spanisheyes

Hopefully everyone has received their copy of Walk On, and have read past Chapter 1, so that we can begin our discussion of it.

Stockman reveals alot about himself in the questions he wishes to ask Bono if ever given the opportunity to sit down and talk with Bono himself.

He first mentions the author Flannery O'Connor, intellectually a good question since Bono is a reader of many of the great writers of our time and times past, and would put Bono at ease with a topic that is an inspiration to Bono as a person and songwriter.

Second, he states as a fan, the wanting to know of the inspiration behind the ZooTV spectacle, or extravaganza as he puts it, and the development of it all. Artistically, a great question what would have Bono speaking for hours, and I'm sure many of us would be dying to know as well even though Flanagan's U2 At The End of the World gave us much insight to the Achtung Baby/Zooropa period of the band.

Thirdly, he goes for the spiritual jugular vein with a question that I'm sure many of us have asked ourselves as well in reference to Bono's spirituality. The question: "How have you kept the vitality of your Christian faith so vibrant in the world of rock music and in the absence of regular Christian fellowship?"

I have taken the liberty to pick a few excerpts from Chapter 1 for discussion, but there may be others that strike you as just as imperative for discussion and analysis of Stockman's own questions and revelations about the band's faith and evangelical Christianity that as Stockman puts it--"the stream of faith that has both under-girded the band's work and caused them to react in anger and disallusionment when people of faith have seemed more concerned with appearance than with just responses to human suffering."

In the words of Stockman:

"The vast majority of U2 interviews and reviews over the past twenty years touch or often concentrate on the Christian faith that is so much a part of what the band is. Their faith isn't riduculed. It has never been questioned, though how they keep it with the rock lifestyle has often been a fascination. The Christian press and Christians in general have been the doubters. There seems to have been a keen enthusiasm to denounce the band's Christian members as lost. There has been confusion as to what they have tried to do in the nineties and condemnation on their lifestyles, which includes smoking cigars, drinking Jack Daniels and using language that is not common currency at Southern Baptist conventions. The Christian community seems to have confined its definition of faith to various precise behavorial patterns and clichéd statements of faith. In getting caught up in the minutia of behavioral codes that have had more to do with respectable middle-class behavior thatn biblical guidelines, many have been so obsessed with the cigar hanging out of Bono's mouth that they are missing the radical biblical agenda that has fired his life and work."

I particularly intrigued by this next excerpt, and has been the one of the sources of inspiration for continuing to follow this band all these years with my own spiritual hunger and questions that the band as often chosen to not avoid, but address head on with the lyrical force of the Psalmist and Prophets all rolled in one:

"U2 inhabits that dangerous and exhilarating space that connects spiritual and physical, mortal and divine. The band's music stretches every sinew of our imaginations in a most courageous attempt to take us far as a rock 'n' roll band can. The members of U2 have filled every millimeter of the gap with the most profound social commentaries, exposing the nonsense of post-modern life. Inside and outside the lines of art, they have campaigned for a spiritual Kingdom that they believe in but still haven't found."

So, lots of food for thought and discussion, or maybe you have your own set of questions for Bono, or the band, or maybe Stockman has created even more questions within the questions he has asked, and has been asked in reference to the band's faith and spirituality. Either way, "Three questions for Bono"...almost like "Three chords and the Truth"...so here is too much good discussion of Chapter one...and a reminder to all in the words of Bono himself...

One love
One blood
One life
You got to do what you should
One life
With each other
Sisters
Brothers
One life
But we're not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other
One

Chris

[This message has been edited by spanisheyes (edited 02-06-2002).]

truecoloursfly

Hi, all!
Chapter 01, a brief chapter by way of introduction. Chris, I expect that others, like me, only waited as I did to have TIME to dig into this! So thanks for opening it up.
The question was raised in a couple of places about Stockman's audience -- not "who might buy this book," but rather, whom he's addressing. They aren't precisely the same population. Stockman seems to be writing to a Christian audience interested in U2, rather that to a U2 audience interested in Christianity. Many of us here won't have any problem with that, but I do sense that a more general U2 readership might find some of his questions perplexing. To wit, "Are they Christians?" Well, DUH. Sorry, but did anyone in here seriously question that? (The lengthy discussions on "turning tricks with your crucifix" and "MacPhisto: a failure?" are duly noted. I think the debates there were more about the state of their faith than about its existence.)
I raise this issue as more than a quibble but less than a flaw; as a distinct characteristic of Stockman's treatise.

On a more personal note: I suppose I'm declaring my orientation to the whole question with the acknowledgement that I, too, drink and swear, and I feel very close to Christ. The behaviours I feel guilty for are those that make others feel small -- a roll of the eyes at someone's "stupidity" offends Christ (I believe) a lot more than an affectionate "fuck off!" to a friend who's giving me the gears. U2 has always spoken my language, even before I consciously tied it to their faith; a rock'n'roll that's violent in its passion for peace is a paradox that I intuited at 19 as a perfect mirror on the world. THAT is the key, for me, especially "looking at...the darkness" -- this is perhaps, too, where the Christian church community's questions arise. U2 does not believe, really, in an "us and them," those in the darkness and "us"... Bono has said in so many poetic ways that he knows the darkness in himself too well to presume the distinction. I love that in him, and it helps me remember that Jesus has time for one such as me.

In this chapter, Stocki just touches on the themes to be developed later in the book, so I'm hard-pressed not to riff on 'em all now but I gotta say, in keeping with his thesis -- ZooTV was one of the most spiritual shows a rock'n'roll stage ever saw. (And, er, Elevation the most rocking show a tent revival ever saw )

love & peace,
Deb D

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the greatest frontman in the world - by truecoloursfly: http://www.atu2.com/news/article.src?ID=1575