SCENESSCENESSCENESSCENES
    0
  •   was successfully added to your cart.
  • Home
  • Country
  • Pop
  • Rock
  • Americana
  • R&B
  • Culture
  • Premium
  • About
  • Contact
    • Music Submissions
    • Advertising
      • Media Kit
    • Customer Support
  • Shop

C.S. Lewis, Comic-Con, and the Epic Heroic Quest

    Home Culture C.S. Lewis, Comic-Con, and the Epic Heroic Quest

    C.S. Lewis, Comic-Con, and the Epic Heroic Quest

    By John Seel | Culture, Feature, The New Copernicans | Comments are Closed | 19 July, 2017 | 0

    If C.S. Lewis were alive today, he would be found in San Diego tomorrow. This is the beginning of Comic-Con 2017, the annual comic and pop culture extravaganza that began as the Golden State Comic Book Convention. Today it showcases graphic novels, superhero movies, video games, animation, and all the exploding aspects of fantasy culture. Why would Lewis, the stately Oxford and Cambridge University don, be concerned with pop culture’s obsession with comic books?

    The DC and Marvel universe is the popular cultural platform where myth meets and shapes the national social imaginary. This is where “the deep magic from before the dawn of time” is explored. Over 130,000 persons will spend the next four days participating in this pop culture pilgrimage—and by participating I mean in full superhero costume.

    It might be easy to write off Comic-Con attendees as adolescent-video-loving nerds the likes of Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang. But this would be a huge mistake. Comic-Con, along with the Burning Man festival held a month later in Nevada, is the contemporary epicenter of the New Copernican ethos. These are the two sacred sites of the contemporary zeitgeist. It might look like frivolous escapism to the uninitiated, but here one finds passion, thoughtfulness, and spiritual questing in full flowering.

    In Tolkien’s essay, “On Fairy Stories,” he writes, “In what the misusers of the term ‘escape’ are fond of calling Real Life, Escape is evidently as a rule very practical, and may even be heroic…. Why should a man be scorned, if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls? The world outside has not become less real because the prisoner cannot see it.”

    Tolkien’s assumption here is that the mythical world is more real or at least a deeper dimension to reality than the alleged “Real Life” of the day-to-day status quo. Those who quest for the mythic are thus in this sense “heroic.” Attendees at Comic-Con seek to return to the world outside the prison wall of their day-to-day lives. They want to touch the hem of something greater. They attend because they want to go home, to connect with the boundaries of “deep magic.” In this sense, Narnia is the real world, not London. This reversal of perspective must be appreciated. These are not lazy video game and comic book obsessed millennials, but the early adopters of a burgeoning spiritual movement.

    Catholic paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin observed, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human one.” Home is thus this wider, deeper, mythical reality celebrated in popular culture at Comic-Con.

    There will be over 3,000 reporters, bloggers, and other media folks covering this event. Many will fail to appreciate the heroic nature of the costumed attendees. Started 47 years ago with 300 friends, today attendance is capped at 130,000, but everyone realizes that it could grow much, much larger. It is a major economic driver in San Diego and the city leadership is working hard to keep the event based there. Meanwhile the shadowy guardians of Comic-Con are seeking to protect the brand, its authenticity, and keeping it from “jumping the shark.” With the blockbuster success this summer of Wonder Woman, the pressure will be on both; for this event has become a cultural phenomenon.

    C.S. Lewis believed that folk and fairy tales, heroic stories, and legends help baptize the imagination and open people up to a deeper spiritual search. For this older adults and religious leaders should be grateful to Comic-Con and would do well to get in the queue.

    C.S. Lewis, Comic Con, spiritual quest, Tolkein

    Related Post

    • You Won’t Believe The Story Behind this Graphic Novel Sensation…

      By Elizabeth Kennedy Ryzewicz | Comments are Closed

      One of the freshest talents emerging in the graphic novel space also has one of the most extraordinary personal stories…

    • The Anti-PC: An Emerging Genre in NYC Playwriting

      By Christopher Atamian | Comments are Closed

      Noted playwright Larissa Fasthorse brings some Thanksgiving fun and a fresh new genre to the New York City theater scene with her farcical The Thanksgiving Play.

    • Tim Tebow: The Unlikely Entertainment Icon

      By Chad Bonham | Comments are Closed

      This Heisman Trophy winner and professional athlete turned broadcaster, author, and philanthropist says servant leadership is the key to his success.

    • Celebrating Pirandello in New York

      By Christopher Atamian | 1 comment

      SCENES New York City writer Christopher Atamian covers Theatre 71’s ensemble presentation of “Raison d’Etre: an Evening of Pirandello,” directed by Patrick Mulryan.

    • What’s The Small Buzzy Performing Arts Group in Malibu That Has The Today Show Gushing?

      By Elizabeth Kennedy Ryzewicz | Comments are Closed

      What is it about the small, revolutionary non-profit that Jack Hayford has called “one of the most innovative worship ministries of today,” and has Kathie Lee Gifford gushing on The Today Show? SCENES Media sat down with the Cantinas Arts Foundation leadership to hear what has got the arts, faith and entertainment world talking.

    • Sign up for our Daily Digest, where we deliver the top headlines in music and exclusive SCENES Live Sessions details straight to your inbox!

    Download Sessions and Buy Merch

    • Uche on SCENES Live Sessions $2.99
    • Fellow Robot on SCENES Live Sessions $2.99
    • Nashville Love T-Shirt $25.00
    • SmithField on SCENES Live Sessions $2.99
    • Levi Riggs on SCENES Live Sessions $2.99
    • Media Kit
    • Privacy Policy
    © 2022 | All Rights Reserved
    • Home
    • Country
    • Pop
    • Rock
    • Americana
    • R&B
    • Culture
    • Premium
    • About
    • Contact
      • Music Submissions
      • Advertising
        • Media Kit
      • Customer Support
    • Shop
    SCENES
      0 items
    This website uses cookies to improve your experience. You can opt-out should you want to. Cookie settingsACCEPT
    Privacy & Cookies Policy

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT