{"id":251,"date":"2004-08-25T01:22:00","date_gmt":"2004-08-25T01:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=251"},"modified":"2004-08-25T01:22:00","modified_gmt":"2004-08-25T01:22:00","slug":"251","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=251","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost pagan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thanks to Nick Freeman<\/a>, whose paper, “The Shrineless God: Paganism, Literature, and Art in Forties England,” will appear in the next issue of The Pomegranate<\/em><\/a>, I have been watching and reading some classics of literary, if not self-consciously religious, small-p paganism.<\/p>\n

One was the film A Canterbury Tale<\/em><\/a>, made during World War II by the writing-directing team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (a Hungarian refugee in England).<\/p>\n

One appreciation of the film<\/a> includes this comment: “Strange and poetic, A Canterbury Tale<\/em> combined Christian metaphysics with a celebration of England’s rural past that at times seemed almost pagan.”<\/p>\n

Powell and Pressburger also made The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp<\/em><\/a>, which Winston Churchill allegedly hated, about an honorable but intellectually hidebound British officer.<\/p>\n

M. and I also enjoyed the Foyle’s War<\/em><\/a> series, set on the south coast of England early in World War II. I am starting to think that its writers mined the Powell-Pressburger vein–not for plots, but for plot elements. Just so far I have noticed these in episodes of Foyle’s War<\/em>:<\/p>\n

1. A band of small boys collecting scrap paper for the war effort find a document that aids the protagonist (A Canterbury Tale<\/em>.<\/p>\n

2. An aging Army officer, now reduced to serving in the Home Guard, who is outwitted in a war game by a less scrupulous younger counterpart (Colonel Blimp<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Most of Powell and Pressburger’s films are available as mail-order rentals through Video Library<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost pagan Thanks to Nick Freeman, whose paper, “The Shrineless God: Paganism, Literature, and Art in Forties England,” will appear in the next issue of The Pomegranate, I have been watching and reading some classics of literary, if not self-consciously religious, small-p paganism. One was the film A Canterbury Tale, made during World War II […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6xQTg-251","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13362,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13362","url_meta":{"origin":251,"position":0},"title":"Yet It’s Not October: Paganism in the News (Part 1)","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 5, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I have been seeing a flush of Pagan-related articles in Anglosphere news media lately, so many that it feels like October, which is usually the only time we are noticed.((Possibly with a smaller peak around Yule.)) One reason may be upcoming coronation of King Charles III.((I might as well say\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Britain\"","block_context":{"text":"Britain","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=britain"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/critic-cover.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5670,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5670","url_meta":{"origin":251,"position":1},"title":"Is the Church of England Desperate or Just Confused about Paganism?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"With the obvious news peg of summer solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, the Telegraph reports on a rather odd initiative from the Church of England. The article begins, The church is training ministers to create \u201ca pagan church where Christianity [is] very much in the centre\u201d to attract spiritual believers. Ministers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":798,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=798","url_meta":{"origin":251,"position":2},"title":"New Pomegranate Contents","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In the rush of travel and then preparing for the spring semester, I forgot to post the contents of the latest issue of The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies (Volume 8, no. 2, Nov. 2006).So here is what's happening in Pagan Studies:\"Santeria Sacrificial Rituals: A Reconsideration of Religious\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4562,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4562","url_meta":{"origin":251,"position":3},"title":"Giant Green Goddess","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Northumberlandia is the name of a new sculpture made at the site of a former open-pit coal mine in northern England. The work is described as \"goddess-like,\" but please, not Pagan: There was no intention to make a Pagan figure or mimic any ancient fertility symbols, despite her breasts which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"England\"","block_context":{"text":"England","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=england"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.telegraph.co.uk\/multimedia\/archive\/02322\/Northumberlandia-1_2322661b.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.telegraph.co.uk\/multimedia\/archive\/02322\/Northumberlandia-1_2322661b.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.telegraph.co.uk\/multimedia\/archive\/02322\/Northumberlandia-1_2322661b.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1204,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1204","url_meta":{"origin":251,"position":4},"title":"Paganism is Fa-abulous","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"So says the News of the World, so consider the source. Both Emma and Amie are in the throes of planning their weddings for next year - or hand-fastings, as they're called in pagan circles, because the couple's hands are tied together during the ceremony. Both are planning outdoor ceremonies\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"culture\"","block_context":{"text":"culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=culture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1803,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1803","url_meta":{"origin":251,"position":5},"title":"Gallimaufry for a Cool September Day","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 Check out Patheos' story package on The Future of Paganism. Solitaries? Personal paganism? What's next? \u2022 Musings on that \"Nazi\" label and whether the climate of the Pacific Northwest encourages \"black metal\" bands, at Bioregional Animism. \u2022 He comes to the festival as a lapsed Lutheran. He leaves as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"England\"","block_context":{"text":"England","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=england"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}