The subversive cucumber
Apr. 8th, 2006 11:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dtmSomething Katherine has gotten into lately, with the intensity that only a small child can, is VeggieTales, the series of Christian-themed computer-animation videos starring vegetables produced by a small animation studio outside Chicago. She'll sometimes wake up saying "go watch VeggieTales", and has to be convinced that it would be good to eat breakfast first. (This morning, she did wake up saying "I'm hungry", but by the time we got downstairs she was clamoring for VeggieTales)
We've caught her singing "VeggieTales, VeggieTales, VeggieTales" to herself and even once heard "Cebú... cebú..." over the baby monitor as she was getting to sleep. (If you're not familiar with the series, just trust me that there's a song with that in it)
Jennifer and I have been fans of VeggieTales for a while, and in fact have a complete collection (well, we're missing one of the four non-CGI tapes) that we started sometime in 2001.
Anyway, as should not be too surprising, I've been watching lots of Veggie Tales with Katherine lately and have been thinking about it more than usual.
The theology presented in Veggie Tales is understandably very simple and uncomplicated - these videos are targeted at young children, after all, and it really would be quite a rare talent that could create allegories that work on multiple levels in each video. It is unapolegitcally Christian in its world view, in that the idea of someone not believing in God and the Christian Bible is not even a possibility. (with one notable exception I'll get to in a moment) The view of the Bible as accurate history is simply assumed without comment, though they've never dealt explicitly with the first chapter of Genesis. (Beyond the closing tag of "God made you special, and he loves you very much") Also, the morality is generally constructed in terms of "do such-and-so because God says so", rather than "do such-and-so because it fits into a desireable ethical framework." Again, remember that the videos are aimed at children, so arguably the conventional moral reasoning actually represents a step forward in a child's moral development.
That said, I think VeggieTales does a tolerably good job of presenting Christianity in its "it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven" form. One of the earliest tapes they did presents the story of the Good Samaritan as a very Dr. Seuss-ish story, and does a good job. The tape we're currently watching, "Madame Blueberry", which is labeled as "A lesson in Thankfulness" is about as anti-materialistic as possible; the bad guys there are a bunch of salesmen from the mega store that's just moved in (named "Stuff Mart", the interior of which looks like the inside of a Sam's Club). One of the most recent tapes ("The Lord of the Beans") is a retelling of "Lord of the Rings" in which the protagonist is attempting to determine what the gifts he has been given are for, the conclusion being that gifts are to be used to help people. Again, not really weighty issues, but good.
When Veggie Tales did their full-length movie a few years ago on story of Jonah, they didn't stop after Jonah had delivered his message to the Ninnevites and make it a story of Obedience, as they certainly could have. Instead, they continued through to the end, and the harsh upbraiding that Jonah gets after failing to show the same mercy he was extended. And, just in case you missed the point, the frame story (the story of Jonah was being told as a story to teach some young children about compassion and mercy) then launched into a musical number including the lyrics "Jonah was a prophet (ooh ooh) but he really never got it (sad but true)".
There's actually little explicit Christianity in most videos, as opposed to general Judeo-Christian theism. The most obvious exception to this is "An Easter Carol" in which a 19th century industrialist learns the (Christian) meaning of Easter. Also, in the video "Duke and the Great Pie War" they tell the story of St. Patrick, and this is the bit I mentioned earlier.
In case you're not familiar with the series, most videos are set within a frame of Bob (the tomato) and Larry (the cucumber) doing a show for the kids, saying something like "we got a letter today from Carl D. of Bismark, North Dakota. He writes ... (some problem) ... Well Carl, here's a story for you" - at this point it switches to the main story. Sometimes there are two or more stories within a video, and usually there's a break in the middle for "Silly Songs with Larry - the part of the show where Larry comes out and sings a silly song".
Anyway, about the St. Patrick story. This is the only bit of Veggie Tales that has made me seriously annoyed at the conservative Christian roots of some of the Veggie Tales authors, to the point where I'm going to fast-forward through bits of this when Katherine watches it. They tell the story of St. Patrick through a device they call "Lufti's Fanciful Flannelgraph", which means they actually use people as characters, instead of vegetables. And in talking about St. Patrick, I understand that you need to talk about him converting the Irish. As such, you do need to present a representation of the previous religion in Ireland, and of the people turning from that to Christianity. However, they go far beyond what is necessary, and make Paganism into a religion of clowns (not literally, but they do present pagans as worshipping twigs and pond scum, and saying things like "oh great twig, you are so mighty and twig like", and "oh great pond scum, you are so mighty and ... uh ... scum like"). That's just mean spirited, and uncalled for.
