{"id":87,"date":"2011-11-12T16:58:00","date_gmt":"2011-11-12T06:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pbw.id.au\/blog\/uncategorized\/close-encounters\/"},"modified":"2018-05-22T21:55:27","modified_gmt":"2018-05-22T11:55:27","slug":"close-encounters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pbw.id.au\/blog\/2011\/11\/close-encounters\/","title":{"rendered":"Close Encounters"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Close Encounters of the Third Kind<\/i> was released in 1977, and was a blockbuster success for Steven Spielberg. Here’s a\u00a0thumbnail sketch of the plot.<\/div>\n
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A team of investigators find, intact in the Gobi Desert, a flight of Navy planes which disappeared in the 1940’s, and\u00a0interview a witness to the re-appearance of the planes. This team will re-surface throughout the film, making similar\u00a0startling discoveries, and conducting similar interviews. They provide an underpinning of respectable reality for the\u00a0events we are about to witness.<\/div>\n

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Three year old Barry Guiler is woken when his electrical and electronic toys turn themselves on in the middle of the\u00a0night. He wanders outside, and his mother Jillian has to go out to find him. Not far away, Roy Neary, a linesman\u00a0investigating power outages, has a similarly electrical close encounter when his car stalls at a railway crossing.<\/div>\n
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The effect on Roy Neary’s life of his first encounter is profound. He becomes obsessed with the image of a mountain,\u00a0and this obsession intrudes into his everyday life in ways he cannot control. While eating dinner with his family, he\u00a0begins to play with his mashed potato; at first in the desultory way of children with no interest in their food, then\u00a0with a growing fascination, as he begins to shape the mash into the form of the image that haunts him. As his attention\u00a0disappears into the task of re-creating this shape, his family exchange anxious glances around the table. His wife\u00a0packs up the kids and leaves, but Roy hardly notices. He is soon in the yard of his suburban home\u2014with a hose, a\u00a0shovel, chicken wire and piles of dirt\u2014creating a larger model of his mountain. It is, of course, the mountain where\u00a0the space-ship will land, but Roy does not even know that such a mountain exists, until he sees a news item about a\u00a0chemical spill. There on the TV screen is his mountain. He sets out on his pilgrimage.<\/div>\n
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In his semi-rural home, young Barry, who seems also to have been deeply affected by his earlier encounter, is drawn out\u00a0of his home by another appearance of strange lights in the night. This time he disappears. Gillian begins a pilgrimage\u00a0of her own. The dramatic climax of the movie unites Roy, Gillian, Barry, the investigators, the missing pilots and the\u00a0musical aliens, before Roy goes off with the space-ship.<\/div>\n
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This movie was a dramaturgical tour-de-force, carrying audiences into the little world it created over a couple of\u00a0hours. Disbelief was enthusiastically suspended. Spielberg was able to build on the widespread interest in conspiracy\u00a0theories about space visitors. He was able to employ the full force of the developing industrial light and magic that\u00a0has become more and more central to movie-making ever since. Those are not enough, on their own, to grip an audience.\u00a0The story must create and maintain plausibility. You may question whether any story about an alien space-ship making\u00a0contact with earthlings can be called plausible. Nonetheless, without plausibility, any drama will collapse. Exactly\u00a0how any fictional work creates this environment has been a discussed for millennia, but a critical common component for\u00a0narrative works is that they ring true motivationally and psychologically. It is in this domain that Close Encounters<\/i>\u00a0retains its appeal.<\/div>\n
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The release of an extended version of the movie with extra scenes within the alien ship indicated where the appeal lay\u00a0for many viewers. However, the virtue and value of the film lies not in the special effects but in the study of\u00a0Roy’s obsession. We see this obsession from the inside. We are with Roy when he has his first encounter; we understand\u00a0the power of the experience. As his behaviour becomes more erratic, its necessity carries us along with it. There is no\u00a0choice, we understand, and while we also understand the uncomprehending response of those who have not seen, we know\u00a0that they are wrong, for we also are initiates, having shared the moment with Roy.<\/div>\n
