Letter #173: Realism vs Reality

We Can't See What We Can't Say

Sponch.

The other day, you and your mother and I went to see the new movie, The Return. Those who wisely listen to your Young Heretics podcast can hear your full review, so I’ll be brief here. The film is about Odysseus’s return to Ithaca to reclaim his wife and kingdom after the Trojan War. In Homer’s magisterial epic The Odyssey, the story is one of struggle with the gods, personal heroism and joyful triumph. But this slow, lugubrious version was “realistic.” No gods. No joy. No triumph. Just a lot of maundering angst about wicked war and personal failure

“Why did you not come home after the war?”

“Sometimes war becomes your home…”

Place rolling eye emoji here.

But in fact, there was nothing “realistic” about this at all. The Bronze Age Odysseus would have known the gods and relished victory. And Penelope would have understood her fidelity as the feminine version of his heroism, not some restricted social role that limited her options.

I was reminded of another movie, United 93, the true story of the brave passengers on an airplane hijacked on 9/11/2001. Realizing their plane was going to be used as a weapon, these heroes revolted against the hijackers and sacrificed their lives to save those below.

In real-life, one of the heroes, Todd Beamer, relayed news of the flight to a 911 operator on the ground. Before the final revolt, Beamer prayed the Lord’s Prayer with her, then turned to his fellow heroes and said, “Are you ready? Let’s roll.” The words became an iconic battle cry for the entire nation.

But the film was not real life. It was “realistic.” So in the movie, Beamer mutters the phrase under his breath as he quivers in a spasm of nerves.

It was while watching this 2006 production that it first occurred to me: “realism” is a style that has nothing to do with reality.

In real life, great men strive with gods and wage war with courage, while great women elevate femininity to heroic heights. In “realism,” warriors are godless killers and women are “restricted” by “female roles.”

We are living in an age of “realism” and have left reality behind.

In your terrific essay, you point out that the film footage of Lily Phillips and her hundred men is quite literally visual documentation of a woman overtaken by a demonic “force vastly older, more cunning, and more powerful than her.” We cannot see it because we have learned to translate that invisible reality into “realism.” We employ pseudo-scientific psychological verbiage to erase the truth that’s right in front of our eyes. We have no words to describe what is happening and therefore can’t discuss it intelligently.

"Realism" is a language through which we have taught ourselves that we are not what we are. It is a language that has no word for “God,” so that even when we confront him, we cannot tell the world who is there.

Love,

Dad