“Making Fictional Faiths Real: Invented Religions”
Click here to listen to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Soul Search interview with Prof. Carole Cusack on the subject of invented religions.
Fantasy Faiths
New Eden: Science Fiction Mythologies Transformed (ArtScience Museum of Singapore, 21 Oct 2023 – 3 Mar 2024)
Click here for more information on this exhibition. “New Eden: Science Fiction Mythologies Transformed” offers fresh insights on science fiction, a genre built on envisioning alternative futures and imaginary realms. The lines connecting science fiction with Asian philosophy and mythologies are brought to light through the work of twenty-four Asian women artists and collectives. The … Read moreNew Eden: Science Fiction Mythologies Transformed (ArtScience Museum of Singapore, 21 Oct 2023 – 3 Mar 2024)
“Gods for Future Religions”
A gallery of images from El Paso artist Ho Baron’s 2022-23 exhibition, Gods for Future Religions. According to Baron’s 2012 book on the same theme: The existing religions of the world will one day evolve into others or possibly disappear as people grow disillusioned, bored and tired of their same old myths. Lacking imagination, the … Read more“Gods for Future Religions”
“Justified and Ancient” – the KLF and Tammy Wynette (1991)
Justified and Ancient was written and produced by the British music/performance art/culture-jamming group The KLF, who were inspired by the mock-conspiracy-theory, quasi-occult, “high weirdness” movement more-or-less started by the underground classic novel The Illuminatus Trilogy. Basically, they thought it would be hilarious to have country legend Tammy Wynette star in a pop-music video based on … Read more“Justified and Ancient” – the KLF and Tammy Wynette (1991)
“Girls Gone Greek”: The Bacchic Underpinnings of “Yellowjackets”
Sakhi Thirani writes for JSTOR on the Maenadic/Bacchic themes underpinning the TV series Yellowjackets: Forget the hype likening Showtime’s Yellowjackets to Lord of the Flies. Pungent, witty, and downright disgusting, the hit series about a high school soccer team whose plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness is far more than a rigid gender swap. Yellowjackets, set to launch its second … Read more“Girls Gone Greek”: The Bacchic Underpinnings of “Yellowjackets”
Religions of Oz
Gregory Maguire’s Wicked series of novels deepens L. Frank Baum’s classic Oz mythos by expanding their psychological, cultural, political and religious themes. In Baum’s stories, the only religious impulse even alluded to is a faith in Lurline the Fairy Queen, who was in a sense the creatrix of Oz in that she was responsible for … Read moreReligions of Oz
The Rites of Mu
During the 1991 Summer Solstice, at least 20 British music industry figures and journalists partook in a Wicker Man-inflected magical mystery tour on the Hebridean Isle of Jura organized by the KLF.
“Why Fictional Religions Feel So Fake”
The ReligionForBreakfast YouTube channel offers advice for science fiction and fantasy worldbuilders towards creating imaginary religions that feel lived-in and real.
The Clock People (from “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues”)
Above: Pat Morita in the godawful film version of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, which omits the Clock People storyline entirely. For your own sake, read the novel instead. The Clock People manage their anarchism (if that is not a contradiction) simply because they have channeled all of their authoritarian compulsions and control mania into … Read moreThe Clock People (from “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues”)