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This is a complete inversion of our normal understanding of behaviour. Consider the question from the point of view of\u00a0Roy’s family and friends. Roy comes home claiming to have seen, not some strange light in the sky, but a whole\u00a0procession of UFOs running along at road level, pursued by police cars; and that just for starters. That at least is a\u00a0concrete incident. But as well as these strange (and unsubstantiated) tales, Roy has started to behave in a manner that\u00a0is, frankly, schizoid. What would you think?<\/div>\n
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In the long run, whether Roy is vindicated or convicted depends upon the underlying reality. If the events Roy relates\u00a0did actually happen, then he has encountered the Other, limitlessly powerful, glorious and awe-inspiring, and such an\u00a0encounter will, of course, alter forever the human lives it touches. If these events did not actually occur, then Roy\u00a0has gone insane, for reasons which may never be understood, and he must be treated as a person of whom rational\u00a0behaviour can no longer be expected. The question is moot in this case: we know this story is made up, and we do not\u00a0have to closely examine our responses while we slip into the world of the movie. There are cases where these\u00a0comfortable conditions do not apply.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived; thou art stronger than I, and thou hast prevailed. I have become a\u00a0laughingstock all the day; every one mocks me. For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, “Violence and destruction!”\u00a0For the word of the LORD has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. If I say, “I will not mention him, or\u00a0speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with\u00a0holding it in, and I cannot.<\/i><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
It’s Jeremiah, Chapter 20, 7-9, and it’s one of a number of similar passages recorded for the prophet by his scribe,\u00a0Baruch. What are we to make of Jeremiah? He, too, has had an encounter with the Other, limitlessly powerful, glorious\u00a0and awe-inspiring. No flying hardware, no flashing lights, as far as we know. Instead, just the word of the LORD.\u00a0Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah…to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah…in the thirteenth year of his\u00a0reign. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim…until the eleventh year of Zedekiah…<\/i> (2-3). Is this a fictional story;\u00a0or is Jeremiah suffering from schizophrenia; or is this a account of events that actually occurred?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
If the story is a fiction, it was constructed after the fact, and the “prophecies” of Jeremiah are, not to put too fine\u00a0a point on it, lies. That doesn’t reflect well on the writer; but it does avoid the problem of the fulfilment of\u00a0Jeremiah’s prophecies. The “problem” is this: for anyone who adopts an a priori position that all miracle stories are\u00a0legendary\u2014and intimations of future events surely qualify as miraculous\u2014another explanation must be found.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
There is another way around this difficulty that does not require such a blanket rejection of the validity of the book.\u00a0Enlightened moderns can develop a more medically sound analysis that allows honesty and integrity to the prophet, while\u00a0still denying any supernatural content. The “prophet” is in the grip of a psychosis, and goes around Jerusalem\u00a0articulating his delusions. In the course of this, he stumbles upon insight into the fate of Judah and Israel, much as\u00a0some of the many pundits who make a career of predicting political and economic futures might, with a little insight\u00a0and a lot of luck, stumble on accurate forecasts of events over the course of the next year or two. Think of the row of\u00a0“prophets” peddling their various visions along the street in “Life of Brian,” and you will get my drift. From the\u00a0vantage point of 21st century psychology and psychiatry, our contemporaries can diagnose Jeremiah’s condition at a\u00a0remove of twenty-seven centuries on the basis of two books that have come down to us. While such a diagnosis is of no\u00a0relevance to Jeremiah, it is a spiritual anaesthetic for those who offer it.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Alternatively, one can continue to read Jeremiah as he has been read for the past twenty-seven centuries: as a true\u00a0account of the life and times of one of the prophets, telling a vital part of the story of God’s self-revelation to\u00a0fallen humanity through his chosen people.