Yet really, that one segment is not enough to make me abandon Veggie Tales, and one of the big reasons is the "Silly Songs With Larry", the short minute or two long segments that they often put in the middle of the story. These are, as you might expect, generally just silly without any further point. ("I love my Lips!") However, a few recent songs have taken whitebread suburbia as their target: "Sports Utility Vehicle" in the video "A Snoodle's Tale" (which is easily my favorite Veggie Tales video, about self esteem) and "Gated Community" in the most recent video, "Sheerluck Holmes". (You can see a sample of the second of those by fast-forwarding to about 3/4 of the way through this trailer which gives the feel of the song very well, even if you do have to wait a while for it to download and only get 5 or 10 seconds of the silly song)
Also, the Veggie Tales creators clearly have a sense of humor mostly aligned with mine. Among other things, they're clearly Monty Python fans: Phil Vischer (the CEO) has said that Archibald Asparagus, the veggie tapped to portray Jonah, was modeled John Cleese. When they needed to create characters to stare over the walls of Jericho and taunt the Isrealites marching around the city, of course they gave the characters on the wall ridiculous French accents. Also, the guards Jonah encounters at the gates of Nineveh are clearly creations of someone who spent many hours watch Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Sometime I should put together a bunch of capsule summaries/short reviews of all the tapes. After all, if I'm going to be watching them with Katherine I should probably verbalize my impressions of everything in the series.
And now I know why I don't update livejournal more often - writing this comment took me all the way through "Madame Blueberry", "The Toy that Saved Christmas" and at least 20 minutes of non-TV time.
We've caught her singing "VeggieTales, VeggieTales, VeggieTales" to herself and even once heard "Cebú... cebú..." over the baby monitor as she was getting to sleep. (If you're not familiar with the series, just trust me that there's a song with that in it)
Jennifer and I have been fans of VeggieTales for a while, and in fact have a complete collection (well, we're missing one of the four non-CGI tapes) that we started sometime in 2001.
Anyway, as should not be too surprising, I've been watching lots of Veggie Tales with Katherine lately and have been thinking about it more than usual.
The theology presented in Veggie Tales is understandably very simple and uncomplicated - these videos are targeted at young children, after all, and it really would be quite a rare talent that could create allegories that work on multiple levels in each video. It is unapolegitcally Christian in its world view, in that the idea of someone not believing in God and the Christian Bible is not even a possibility. (with one notable exception I'll get to in a moment) The view of the Bible as accurate history is simply assumed without comment, though they've never dealt explicitly with the first chapter of Genesis. (Beyond the closing tag of "God made you special, and he loves you very much") Also, the morality is generally constructed in terms of "do such-and-so because God says so", rather than "do such-and-so because it fits into a desireable ethical framework." Again, remember that the videos are aimed at children, so arguably the conventional moral reasoning actually represents a step forward in a child's moral development.
That said, I think VeggieTales does a tolerably good job of presenting Christianity in its "it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven" form. One of the earliest tapes they did presents the story of the Good Samaritan as a very Dr. Seuss-ish story, and does a good job. The tape we're currently watching, "Madame Blueberry", which is labeled as "A lesson in Thankfulness" is about as anti-materialistic as possible; the bad guys there are a bunch of salesmen from the mega store that's just moved in (named "Stuff Mart", the interior of which looks like the inside of a Sam's Club). One of the most recent tapes ("The Lord of the Beans") is a retelling of "Lord of the Rings" in which the protagonist is attempting to determine what the gifts he has been given are for, the conclusion being that gifts are to be used to help people. Again, not really weighty issues, but good.
When Veggie Tales did their full-length movie a few years ago on story of Jonah, they didn't stop after Jonah had delivered his message to the Ninnevites and make it a story of Obedience, as they certainly could have. Instead, they continued through to the end, and the harsh upbraiding that Jonah gets after failing to show the same mercy he was extended. And, just in case you missed the point, the frame story (the story of Jonah was being told as a story to teach some young children about compassion and mercy) then launched into a musical number including the lyrics "Jonah was a prophet (ooh ooh) but he really never got it (sad but true)".
