It is not without some sadness that we post this final installment in Jeremiah Lawson AKA Wenatchee the Hatchet’s epic Batman: The Agony of Loss and The Madness of Desire series. He has taken us so far beyond what any of us – even in our wildest dreams – could have imagined possible when it comes to Batman: The Animated Series, uncovering its remarkable philosophical depth, artistic daring and emotional umph, not to mention a set of psycho-spiritual parables that outshines almost all of its live-action competition. Seriously! If you’ve been reading this final chapter (on salvation), you know that…
Another Week Ends: Dead Liberal Arts, Glorious Ruin, Cagematch: Hoffman-Phoenix, Victorians in Baltimore, Creative Anxiety, and Imputed Guilt (by Association)
1. Over at The Daily Standard, writer and lecturer Joseph Epstein asks, “Who Killed the Liberal Arts?” With pre-professional education and a degree of liberal-arts relativizing on the rise, Epstein finds a central problem with American higher education to be the same kind of achievement cult that recent films like Waiting for “Superman” have criticized. Epstein’s phrasing is particularly succinct:
Trained almost from the cradle to smash the SATs and any other examination that stands in their way, the privileged among them may take examinations better, but it is doubtful if their learning and intellectual understanding are any greater. Usually propelled by…
Batman: The Agony of Loss and the Madness of Desire, pt 6A – Apostasy and Salvation in Gotham
Believe it or not, this week marks 20 years since Batman: The Animated Series made its network debut. And we would be remiss not to mark the occasion by kicking off the final chapter of Jeremiah Lawson aka Wenatchee the Hatchet’s extraordinary look at the moral and philosophical (and aesthetic) mechanics of that landmark show. To go back the beginning, click here. Otherwise, buckle your utility belt:
PART SIX: CROSSING THRESHOLDS, or Stories of Apostasy and Salvation in Gotham City
Physics is aware of phenomena which occur only at threshold magnitudes, which do not exist at all until a certain threshold encoded…
A Path Through Three Prisons: Bruce Wayne in Nolan’s Batman Trilogy, Pt 3
Presenting the last part of Jeremiah Lawson AKA Wenatchee the Hatchet’s incisive series on Christopher Nolan’s recently completed Batman trilogy! Be warned: this one contains considerable spoilers for those who haven’t seen The Dark Knight Rises. For part one, go here. Part two, here.
THE THIRD PRISON: THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
When the final installment of Christopher Nolan’s Bat trilogy opens, eight years have passed since the events of The Dark Knight. Bruce Wayne has been physically and emotionally battered by his campaign against crime as Batman, and has gone into seclusion and self-imposed exile. He pines for his lost Rachel, believing…
A Path Through Three Prisons: Bruce Wayne in Nolan’s Batman Trilogy, Pt 2
We are super pleased to bring you the middle installment of Jeremiah Lawson’s three-parter looking at the hero’s journey in Christopher Nolan’s now-completed Batman trilogy. To read part one, go here.
THE SECOND PRISON: THE DARK KNIGHT
The Dark Knight opens with a swift and violent bank robbery masterminded by the Joker. We watch as a group of masked men execute an intricately planned heist and then double-cross each other (to death) until, finally, the Joker kills the last hired thug and makes off with millions of the mob’s money. It would appear that a new breed of criminal has emerged in…
Batman: The Agony of Loss and the Madness of Desire, Part 5a
We’re back! And just in time to lead up to a certain major blockbuster, we bring you the next installment of Jeremiah Lawson’s epic treatment of the moral, philosophical and theological underpinnings of the Batman mythos, in particular as they play out in what many consider to be the most authentic and inspired incarnation of the Caped Crusader in the past 20 odd years–seriously–Batman: The Animated Series. To start at the beginning, go here. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy the show:
AT NIGHT ALL CATS ARE GRAY: Tarnished Heroes and Lovable Rogues in Gotham
PART 1: CARTOONS AND THE MYTH OF PURE…
Batman: The Agony of Loss and the Madness of Desire, Part 4c
You guessed it, Bat-Fans: this time The Riddler is our subject. As always, to start with, er, year one of Jeremiah Lawson’s soon-to-be-definitive exploration of Batman mythology, go here. Or to simply catch up on the current arc, the villain-themed The Wounds of Discovery, go here.
PART FOUR: THE WOUNDS OF DISCOVERY
3. The Life and Death of the Mind
All this I tested by wisdom and I said, “I am determined to be wise” — but this was beyond me. Ecclesiastes 7:28
Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Proverbs…
Batman: The Agony of Loss and the Madness of Desire, Pt 4b
Hey there, Bat-Fans! We interrupt our regularly scheduled blogging to bring you the next installment of Jeremiah Lawson’s expert look at Batman mythology. As the last entry indicated, these next few posts will look at the (utterly fascinating) psycho-spiritual motivations of the Dark Knight’s various villains.
