The Speedy Knight, Fighting Rabbits, and what it all has to do with Art

I had a conversation with a friend comparing recent books and movies we have seen/read. Our conversation centered around Speed Racer and The Dark Knight, with my friend making the absurd declaration that Speed Racer was a better movie. Crazy, I know. He clarified by saying that he just enjoyed Speed Racer more; he has more fond memories of that movie than the Dark Knight. Ok, I suppose that’s reasonable. I liked Speed Racer. It was much more entertaining than I thought it would be.

But I would much rather see The Dark Knight again. I can’t help but wonder if this is some personality thing. Why am I drawn to the incredibly depressing movie about a psychopath killer and a hero who tries to be God? I’ve seen it twice. Each time I walked away from the theater having trouble shaking it from my thoughts. The moral ambiguity fascinated me. I loved the insight into human nature, collective and individual. But still, it was incredibly dark. Shouldn’t I be drawn more to the happy go lucky movie with the plucky kid who takes down the big corporate powers by pursuing what he loves to do? (When Speed Racer is racing, my friend called it “art in it’s purest form”. I liked that.)

Maybe not. Maybe I’m reading a little too much into things. Maybe I’m more drawn to The Dark Knight because it was a far superior movie in terms of acting, plot, dialogue, cinematography, pacing, and basically every other cinematic element (although Speed Racer was much more colorful, I’ll give it that). But that’s just my opinion.

The conversation continued on about books. I talked about two recent books I’ve read, Watership Down and Fight Club. Two great books. Two very different books. To go all SAT on you, The Dark Knight is to Fight Club as Speed Racer is to Watership Down.

This time however, I’m much more drawn to Watership Down. It’s one of my all time favorite novels. And yes, it’s about rabbits. And you should read it.

It all made me confused. I thought I liked the dark stuff? Why do I like the adventurous story about traveling rabbits? What’s wrong with me? Nothing, of course! I’ve concluded that I like both (I’m a both/and kind of guy, if you know what I mean. If you don’t, well you’ve obviously never taken a class with Dr Nienhuis). I like to be uplifted, but I also liked to be shown the world as it is.

I think we need both types of art. We need art that reveals the mess that this world is. But we also need art that paints us the beautiful picture of what could be, and inspires us to work to make it that way. Deep thoughts I know. : )  What do you think?

Thanks for reading, someday I’ll try and write on a consistent basis.

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