A Beautiful Monster

Evil mermaid

Monsters as mentioned in this week’s lecture is the hybrid between human and non-human, they have the ability to frustrate our desire to know them. Studying monsters helps us to understand ourselves, it shows the struggle to be human and reveals the strive for redemption. We spent most part of the lectures discussing how different types of grotesque monsters reveal about us, and our fear of death. The discussion of the famous bible monster, Leviathan, reminds me of the unusual type of “monster”- the beautiful and seductive, human-and-fish-hybrid: Mermaids.

Mermaids are mythological creature that has been around for a long time in many different countries and cultures. Some cultures regard them as sacred, some consider them as evil. The most famous mermaid comes from Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” written by Hans Christian Andersen. Andersen’s religious value is expressed in his mermaid tale, some believe that the scene where the mermaid- Ariel gives up everything to be immortal is a symbol of converting beliefs or even religion. In “The Little Mermaid”, mermaids are not portrayed as grotesque monsters, they are presented as beautiful, lovely and kind-hearted creatures. Moreover, in contrast to Leviathan who is represented as a monster of the sea that is totally opposite of God, in “The Little Mermaid”, Ariel’s father- King Triton is a mythological God in Greece, the king of sea. Andersen may have gotten his inspiration from Greek mythology, though the story of “The Little Mermaid” is in fact an adaptation to the mermaid story in the Brothers Grimm fairy tale.

Greek God King Triton, Ariel's father.

The storyline of the mermaid tale is very similar in both the Brothers Grimm’s and Disney’s. The story surrounds an adventurous mermaid who always hopes to be something different, and wishes to get out of water. Both stories show how desperate the mermaid is to be more human instead of a hybrid creature, and even though “mermaids” are not commonly seen as monsterous, their representation in both films function similarly to the monsters we discussed in class. Mermaids in another way also show us the struggle to be human, and the strive for redemption. In “The Little Mermaid”, Ariel gives up her eternality for love, and eventually gets a happy ending, though in the original mermaid tale, the mermaid has to sacrifice her life for the happiness of the man she loves.

Ariel's happy ending.

Different cultures have different perception of what mermaids are. “The Little Mermaid” was a hit in North American culture, and might have led people to perceive mermaid as beautiful, sacred creatures, though some cultures still see mermaids as a symbol of evil, manipulative creatures. Mermaids are a type of monster that functions like a combination of Vampires and Zombies. Especially in Brothers Grimm fairy tale and “The Little Mermaid”, the mermaids’ desperation to be human helps us to understand ourselves and shows the crawl to redemption just like Vampires function in the media. For the mermaid in Brothers Grimm, she reaches her redemption and finds grace when she gives up her immortality and ultimately decides to sacrifice everything for the man she loves, as for Ariel, her happy ending is her redemption and what she gives up for love is her moment of grace.

Monsters can teach us how to be more human, and mermaids are an interesting monster to study since there are so many different perception of what they really are. While Brothers Grimm’s story illustrates the unpredictability of reality, Disney shows achievement and success, though in both stories, it is the mermaids’ faith for love that gives them hope. This expresses the importance of faith in what we believe in, as well as the idea of hope. Even though mermaids are hybrids of human and fish, but in contrast to Vampires and Zombies, mermaids’ beauty and graceful appearance not only attract adult audience but as well as children, allowing younger audience an opportunity to study monsters, to confront the unknowable, and to find hope.

"The Little Mermaid" statue in Langelinie, Copenhagen. Based on the original fairy tale that she waited for the prince who never came, and ultimately died.

Cowan, Douglas. “Stalking Life: Fear of Death and of Dying Badly.” In Sacred Terror: Religion and Horror on the Silver Screen, 123-66. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 200.

Santana, Richard W. and Gregory Erickson. “Demons, Aliens, and Spiritual Warfare: Belief and Reality.” In Religion and Popular Culture: Rescripting the Sacred, 138-68. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008.

