Stan Lee explicitly cited traditional mythology as the inspiration for modern extended superhero universes, down to co-opting literal gods like Thor. But there’s a weakness in that MCU type memeplexes aren’t taken seriously enough. Nobody draws on it for theology!and philosophy
Conversation
Otoh it’s hard to make serious additions to actual historic living traditions that do have that. Norse mythology can be appropriated into comic book universes because there is no living tradition. This is why I think you can’t just make up new Vishnu plot-lines and retcon them.
1
3
27
There’s always been a modern comic book industry around Hindu mythology (amar chitra katha) but they never take serious liberties with the canon. At most you can tell new fan fiction stories on the margins that don’t affect canon.
2
1
28
But I wonder… could you actually develop an MCU type thing that has the felt depth and gravitas of old living traditions but also the narrative freedom to tell new stories? If you can do that you could rule the world. I suspect anime pulls that off to some extent.
6
7
58
Rajamouli’s movies (Bahubali series) are a brave attempt to create entirely new stories in the spirit of Hindu mythology but I suspect the incumbency of the living canon is just too strong and entrenched to compete with. New material can’t rise above “entertainment” 🤔
1
39
In the west, modern Christian storytelling (eg Hallmark movies) seems to ignore literal mythology and build an alt extended universe around Christian values, but I think it doesn’t really work. Either culturally or economically. It’s a kind of resistance art/rearguard action
3
1
28
In both East and west, post-canon-freeze storytelling seems to effectively reduce to “lives of saints” stuff, which I can’t help but read as Mary-Sue stories. Eg Mirabai story reads like a Mary Sue story adjacent to Krishna canon to me.
1
20
Islam tries really hard to counterprogram this human tendency to make fandom larps of everything but I don’t think it succeeds. Sufi saint culture is exactly the same, despite the strictures against representational art.
2
3
22
I suspect people who take religion seriously try to look for its cultural adaptive functions at too high a level of abstraction, like “meaning making”
The adaptive function is mainly at the action figure level for 90% of “believers.” Narrative sensemaking with Mary Sue options.
3
1
31
Replying to
As in intellectualizing or not-intellecualizing? I like de Botton. He gets the latter point, going by other books.

