Taking things too far...
A translation too far...
A "pictorial translation" of The Bible in Lego has been published on the Internet. Although it's all very cute and funny, it takes itself quite seriously and (not surprisingly) strays into the kinds of inaccuracy that cause the things of God to fall into disrepute.
For example, Jephthah is described as killing his daughter when to give someone as a burnt offering, in Biblical culture, meant to be dedicated to service in the temple (Romans 12 speaks of living sacrifices, not dead ones). Also, Judges 11:40 goes on to say she was visited (King James says 'lamented') for four days each year. It's pretty hard to visit someone that's dead.
Samson gets a raw deal in the Lego Bible, apparently he's a mass murderer. I guess that saying is true after all, one man's freedom fighter is another man's mass murderer/terrorist.
The Lego Bible is political correctness gone mad...
3 comments:
Not quite sure whether your beef is with the Lego guys getting it wrong, or the Lego idea itself.
Portraiting the figurative as literal erks me too. (Especially when I do it...) The Jephthah record is a good example. But they are not the first illustrators to make an error.
How is this 'political correctness'? Do you mean by condemning Samson for the battles he won?
The Lego guys seem to enjoy the incongruity of depicting their brutal take on these records with children's toys (i.e. the Lego). They've picked out the most graphic records (reasonable for a visual medium) and they've used the most abrupt and violent language ('mass murder' for 'killing an oppressing force'). This approach has them rushing to the kind of errors you describe. In that, it is an interpretation, rather than a translation.
So they got a lot of things wrong. Is that what concerns you? Or is the Lego somehow a problem?
I strongly recommend the film of Samson and Delilah Starring Liz Hurley as Delilah.
Ah, Liz, Liz.
The good thing about using Lego is you can remove their heads, arms, legs etc. as required.
But for some reason they STILL keep smiling.
Go figure.
Hey... I think the Lego is cool, very cute and catch, although Samson looks a bit too evil and Jesus looks like a Jedi from "Star Wars Lego"
http://starwars.lego.com/en-US/default.aspx
It's political correctness gone mad in that destroying an unbelieving nation that was out to kill off the Christ line is described as "genocide" while Samson fighting for spiritual freedom is called "mass murder." By that token, Churchill and Roosevelt would be mass murderers as well.
A very jaded perspective... The victors write the history and the Lego guys rewrite the Bible...
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