On Supernatural's Treatment of Pagan Religions
(I'm so excited I get to break out the Holy Bacon Cheeseburger icon I may faint from all the glee! Macros to break up the thesis-like wall of text forthcoming.)
My friend Eric posted a message on Tiwtter recently that piqued my interests, both as rabid Supernatural fan and as a Pagan:
wwahammy: Just saw a Supernatural episode where non Judeo Christian religions where horribly slandered. Extremely offensive.
Truth be told, I couldn't remember which episode he was speaking of. Several sprung to mind, though he meant the hotel episode, "Hammer of the Gods". I won't lie: on Supernatural, when Pagan elements show up, it's usually in the form of an ancient god worshiped by sacrifice. Which definitely did happen. But it wasn't the only thing that happened. It's a common complaint.
The episode with the Samhain demon was the one that really offended me, because Samhain (or Halloween, which is it's closest modern equivalent, for those of you not in the know) is my favorite holiday. It's a meaningful, spiritual, celebratory day for Wiccans and Pagans who celebrate it.
On The Wild Hunt, a commenter puts it nicely:
I've been feeling betrayed by Supernatural ever since the "Samhain demon" episode. In the pilot, they took care to establish that they would not be going after the pentacle or Wicca. I'm guessing that the show runners changed because that tacit promise went out the window even before the angels came into the picture, and it has become increasingly triumphalist and dismissive of faith practices outside the Christian paradigm as time goes on. My Christian niece actually got snotty with me over it: "It's just a show." Sure, but people take a lot of things fiction throws out as fact, her included. The show took care to make - and then break - a promise it made. And yes, that hurts me.
This is an interesting and important point to make about the nature of the show, and I don't think that she's entirely wrong. And yet I still love Supernatural. Why?
For one thing, focus on Christian mythology doesn't offend me. We are the only industrialized nation that is so bound up in Christian faith that it pervades all corners of what we do. Other nations are often confused that religious fundamentalism prevents minority groups in this country from receiving the civil rights that they deserve. Rights should be inalienable. Right? In actuality, I find Christian mythology fascinating: how intricate it is, how ritualized it is, how it's cannon is irrevocably closed.
I don't mind mention of Angels and Demons in my TV shows. In fact, I like it.
The assumption made that all Pagan or demonic things on Supernatural are presented as evil and begging for destruction is FALSE. In fact, there's a whole episode devoted to Dean's shifting understanding of there being good supernatural beings and bad supernatural beings, even good and bad within a species. Vampires, I believe, was the species in the episode. At the end, Sam makes a comment to the effect of, "It makes you wonder what else we and Dad have destroyed that didn't deserve it."
I think this is the interesting thing to take from Supernatural: of course we only see evil Pagan gods out of control, or demons slaughtering innocent humans, because the point of the show is "Dean and Sam hunt evil across the United States." Why would they hunt down good pagan deities and peaceable demons and monsters? THEY DON'T. In fact, the Pagan gods in "Hammer of the Gods" were never seen nor mentioned until that point: and they weren't evil. Dean and Sam had no reason to want to destroy them, except when their own lives were threatened.
The assumption inherent in that particular episode was a commentary on belief, like American Gods by Neil Gaiman. In his novel, Gods are transplanted from their native lands to America by their believers, but when their believers die out and their names are forgotten, they lose some of their power. I feel like that's what Eric Kripke and his writers were trying to do in this episode: Christianity is the most wide-spread religion in this country, if not around the world. That's a lot of power given by the people to Supernatural's angels and Christian demons.
It's also a commentary on Christianity's inherent arrogance: they prophesy the end of the world, when cultures before them have been doing so since the dawn of human culture. What makes them right and everyone else wrong? What about the dismissal of hundreds of years of human history and religion based on the fact that they aren't Christianity? These are themes explored not only in this episode but in the entire show. Not to mention why any of the Gods would want any apocalypse to happen on their watch if they get their power from their believers. Not much power left for anyone if everyone is dead.
As a secondary point, Christianity doesn't make out any better than Paganism. Dean and Sam are forced to go along with traditions and paths of destiny that they immensely dislike. Dean even describes Angels as "dicks with wings" in one episode. Neither of the brothers think very highly of angels or their plight, or God, for that matter. With the exception of Castiel because Cas is awesome.
My point isn't the MST3K missive ("Just repeat to yourself "It's just a show, I should really just relax"") because I do think that ideas portrayed in television have an effect on their viewers, just like news reports and novels and albums do. And I am highly uncomfortable with some of Supernatural's more unsavory episodes. But by and large, the show is about good triumphing over evil. The love of family. Trust and pain and friendship and loss. Life. Dean and Sam Winchester's tale is long and winding and heartbreaking and beautiful. A good show makes you laugh and cry and scream out in pain along with your favorite characters. Supernatural does this, and has done it, every week for five seasons.
Tonight, it begins it's sixth.
To ask American television to accurately present polytheism and Paganism correctly all the time is probably a futile effort. We've all been normalized to Christianity through our culture and that doesn't look like it will change any time soon. This means that everything we see - weather you realize it or not - is filtered through a Western Christian viewpoint.
Even television writers.
As a writer, I try my best to represent what I write about as honestly and truthfully as I possibly can. In writing, research is a very important step. I wouldn't think about handing in an essay or submitting a novel for publication if I wasn't as sure as I can possibly be that I am not misrepresenting my topic. Television writing, being more fast paced and content-checked by people with no background in research, is more prone to failure in this juncture.
The way to deal with it, I think, is to speak and write and discuss it when it occurs, and even if we disagree on it's presentation, at least its being discussed.
