Misunderstood Genius II, The Heretic

No pressure here.

When I first commented on Alabama high-school-graduate Natalee Holloway's disappearance, I was concerned that I might have said things that were insensitive to her family -- after all, if this woman actually turned out to be the victim of some kind of tragedy, nobody could have put their foot any further into their own mouth.

But the more I hear Natalee's mother talk, the more I'm convinced that Natalee ran away fom home...and will not reappear until college starts next fall.

Despite the persistent media-spin to the contrary, I'm convinced that a lot of good can come of this dubious situation. The title of this post is intended to allude to another dubious bit of circumstance that had a fairly happy ending...

Most avid film fans know that William Friedkin's 1973 horror masterpiece, The Exorcist, was followed up by (probably) the worst sequel ever made, John Boorman's Exorcist II, The Heretic.

I'm sure Friedkin was frustrated about this lame add-on. And so must Boorman have been. They were both victims of a Hollywood studio-system that emphasized Branding (i.e., capitalizing on the good name of a box-office hit) over Content (the script, the acting, and the editing.)

Indeed, Boorman really got the short-end-of-the-stick on Exorcist II .

At the time, Boorman was one of the most promising directors in Hollywood (best known for the 1972 anti-classic Deliverance). Needless to say, the studio-cut Exorcist II totally soured his reputation with the American public for years afterward.

(To Boorman's credit: nobody, not even veteran Willy Friedkin, could have deodorized a stink-bomb so putrid as Exorcist II.)

So, what does a bad horror movie have to do with Natalee Holloway's disappearance, you ask? It's a fair question. But I'm not sure I can adeqately verbalize the answer.

Deep down, I believe that Natalee is a victim of her own unwillingness to subjugate herself to local ignorance, much like Boorman was throughout his career.

When Natalee decided to "vanish" (my current hypothesis--your mileage may vary), she probably envisioned a future unfettered by her mother's checkered influence (I'm still of the opinion that Natalee sought to temporarily escape her power-tripping-religious-fanatic mother for perfectly sound reasons).

But the plan backfired. As soon as Natalee's fanatical mom snuggled up to the media (and other like-minded fanatics) there was no turning back. What person in their right mind would rush back home after all that negative publicity?

Ironically enough, John Boorman came back home after his Exorcist II debacle.

Hence, I make the admittedly remote connection between the current situation and a notoriously bad horror movie, hoping that somewhere out there Natalee will read and understand.

After E2:The Heretic bombed, Boorman must have thought his life was over. But it wasn't.

Boorman went on to direct some of the most popular movies of the 1980's (Excalibur and The Emerald Forest), including one of the best films of modern times, Hope and Glory, a sensitive and humorous look at the trials and tribulations of the people who didn't fight in World War II.

And nobody else could have made it but Boorman (the movie is largely autobiographical).

The point here (remember, I'm writing for Natalee's sake) is that the world doesn't relvolve around some upper-crust neighborhood in Alabama. People all over the world have suffered humiliation as a result of fanatical control-freaks. Fellow sub-genius John Boorman is one of them.

I don't blame you for wanting to get away from your mom, Natalee. From what I've seen, she has a fabulous gift for "estimating the truth" (that is, for concocting appealing-sounding lies) to make herself appear more pious than she actually is.

I'm familiar with the mentality because my former step-mother did the same thing. She even had me disciplined by the pastor of the church for stuff other people did. If that doesn't qualify for fanatical, I don't know what does.

Your mom seems to have traits common to all self-deluded dictators.

1. She's never (absolutely never) wrong.
2. Her children (and other subjects of her absolute rule) feel nothing but love for her.
3. She always acts appropriately, no matter what the circumstance.

Maybe there are people out there who understand. Maybe there aren't. Just know that some of the greatest minds in the world have tread some pretty difficult paths in the quest to make sense of their existence.

And not all those paths were perfectly straight.

Misunderstood Genius

It's rare that I write about a subject of current interest (those who only know me through my blog will contend that I hardly write at all), but the subject of Natalee Holloway's disappearance from a high-school junket to the island of Aruba struck a soft spot in me (I have a sister about her age).

For the record, I generally don't like to engage in gossip about a person I don't even know. But every time I see the news, there she is--a human mystery just crying out to be understood.

At the time of this writing, Natalee is being portrayed by the media as a poster-child for innocence and naivity--the victim of some as-yet undefinable foul-play in a foriegn paradise.

But I am left with the impression that she is probably one of the most intelligent and misunderstood people on the planet, and would have done almost anything to escape the obvious ignorance of the people surrounding her.

Consider the facts.

Item 1: GPA
Just judging from this woman's Grade-Point-Average she's clearly no idiot. Although, according to her mother (in a TV interview aired on Fox News) she's a "four-point-oh student, though she would say its higher"

Obviously Natalee is a near-genius, but we can't say so much about her mom.

I only had a 3.6 GPA, and even I know that you can't get any higher than a 4.0. Natalee clearly never implied such a ridiculous thing. Natalee's mom is clearly confabulating. I suspect she does this frequently to win arguments with her much brighter daughter.

Item 2: Church Connections
The pastor of Natalee's church had no problem sharing sensitive facts about Natalee with the press. Mind you, he didn't say anything specific. But he was clearly trying to imply that he knew things about her that no human except Natalee could know.

I sympathize with you Natalee. Obviously only God can know a person's inner thoughts. It really offends me when people use their incidental affiliation with a church to imply that they know other human's thoughts, especially someone as clearly intelligent as you.

Item 3: Pseudo-religious Hypocracy
Natalee's family is obviously not lacking in money. But where personal wealth and religious piety mix, there's bound to be big problems.

I'm not doubting that Natalee is a committed Christian. But I have serious doubts about the spiritual stability of the people around her.

Put bluntly, only the most faithful Christians can renouce bad theology without renouncing their Baptism. But when people try it, the congregation's big guns come out to prevent any kind of dissenting opinion from ever gaining ground.

I have a feeling Natalee may have experienced this herself.

It's almost impossible to be an "A" student and swallow every ridiculous scrap of theology an Evangelical church throws at you. In fact, though most Evangelicals would deny it, there's a mountain of anti-Christian concepts in Evangelical teaching that go largly unquestioned or are maintained only by fear-of-reprisal.

A really intelligent student if the Bible can't help but be aware of such hypocracy.

I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Natalee knows Scripture better than anyone in her family.

And that's probably a hidden point-of-contention within her family.

At this point, I'm still operating under the assumption that Natalee is perfectly fine, albeit incredibly embarrassed by the level of attention all of this has received.

I never tried to run away myself, but I felt like doing it on plenty of occassions. I think I even considered the Dutch Antilles once or twice, mostly because a person could survive there for years on very little money, and it has a nice tropical climate for growing plants.

Maybe Natalee had that in mind before she disappeared.

Author's Addendum: (6/18/05)
Having had the opportunity to review this article with some parental figures, I realize now that I was mistaken about the old absolute upper limit of 4.0 for a high-school GPA.

Through precarious manipulation of quantum flaws in the classic four-point (A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1) system, I am told that students CAN now attain GPAs above 4.0 (at least as far as colleges reckon it).

This oddity is a result of the new thinking that some "A"s are better than others (and according to the new system, I actually ended up with a 3.9 GPA, not a 3.6 as I previously mentioned.)

This is because Advaned Placement (A/P) classes are now scored higher than regular classes. So the truth is that Natalee could have gotten higher than a 4.0 GPA. The fact that she understood the distiction only confirms my suspicion that she is smarter-than-the average-bear, because only the best-of-the-best excell in A/P classes.

--Mattergy