Unusual Representations of Christians in the Media

Throughout these eight weeks of lectures, we have discussed different forms of Christians presented in the entertainment industry. We spent a lot of time analyzing Lady Gaga’s music and her Christian faith, Justin Bieber’s belief and how he presents it through his music, the authenticity of Christian in media, as well as Christian characters in television shows and movies. The discussion that caught my attention that most was the Lil Wayne’s music video that was presented at the very beginning of last week’s lecture. This video reminds me of the discussions we had at the very beginning of the course about Kanye West and his video of “Jesus Walk”. I have never been a fan of Lil Wayne or Kanye West, perhaps because of this, I never enjoyed any of their songs, and I could never picture them as Christians. Realizing both Kanye West and Lil Wayne are strong Christians was very surprising to me, I am not a Christian myself, and I have to admit that I do not know very deeply about the Christian tradition, but my impression of strong Christians are someone who is generous, kind, understanding, and accepting. My idea of being Christian is very similar to the idea of Christ figures in films. Kanye West and Lil Wayne are completely opposite of what I normally perceive Christians as.

Kanye West does not appear to be the nicest guy, he is commonly perceived as arrogant, self-centered, intolerant and rude. West is infamous for causing scenes and controversies around his speech and music. He rudely stormed off the American Music Awards in 2004, just because he lost the Best New Artist title to Gretchen Wilson. Later during an interview, he said that he felt like he was robbed, because he considered himself as “the best of the year”. West is also known for the habit of blaming his failure on his skin color, he called president bush a racist and caused a scene with Britney Spears in the Music Video Awards 2007, he believed that he lost his titles to Britney because of his race, and continued to insult Britney’s Spears’s talent and success in the music industry for years. Kanye's most recent outburst was two years ago, when he randomly went on the stage during the Music Video awards and abruptly interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech. Though as we learned in the beginning of the course that West is a devoted Christian and grew up from a strong Christian background, his intolerance, unforgiving and arrogant behaviors seem to be far from the common conception of a Christian.

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In the beginning of last week’s lecture, we were presented with Lil Wayne’s “Mirror” video. The video started with Lil Wayne’s very- strangely- tattooed-eyelids, and his heavily tattooed body. The setting of the video was very visual and powerful, strongly resembles Lil Wayne’s faith, however it is presented in a rather violent way, for example heavy splashes of red paint, repetitively scene of Lil Wayne’s hand covered in paint, and the video constantly zooms into certain evil symbolic tattoos, and lyrics.  This video shows very strong resemblance to Christianity, and it also reinforces the Lil Wayne’s tough, fearless image. Lil Wayne- similarly to Kanye West, is familiar with controversies and feuds. Lil Wayne has been infamously arrested a few times for drug abuse and weapon possession. Although one can say that these scandals happened before he converted to Christianity, through looking at his recent music videos and image (he is still involved in many lawsuits and has recently engaged in feuds with Jay-Z and 50 cents), he doesn’t seem that much of a different person except for the explicit expressions of his belief in his music.

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 Kanye West and Lil Wayne are just a few examples of a “different” kind of Christian presented in the media. Though both rappers claim that they are devoted Christians, their music genre, image and attitude do not seem to confrom with the traditional image of Christians. Other examples of self-proclaiming Christians that appear to have “gone wild” include the cast of “Jersey Shore”, many of the cast members have revealed their belief throughout the seasons, a few of them mentioned that they express their faith through their body tattoos. The contrasting image of a traditional Christian and the image of these celebrities made me wonder if their faith was actually crafted to fit into the society since the majority of American is Christian-centric. Especially after the discussion of celebrities, Lady Gaga and authenticity few lectures ago, my doubt on the sincerity of Kanye West’s and Lil Wayne’s is even stronger. This also makes me question whether they are building a typical “bad boy” rapper image, or if they are using faith to win American’s heart because their image is so tarnished? Or if any of these are authentic at all. Moreover, this also made me question whether the media is promoting violence just like the way sports is being promoted. As we have talked about in class, audience often failed to realize how harmful some sports are, and because of its relationship with Christians and its massive influence in the economy, causing many to neglect its problems. Similarly, the entertainment industry has enormous influence in the community, and “self-proclaiming as Christians” may just be a technique to cover the flaws that these celebrities have and ultimately creates unthinking acceptance and celebration of the horrific behaviors of these people.