PART FOUR: THE WOUNDS OF DISCOVERY
2. Idols of the Heart
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9
It’s not uncommon for a person to start down the path of wrong-doing through an obsession with a certain kind of relationship. We all know why restraining orders exist and we…
Batman: The Agony of Loss and the Madness of Desire, Pt 4a
We’re baaaack! The fourth installment of Jeremiah Lawson’s brilliant exploration of the philosophical and theological underpinnings of Batman mythology has finally arrived, and I think you’ll agree that it was worth the wait. This post works as a perfect jumping-on point, the beginning of a significant new “chapter.” Of course, if you’d prefer to bat-a-rang back to the beginning, go here.
PART FOUR: THE WOUNDS OF DISCOVERY
1. The Strength of Knowing Weakness
What is crooked cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted.
Ecclesiastes 1:15
If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can…
Batman: The Agony of Loss and the Madness of Desire, Pt 3
We come now to part three of Jeremiah Lawson’s epic exploration of Batman mythology, particularly as it relates to the Caped Crusader’s groundbreaking animated series (part one and part two). Many consider the episode discussed below, “Heart of Ice,” not only to be the best of the series, but a highwater mark of animated television, period. This editor being one – it is a work of Art:
PART THREE: HEART OF ICE, HEART OF WRATH
If a great hero is defined by a great villain, and Batman boasts the most famous villains in the history of comics, does that make him the…
Batman: The Agony of Loss and the Madness of Desire, Pt 2
The wait is over! We proudly bring you the second installment of Jeremiah Lawson AKA Wenatchee the Hatchet’s series exploring the mythology of Batman, particularly as it relates to the Caped Crusader’s landmark animated series. To read part one, go here.
PART TWO: Enter the Dark Knight
When the pilot episode of Batman: The Animated Series aired on September 6, 1992, the show introduced itself, famously, with a somber, hyper-stylized depiction of Batman defeating two bank robbers. Opening credits of children’s cartoons normally did not tell stories and when they did, we were told everything we needed to know via the theme…
Batman: The Agony of Loss and Madness of Desire, pt 1
With The Dark Knight Rises primed to rock all our worlds this summer, we draw your attention back to the beginning of Jeremiah Lawson’s AKA Wenatchee the Hatchet’s epic series of posts on the mythology surrounding everyone’s favorite caped crusader, a certain half-Law Incarnate/half-Walking Wound named Bruce Wayne. Jeremiah has previously explored several other aspects of the philosophical, historical and theological underpinnings of the DC Animated Universe, e.g. the conflicted legacy of Superman and the roots of the Cartoon Revolution that the DCAU spearheaded.
“Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity…
Cartoon Nostalgia, Cartoon Revolution, Part 3: Cartoon Morality in Transformers
With Transformers 3 less than a week away, we present the third installment of Jeremiah Lawson’s excellent four-part series on Cartoon Nostalgia, in which our hero takes a hard look at moral undercurrents in the Transformers universe. And speaking of nostalgia (and golden ageism), if you haven’t yet seen Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, it’s a delightful look at the same subject, and one that comes to similar conclusions:
When certain friends of mine saw the Transformers movie in 1986, they reported, “Honestly, it was pretty lame. It was kinda cool that Optimus Prime died but it was done in a…
Cartoon Nostalgia, Cartoon Revolution, Part 2: Let Us Now Praise Famous Toys (Transformers and Beatles)
More than meets the eye time! We now bring you part two in our new series on nostalgia and cartoons (and a whole lot more) from Jeremiah Lawson aka Wenatchee the Hatchet. For part one, go here. Who knew Transformers were such an overt expression of Reagan-era sensibilities? Certainly not me – I was always more of a G.I. Joe guy, but Jeremiah is nothing if not persuasive. Enjoy:
Plenty of film critics have sounded off on how terrible the Transformers movies have been, typically laying most of the blame on Michael Bay. But let’s face it – those critics would…
Cartoon Nostalgia, Cartoon Revolution, Part 1: Blasts From the Past Keep on Blasting
We are very excited to present the first installment of our new four-part series from resident animation expert/philosopher Jeremiah Lawson aka Wenatchee the Hatchet, this time exploring the roots of Hollywood’s increasingly absurd obsession with 80s cartoons (Transformers, Alvin & The Chipmunks, GI Joe, etc etc etc).
“Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.” Ecclesiastes 7:10
It is an irrefutable cultural law that popularity waxes and wanes in twenty year cycles. Twenty years being roughly the amount of time it takes for a generation of children to…
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Jim McNeely: It's my favorite nightstand reading these days! An awesome tome!...
Ethan Richardson: Here's the full cast list! Look at all those Zahls... Editing, Sea...
Matt Schneider: DZ, I'll have to do some Wiman homework ... still need to catch up on ...
David Morton: The link to the recording is wrong. I started to try to listen to it ...