electronicalifornia

Tim Burton did an interview this week with the film website Coming Soon. He spoke about his latest project Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which he was filming at the same time as Corpse Bride. Here is an excerpt:

CS!: What would you like audiences to take away from this film?
Burton: What was good about [Dahl's] writing was that he laid his messages in there, and in a weird way, it’s kind of a spiritual journey. Charlie is the toughest character, because it’s the simplest. All the other bad kids get their just desserts, so to speak, and the purity and simplicity floats to the top, and to me, at least in my life, what you want to do is try to reach a place where you can find that simple purity in a perverted world.

It’s funny how the word “simple minded” has become a curse. Complexity is praised in our society and sadly mistaken for depth. It’s this superiority that enslaved the africans and killed off all the native americans. This same ego lies today in the educated elite. Their creeds go something like this: Being a stay at home mother is simple-minded. Believing in absolutes is simple-minded. Family values are simple-minded. The truth is that it takes so much more depth of character to live a “simple” life in this world than anything else. Why is it that not having sex with every plausible mate you see is simple-minded moralism, when choosing to abstain is so much more complex. Lets play pretend:

Professor (Spoken in a highly intelligent tone): But, what you dont get Jesse is that it is natural for us to engage in this activity. You must expand your mind to be able to think about sexual intercourse in this way. Christian Morality is ingnorant, simple mindedness.

Jesse(Spoken in same tone): You’re right Dr. Bull@#%$ and if we were lions I would kill your wife and your children and take your place as the man in your household, but I’m not doing that am I?

Don’t let this type of thinking trick you for a second that what is “natural” is right and that this thinking even supports what is natural. The same person might say “sex is natural” but would fight for the right to abortion, which is incidentally, completely unnatural. (There are some animals that are “believed” to prevent pregnancy in their young by beating them up, so they can’t carry a child which will translate into more mouths to feed in the winter months. Wether they actually do this, is uknown.) In any case, what is “natural” is not always what is right. Killing is natural, but it is the side effects of a fallen and in the words of Mr. Burton, perverted world. Mankind can rise above the simple-minded thought of animal instinct and live in nature the way it was created to be. That doesnt mean stop shaving your legs or wearing deoderant. It means we must get in touch with something greater than nature, something supernatural.