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revdorothyl at 05:44pm on 17/04/2004 under angel episode commentary
revdorothyl at 05:44pm on 17/04/2004 under angel episode commentaryContinuing thoughts on AtS 5.17 “Underneath”:
IV. What’s in a Name?
For some reason, I have always found it significant and possibly appropriate that, in the BtVS season 4 episode “Hush”, the silent prayer group meeting in the background of one of the street scenes is holding up a sign exhorting the worshipers to read some verses in the book of “Revelations.”
Granted, pluralizing the name of that book is probably the commonest error associated with the New Testament; somehow, even people who frequently read from that book manage to confuse it with Paul’s letters to the Galatians, Romans, Corinthians, etc., and assume that “Revelation” should be plural, as well.
But since what you call a thing affects how you treat that thing (as anyone knows who’s ever studied domestic violence or been the object of someone’s hatred or prejudice: usually, before the hand is raised to strike you, the voice is raised to re-name you, to call you something less than human, an “It” rather than a “Thou”), calling it the book of “Revelations” seems to go along with interpreting it as a series of separate prophecies or messages, rather than as one, unified, singular revelation to be interpreted in light of its whole message.
And, as Riley pointed out in “A New Man,” hanging out with Buffy for any length of time requires that one learn the plural of “apocalypse”—because (as noted in “Doomed” and “The Gift,” and probably many other episodes as well) there’s always another apocalypse or end-of-the-world crisis, if you make it through this one.
But now Lindsey insists that this is “The Apocalypse,” and not just any old garden-variety doomsday crisis or catastrophe. And he tells Angel that this is the Apocalypse that’s been going on all along, from the beginning of their adventures, presumably (or is it just from the moment they came to work at W&H?).
I could be reading too much into these few words, I know, but I’m beginning to wonder if the season/series finale of Angel will actually try to tie up all the loose threads, not just of this season’s story arc, but over the course of the entire series, or possibly even our heroes’ whole lives or un-lives? It will be interesting to see what happens next, in any case.
V. Eucastastrophe, or Are the Walls of the World Our Friends?
In one of the texts I sometimes refer to in my teaching, a book called GodStories: New Narratives from Sacred Texts, H. Stephen Shoemaker suggests that the book of Revelation can be read on two levels. On the first level, it is a survival document for a persecuted people, aimed originally at those persecuted under Domitian, but utilized by many others through the centuries. But, on the second level, the level of archetypes and symbols, it is a message that the forces of good will not be defeated, that the right side will win the final victory, and that there will be a final healing of all things. Shoemaker continues,
If we accept Tolkien’s valuation of what the biblical Revelation is all about (“‘a glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world’”), then this week’s episode might also be read as a sort of “anti-Apocalypse”: suggesting that we need those walls, and that no one (at least, according to Wesley) can endure too much truth, too many glimpses of what lies beyond the walls of our buildings and our routines.
After all, when the walls between all the worlds were suddenly and violently lowered in “The Gift”, Buffy and the Scoobies got a glimpse of something much more akin to the popular meaning of apocalypse, or even of ‘hell’, rather than any in-breaking of transcendent Joy.
Or was the Joy that Tolkien spoke of to be seen on Buffy’s face, instead, in the peace and loving purpose we saw there when she realized that she could do what needed to be done to make things better, to make things right?
Or was it the Joy that Buffy was so rudely ripped out of when she was summoned back to life as a Slayer in season 6?
I don’t know; I’m just playing with the possibilities, and enjoying the fact that we once again have new episodes to exegete and play with, at least for a little while longer.
For some reason, I have always found it significant and possibly appropriate that, in the BtVS season 4 episode “Hush”, the silent prayer group meeting in the background of one of the street scenes is holding up a sign exhorting the worshipers to read some verses in the book of “Revelations.”
Granted, pluralizing the name of that book is probably the commonest error associated with the New Testament; somehow, even people who frequently read from that book manage to confuse it with Paul’s letters to the Galatians, Romans, Corinthians, etc., and assume that “Revelation” should be plural, as well.
But since what you call a thing affects how you treat that thing (as anyone knows who’s ever studied domestic violence or been the object of someone’s hatred or prejudice: usually, before the hand is raised to strike you, the voice is raised to re-name you, to call you something less than human, an “It” rather than a “Thou”), calling it the book of “Revelations” seems to go along with interpreting it as a series of separate prophecies or messages, rather than as one, unified, singular revelation to be interpreted in light of its whole message.
And, as Riley pointed out in “A New Man,” hanging out with Buffy for any length of time requires that one learn the plural of “apocalypse”—because (as noted in “Doomed” and “The Gift,” and probably many other episodes as well) there’s always another apocalypse or end-of-the-world crisis, if you make it through this one.
But now Lindsey insists that this is “The Apocalypse,” and not just any old garden-variety doomsday crisis or catastrophe. And he tells Angel that this is the Apocalypse that’s been going on all along, from the beginning of their adventures, presumably (or is it just from the moment they came to work at W&H?).
I could be reading too much into these few words, I know, but I’m beginning to wonder if the season/series finale of Angel will actually try to tie up all the loose threads, not just of this season’s story arc, but over the course of the entire series, or possibly even our heroes’ whole lives or un-lives? It will be interesting to see what happens next, in any case.
In one of the texts I sometimes refer to in my teaching, a book called GodStories: New Narratives from Sacred Texts, H. Stephen Shoemaker suggests that the book of Revelation can be read on two levels. On the first level, it is a survival document for a persecuted people, aimed originally at those persecuted under Domitian, but utilized by many others through the centuries. But, on the second level, the level of archetypes and symbols, it is a message that the forces of good will not be defeated, that the right side will win the final victory, and that there will be a final healing of all things. Shoemaker continues,
It resembles in some ways the stories we call fairy tales, which themselves are filled with as much darkness and light as we can stand. The gospel story is, to use J. R. R. Tolkien’s phrase, a eucatastrophe, “the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous ‘turn’...and sudden miraculous grace.” And Revelation, again to use his words, “denies (in the face of much evidence if you will) universal final defeat..., giving a glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world....” [Shoemaker, p. 307, with Tolkien quote from Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth: the Gospel as Comedy, Tragedy, and Fairytale, p. 81]
If we accept Tolkien’s valuation of what the biblical Revelation is all about (“‘a glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world’”), then this week’s episode might also be read as a sort of “anti-Apocalypse”: suggesting that we need those walls, and that no one (at least, according to Wesley) can endure too much truth, too many glimpses of what lies beyond the walls of our buildings and our routines.
After all, when the walls between all the worlds were suddenly and violently lowered in “The Gift”, Buffy and the Scoobies got a glimpse of something much more akin to the popular meaning of apocalypse, or even of ‘hell’, rather than any in-breaking of transcendent Joy.
Or was the Joy that Tolkien spoke of to be seen on Buffy’s face, instead, in the peace and loving purpose we saw there when she realized that she could do what needed to be done to make things better, to make things right?
Or was it the Joy that Buffy was so rudely ripped out of when she was summoned back to life as a Slayer in season 6?
I don’t know; I’m just playing with the possibilities, and enjoying the fact that we once again have new episodes to exegete and play with, at least for a little while longer.
optimistic
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