What do you guys think?
(I think I wish I had all my SPN macros on this computer because if I did this post would read like ONTD.)
My friend Eric posted a message on Tiwtter recently that piqued my interests, both as rabid Supernatural fan and as a Pagan:
wwahammy: Just saw a Supernatural episode where non Judeo Christian religions where horribly slandered. Extremely offensive.
Truth be told, I couldn't remember which episode he was speaking of. Several sprung to mind, though he meant the hotel episode, "Hammer of the Gods". I won't lie: on Supernatural, when Pagan elements show up, it's usually in the form of an ancient god worshiped by sacrifice. Which definitely did happen. But it wasn't the only thing that happened. It's a common complaint.
The episode with the Samhain demon was the one that really offended me, because Samhain (or Halloween, which is it's closest modern equivalent, for those of you not in the know) is my favorite holiday. It's a meaningful, spiritual, celebratory day for Wiccans and Pagans who celebrate it.
On The Wild Hunt, a commenter puts it nicely:
I've been feeling betrayed by Supernatural ever since the "Samhain demon" episode. In the pilot, they took care to establish that they would not be going after the pentacle or Wicca. I'm guessing that the show runners changed because that tacit promise went out the window even before the angels came into the picture, and it has become increasingly triumphalist and dismissive of faith practices outside the Christian paradigm as time goes on. My Christian niece actually got snotty with me over it: "It's just a show." Sure, but people take a lot of things fiction throws out as fact, her included. The show took care to make - and then break - a promise it made. And yes, that hurts me.
This is an interesting and important point to make about the nature of the show, and I don't think that she's entirely wrong. And yet I still love Supernatural. Why?
For one thing, focus on Christian mythology doesn't offend me. We are the only industrialized nation that is so bound up in Christian faith that it pervades all corners of what we do. Other nations are often confused that religious fundamentalism prevents minority groups in this country from receiving the civil rights that they deserve. Rights should be inalienable. Right? In actuality, I find Christian mythology fascinating: how intricate it is, how ritualized it is, how it's cannon is irrevocably closed.
I don't mind mention of Angels and Demons in my TV shows. In fact, I like it.
The assumption made that all Pagan or demonic things on Supernatural are presented as evil and begging for destruction is FALSE. In fact, there's a whole episode devoted to Dean's shifting understanding of there being good supernatural beings and bad supernatural beings, even good and bad within a species. Vampires, I believe, was the species in the episode. At the end, Sam makes a comment to the effect of, "It makes you wonder what else we and Dad have destroyed that didn't deserve it."
I think this is the interesting thing to take from Supernatural: of course we only see evil Pagan gods out of control, or demons slaughtering innocent humans, because the point of the show is "Dean and Sam hunt evil across the United States." Why would they hunt down good pagan deities and peaceable demons and monsters? THEY DON'T. In fact, the Pagan gods in "Hammer of the Gods" were never seen nor mentioned until that point: and they weren't evil. Dean and Sam had no reason to want to destroy them, except when their own lives were threatened.
The assumption inherent in that particular episode was a commentary on belief, like American Gods by Neil Gaiman. In his novel, Gods are transplanted from their native lands to America by their believers, but when their believers die out and their names are forgotten, they lose some of their power. I feel like that's what Eric Kripke and his writers were trying to do in this episode: Christianity is the most wide-spread religion in this country, if not around the world. That's a lot of power given by the people to Supernatural's angels and Christian demons.
It's also a commentary on Christianity's inherent arrogance: they prophesy the end of the world, when cultures before them have been doing so since the dawn of human culture. What makes them right and everyone else wrong? What about the dismissal of hundreds of years of human history and religion based on the fact that they aren't Christianity? These are themes explored not only in this episode but in the entire show. Not to mention why any of the Gods would want any apocalypse to happen on their watch if they get their power from their believers. Not much power left for anyone if everyone is dead.
As a secondary point, Christianity doesn't make out any better than Paganism. Dean and Sam are forced to go along with traditions and paths of destiny that they immensely dislike. Dean even describes Angels as "dicks with wings" in one episode. Neither of the brothers think very highly of angels or their plight, or God, for that matter. With the exception of Castiel because Cas is awesome.
My point isn't the MST3K missive ("Just repeat to yourself "It's just a show, I should really just relax"") because I do think that ideas portrayed in television have an effect on their viewers, just like news reports and novels and albums do. And I am highly uncomfortable with some of Supernatural's more unsavory episodes. But by and large, the show is about good triumphing over evil. The love of family. Trust and pain and friendship and loss. Life. Dean and Sam Winchester's tale is long and winding and heartbreaking and beautiful. A good show makes you laugh and cry and scream out in pain along with your favorite characters. Supernatural does this, and has done it, every week for five seasons.
Tonight, it begins it's sixth.
To ask American television to accurately present polytheism and Paganism correctly all the time is probably a futile effort. We've all been normalized to Christianity through our culture and that doesn't look like it will change any time soon. This means that everything we see - weather you realize it or not - is filtered through a Western Christian viewpoint.
Even television writers.
As a writer, I try my best to represent what I write about as honestly and truthfully as I possibly can. In writing, research is a very important step. I wouldn't think about handing in an essay or submitting a novel for publication if I wasn't as sure as I can possibly be that I am not misrepresenting my topic. Television writing, being more fast paced and content-checked by people with no background in research, is more prone to failure in this juncture.
The way to deal with it, I think, is to speak and write and discuss it when it occurs, and even if we disagree on it's presentation, at least its being discussed.
What do you guys think?
(I think I wish I had all my SPN macros on this computer because if I did this post would read like ONTD.)