Clothing and Identity
Even though the social worlds around us have expectations and ways of reading our bodies, this is not done without our own impact. As I mentioned before, people can try and subvert expectations directly by purposefully dressing in a way that denies the expectation. Gender, and the way gender dynamics play on dressing and fashion, is a good example of this.
Identity and Popular Culture Tattoos
Near the end of July this year, Katie Ode, a woman from Angsley, made some headlines by getting a tattoo of one of the stars of Love Island.
Religion, Popular Culture, and Everything in Between
My own personal research has always enjoyed pushing the term religion as far as it’ll go – and then seeing where popular culture crosses with it. The result is a bending of religion and pop culture that lands us somewhere in between. It raises, perhaps, a question: when does culture become pop culture? When does pop culture become just culture? But maybe the greater question: does it matter?
The Existence of Digital Culture... or not
During the hiatus of writing here, I’ve been working on a couple things. One will be a podcast which will be posted here as soon as its ready (get hype!), but the other has mostly been my PhD. One of the questions I’m determined to figure out throughout this research regards the status of “digital culture”, a question I’ll lay out the foundations of here.
A Note on the Life of Myth
Myth is not dead. It’s not near its death bed. It’s well alive, extremely active, and constantly working around us. Seeing it, however, would require us to open our eyes to the mirror. It compels us to question what we love and why we love it. It demands we dig deep into the foundational axioms of our society, which our myths are built on and reflect. Truly looking at these myths, and looking at them as myths, would require a look at ourselves. We would turn the microscope around. And that is a scary idea. But as Bauman puts it, we owe this to our society, and more importantly ourselves. And no, it won’t be easy.
Tulpa’s and the Agency of Storytellers
First things first: what is a Tulpa? Good question, person in the back! A Tulpa is a physical manifestation which is brought into being simply through spiritual or mental discipline. The term arose in more mystical Buddhist traditions, but grew to great popularity when mystics and new religious movements brought these traditions from the “East” to the “West,” often with small variations. Theosophy’s Annie Besant has an entire book devoted to Tulpas, which are often called “thoughtforms” in Western esoteric beliefs.
Theological Debates in the Dragon Age
There are multiple forms of religiosity which can be found in this world, and often they are designated by race, though not always limited to racial boundaries as conversion occurs. Many of the elves, which are also the culturally oppressed peoples, attempt to keep to their older polytheistic religion. The dwarves are ancestor worshipers. The Qunari, a tall and physically robust peoples with horns, have a very politically and philosophically based religion involving the Qun (of which could be entire discussion itself). And humans tend to be monotheistic.
A Pilgrim's Journey in Journey
o attempt a better answer, let’s try a different approach – that of Victor Turner. When we look at Journey specifically, we see a game about a pilgrim – sometimes encountering other pilgrims on their own journeys. Pilgrimage and video games have both been described as a liminal place (Turner 1974; Dovey and Kennedy 2006: 35). Turner’s concept of play is also often tied to his concepts of liminal and liminoid. So in lieu of enrolling you in a Vic Turner’s Concepts 101 course, I’ll break it down for you in a brief synopsis.