Wake Up, Look Up

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hello everyone thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach

wrock and in today's episode we're

asking do apologies kill art this is

prompted by something that's happened in

the news recently when celebrity chef uh

Jamie Oliver who just released a new

children's book a followup to the first

book that he released which was a Smash

Hit only to eventually have his

publisher reclaim it uh let me give you

a little bit of the background uh Jamie

Oliver's book is about Billy and the

Epic Escape that's the title it it's

about a among other things a villain who

kidnaps a girl in Australia leading to

uh an adventure to recover her it's also

a book full of magic because it exists

in kind of a fantasy land mixed with our

real world it's a children's book there

are bad guys and magic and heroes and

battles and all that kind of stuff it's

it's Fiction it's fantasy it's fun only

not according to some people in

Australia that's because some people

have taken real offense to the book they

argue that because apparently in

Australia's history some indigenous

children were taken from their homes

that therefore Jaimie Oliver's work

makes light of that they also argue that

because in the book there are there's

magic that he's somehow making a

connection between Magic and the

religion of indigenous people in

Australia therefore belittling their

worldview mocking them and just being

derogatory and if you're having trouble

following along it's not the it's not

you it's the story that's because Jamie

Oliver's book is a children's book it's

fantasy

it involves magic it involves bad guys

obvious bad guys kidnapping children it

doesn't have anything to do with the

history of Australia it takes place in

Australia it could have taken place in

Virginia doesn't matter for the book and

magic isn't belittling any religion it's

absurd it is ridiculous in fact it's

even more ridiculous because the

publisher of the book is now recalling

the book saying that they messed up that

they should have had someone from the

indigenous peoples of Australia read the

book and approve it before it went out

listen it's art art that isn't even

trying to represent reality that's like

saying that people shouldn't read Peter

Pan because some kids really do run away

from home or that people shouldn't watch

Mary Poppins because some people have

had negative experiences with their

babysitters it would be one thing if

jimie Oliver's book was an attempt to

rewrite the history of Australia if it

was is making the actual bad guys into

good guys and vice versa but it's a

fantasy book about magic listen there's

a proverb that I love from The Book of

Proverbs in the Bible that it says that

whoever Strays from Common Sense ends up

living in the company of the Dead I love

that quote it's got great sticker appeal

but even more so do you know what

doesn't exist in the company of the Dead

art literature and that's what the the

quote is saying is that what when you

talk about leaving reality you end up in

a world where no one can actually do or

say anything until it's approved by the

people out there who are offended by

anything listen we have to start pushing

back against the nonsense of alleging

that any artistic representation that

coincides with any kind of reality is in

somehow demeaning people listen not only

is that absurd it actually makes little

of the things that do demean people it

it blurs the argument if everything is

made to be demeaning then the stuff that

is actually demeaning doesn't actually

get the attention that it should get

negatively and pushing back against the

reality is that I wish Jamie Oliver

didn't apologize for his book I wish his

publisher didn't recall it I wish they

would have told the people complaining

to grow up to stop making absurdest

arguments that that conflict a reality

and fantasy I wish they would say that

they should stop distracting people from

the actual problems of the world that's

because art should not apologize for

being art fantasy is fantasy fiction is

fiction I can't believe I even have to

say that hey thanks so much for watching

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