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Whichever reading you choose will colour, and be coloured by, your understanding of God, of Christ, and of the Church\u00a0through the millennia.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Close Encounters of the Third Kind was released in 1977, and was a blockbuster success for Steven Spielberg. Here’s a\u00a0thumbnail sketch of the plot. A team of investigators find, intact in the Gobi Desert, a flight of Navy planes which disappeared in the 1940’s, and\u00a0interview a witness to the re-appearance of the planes. This … Continue reading “Close Encounters”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-culture"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8SCfl-1p","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":855,"url":"https:\/\/pbw.id.au\/blog\/2020\/03\/the-burden-of-proof-and-the-pell-case\/","url_meta":{"origin":87,"position":0},"title":"The Burden of Proof and the Pell Case","author":"admin","date":"Sat 7th Mar '20","format":false,"excerpt":"[Originally published by Quadrant Online on 30th December 2019. Published in Quadrant Magazine March 2020.] The conviction of the guilty is just; it is the unremarkable business of a just criminal jurisprudence; but the conviction of the innocent strikes at the heart of Justice. If it happens through error or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/pbw.id.au\/blog\/category\/belief\/faith\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":98,"url":"https:\/\/pbw.id.au\/blog\/2008\/01\/prickly-pear\/","url_meta":{"origin":87,"position":1},"title":"Prickly pear","author":"pbw","date":"Wed 16th Jan '08","format":false,"excerpt":"I recall seeing, on a trip to Rockhampton in about 1975, some stands of cactus that I took to be prickly pear. I was surprised to see it, as I had heard the story of the rampant infestation and the eventual control through Cactoblastis, so I thought it had been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Observations"","block_context":{"text":"Observations","link":"https:\/\/pbw.id.au\/blog\/category\/personal\/observations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":116,"url":"https:\/\/pbw.id.au\/blog\/2007\/10\/heart-failure\/","url_meta":{"origin":87,"position":2},"title":"Heart failure","author":"pbw","date":"Sat 6th Oct '07","format":false,"excerpt":"I got a call from the counselling service of the John Tonge Centre yesterday. The autopsy report had finally been delivered. Congestive heart failure due to cardiac amyloidosis. There was no trauma to the brain. Jen's hunch had been correct. Dad's death was coincidental to the fall. In fact, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family"","block_context":{"text":"Family","link":"https:\/\/pbw.id.au\/blog\/category\/personal\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1202,"url":"https:\/\/pbw.id.au\/blog\/2024\/01\/priorities\/","url_meta":{"origin":87,"position":3},"title":"Priorities","author":"Me","date":"Wed 31st Jan '24","format":false,"excerpt":"First published on NewCatallaxy.blog on 26th January, 2024 For most of 2022, and until the great counter-offensive broke on the Russian defence lines of Zaporozhzhia on mid-2023, it seemed that the greatest priority of the Biden administration, and most of Congress, was promoting and resourcing Ukraine\u2019s proxy war against Russia.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Gaza"","block_context":{"text":"Gaza","link":"https:\/\/pbw.id.au\/blog\/category\/geopolitics\/gaza\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":926,"url":"https:\/\/pbw.id.au\/blog\/2020\/10\/who-won\/","url_meta":{"origin":87,"position":4},"title":"Who won?","author":"admin","date":"Mon 26th Oct '20","format":false,"excerpt":"On the morning of April 7, national television relayed the announcement of my verdict from the High Court. I watched in my cell on Channel 7 as a surprised young reporter informed Australia of my acquittal and became still more perplexed by the unanimity of the seven justices. That is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/pbw.id.au\/blog\/category\/belief\/faith\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":118,"url":"https:\/\/pbw.id.au\/blog\/2007\/10\/dad-died\/","url_meta":{"origin":87,"position":5},"title":"Dad died.","author":"pbw","date":"Sat 6th Oct '07","format":false,"excerpt":"Dad died on Tuesday the 22nd of May. He had a fall in the nursing home, where he was under house arrest due to his dementia, or, to be more precise, his inability to remember short to medium term events. 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