Jonathan Pageau talks about the power of narratives you can live in, that's essentially what cosplay is. You and Rod spoke awhile ago about the failure of New Atheism, this Comicon is a visible sign of why it failed, there was nowhere to go with their materialism, no way to build a narrative people could inhabit. Given the choice between being a random collection of atoms in a random universe, or being a misplaced wizard that never got his Hogwarts letter, folks will go for misplaced wizard 11/10 times.
Just yesterday I listened to Bishop Barron's interview with Tara Isabella Burton: https://www.wordonfire.org/videos/wordonfire-show/episode340/. Her book, "Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World," studies this relationship between fandom and these new religions.
Bishop Barron tried to identify if there was any universal truth asserted by the churches of Harry Potter or of the Avengers. The answer seemed to be no. It's intriguing to me that activities like cosplay and composing fan fiction dovetail with the assertion that the only truth is to be found in our individual selves. Attending Comicalooza is a shared group experience, but each participant is dressed in a specific costume, almost declaring his own creed through his dress. Is it like some ecumenical conference of people who are worshiping their own mutually exclusive, rival gods? Or is the shared bit just some belief in narcissism, like toddlers who play in each other's company but don't actually engage each other?
Personally, I'm convinced that the popularity of the Marvel movies featuring Thor underlie the Defense Department's recent inclusion of Troth and Odinism (aka "Asatru") as valid religions for military personnel: https://dwp.dmdc.osd.mil/dwp/api/download?fileName=ushris_faith_belief_code_table.docx&groupName=milUSHRIS. (My son tells a great story about a friend who joined him at Mass on a carrier. The friend, after having happily attended several pagan rites, was bewildered and discomfited at the incense, the Latin Agnus Dei, and the kneeling. "You have one crazy religion!" he told my son.)
Kale, my view of such conventions has been forever poisoned after reading Moira Greyland's "The Last Closet: The Dark Side of Avalon". The gods we perceive may appear "unworthy and even frivolous gods", but believe me, underneath all lives Moloch.
Jonathan Pageau talks about the power of narratives you can live in, that's essentially what cosplay is. You and Rod spoke awhile ago about the failure of New Atheism, this Comicon is a visible sign of why it failed, there was nowhere to go with their materialism, no way to build a narrative people could inhabit. Given the choice between being a random collection of atoms in a random universe, or being a misplaced wizard that never got his Hogwarts letter, folks will go for misplaced wizard 11/10 times.
Just yesterday I listened to Bishop Barron's interview with Tara Isabella Burton: https://www.wordonfire.org/videos/wordonfire-show/episode340/. Her book, "Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World," studies this relationship between fandom and these new religions.
Bishop Barron tried to identify if there was any universal truth asserted by the churches of Harry Potter or of the Avengers. The answer seemed to be no. It's intriguing to me that activities like cosplay and composing fan fiction dovetail with the assertion that the only truth is to be found in our individual selves. Attending Comicalooza is a shared group experience, but each participant is dressed in a specific costume, almost declaring his own creed through his dress. Is it like some ecumenical conference of people who are worshiping their own mutually exclusive, rival gods? Or is the shared bit just some belief in narcissism, like toddlers who play in each other's company but don't actually engage each other?
Personally, I'm convinced that the popularity of the Marvel movies featuring Thor underlie the Defense Department's recent inclusion of Troth and Odinism (aka "Asatru") as valid religions for military personnel: https://dwp.dmdc.osd.mil/dwp/api/download?fileName=ushris_faith_belief_code_table.docx&groupName=milUSHRIS. (My son tells a great story about a friend who joined him at Mass on a carrier. The friend, after having happily attended several pagan rites, was bewildered and discomfited at the incense, the Latin Agnus Dei, and the kneeling. "You have one crazy religion!" he told my son.)
Kale, my view of such conventions has been forever poisoned after reading Moira Greyland's "The Last Closet: The Dark Side of Avalon". The gods we perceive may appear "unworthy and even frivolous gods", but believe me, underneath all lives Moloch.