Barbie, Hamas and Oppenheimer

The book you are holding explores the key scenes and unspoken messages of two blockbuster films from the summer of 2023, Barbie and Oppenheimer. Barbie was widely hailed as an icon of feminism, yet its portrayal of relationship is utterly empty, for all genders. The point of the movie is that there is no "Barbie and Ken"-meaning that there is no inherent love story in Cosmos. Both movies unwittingly depict the destructive splits in relationship-one between the masculine and the feminine and one within the atom-that place human life at risk today. Marc Gafni reads both movies as "texts of culture," revealing a deeper story the filmmakers may not have realized they were telling. He introduces the Goddess as a narrator who speaks for Eros-the aliveness and radiance in relationship that drives a new Story of Value, moving culture toward wholeness. Many viewers left these films with a sense of emptiness, asking, "Where do we go from here?" Gafni's response offers a hopeful vision: The Universe: A Love Story. The atrocities of Hamas that year demonstrated how the rejection of the Universe: A Love Story (in which we are all dignified and beloved actors) open the door for degraded love stories in which women are butchered for the love of Allah and patriarchy acts out its most debased impulse in the guise of Islamic fundamentalism. This book engages popular culture and world events with nuance and wisdom, opening a new path for our evolution.