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Superhero Creation Myths

2011-03-11 · Hank · watch on YouTube · Pop culture · reflection essay

Lower-confidence wave

2011 videos did not pass the QA gate (17 %); their analysis is shown but less reliable.

Pre-recorded before his Haiti trip, Hank says there is no science of zombies, then argues that how fiction creates supernatural beings and superheroes (disease, radioactivity, genetic modification, pills) reveals what a culture is obsessed with and afraid of.

What is said

00:00:00 — Hank is 'in Haiti': he pre-records this video because he will have no internet there

  • ★★ Hank says he is pre-recording this video because he will be in Haiti, without internet, by the time John sees it. — 00:00:01 · Haiti

00:00:09 — Answering requests for the science of zombies: there is none; life depends on homeostasis

  • ★★ Answering viewer requests, Hank says there is no science of zombies: no undead creature can exist, since life is a complex balance that fails if any part breaks down (homeostasis). — 00:00:09 · zombie

00:00:37 — How fiction creates supernatural beings: zombies, werewolves and vampires by disease; violence vs romance; sex, disease and violence as forces for early humans

  • ★★★ Hank asks how fiction creates supernatural beings, and what that says about the people who write and enjoy those stories. — 00:00:37
  • ★★ Hank says fictional zombies are generally created by disease, like rabies, and werewolves and vampires are other disease-based conversions from natural to supernatural. — 00:00:47 · zombie
  • ★★ Hank says zombies are a disease based in violence and vampires one based in romance, which is why women prefer vampires and men zombies, like action movies versus chick flicks. (playful) (hedged) — 00:01:05 · zombie
  • ★★ Hank says this is unsurprising because sex, disease and violence were probably among the most important forces in early humans' lives. (hedged) — 00:01:30

00:01:42 — Superheroes since the 1930s get power from what we believe holds power: Spider-Man's radioactive spider becomes a genetically modified one; a list of culturally powerful things

  • ★★★ Hank argues that newer myths by fiction and comic writers give the same insight: superheroes get their power from things we believe, or believed, hold great power. — 00:01:42
  • ★ Hank says superheroes began to be created in about the 1930s. (hedged) — 00:01:47
  • ★★★ Hank says Spider-Man first got his powers from a radioactive spider when atomic power promised cheap energy and threatened destruction; a later revamp replaced it with a genetically modified spider. — 00:01:54
  • ★★★ Hank concludes that the aura of mystery, power and fear once around radioactivity and atomic energy has moved to genetic modification. — 00:02:15
  • ★★ Hank lists things with power and mystique in our culture (money, technical expertise, government, atomic power, space, the internet, particle physics, genes, brains); obsession with each, and its use in superhero origins, rises and falls. — 00:02:28

00:02:47 — John's zombie apocalypse novella mixes genetically engineered crops with the zombie myth: everyone falls into the archetype

  • ★★ Hank tells John his zombie apocalypse novella did the same, mixing genetically engineered crops with the zombie myth to get corn-planting zombies: he fell into the archetype like everyone. (playful) — 00:02:47

00:03:06 — New origins as indicators of obsession and fear: an upcoming pill-genius movie; superheroes let us analyse ourselves; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank says he watches for new ways superheroes are created, since they clearly indicate what we are becoming obsessed with and afraid of. (hedged) — 00:03:06
  • ★★ Hank cites an upcoming movie in which an out-of-work writer takes a pill and becomes a super-genius, reflecting fear and fascination about brain chemistry and pharmaceuticals. — 00:03:14
  • ★★★ Hank says superheroes seem to be just for fun but let us analyse ourselves, what we are obsessed with and afraid of, which are often the same thing. (hedged) — 00:03:25

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