The Pond Overfloweth
Memes, movies, and a handful of first dates
UFOs. Climate gods. A.I. and striking writers. Twitter ‘X’. Trump, DeSantis, and Hunter Biden’s bong-ripping lawyers—as we look around, everyone is shooting from the hip.
Where we’ve often swung over from books and ideas to cover trending topics—the Canadian Trucker’s Protest, the Ukraine invasion, the fall of Roe, the U of Idaho murders, Trump’s first inditement, and the rise and faceplant of Ye West—the sheer amount of bizarro worth covering is a little exhausting.
Where would we even start?
Instead, read on for some midsummer fun—memes, a first date with classic fictional characters by D.T. Adams, and a movie.
No, not Barbenheimer.
Sound of Freedom courtesy of Noah Elkins.
In case you missed it, last’s month interview with author Kate Anger is still percolating. For serious readers, serious writers, and anyone interested in threading family history into character-driven historical fiction, it’s really worth a read. As is her novel ‘The Shinnery,’ a western, coming-of-age published by Bison Books.
In the Memetime…
Our own hodgepodge, courtesy of the interweb.
Perfect if you’ve read the actual book, back in the early 2000’s. If you took Josh Harris’s book to heart, that might be why your love, and / or dating life feels like a sparse, waste land that’s perfect for a bomb test.
Or not… maybe Harris’s brand of strict courtship worked for you.
Credit wherever it’s due—and all the glory to a God who isn’t beyond using ridiculous dating books and nuclear deterrence in some of his plotlines.
Apparently, temperature record-keeping was rock solid around 118,000 B.C.
Maybe ice age solid.
Sorry—both for the grainy quality and the shameless mash-up—but we couldn’t resist. Low budget as they are, a good meme rarely lies.
Of course, if this one’s actually true, it would have to be a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-type deal.
Pretty terrifying.
Or it would be the most famous, under-everyone’s-nose case of bipolar, multiple / borderline personality disorder ever. We’re not experts. No doubt Dr. Peterson-Biden could tell us what that is while reminding us to clean our room.
*If this section made you chuckle, and if you’re on social more than your email account, see more and catch each newsletter when it comes out by following me on Twitter… that is (ahem…) ‘X’
More on that later.
One For the Road…
Thinking of Dating Your Favorite Book Character? Please Don’t.
By D.T. Adams
Dating advice is certainly stranger these days, and the unwritten rules even more cryptic. In light of people opting for romantic relationships with their pets, themselves, or AI girlfriends, here’s some solid advice right from the bookshelf.
Fall in love with your books, not their characters.
Here’s a few scenarios—each a first date with a fictional guy, or gal—to show you why:
The Underground Man, Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground
After listening to a rambling hour-and-a-half monologue on determinism, you politely excuse yourself, hoping you’ll never meet this disheveled man again.
“And now I am living out my life in my corner, taunting myself with the spiteful and utterly futile consolation that it is even impossible for an intelligent man seriously to become anything, and only fools become something.”
-Notes from the Underground
Recounting the date later to a friend, you realize he never even told you his name—or in all likelihood, asked for yours.
Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games
The evening begins pleasantly enough: she’s attractive, seems to have a good (albeit occasionally dark) sense of humor, and is kind to a few strangers you two happen to meet. Then, you mention that you were once in a competition.
Hyperbolically, you say it was, “to the death” …and you find out quickly this was a poor choice of words.
JLaw, dressed to kill. Wallpaperaccess.com Gregor Samsa, Kafka’s The Metamorphosis
The meal starts pleasantly enough. But, in the middle of it, you look down to take a bite of your dinner and, when you look up again, you’re face to face with a giant insect.
On the bright side, no need for a second date.
Mary Bennett (the dateless sister in Pride and Prejudice)
She’s nice enough, you think as your date begins. Quickly, though, you’re beginning to wonder. So far, she’s spent the evening talking about how she thinks dates are a great waste of time, full of frivolity and sensuality. Then, she goes on to discuss a sermon she’s been reading.
Riveting.
Sir John Falstaff, Britannica.com John Falstaff (the fat, boastful solider from Henry IV, parts I and II) - This was a blind date set up by your friend. Upon arrival, you’re not too sure about him, but willing to give it a shot. After he finishes another crude joke, his large belly heaving as he laughs at himself.