There's actually little explicit Christianity in most videos, as opposed to general Judeo-Christian theism. The most obvious exception to this is "An Easter Carol" in which a 19th century industrialist learns the (Christian) meaning of Easter. Also, in the video "Duke and the Great Pie War" they tell the story of St. Patrick, and this is the bit I mentioned earlier.
In case you're not familiar with the series, most videos are set within a frame of Bob (the tomato) and Larry (the cucumber) doing a show for the kids, saying something like "we got a letter today from Carl D. of Bismark, North Dakota. He writes ... (some problem) ... Well Carl, here's a story for you" - at this point it switches to the main story. Sometimes there are two or more stories within a video, and usually there's a break in the middle for "Silly Songs with Larry - the part of the show where Larry comes out and sings a silly song".
Anyway, about the St. Patrick story. This is the only bit of Veggie Tales that has made me seriously annoyed at the conservative Christian roots of some of the Veggie Tales authors, to the point where I'm going to fast-forward through bits of this when Katherine watches it. They tell the story of St. Patrick through a device they call "Lufti's Fanciful Flannelgraph", which means they actually use people as characters, instead of vegetables. And in talking about St. Patrick, I understand that you need to talk about him converting the Irish. As such, you do need to present a representation of the previous religion in Ireland, and of the people turning from that to Christianity. However, they go far beyond what is necessary, and make Paganism into a religion of clowns (not literally, but they do present pagans as worshipping twigs and pond scum, and saying things like "oh great twig, you are so mighty and twig like", and "oh great pond scum, you are so mighty and ... uh ... scum like"). That's just mean spirited, and uncalled for.
Yet really, that one segment is not enough to make me abandon Veggie Tales, and one of the big reasons is the "Silly Songs With Larry", the short minute or two long segments that they often put in the middle of the story. These are, as you might expect, generally just silly without any further point. ("I love my Lips!") However, a few recent songs have taken whitebread suburbia as their target: "Sports Utility Vehicle" in the video "A Snoodle's Tale" (which is easily my favorite Veggie Tales video, about self esteem) and "Gated Community" in the most recent video, "Sheerluck Holmes". (You can see a sample of the second of those by fast-forwarding to about 3/4 of the way through this trailer which gives the feel of the song very well, even if you do have to wait a while for it to download and only get 5 or 10 seconds of the silly song)
Also, the Veggie Tales creators clearly have a sense of humor mostly aligned with mine. Among other things, they're clearly Monty Python fans: Phil Vischer (the CEO) has said that Archibald Asparagus, the veggie tapped to portray Jonah, was modeled John Cleese. When they needed to create characters to stare over the walls of Jericho and taunt the Isrealites marching around the city, of course they gave the characters on the wall ridiculous French accents. Also, the guards Jonah encounters at the gates of Nineveh are clearly creations of someone who spent many hours watch Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Sometime I should put together a bunch of capsule summaries/short reviews of all the tapes. After all, if I'm going to be watching them with Katherine I should probably verbalize my impressions of everything in the series.
And now I know why I don't update livejournal more often - writing this comment took me all the way through "Madame Blueberry", "The Toy that Saved Christmas" and at least 20 minutes of non-TV time.
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Date: 2006-04-10 06:55 pm (UTC)actually from Nathanael
Date: 2006-07-07 06:45 am (UTC)The trouble lies in his classification of a rigid ordering. I quite definitely never went through either of his "conventional" stages, but I'm also quite certainly not in a "egocentric" pre-conventional stage.
I strongly doubt that conventional morality *is* definitively progress, since I clearly skipped it.
I think he's described accurately what happens to people who are brought up and educated in a particular fashion. I was brought up in... an unusual fashion. Nonconformism was strongly encouraged by everyone I knew; and since I was personally inclined to it anyway, it came easily. (I suspect that my nonconformism often frustrated the people who were teaching me not to conform.... eventually my Mom started to try to teach me the values of conforming, but it really didn't take that well.)
In Kohlberg's highly suspect classification, the best approximation is that I jumped straight from stage one to stage five. Turiel's criticism, noting that personal, social-conventional, and moral analysis develop independently and simultaneously, appears to be correct. Only for me the awareness of the social-conventional developed late.
My extreme suspicion of VeggieTales no doubt stems from this upbringing. :-) Promoting blind obedience (even to God) seems highly suspicious, because that's what everyone else's parents did, and what my parents didn't, and I know my parents were better.... But on the other hand such a message may be appropriate for people with a less stridently individualistic personality; who knows.