"Jersey Shore" members and their iconic religious tattoos:

Jenni "JWoww" Farley

Vincenzo "Vinny" Guadagnino

Ronnie Ortiz-Mangro

Kanye West:

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1569313/kanye-west-hell-never-return-mtv-report.jhtml

http://www.people.com/people/package/article/0,,20302940_20304330,00.html

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/kanye-west-storms-the-vmas-stage-during-taylor-swifts-speech-20090913

http://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/kanye-west-wages-twitter-war-with-britney-spears-2011141

Lil Wayne:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/timeline-the-criminal-history-of-lil-wayne-20101105

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20314783,00.html

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1679051/jay-z-kanye-west-lil-wayne-diss.jhtml

Jersey Shore and Christianity:

http://www.celebritytattoodesign.com/ronnie-magro-from-jersey-shores-surprisingly-meaningful-ink

Religion and Mainstream Television

Last week’s lecture was focused on the topic of broadcasting, and the discussion on the presence of Christianity reminded me the reason why I haven’t been as interested in television shows as before. If the idea of “television using metaphor” was brought up to me 5 years ago, I would say that television is my favorite baby-sitter, it comforted me through many years and I would consider it as the best remedy whenever I was sick. I haven’t been as addicted to television as I used to, I never really wondered why until recently.

I normally like all kinds of shows, though I have a very serious interest in horror and suspense. I was hooked on “Lost” for a long time, my all time favorite is “Desperate Housewives”, and I was addicted to “Supernatural” and “Ghost Whisperer” throughout high school. Interestingly, I actually never finished watching all seasons of any of these shows. I was crazy for “American Horror Story” a few months ago, but have already lost my passion for it after the first season. I lost my interest in “Lost” after a couple of seasons, and I started getting frustrated on the predictability of the storyline in “Supernatural”, as well as “Ghost Whisperer”. The only show that I am still caught up on is “Desperate Housewives”. I never understood why I could never finish watching a show, and it is through the recent article on cinematic Christ figure and last week’s discussion that made me realize the real reason behind my television watching habit. I figured that most televisions shows are actually based or related to religion, and they usually don’t reveal this at the beginning of the show. When television shows begin to uncover their hidden concept, they always center around a few themes, either something to do with suffering, salvation, demonic child, purgatory, or perhaps all of them, and this concept causes many television shows to be predictable because their themes are so similar.

"Lost" religious ending:

 http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-05-24/entertainment/27065253_1_finale-faith-spiritual-show

I thought “American Horry Story” was my typical type of show, but then at the end of the first season, the show starts becoming religious and the story gets predictable. I enjoyed the suspense in “Lost” a lot, and I would never have thought that it would be related to religion. However, throughout the seasons, there seem to be more references to Christianity, and this is revealed in the very last episode of the show where Jack dies, appears in a Church setting, and all the other characters were waiting for him to guide them. “Supernatural” was very addictive at the beginning, I knew it has something to do with supernatural beings but I wasn’t expecting it to be heavily Christianity-based, eventually I was tired of the predictable storyline that centers only on the fights between Angels and Demons. As for “Ghost Whisperer”, the only reason why I enjoyed it for a while was because it has something to do with ghosts, and just like “Supernatural”, I wasn’t expecting strong references to religion in this show so I eventually grew out of it.

Not what it seems to be, "American Horror Story" Trailer:

"Desperate Housewives" opening credits with Adam and Eve,
apple and evil snake.

