Film Friday The baseball playoffs, which concluded with a San Francisco win over the Texas Rangers this past week, have had me thinking about the Faustus story and how many modern renditions of the story get it wrong. If this seems like a leap, let me explain. The Texas Rangers used to be the Washington […]
Tag Archives: Doctor Faustus
Films that Mishandle the Faustus Story
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Christopher Marlowe, Cold Souls, Damn Yankees, Devil's Advocate, Film Comments closed
Mix and Match: Mysticism American Style
There was an interesting Lenten column in the New York Times Monday. Ross Douthat, a conservative in the best sense, draws on a Commonweal article by theologian Luke Timothy Johnson criticizing contemporary spiritual practice in this country. From the way Douthat quotes him, it sounds as though Johnson might take exception with my criticism of harsh […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Boom!", Christopher Marlowe, Howard Nemerov, Lent, Religion Comments closed
Sinning: A Tacky Floor Show
There’s a funny scene in the original Bedazzled (the 1967 film with Dudley Moore, not the one with Adam Sandler) where Moore, having sold his soul to the devil, is watching a particularly tawdry floor show in a seedy bar where he can’t get good service. As I recall the film, the seven deadly sins […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 7 Deadly Sins, Christopher Marlowe, Religion, Sin Comments closed
On Lent, Faustus, and the 7 Deadly Sins
Dr. Faustus, Rembrandt etching Here we are in the midst of Lent with less than a month to go until Easter. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight describes the season as follows: After Christmas there came the cold cheer of Lent, When with fish and plainer fare our flesh we reprove . . . The […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 7 Deadly Sins, Christianity, Christopher Marlowe, Lent, Religion, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Comments closed
Trusting that Good Can Come from Ill
Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus What have I learned about literature and pain this past week? First, that writers have taken up the topic, just as they take up every aspect of human existence. They imagine what it is like to feel pain and, through poetic images and fictional stories, convey that experience to readers. By entering […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Alfred Lord Tennyson, Christopher Marlowe, death of a child, Death of Ivan Ilych, Heart of Darkness, In Memoriam, John Milton, Joseph Conrad, Leo Tolstoy, Name of the Rose, Pain, Paradise Lost, Rachel Kranz, Suffering, Umberto Eco Comments closed