You start to check out, plotting your revenge against your “friend.”
Rachel Lind (the nosy neighbor in Anne of Green Gables)
After five minutes of conversation, you know the names, birthdates, religious affiliations, and personal histories of each of the residents of your town.
In another five, you have a feeling you’ll know Rachel’s opinion of all of it.
Mr. Toad from The Wind in the Willows
Upon introducing yourself—he barely seems to have heard your name—he starts asking you about your car.
“How fast can it go?”
“It really is beautiful.”
“Could I, and I hope I’m not being too forward, perhaps drive to our next destination? I do so love cars, you know.”
Fast forward: you later explain to the officer that it’s your own fault for letting someone you barely know (and in hindsight, someone with webbed, slimy hands) get behind the wheel. Thank goodness no one was hurt.
Ron Weasley from the Harry Potter Series
As he walks you home after a melancholy but enjoyable meal, someone steps out of an alley and demands your purse. Ron gallantly steps up to your defense, pulling out a wand and yelling some words you don’t quite understand.
Unfortunately, the thieves run off with your purse as Ron is left helpless, uncontrollably vomiting slugs.
Algernon, smart-alec from The Importance of Being Earnest
Early in the evening, you start to catch on. Charming as this man is, he’s a little too charming. And he keeps mentioning his sickly friend Bunbury, almost as an excuse, although you’re not sure for what.
You also begin to have a sneaking suspicion that he won’t be paying for his meal or the theater tickets.
Here on the pond, we believe that pursuing a traditional Christian marriage is the clear, and fruitful way forward.
Dating has its role in that.
With that in mind and for something a little more uplifting, here’s two fictional characters (maybe a template for someone like them) who would probably be worth the effort.
Bold, confident, submissive and tender, and with no shortage of conversation for a debate on power and civil government. This woman wows you on the first date. So much so that you get a sense that she’d probably be loyal, even to death and burial.
A man’s man if there ever was one. On your first date, he’d be able to hunt beforehand and slaughter the meat for dinner. Not only that, but you’d have no doubt about his ability to defend you against any danger, especially of the pre-civilizational, underwater kind.
As a little bonus, here’s some reading for actual, real-life marriages.
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A fantastic publication on Christian marriage and family. Perfect for those who are establishing themselves as first-generation, Christian families.
Reforming Marriage by Douglas Wilson
A tried and true marriage resource for Christians. My wife and I (D.T.) personally recommend it.
Sound of Backlash, by Noah Elkins
Expectations vs. Reality
I don’t know if anyone else is like this, but whenever someone tells me to see a movie, it makes me not want to see it. This is especially true for political or religious movies, so it was no different when I was told to watch Sound of Freedom.
In my defense, I’ve been burned before. I don’t know how many corny Christian flicks I’ve watched, or how many Dinesh D’Souza documentaries I’ve seen but I basically have the conservative movie equivalent of superhero fatigue. Sure, there’s a Nefarious or The Chosen every now and then, but they are definitely the exception, not the rule.
The controversy piqued my interest. I heard it was some kind of QAnon conspiracy film. I heard it was about some secret Illuminati ring, I heard all kinds of warnings from the media on why I shouldn’t see it — and I don’t even watch the news. The messaging was strong enough to get to me, one of the least politically plugged-in people I know, and it worked because I have a deep resistance to anything that smells like a conspiracy theory based on a YouTube video.
So I planned to see it, eventually…
The Movie Itself
I went it having not seen a trailer and only knowing that it had something to do with child trafficking. And Jim Caviezel was in it—that too.
Besides that, I was a bit wary.
The first thing I noticed is that the theater was packed. I hadn’t seen the theater in Owensboro that packed the whole time I’ve lived here. And the energy was high. Throughout the film, people were very engaged—making noise, amen-ing, and we even had a few damn right!’s.
I hadn’t seen that kind of audience involvement since the opening screening of Avengers: Endgame and this wasn’t even a premier. ‘Sound of Freedom’ had been in theaters for a couple of weeks by this point.
