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The Native Tourist
reformed/biblical observations on Christianity and culture

Friday, October 13, 2006
Cake
...as in "let them live in cake."

This little tidbit from the NYT review of Marie Antoinette got me thinking:

No mere backdrop, Versailles, where much of “Marie Antoinette” was shot, is the film’s subject and, in some respects, its star. Like Hollywood — which it resembles in some interesting and hardly accidental particulars — Versailles is a place with an aura and a power of its own, with an almost mystical ability to warp the lives of those who, by accident or choice, come to dwell on its grounds.

If this really is the undertheme of this movie - that decadant architecture/environment leads to a decadant lifestyle - then this is a message of which we all need to be keenly aware. Our cultural environment is shaping us. Whatever we choose to rub elbows with (and we DO have choice in most things) is going to have an effect on our thinking and values and even our beliefs. Which may be a reason to skip seeing Marie Antoinette.

We at least need to think about. We must be deliberate.