Video Games Are Mythology
We're returning to the idea of pop culture as mythology, but this time focusing in on video games. While this video game is a bit more technical, I think it's also really important and may be of interest to people. We get a little into what it is that video games do that situate them as mythology, but more importantly we think a little more about what that actually means.
The Babadook and Monstrous Mothers
The Babadook is an Australian horror film which changed the landscape of monster movies. The Babadook is a doppelganger monster, a creature who represents depression, complicated manoeuvres between reality and fiction, and, more importantly, ambivalent motherhood. Babadook is a representation of this type of monstrous motherhood, one which is condemned by social regulations on women and mothers.
No Face: Disconnection and Consumption
One of the most distinct spirits in Miyazaki’s Spirited Away is No Face, a disappearing black form wearing a Noh mask. Through Sen’s engagement with the spirit, and other characters in the movie, there is a detailed conversation around consumption, food, connection and disconnection. In this essay, we explore these dynamics in Spirited Away primarily through the character No Face.
Clifford Geertz Meets the Triforce
Today, we trip into the more academic side of things with a critique of anthropologist Clifford Geertz, but we keep it Incidental Mythology by using the Triforce in Zelda to do so. We talk about Geertz's view of symbols, and the importance of multiplicity of meanings. The Triforce represents many things: the Hylian cosmology, the ideal characteristics of a person, the power of the Hylian royal family, and also a representation of the game series as a whole. So let's chat about symbols, religion, Geertz, and the Triforce!
Detectives as Tricksters
This month's essay is a study on the detective and detective fiction. We look at the structural role of the detective, and what elements they provide for the narrative. We look at how the detective functions within a narrative, and what special characteristics they have. And through that, we see the detective is a form of contemporary pop culture trickster.
The Mandalorian, Religion and Nationalism
The Mandalorian lets viewers in on the complicated nature of the survival of Mandalorian culture in the middle of diaspora. In this essay, I explore Anthony D. Smith's theory of nationalism and nations through the Mandalorian, to understand how focus on folk traditions and religion helped to sustain Mandalorian culture when unable to return to their homeland.
Stranger Things: a Structural Mythic Analysis
Strap in for a slightly longer essay than usual, because this week we're doing a structural analysis of the first season of Stranger Things. Jumping off from the idea of Pop Culture as Mythology, we're going to illustrate that what actually means when we directly study a piece of pop mythology. Stranger Things argues against structures of society that sets the us against them. By reinterpreting the classic cultural structures, it demonstrates ways to defend the vulnerable and fight against government pressures.
Notes on a Scandoval
In this essay, we're digging into the scandoval that shook the world of reality television. Of particular interest for us is the way the story of the scandal unfolded, and why it was so enticing and so juicy for the audience. We talk about the way the characters developed on our screens over the course of ten years, and how the complicated nature of reality television timeline means an intricate web of dramatic irony.
Shadow Texts and the Ancient Magus’ Bride
This month's essay covers an aspect of pop culture and mythology that we don't talk about as often: the way that myths are sometimes used in popular culture in their storytelling. We talk about how mythology is used as a form of exoticisation in some narratives. But we also talk about how some narratives, like the Ancient Magus's Bride, use mythology as a shadow text which provides focus and legitimisation to the story.
Repetition as Mechanic and Story
In this essay, I'm looking into repetitive game types, particularly rogue-like and rogue-lite games. Using Hades, Cult of the Lamb and Moonlighter as my primary focus, we talk about how these games utilise repetition to tell the story of the game without fatiguing the player with too much of all the same.
Wednesday and the Art of the Cliche
Netflix's Wednesday was an immediate success, but received critiques that it was full of clichés. In this essay, I decided to delve into what makes Wednesday successful, nostalgic, and why relying on familiar tropes and clichés is the most important part of Wednesday's backbone.