During last lecture, we have discussed that as television become more commercialized, the more complex and richer the characters are. Perhaps because of this, the essence of religion in shows is harder to detect and most television shows don’t normally present religion at the beginning. I believe that without the constant reference to religion is what makes television shows interesting to me, as it gets more religious, the storyline usually gets duller and predictable, since its based on the typical faith and belief the religion holds, and that is possibly the reason why most shows fail to keep my interest in them. As for “Desperate Housewives”, it is an excellent television show that incorporates religious belief so well that most audience wouldn’t even recognize. It only subtly reveals the presence of Christianity throughout the seasons and on its opening credits, it devotes an episode on faith and named it “Sunday” and mostly relies on Bree’s character to keep up with its religious concept. “Desperate Housewives” is a successful religion-advertiser in a way that it does not make the essence of Christianity so evident that eventually causes the show to be dull and predictable. I believe that it is the subtleness of referencing to religion that keeps my interest in this show, and it is normally the concept of religion that limits the creation of a great storyline in many other television shows, and causes them to be the less successful advertisements of Christianity.


Detweiler, Craig and Barry Taylor. “Television” In A Matrix of Meanings, 185-219. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003.

A New Chapter of "Touched by an Angel"

"Little Angels"

We went through different Christian television shows throughout history in our last lecture, and we briefly talked about the show “Touched by an Angel”. As mentioned in class, this show was hugely successful at one point and lasted for 9 years (1994-2003). This afternoon, Access Hollywood invited the leading actress of the show, Roma Downey (Monica) for an interview. We studied the presence of Christianity in television shows and spent sometime discussing how Christian characters have turned richer and more complex overtime. I thought it would be interesting to look at what was behind the scene of this popular religious show, and what the actress who played the main character would have to say about her faith and how its presented in the show. According to the interview, Downey is a strong Christian and has been for a long time. She married her husband who is also a devoted Christian, and she is now working on another Christian television show called “Little Angels” that aims to spread her belief to children and teenagers. Her transition from being a main character in a hit show to behind the scene of a Christian cartoon is an interesting example of how she (as a Christian “advertiser”) found a way forward, and though her previous show didn’t last, she managed to find a way to sell her belief. 

Access Hollywood with Roma Downey:

http://www.accesshollywood.com/access-hollywood-live/how-did-roma-downey-and-mark-burnett-meet-and-fall-in-love_videotab_1386106

Little Angels:

http://www.christiancinema.com/catalog/newsdesk_info.php?newsdesk_id=1894

http://www.littleangels.com/

Response to "Christ Figures: Harmful…or Just Harmless?"

This is a response to Valdy's "Christ Figures: Harmful…or Just Harmless?"

Valdy,  I totally agree with you that Christ figures do seem to be harmless, and Kozlovic’s evaluative list of 25 characteristics definitely does help viewers to identify Christ figures in films. As Kozlovic mentions in his article, Hollywood movie makers often carry western-Christian centric background and their culture affects the production of films, and because of this, whether people notice it or not, the essence of Christianity can be found unexpectedly in many films.

Kozlovic’s evaluative list helps clarify and identify Christian essence in films, and Christ figures are not only harmless to Christianity, it may even be beneficial to the religion. As the blog says, defining Christ figures could help viewers develop an interest in Christianity. However, what can it do for non-Christians? Would it still be beneficial for the audience in general?

Looking at the issue from a non-Christian perspective, Christ figures do seem harmless at the first glance, although after thinking a little deeper in the issue, I started to wonder if it really is totally harmless? I agree with the blog that it is up to the viewer to interpret Christ figures in films, however, I do not think that the portrayal of Christ is totally harmless to everyone. I agree that it does not seem harmful to Christians, and the only problem for them is that some viewers might take the idea of Christ figures too far and misinterpret the film, though overall its still beneficial to the religion since it educates viewers on Christianity in a entertaining way, and would possibly help deepen the interest for the religion. I believe that everything has both sides, there are positive consequences and there are negatives.

