Reading: Cobb [Salvation]

Although their titles are probably too literal for Cobb's liking, there were two works of art in popular culture that I was surprised were not mentioned when breaking down popular cultures variety of conceptions of salvation.

The first is the film Saved. The plot follows Mary, a devout senior at a Christian high school, who after accidentally getting pregnant, starts to see her peers and her faith in a whole new way. This dark comedy/coming-of-age story premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and was produced by R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe. Saved refreshingly argues that Jesus would have embraced the cast-outs and the misfits, and might have leaned toward situational ethics instead of rigid morality.

The second piece is the song "Save Me" by Aimie Mann, featured in the epic film Magnolia. The movie is an interlocking series of episodes that take place during a single 24-hour period, using the interconnected tales of its nine protagonists (acted by John C. Reilly, Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, Philip Baker Hall and Philip Seymour Hoffman and others including Tom Cruise) to form a frenzied slice of our life and times. Each character is searching for happiness, having trouble making human connections, and, more specifically, trying to come to terms with what's come before. In the end, all of these threads converge, in one way or another, upon an event there is no way for the audience to anticipate. Mann's song highlights the aforementioned divine ending sequence with each character attempting to come to grasp with their past and hope of future salvation.