Pop Culture as Mythology
It's back to basics today! With the sudden growth of this channel, I wanted to take a step back and explain the basics behind both myself and Incidental Mythology. So today, we're exploring what I mean when I say that popular culture is our contemporary mythology. We go into the various definitions of mythology, and how fiction can be meaningful.
Knives Out and the Structure of the Whodunnit
Rian Johnson's Knives Out series, of both Knives Out and Glass Onion, helps to recapture the spirit of the whodunnit. It recalls the nostalgia of previous classic mystery narratives while also presenting them in new and and interesting ways to help present their own spin on the format. In this video, I explore the structure of the whodunnit and the innovative alterations to the structure that Knives Out does.
Bee and Puppycat and the Spirit of Anthropology
Bee and Puppycat: Lazy in Space on Netflix provides us with a wonderful blurring between categories. It really echoes a main theme of anthropology: making the familiar strange and the strange familiar. In this video, we explore the way Bee and Puppycat complicate subject matter and characters which are extremely familiar to the viewer, while also taking figures and setting incredibly unfamiliar to the viewer and making them incredibly relatable.
Hopelessness and Change in Over the Garden Wall
Over the Garden Wall was initially released in 2014, but has a wonderful timeless feel to it that has made it an autumnal favourite. The show was spawned so many theories and questions about the structure of the narrative. In this essay, I'm exploring the role of the Unknown and the ever present question of the purpose of the journey the brothers are on. The Unknown is a place of required adaptability and necessary constant change, and when an individual becomes too overwhelmed and find it too difficult to go on, they fall into the Hopeless stage that allows the Beast to take them.
Communication and Storytelling in Buffy’s Hush
Originally aired in 1999, Buffy the Vampire Slayer's episode Hush introduced the audience to perhaps the scariest monster in the Buffy series: the Gentlemen. Their silence, creepy smiles, and methodical removal of their victims' voices make them a monster that still haunts fans of Buffy. In this essay, I explore the episode of Hush, and the themes of silence and communication as a form of storytelling. From a myth studies perspective, Hush gives us interesting examples of how language and language disruption can change a community, as well as how the body can also form as an important anchor of communication.
Kim Kardashian and How Fashion is Identity
In the fifth episode of the Kardashians, Kim Kardashian admits to struggling with her fashion in her life post-Kanye West. She voices insecurity about finding her own style after years of Kanye's styling. In this essay, I want to explore this part of Kim, using her as a case study to discuss how fashion communicates our identity to the social worlds around us. While Kim does often control avenues of power, she is also subjected to it. After her image being owned by Kanye West for years, she is suddenly free to not only find her fashion, but to figure out who she is.
Tunic, and the Engagement of Story and Player
The recent release of action-adventure game Tunic on PC and XBox has come with an amazing study of implicit storytelling in video games. Tunic's world is left for the player to explore, relying on coded messages and puzzles to solve the questions of the locations and people they encounter. What makes Tunic's story powerful for players is its reliance on the player's engagement with the story and the gameworld, exploiting the nature of the video game medium to great effect. In this essay, I want to explore the storytelling of Tunic: the nature of its cyclical time, and the impact the game has on players.
GLaDOS: an analysis
One of my favourite video game antagonists is Portal’s GLaDOS. In this essay, I want to explore the meaning and development of GLaDOS, and explain why she’s one of the most misunderstood antagonists in video games. We talk about how she gains her power akin to Foucault’s Panopticon, how her assault was hidden and misconstrued in the game and by writers, how GLaDOS’s bound woman theory shows an interesting side of her assault, and how GLaDOS’s role as the unsilenced victim makes her one of the most amazing antagonists.
Star wars, Robots, and Transhumanism
We finally start to dig into the world of Star Wars. The direct binary of good vs evil in Star Wars is not subtle, and has the tendency to pain all Jedi in a positive light with the Sith being all evil. However, looking at Star Wars through Transhumanism, and in particular the treatment of droids and robotics, we can give some nuance and complication to the easy binary of good and evil.