I am an unabashed Joss Whedon fangirl, own the Firefly comic books, the novelizations, read Whedonesque.org voraciously, I even spent most of this weekend caught up in the organization of the Serenity Now/Equality Now charity screenings of the film. The only other thing that I know of that can get people on three continents to organize, without corporate support or a central office, a fundraiser that gathers in over $50k USD is the Church.

I can tell you one thing: You will not have your neat, tidy wrap-up of loose ends if you see the film. First of all, because the deal is technically for three movies, and second of all– Joss Whedon is an evil, bad, naughty man who delights in torturing his fans with dangling plotlines and cliffhangers.

I got to thinking that part of the Mass is, in effect, storytime with Jesus. He sits us on our knee and says “Now, when I became human, this happened to me one day…” or “Before I became man, there was a man named Abraham…” In this light, the epistles of Paul and others become letters like a long-lost friend. In a novel I read recently, an immigrant, upon receiving a letter from home, read it twice and then called her husband at work and read it to him again.

I wonder if there is something that the readers could do to emphasize this sense more — to slow down, perhaps? But story is powerful the way it resonates with us. Even missionaries in China say that telling the stories from the Gospels conveys much more about who Christ is to the Chinese people than working through th e abstract details presented in the letters of Paul…

Augustine’s Confessions is two stories in one — microtheology: his conversion and macrotheology: the story of the world. But they are the same story. The story of Israel and God or later on of God and the Church is our story. Wow.

that’s the thing every fiction writer wants to achieve. I especially liked his Angel series.

Having seen ‘Serenity’ I know what happens to most of the characters and i know where the arc of the story was headed but it’s a bit like catching up with an old friend and getting a 10 minute account of the last ten years rather than living through it at their side.

I found myself watching episodes of ‘Firefly’ thinking there were so many stories I wasn’t going to get to hear. I think my desire to hear those stories doesn’t hinge on whether they are tragedy or comedy — I think Joss Whedon created some people I got to care about enough to want their news, even if it were to be bad news.

But I think maybe it’s best not to know sometimes. Maybe no news is better than bad news?