Chev
Junior Member
Struggling to learn and grow.
Posts: 97
Pronouns: She/Her
Religion: Oh, ain't that the question
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Post by Chev on Jan 25, 2017 19:18:54 GMT -6
Where is it? Where is that line that separates a religion from its pop culture counterpart? Like how angels and the devil (and Metatron) are portrayed in Supernatural, the gods in the Heroes of Olympus series and also in... the Magnus Chase? series?
I know in the latter half of the thought that the author has essentially rubbed mud on the religion and doesn't believe how such a thing could be, but it's also the first, or only, interaction with those gods that some people get.
For example, I'd been reading PJO/HoO since it came out (with some stretches in between where I don't have access to a library to continue), and it was my first interaction with the Hellenic pantheon. Afterward, during the Roman arc, I found that there are individuals that still honor the Hellenic pantheon and others that are still coming into it. My views on the pantheon are obviously skewed and as such my interest in various gods/figures are skewed toward the books' representation.
If your view of the figure in question is so skewed by PC, does it make a PC relationship or does it go more toward it's 'origin source'?
In all honesty, I'm asking because of the portrayal of Hestia by the author. It's hard for me to see Hestia as much other than how she was portrayed in the books, though I know she's not just that, that there's more to her.
I guess another way to phrase the question would be, is it wrong to view a deity in their PC-portrayed form? Provided, of course, that they actually take from the source material and don't fuck up, similar to how Disney portrayed Zeus and Hades, if one wanted to phrase it as such.
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aneczyk
Newbie
Posts: 21
Pronouns: he/they
Religion: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but mostly Hellenic revivalist
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Post by aneczyk on Jan 26, 2017 0:05:14 GMT -6
As another Hellenic Riordan fan, I see the gods and entities in his books as just...characters. Just characters, who happen to be based on real beings but are, for all intents and purposes, completely separate from their real counterparts. Besides, magic in the Riordan universe is so different than the real thing (I can't figure out whether I'm happy about this ) that it's so easy to separate the two.
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Post by Allec on Jan 29, 2017 14:19:49 GMT -6
The line between what is a pop-culture entity and what is a deity from a culture is indeed difficult to draw at times, I think. I think since characters in Rick Riordan's universe are based on deities, but not trying to emulate the deities directly, it's safe to say that if someone started to honor Riordan's Zeus that entity would be different from the Greek Zeus.
I have heard of cases where someone begins by honoring a character's depictions of a deity only to get tapped on the shoulder by the actual deity (Marvel's Loki and people who reached out to the Marvel character, only to get Loki to respond, is what I'm thinking of.) But I imagine it'd take a lot of divination and conferencing with other devotees to confirm.
I'm not sure if it's right or wrong to view a deity in their PC-portrayed form as the deity. As in, I don't know if looking to Riordan's Zeus is going to help someone get close to Greek Zeus. As I mentioned before, their PC-form could perhaps be a gateway for Zeus to come knocking on someone's door. But Rick Riordan thinks real polytheism is silly and thus I don't think he was writing with the intent of maintaining the religious traditions and whatnot.
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Post by starlight on Feb 7, 2017 4:12:31 GMT -6
Where is it? Where is that line that separates a religion from its pop culture counterpart? [snip]... but it's also the first, or only, interaction with those gods that some people get. It makes me annoyed, tbh, when writers take deities/angels/energies-of-the-otherworldy-type and twist them to fit their stories. It's spreading misinformation, I feel. As soon as something is put into words, it becomes "truth" - can any of us, after all, ever un-hear or un-read or un-see? We may question later, but the idea is still there in existence. And existence is a kind of "truth". (Dean and Sam in Supernatural got to grips with the personage of _Sam Hain_, no less, the "spirit of Hallowe'en"! *rolls eyes*) Those stories have the potential to get swallowed whole without question by more impressionable people. As to what the dividing line is... perhaps we have to take *everything* in popular culture with a pinch of salt. I wonder if this could be considered a kind of cultural appropriation?
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Post by starlight on May 24, 2017 6:17:12 GMT -6
Crumbs, I'm just reading back over my last post - I could have phrased what I was saying a bit better.
I think what I meant was that today we have the internet, streaming tv, podcasts, webinars, hangouts, etc. etc. etc. and there are so many ways to meet more people online than we could do face to face in our physical location. Ideas can be shared in an instant. Stories are powerful and we've been exposed to so many in our lives than perhaps the creators of new stories/movies/comics want to put a spin on things to give people a jolt or surprise - basically to keep them hanging in there until the end of the movie or show or book.
Stories were once about sharing information to keep us alive or help us to live better lives. Today it's mostly about entertainment - and money, which means we need to be more discerning about the stories we accept.
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