My Blog, The Expansion of Adam, and Kite Runner

a)

First, you’ll note that recently I added many links on the side. This is actually because. For security reasons, I cannot have Christian favourites on my web browser. So, this is actually my favourites page.

If your blog is there, you can know you have the honour of having your blog checked weekly by Adam. However, some of you have stopped posting, or have changed your blog address, meaning I have to do approximately 67 seconds of work. I am very upset, and will not do it until a later time.

b)

Second, I am very happy to announce that I have found stuff to do besides read and listen to stuff about theology. Therefore, I hope my blog will have more topics haha.

c)

Therefore, I want to share my thoughts on the following:

I have just finished The Kite Runner, a book that I have often seen on the Top 10 rack at Chapters next to Lonely Bones, Life of Pi, and Harry Potter. A movie’s coming out about it, and I have definitely read it too late to be culturally relevant, but I thought I’d share some thoughts on it.

The author, Khaled Hosseini, writes (or the narrator, Amir, says) “I always thought clichés got a bum rap. Because, often they’re dead-on. But the aptness of the clichéd saying is overshadowed by the nature of the saying as a cliché” (182). This is a good description of Hosseini’s storytelling. He is not afraid to use every convention in the novelist’s toolbox. Most of the characters are one-dimensional. They are usually obviously good or bad. The themes are clearly drawn out, without much need for interpretation. The use of violence, both physical and emotional, is heavy-handed. Almost everything is resolved in the narrative in a neat and tidy way. And almost every character explains her/his motives and thought processes in the dialogue so that the reader doesn’t have to guess (or think about it).

HOWEVER, Umberto Eco (no, I don’t actually know who that is, but I’ve heard this quote before and thought it insightful) said, in a discussion on the movie Casablanca, that “Two cliches make us laugh but a hundred cliches moves us because we sense dimly that the cliches are talking among themselves, celebrating a reunion”. Not that I totally understand what that means, but I get the feeling that this is also true of The Kite Runner. Hosseini somehow manages to use all the aforementioned elements in a very compelling way. His narration is manipulative, but the story is so gripping that you submit to its leading. It reminds me of the movie Crash, which, though terribly didactic, still had a force that struck me in a powerful way.

That being said, I probably won’t read The Kite Runner again, just as I felt that Crash did not deserve multiple viewings. This is especially due to the book’s main theme, Hosseini’s unfortunate celebration of self-wrought redemption (“A way to be good again”). Amir lives in a perpetual state of guilt, and the narrative turns into his quest to atone for his sins. Not surprisingly, Amir is lead to Islam in the process. This naturally appeals to a North American’s sensibilities, since the redemption of the self exalts the individual and its quest for self-realization (a favourite theme of ours).

This all only points to the difference between Christianity and the world (whether it is America or Afghanistan). The God of the Bible does not ask men to atone for their own sins. God is too righteous to allow such a thing to be possible. Instead, He imputes His perfect righteousness and satisfies His own just wrath. We are then enabled to enjoy the fullness of God, not merely the trivial quest for self. Redemption is a gift, not a reward. And it is a much greater gift than the atonement of The Kite Runner.