The film "Pearl Diver" was an interesting combination of Mennonite stereotypes and inside jokes. The Mennonites portrayed seemed to live more like they would have 60, 70, or even 80 years ago in a lot of respects. I think this was partially done to satisfy the image of Mennonites that most people unfamiliar with the denomination would imagine, Amish.
As for the sense of place, while many Mennonites that I know live in farm houses, very few actually work the farm. Perhaps this is just due to where I grew up, but the scenes of the bonneted children running out to their dad riding a tractor is no longer an accurate portrayal of Mennonite life. Driving with mom in an SUV to visit dad at the insurance office while listening to Disney soundtracks would be much more representative. The film also seems to show people who leave the farming community as less Mennonite than those who stay. This is a very unfair portrayal. I like to think that anabaptism is more than a aesthetic or an ethnic community. I believe that many of the people I know who best fit the Mennonite stereotypes (even if they are a bit different than the film's) embody real anabaptist values the least. I am not going to go into a lot of theology but I find the most liberal and progressive (read worldly) Mennonite churches following an ethic that best meshes with the jesus's teaching and the spirit that the church was founded in.
In terms of technology, the film seems to be saying that no one entirely accepts or rejects new technology and that there are dangers associated with both the old-fashioned and the new-fangled. Part of how the film creates a cinematographic style is by keeping the representations of technology to be simple and far between. You didn't see a whole lot of technology in this movie, which is inaccurate, but forgivable since accurate representation of modern technology is not really all that important to a film (hint: storytelling is).
But back to stereotypes, while I found a lot of the stereotypes of faithful and conflicted Mennonites a little overdone, I was also annoyed by the stereotypes of non-Mennonites (the somewhat sleazy real estate agent for one).
As for stories, I was interested in the evolution of stroytelling happening in the film. While King suggested a certain kind of story to be typical of the Mennonites in the film, I found the film to be typical of the sort of stories that Mennonites in real life are telling RIGHT NOW IN THE REAL WORLD. I think the story of people who can't live up to their spiritual ancestors and are conflicted about representing themselves to the outside world is much more typical nowadays.
In fact it seems that the role of a Mennonite writer is more to represent the group to the outside than to work through issues within the denomination. I think the typical Mennonite writer is to some degree flirting with the idea of leaving the church and pushing its boundaries.
Well, these are some thoughts I had.
Josh, I'm intrigued by your comment: "I find the most liberal and progressive (read worldly) Mennonite churches following an ethic that best meshes with the Jesus's teaching and the spirit that the church was founded in." What sorts of examples are you thinking of?
ReplyDeleteGood insight that, in spite of the plain clothing and the old-fashioned rural portrayal of Mennonites, the storytelling conflict is contemporary. What I understand you to be saying here is that real life Mennonites today have a hard time feeling that they can live up the the examples set by their (martyr?) ancestors, and that they are conflicted about whether and how much to represent themselves to outsiders.
I'd be interested in hearing more about whether this is also a conflict for your generation. To what degree are your fellow Mennonite students aware of or influenced by these stories from the Anabaptist past?
Finally, why do you think the Mennonite writer might be attracted to the "boundaries" or "edges" of the community?
The Amish are not all like that. Just most of them are. At the age of 16, for a year I believe, Amish teens are given the opportunity to “explore beyond their world.” They can drink, wear jeans, and other things that we can do. After their experience, they can decide if they want to remain with their Amish heritage, or join “our world.” As far as we know, the Mennonites that are portrayed could have been through this process and decided to incorporate both of the worlds into one. I’m just saying…
ReplyDeleteI see what you mean when you talk about the agent. It makes us seem rude or just plain mean. I wonder if I would be included in this altogether since I am not Mennonite, nor do I have a religion.
I agree with your comment about the sleazy guy selling the house. Not only did they go to the extreme in portraying Mennonites, they went to the extreme in portraying non-Mennonites too. I am reminded of when I watch a movie based on a book and afterward I end up saying "Hey! That's not how it goes in the book!" Only here I am saying "Hey! We aren't actually like that in real life!"
ReplyDeleteAnother thought: For the Mennonite community being (or trying to be) so far removed from the outside world, it seems odd that Mennonite writers seem to focus on explaining Mennonites to the outside world. It seems like they would want to keep their writing inside their community and not care how the outside world sees them.
"I like to think that anabaptism is more than a aesthetic or an ethnic community."
ReplyDeleteThere was a lot in this post that resonated with me. Even though I've been around a lot of different kinds of Mennonites and have several degrees of conservatism within my own extended family - I definitely find myself defining 'Mennonite' in that way, in terms of ethnicity or culture and pacifism, rather than having to explain to non-Mennonites why I have a car and a nose piercing, etc. When I'm on the spot - I usually compare Mennonites to Jews: each has a whole spectrum of orthodoxy/conservatism, some of each wear funny clothes, and there are sections of each who identify as Mennonite/Jewish culturally and/or ethnically without being part of a congregation/temple.
I would say Hannah definitely is that, latter, kind of Mennonite - but I'm still uneasy about how King treats this representative of the cultural/ethnic-only Mennonite. It seems like she has to pay for her...digression and Hannah's choices in the last third of the movie seem to suggest that she agrees with this. It's a pretty stern and confrontational message.