Fantasy Faiths
“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”)
Nunnyunnini
16000 years ago, the Mammoth Skull God Nunnyununni accompanies his tribe across the land bridge from Siberia to a new world in this mesmerizing sequence from American Gods.
“Pop Culture – a New Source of Spirituality?”
Pavol Kosnáč writes for the Abide University and Institute website – AUI itself being the laid-back academic branch of the Dudeist faith – on the subject of pop-culture religions; As Terry Pratchett once said, religion requires believers – if there is no religion, the god is not believed in, and ceases to be ‘god’ to … Read more“Pop Culture – a New Source of Spirituality?”
Meanwhile City
A re-cut of the “Meanwhile City” storyline from the 2008 movie Franklyn, in which private investigator/masked vigilante Jonathan Preest – the only atheist in a fantastical metropolis of bizarre religions – pursues a vendetta against a shadowy cult leader known as “the Individual”.