on erasing the original cultural context from stories. (and on Klytemnestra's awesomness. <3)

[prozacpark]

I went to the most epic performance of The Oresteia this past weekend. The Oresteia is my favoritest play (or really, trilogy of plays) EVER, and it's extensive, long, and hard to put on, so it's never really done. But a local liberal arts (CHRISTIAN) college invited a Greek troupe to come and perform this here in Houston. The Christian part is

Comments

[distractedone]

Lols, Christians trying to put Christian context into things.....this is like youth group back in those days when I'd watch clips of Lord of the Rings or Star Wars, and they'd give us a Christian perspective on it.

I've seen the X-Men get a Christian perspective too! X-Men = Christian and fighting for peace; Brotherhood = evil and fighting for chaos.

Oh hell! There is a whole book I read on it called...I completely forget. It was written by a pastor.

[prozacpark]

Heh. I totally analyzed "The Great Gatsby" for Greek mythic context for my term paper. ;) So interpretation is fine, as is analysis, but arguing that Christian themes existed in a pre-Christain world is sort of very faily. You can have the Star Wars and I will HAPPILY hand over Lord of the Rings, but PLEASE leave The Oresteia alone. ;)

Like, I would totally believe that our major texts play with Christian ideas because they're being written in that context? But not to the degree that some of these people argue. I wonder who Emma Frost would be if we went with Christianity/X-men parallels.

Also, you should read these plays, yes? Klytemnestra is so epic.

[distractedone]

OH, EMMA FROST WOULD TOTALLY BE JEZEBEL WITH HER SEX APPEAL AND ALL! She would be the evil woman who tempts all the men!

And yeah! I want to start reading this plays and epic poems -- including Medea! I just need to find a good translation.

[distractedone]

Plus, Emma Frost likes power...so, Jezebel! Lols

[glitterberrys]

'christian' context can be an interesting thing, but...it really depends on how it's presented and how seriously the presenting people take it. like, I enjoy reading things people write about how certain things can be compared because it CAN be an interesting perspective.

BUT...only when it's done honestly. not changing things or just ignoring things from the original material that doesn't line up with their ideas of how things should be. and of course the gross oversimplification/straight-up bullcrap that the "good" stuff is the Christian stuff and everything "bad" is representative of evil.

I love Jesus. I really do. And I have the massive collection of ridiculous religious merchandise to prove it. (Well, really, what it proves is that I'm intrigued by the ridiculous lengths people go to to make every last little thing "Christian" - which ties in nicely with what you've written, in a weird way ;) ) But goddamn his fan club gets annoying sometimes.

[prozacpark]

Despite Milton's many failings, I'm sort of a huge fan of "Paradise Lost," so I appreciate Christian context where it has a place. I'm actually generally a fan of stories using religious (any religion) context? Because when it's done right, it can be incredibly powerful and interesting (especially when it's deconstructive), and I enjoy fiction exploring different mythologies

[glitterberrys]

Never having seen an episode of BSG I can't comment on that specifically, but...yeah, that does sound incredibly frustrating.

I've never really encountered religious reimaginings of classic things - or really religious undertones in general - that were any specific religion besides Christian, except for those that echo Greek mythology. At least, none that I was aware of.

Of course, it doesn't really help that people are a bit sensitive now about religion from BOTH sides. Either anything echoing anything from a Christian path (I've not heard this complaint about other religious references, but again, I've rarely seen any that weren't Christian) is "shoving it down everyone's throat," and religious whackadoos insist that religion is under attack in the Western world...it makes it hard to discuss something's artistic or factual failures, because everyone seems to jump to the idea that it's a criticism of or a push towards the religion in question.

[lilacsigil]

Wow, that's really disturbing simplification and appropriation. Not something you see a lot of outside the US post-WWII, fortunately.

[prozacpark]

It's such text-book fail that it amazes me that people miss it. The second part of that comment comforts me greatly. I know that Germany and France still do a lot of the Classics, so it's good to know that not everyone is failing at reproducing this. I just fear that a hundred years from now, we'll have some Greek play totally Christianized to a degree where all the gods will be...saints or something.

[redbrunja]

But applying moral and ethical issues from two disparate religions/cultures seems useless, particularly in the particular way it was done.

Well said.

[prozacpark]

You can pretty much get me to watch anything that uses certain Christian concept, and I'm especially interested in the idea of Christian hell, demons, the holy birth narrative, etc. But while I love Judeo-Christian-Islamic context for stories, I feel like monotheist religions shouldn't get to retell polytheist stories in a way that claims those stories since they were partly responsible for the eradication of a lot of their culture/literature, which makes that a problematic narrative

[granamyr]

Orestes' moral compass sucks even harder in Euripides' play, where he, Pylades, and Electra figure the best way to make the Argives forget his crime and pay Menelaus back for not helping him is to kill Helen and her daughter Hermione.

So he and his co-conspirators seize the two women and are about to kill Helen when the gods whisk her away to heaven. Menelaus storms in to find Orestes holding a knife to Hermione's throat, and so the standoff goes back and forth till Apollo poofs onto the scene to tell everyone that Helen is now an immortal goddess, Electra is going to marry Pylades, and--oh, Orestes will marry Hermione.

Orestes removes the blade from his hostage/cousin/bride-to-be's throat, and I imagine this courtship goes from, "I'm going to kill you, bitch" to "Uh, hey there, baby" in two seconds flat.

[redbrunja]

Ability to bring about a zombie apocalypse? Way more awesome than the ability to throw thunderbolts.

Trufax. And you're totally making me want to read these plays.

[prozacpark]

Read them! They're epic, and I possibly love no other piece of dramatic literature like I love these. Klytemnestra alone is fifteen different shades of awesome.

The plays are in the public domain, and this is a fairly fun and decent translation of them.

[redbrunja]

Okay! This is now bookmarked as one of my to-reads!