I honestly thought after reading the title Children of a Lesser God, the movie would be about children born out of love, children not concieved in love, the love of a marriage, or something like that. Since God is suppose to be love, or vice versa, I thought thats what it was.
Work on and master yourself. Only after achieving this can you finally devote yourself to another.
Not to sound condescending, but I'm really surprised how many people were thrown off by the title of this movie. I "got it" the first time I read about this movie.
The major conflict of COALG is Sarah's bitterness towards the world because no one saw her as an adequate or worthy person due to her disability. Until James, no one had even tried to know Sarah, or "learn her language", so she felt as if the world saw her as a "child of a lesser god."
If you remember the scene on the schoolground, the principal told James that Sarah had been diagnosed as retarded for seven years--another example of how the world viewed her as inferior due to her disability. Although the school helped Sarah to see her smartness, the fact that they let her waste away cleaning floors shows you that they still pitied her as a good-for-nothing deaf-mute kid. James was really the only person who saw Sarah as a real, intelligent, worthy woman. And though he too believed she needed to assimilate into his hearing world, James eventually accepted Sarah's choice not to speak.
Unfortunately by accepting this logic and titling the film the same way, the film's authors validate the idea that deaf people are lesser, even to the point of having their own "lesser God". I'm still kind of shocked after watching it.
Perhaps we should petition to have the title changed to something more PC.
how does Children of a Differently Abled God grab you?
Unfortunately by accepting this logic and titling the film the same way, the film's authors validate the idea that deaf people are lesser, even to the point of having their own "lesser God". I'm still kind of shocked after watching it.
For me, deafness is not the issue. It is the teacher who has a different sort of deafness, a spiritual deafness? I tried to explain that in my user comment.
*** Update after a couple of days thinking time:
For me, deafness is not the issue. It is there as a symbolic thing. It is the teacher who has a different sort of deafness, a proverbial deafness, a disorder? I tried to explain that in my user comment of 1 September 2008, Title, currently at version 1.01.
The source of that understanding is to note that the title does not seem to make sense, but that it might do from the storyteller’s perspective.
I get that understanding primarily by looking at the quality of his relationship with his girl, also the sexual power structure in the relationship. This is someone who feels that he has a vocation to teach, someone who has developed a lot of appropriate skills re that. But also someone with a big emptiness at an elementary level? Someone in need of appropriate remedial education? I understand that that is how vocations to such as teaching and health can occur, back to front.
I should not expect agreement on that particular solution, but the question of the meaning of the title is not just the obvious. So, I would also not be getting hints to be careful about using words such as lesser?
I read the play, and to me-- the play makes better logic in terms of explaining the title.
At the heart of this play is about the future between the two. The woman said she wants deaf children, and the guy says he doesn't care.
But they both care...
He doesn't want deaf children, and she doesn't want deaf children.
But they come to a conclusion that they got no reason to want their kids made into their image. (As in, how humans are suppose to be the image of God.)
So here's the concept that deaf people, who the hearing world believes, are imperfect... in the sense that they're not in the image of God, but of a lesser God. (Or that they themselves are lesser gods creating imperfect children.)
I think it's a fantastic title, and very unique. Of course, you can't have conceptions of who God is... but if you're willing to understand WHAT God is, then the title and the play offers so many intriguing interpretations.
spanishfli you are 29 in about 6 months yeah?
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