After watching my TiVo’d episodes of the latest installments of Battlestar Galactica (a long-time fav of this blog) and Heroes (which just joined my list of favs), I must say I am giddy in the same way I am when I’ve stumbled upon the discovery that I’m in the midst of a I-can’t-believe-there’s-still-good-ones-out-there book.The moments that brought on this giddiness were relatively minor on first glance. In BG’s “Exodus 2”, it was watching Galactica jump into the atmosphere of New Caprica, its gigantic hulk plummet towards the surface as it launched its vipers and then jump out again before it hit. The scene (with especially good effects) was one of the more memorable ones for me in the science fiction genre (and you can watch here courtesy YouTube). In Heroes’ “Hiros”, it was watching will-he-be-a-hero-or-a-villian Nathan leap into the sky, do a sharp right and sonic-boom-fly-away from his captors. Superman has nothing on this guy. It was a jaw-dropper.
While these scenes last only seconds, they show incredible creativity and attention to detail by the creators. And the kind of giddiness I felt watching them is the same kind I feel when it dawns on me that a novel’s author really knows their genre or exhibits their gift at the craft. They are moments that ring true, that make me think, Yeah, it would have been this way or it would have looked that way. Small moments like these are unexpected and add to the story—and most stories that resonate as true to our human experience and what it means to be human will have moments like these.
These moments aren’t limited to television shows and novels, however. I experienced something similar a few months back when I read Mark’s story of Jesus walking into Bethsaida and healing a blind man—a short scene (only two few-sentence graphs in The Message) and only one of many healings Jesus performs:
Some people brought a sightless man and begged Jesus to give him a healing touch. Taking him by the hand, he led him out of the village. He put spit in the man’s eyes, laid hands on him and asked, “Do you see anything?”Walking trees. Wow. That’s only two words of that story, but it yanks me into that place outside the village, that moment of spital-dripping sight. It’s unexpected yet right-on. It’s truth-ringing and grounds the story in dirt, spit, people gathered around and Jesus touching-and-being-and-loving-and-being.
He looked up. “I see men. They look like walking trees.” So Jesus laid hands on his eyes again. The man looked hard and realized that he had recovered perfect sight, saw everything in bright, twenty-twenty focus.
Small moments, grand stories. Good stuff.
(Image: Café Press; the slogan—another one of those small-but-good albeit-rather-humorous moments—is one that is currently the catch phrase in Heroes—if you want to know why, go here.) bsgctgy heroesctgy