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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   Edited 1yr ago   2738 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 6, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Aw, man, Midnight Mass was great. It really depressed me that they gave the final monologue to the

"we're all stardust, so death is just returning to nature"

viewpoint. Out of all possible attitudes towards death, especially all the attitudes shared throughout the show, that's the only one that really strikes me as intensely meaningless. Not only that, but they give it to

the person who had previously described her unborn baby's trip to heaven--implying that essentially her faith was just copium against the harsh reality of death.

It seems like her point was basically that we all started out as atoms, and sentience is a useful illusion, so death is meaningless anyways. Well, that's certainly one way to look at it, but that really implies that you should have no values at all. e.g. if you truly believe that we're all just atoms anyways, then it's an utterly nihilistic perspective, and things like rape, torture, just about any bad thing you can think of, don't actually matter because it's just atoms moving around in configurations. If this is the case, why bother with something like killing the vampire? Well, because you actually do still care, and you're not truly convinced that it's all just atoms.

Great show though.

Yes! That was the worst for me. Borderline offensive on a personal level, since I can most identify with that character as a Christian woman who just gave birth. Honestly, she took her baby disappearing incredibly well. I think it would have been fitting to have one of the characters go through losing their faith because of what happened to the island, but I don't buy her losing it. Her initial monologue on heaven served as a foil to Riley's views. And if she didn't lose her faith then, I don't know that she should have after everything else. The monologue itself was ok, though I stopped paying attention once I got the gist. Being stardust is a beautiful thought, but as you point out there are darker implications.

The second worst was the sheriff's backstory.|| Terribly inappropriate moment for that. ||You just found out the island town, including your son, is being turned into vampires, and you think that's the right time to explain what brought you there? I don't even remember the point of it, if there was one.

To even this out, I did love the monologue for Monsignor Pruitt's story. Though, that may be cheating since you also see it happen and aren't just watching someone talk. And when you do, it's a very interesting shot of Father Paul in the confessional.

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