After the film was over, one of my friends pointed out that the plotline, aside from being a true story, was very similar to the plot of the film Taken (2008). Swap out an ex-operative Liam Neeson trying to find his daughter after she’s been kidnapped and sold into sex slavery for a federal agent (Jim Caviezel) setting his sights on saving a missing girl in Columbia, and you pretty much get the film. The protagonist, based on, and named after special agent Ted Ballard, grows weary of catching pedophiles without feeling like he’s actually saving any children.
He gets permission to try, and ends up saving a little boy. The little boy tells him about his missing sister, so he sets his sights on reuniting his sister with her brother and father.
What surprised me most was how uncontroversial the film was. There were no accusations about secret groups somewhere in the ether, no sermons, no hints, nothing. It was an utterly inoffensive film about a guy actually trying to do something good in a way that brought awareness and conversation back to what may very well be one of the worst human rights issues happening right now.
All things considered, it was pretty good.
There was literally only one cringe moment for me, and it wasn’t from a sermon or from some hackneyed plot convenience. It was the CGI on a helicopter which lasted about 2 seconds. So basically the kind of problem which I notice in almost every Hollywood film (it actually happened in a movie I watched a few days ago).
I digress.
So the film was thematically very dark, but in terms of controversial material, it was far more mild—and dare I say, tasteful—than I could have imagined.
What I felt when I left the theater wasn’t about the film at all; it was a total confusion around the messaging I had heard before seeing it.
Why were people so hell-bent on trying to keep this movie from being seen?
The Response
All the pushback seems to be that the movie is built on various QAnon conspiracies or something. Sure, there’s some overlap with that and with what Jim Caviezel said he learned about human trafficking. But so what?
If you squint hard enough and tilt your head back, you can reach a point where all human trafficking looks like a conspiracy theory.
To the issue that Jim Caviezel’s personal beliefs (or for that matter, Tom Cruise and Scientology) matter so much as to make the film unwatchable, here’s three things.
1. How about what shows up in the movie itself?
2. If the media suddenly cares about the personal lives of actors then why aren’t they telling us not to watch The Flash because of Ezra Miller? He (oh sorry, they) has a colorful, widely documented history of abuse, grooming, and messiah complex. Until the media stops with this whole double-standard thing, I don’t think anyone should care what they tell us not to watch.
3. If you’ve saved actual kids from human trafficking like Tim Ballard has, then maybe I’ll listen up. Otherwise, I don’t care so much about what people believe (or are accused of believing).
I care about what people do.
No Holds Barred…
When I left the theater, I was angry.
Not gonna lie. I was angry at every news outlet that said not to watch the film.
The reason I was angry is that anyone who tries to silence or muffle this message—the message of how important it is that we stop human trafficking and the sexualization of our kids—is probably, though unintentionally abetting something horrifying.
If that seems harsh, imagine the same thing playing out in the 1850’s in the South. Someone publishes a novel depicting the horrible treatment of slaves. Then the media tries to silence that novel because of the alleged personal opinions of the person who wrote it.
Looking back, what would we say?
So when news anchors try to silence a movie that portrays the horrors of human trafficking, how should we respond?
For one thing, stop being nice.
Use ugly words for ugly things.
Mainstream media outlets don’t own human rights language.
Don’t forget, these are the same folks who defended Cuties back in 2020. Fast forward a few years, and they’re defending dudes dressed up as women twerking in front of them.
Stop putting up with it.
However, all this pushback against the film is really positive in one way—it’s become one of the best accidental marketing techniques I’ve ever seen: controversy sells. This is something that the Left sometime forgets and that the Right is starting to learn: if you tell people not to see a film, you make them want to see it more.
Remember The Interview?
As a Final Word
Regarding the weird Illuminati sex cult conspiracy, I don’t know about all that.
But Epstein Island was a real place and we can’t all keep pretending that it wasn’t.
Meanwhile, and for its story and execution as much as its message, there’s nothing wrong with ‘Sound of Freedom.’
Watch it and see for yourself.
Coming Up
C.M. Miller charts the sharp decline of live theater around the country—and of the woke Oregon Shakespeare Festival in particular.
Just an update: I've now seen Oppenheimer.
Suffice it to to say, he doesn't kiss dating goodbye : )