Buffy and Religion (sort of), 30 Day Book Meme, 30 Day TV Meme...

[shadowkat]

1. Re-reading my Spike meta...due to a rec/link that rebcake made on another site (we're notified in lj any time someone links to, reposts or rec's our work), I realized something that hadn't occurred to me before now. Seems sort of obvious now. Possibly occurred to me because of a discussion I was having last night with a gal at my church about the mother-goddess mythos in mythology, which I studied in depth and examined in under-grad for both my minor and my major. I had a mythology minor - I like to call it cultural anthropology, but in reality it was a mythology minor.

At any rate...what hit me, was how the writers examined religious tropes and myths in that series.

Spike - mother goddess. He's the son, lover, and sacrificial lamb - which is the male mother goddess trope. Tam Lin is basically a version of that tale. As is the Wicker Man, and Tom Tyron's horror novel Harvest Home. And Guy Gaverial Kay's Wandering Gyre series touches on it. Basically it goes like this - the mother gives birth to the son, he grows up and has sex with the maid, then he's devoured by the crone...so she can give birth to him again. ie. Spring (planting), Summer/Fall (harvest), Winter (death). OR in Buffy - Spike tries to kill his mother, embraces her, changes for her, and sacrifices himself for her and her world.

Angel - father god. Basically old and new Testament or the Judeo Christian mythos. Although more or less the same as the above. Just less sex, more violence. He wants his father's approval. Sacrifices his only son for his God. He sacrifices himself for his God. His son is born by a miracle, then sacrificed, then he sacrifices himself for his only son. All of that is deeply ingrained in Judeo/Christian mythos.

Buffy - seems to be a cultural humanist or athesist. She doesn't appear to believe in God.
And the Gods she is confronted with don't quite hit her as worthy of worship. I think she's the only atheist in the series, with possible exception of maybe Dawn. But I may be wrong.

Anyhow it occurred to me today. Never really hit on it before. Think I'm nuts?



2.Day 02 – A book that you’ve read more than three times

This continues to be excruciatingly Hard. Let me think. I know I've read Night Train to Memphis by Elizabeth Peters more than three times. Although not sure it counts if all you are doing is reading the good parts and ignoring the rest. Which is the same thing I did with Dorothy Dunnette's Checkmate, The Hobbit, Escape to Witch Mountain, various romance novels, sci-fi novels, etc. So pondering. I read James Joyce's Ulysess and William Faulkner's Sound and the Fury more than three times. But that was for my English Lit major. I know I've read Pride and Prejudice several times and Sandition. It's frankly hard to pick one. Or remember for that matter.


Day 03 – Your favorite series
Day 04 – Favorite book of your favorite series
Day 05 – A book that makes you happy
Day 06 – A book that makes you sad
Day 07 – Most underrated book
Day 08 – Most overrated book
Day 09 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 10 – Favorite classic book
Day 11 – A book you hated
Day 12 – A book you used to love but don’t anymore
Day 13 – Your favorite writer
Day 14 – Favorite book of your favorite writer
Day 15 – Favorite male character
Day 16 – Favorite female character
Day 17 – Favorite quote from your favorite book
Day 18 – A book that disappointed you
Day 19 – Favorite book turned into a movie
Day 20 – Favorite romance book
Day 21 – Favorite book from your childhood
Day 22 – Favorite book you own
Day 23 – A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t
Day 24 – A book that you wish more people have read
Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most
Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favorite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favorite book of all time


3.Day 05 - A show you hate

This continues to be so much easier than the book meme, it is not even funny. And what it says about me, I do not want to contemplate. I do have a visual memory...so there is that.

Anyhow, show I hate. Easy. The Bachelor and all it's spin-offs such as The Bacherlette, etc. And I do mean all of them. I hate that show. That show makes The Dating Game actually seem somewhat sweet in comparison. It is repugnant on so many levels. Wish it would go away so I don't have to see the cringe-worthy commercials.


Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you
Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
Day 14 - Favorite male character
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Day 19 - Best TV show cast
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite ship
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death.

Comments

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Oh forgot to add...you are most likely right about Buffy, I think I'm stretching there. It strikes me as odd though that Whedon didn't do an atheist character. I'm thinking...was Echo one in Dollhouse? Can't remember. I'm not sure about Malcolm Reynolds - he seemed to be angry at god, which isn't quite the same thing.

She was definitely existentialist. As too, was Spike...although I think he did worship the mother a bit more than most existentialists would. ;-)

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure about Malcolm Reynolds - he seemed to be angry at god, which isn't quite the same thing.

That makes him a (no kidding) maltheist. :)

I would say River is probably an atheist by default, with her attempts to "fix" Book's bible. That's the one that springs to mind in any Whedon series right now - I suppose it's hard to write people who are credibly atheists in series where they regularly come into personal contact with the supernatural. But I think it's notable that Whedon's more heroic characters still approach deities in a rational manner; I mean, the Angel crowd even lock Illyria up in a lab and try to study her. If there are vampires and demons there might be gods too, but they don't get special treatment. (Sartre might say (I don't normally go around quoting Sartre in casual conversation, but I just re-read him) that to an existentialist, the existence or non-existence of a god isn't the point, it's the meaning you assign to it. Or something.)

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

the existence or non-existence of a god isn't the point, it's the meaning you assign to it. Or something.)

Ah, a succinct summary of my own view on the topic. This may explain why I loved Buffy and Angel so much. The story is more existentialist than religious. And Whedon is more interested in exploring the philosophical/psychological meanings behind the mythological religious tropes than the religious ones. Or rather - he's more interested in how the characters relate to sources of power or beings of power. Some characters worship power - which is something Whedon seems to question.
Even in The Avengers he questions the worship of power - Captain America who refuses to treat Loki or Thor as a god to be "worshiped". The key word worship or bow down to, or follow.

It's interesting to analyze Buffy within the context of the television time period in which it aired. You may not be aware of several of the tv series airing opposite or around it at the time, in direct contrast to many of the one's airing now. But in the late 1990s and early 21st Century (1996-2003) - Touched by an Angel was still on, Seventh Heaven,
The West Wing (which talked about God quite a bit). More so than now actually...most tv series now barely reference God, and a couple have atheists on the series or are out-right satirical. The culture has changed a bit since the late 1990s..it's subtle, but I'm noticing it.
Statistically - there are more and more non-religious "young" people in the US and Europe. Few people go to church, and if they do - they go to non-religious or non-demonitional churches.

If Whedon did Buffy today - it may well have been a different series.
Possibly more like Dollhouse or Firefly or the Avengers. I don't know.
I may have liked it less. But the cultural climate has definitely changed in the past ten years - I think for the better in some respects, not so in others.