Poltergeists – Well – I arrieved to work this morning only to discover that mischievous poltergeists had been at work messing up my books. The greatest joy my brand of poltergeist can achieve results from the random pushing in and pulling out of books on my book shelves. No doubt they were enjoying the sight of me feverishly lining them all up again into just the right way to give me a false sense of order in my world.

 

As a servant of the most high God I refuse to bow to their childish level and leave them any sort of food offering (most likely gummy worms are required). So this is part of the cross I must bear <s i g h> but bear it I will – perhaps in their efforts to create chaos they will come across a book they want to read and I would happily loan it to them in exchange for row upon row of neat, organized spines.  😉

 

Superheroes – In other news I was walking to work this morning listening to my iPod on shuffle when Superman starts playing by FiveforFighting. Great song. I started thinking about the phonomenon of the ‘superhero’ and how it embodies the American psyche. For all intents and purposes superheroes as we have seen them in comic books (and more recently film) really were birthed out of and came of age through the fire and adversity of World War II and to a lesser extant the great depression.

 

The archetype is Superman but one could argue that Batman and Spider-Man create an archetypal trinity. The story of the superhero is the story of American culture to a great degree. The superhero bears the cultural angst and burden of being America in a modern world. Just watch any of the recent movies Superman, Batman Begins or any of the Spider-Man trilogy and you can almost hear the collective American voice crying out – "am I the only one who has a sense of justice in this world?", "must I be the one to bear the burden of executing judgement?"and "are the consequences of my salvific activity to be isolation and bitter misunderstanding on the part of the ones I love?".

 

The response to all these questions in the American psyche is a collectively groaned "Yes" followed by a weary yet sacrificial trudging into the future. This ideas, these myths are what help push America along the path it has chosen. Before superheroes were the great heros of the wild west who acted in the same way to justify the actions of a rogue nation.

 

More on this later…