In this case, Christ figures may seem harmless to those who believe, but it could be harmful for those outside of the religion. The essence of Christianity in films creates a sense of unity that gathers believers together, it gives the audience something to talk about, something that they share in common. At the same time, it may be propaganda for non-believers as it reinforces Christian ideas on them, and it also creates a sense of “othering” to those who do not belong or believe. Kozlovic uses many heroic characters as examples of Christ figures in his article, it appears that only Christians are heroic. Moreover, Kozlovic’s evaluative list of what is considered as Christ figures is based on his perspective of the religion, could he be limiting his scope into thinking that all good things must somehow be related to Christianity, and therefore all those heroic characters must be Christ figures?

As a Christian, recognizing Christ figures and the essence of Christianity in the media can be beneficial in educating one’s culture and tradition, as well as keeping it alive. As a non-Christian, these characteristics could be the boundaries between believers and non-believers, and it may also be propaganda that eventually limits one’s ability to choose wisely for their beliefs. As for those who understand the relationship between all these, Christ figures could be a manipulative tool to get what they desire. Everything has consequences after all.

Response to:

http://theinternetisthemessiah.blogspot.com/2012/02/christ-figures-harmful-or-just-harmless.html#comment-form

Kozlovic, Anton Karl. “The Structural Characteristics of the Cinematic Christ-Figure”. Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 8 (2004): 39 pp.

The Sacred Blue Eyes

The Kozlovic’s definition of Christ Figure: the Ultimate Advertisement of American Culture? 

Christ Figure? Totally.

Definitely.

We have discussed about many characteristics of determining Christ figure, I find one characteristic particularly interesting. As mentioned in Kozlovic’s article, the blue eyes!

Is Christ figure just another representation of the white dominated Hollywood culture? 

Although we have discussed that Christ figures can come in all different forms, Kozlovic seems to only consider 25 characteristics of what is considered as Christ figure. We discussed the example of “ The Greatest Story Ever Told” on the blue eye aspect of Jesus, it is purely intentional and it reflects the commonality of American. 

Kozlovic in this article of “the structural characteristic of cinematic Christ figure” argues the commonality of Christ figures in films, and he is concerned that the figures have been neglected, resisted and rejected. He creates an evaluative list of 25 characteristics that would define what is Christ figure. He does not mention whether Christ figure has to contain all these characteristics and he dismisses the possibility that there could be more than one Christ figures in a film. One of the most interesting characteristics of Kozlovic’s list, is a pair of piercing blue eyes.

Possibly...?

Kozlovic acknowledges the weirdness of a man with Jewish background to have bright blue eyes, though he believes that the color of blue is the color of the divine, of truth and of fidelity, and that it is also a symbol of purity, therefore Christ-figures would have blue eyes. In fact, blue eyes are normally considered as a recessive trait among all eye colors, it is not the most common eye color though one out of every six American is believed to have blue eyes. Is Kozlovic's blue eye Christ representing these people? Is he trying to make blue eyes superior by regarding it as somehow religious? Kozlovic uses many examples of how Christ figure is incorporated in popular Hollywood films such as Superman, the Day the World Stood Still…etc. Interestingly, these “Christ figures” not only match with Kozlovic’s idea of how Christ figure should look like, they are also very typical Hollywood, American looking figures. Kozlovic argues that due to the lack of biblical education, viewers are less appreciative of religion-incorporated films. Though, is it possible that Hollywood has shaped religion into a way that only certain people can relate, only those who resemble Christ figures? Is Christ figure some sort of advertisement that aims to sell religion to a targeted group: Americans, making religion only accessible to those who belong? As Kozlovic mentions, blue is chosen as representation of Jesus eyes because his eyes “must have been remarkable”, as for those who don’t own a pair of blue eyes, Kozlovic refers those as the “cinematic code for sickness, the demonic, and evil or bad aliens”. Kozlovic claims that his list would prevent viewers from seeing what they want to see, but in fact, is it helping him to see what he wishes to see?

Christ Figure? Not so much.

Kozlovic, Anton Karl. “The Structural Characteristics of the Cinematic Christ-Figure”. Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 8 (2004): 39 pp.