology

A Christmas (Carol) Reflection

by Nick Lannon on Jan 6, 2011 • 1 Comment

“Ah! You do not know the weight and length of strong chain you bear yourself! It was as full and as long as this seven Christmas eves ago and you have labored on it since. Ah, it is a ponderous chain!” – Jacob Marley

This is how Jacob Marley responds to Ebenezer Scrooge’s curiosity about the nature of the chain his ghost wears in Dickens’ more-than-classic “A Christmas Carol.” Having watched multiple versions of the film every year for my entire childhood, I thought I knew every in and out of the story.

This year, though, I was struck by something different.…

Christmas / Film / Literature

What Is Your Favorite Version of A Christmas Carol?

by David Zahl on Dec 10, 2008 • 2 Comments

Preparing for tonight’s Mockingbird Hour (last one of the year!) on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, I’ve given a lot of thought to which film adaptation is best. Lord knows there’s no shortage of options. In animation we have Scrooge McDuck, Mr. Magoo, and The Flintstones, among others. Then in live-action, there’s The Muppets, Captain Picard, Bill Murray, George C. Scott, Alastair Sim, and Albert Finney. If I were pressed, I’d probably say my top three are the Disney one, the Muppet one and Scrooged. So… what’s your favorite/least favorite?

P.S. Who would have thought David Johansen of The New York…