... further developed thoughts on why 5.19 bothered me

[amonitrate]

No idea whether anyone still cares at this point, but I went and commented all over missyjack's interesting meta post so I might as well post it here, and my previous comments were just initial reactions. So I guess this is just for completeness.

Comments

[amonitrate]

Yeah, pretty much. I mean, why make kill and eat innocent people? I keep getting hung up on that, because it's not remotely addressed in the story, and it appears to undermine everything else they've got going, like the theme of colonialism between Lucifer and Kali, you know? It's hard to feel sympathetic towards the gods if they're killing and eating random people. So are we supposed to cheer Lucifer when he takes them out? After all, he totally agrees with Dean that they're primitives.

It was just all too muddled for me to really accept any of the readings I've seen thrown around.

[amonitrate]

Yeah, that's possible. Dean doesn't really have any reason not to be hostile towards any divine being, so I'm not particularly holding it against him.

[labseraph]

My Hindu friend took exception at how Ganesh and Kali was portrayed. She was horrified that the peace-loving Ganesh was depicted as a consumer of human flesh. One of the main tenets of Hinduism is to value life; hence the reason why a large number of its followers are vegetarians and vegans.

She's an ardent fan of SPN and this really spoilt it big time for her. :-(

[amonitrate]

Yeah, I imagine it would be disturbing for your friend.

[obsession_inc]

You know, I don't even watch this show, and yet it has greatly influenced my theory of Writing While White/Male/Straight/Christian/American. Which is, in short, that if you ignore the context of being in a privileged class and writing about people who aren't, and ignore the history of insults that the privileged class has thrown at those who aren't, you are going to be an asshole every. single. time. Not ignoring the context and being very careful about it means you will be an asshole only about half of the time, which is an improvement! but then you still have to not be an asshole about being called on being an asshole.

I'm guessing from the description here that the context got well and truly ignored. Wow. Cannibals? Really? What?

[amonitrate]

heh. Which is, in short, that if you ignore the context of being in a privileged class and writing about people who aren't, and ignore the history of insults that the privileged class has thrown at those who aren't, you are going to be an asshole every. single. time.

Yeah, pretty much this. I don't think it was intentional at all, just a lot of laziness and a lack of thinking things through. Also seriously, it came off like two people wrote two different scripts and then smooshed them together. There was a script that had cool things to maybe say, and then a script where Kali and Ganesh and co. slaughter random motel guests for dinner.

[plasticity]

I am still woefully behind on watching the show, and so only know of recent seasons/developments/characters from f-list commentary like your own, but I am curious - have you ever considered writing for television? because your insights are always so thoughtful and critical, and you have a really, really amazing grasp of the long views and themes of things. I know I am watching the show totally differently in the wake of reading your posts about family dysfunction and sibling roles. I would love to see what you could do around the writers' table for a show like this.

[amonitrate]

:) thanks! I think it's far easier to trace what's going on over the course of the show from the outside than it is to come up with the stuff in the first place! But I'm flattered and thanks for letting me know the posts I've written have influenced how you see the show, that's gratifying.

[deiseach]

Way, way behind but the more you talk about this episode, the more problematic it sounds

[amonitrate]

I hadn't even caught that, good observation

Even white people know a little bit about other cultures, show!

[deiseach]

"I hadn't even caught that, good observation

Re: Even white people know a little bit about other cultures, show!

[amonitrate]

I'm not sure unintentional cluelessness and deliberate lack of concern can't go hand in hand:)