1 00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:04,360 Speaker 1: Hello, everyone. I went to see the Superman movie. I've 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,120 been kind of out of the superhero movie stuff for 3 00:00:07,160 --> 00:00:10,679 a while now because it was so horrible, and you know, 4 00:00:10,720 --> 00:00:13,439 I heard that this one was different, and because I 5 00:00:13,480 --> 00:00:16,600 did like the James Gunn movies in Marvel, figured i'd 6 00:00:16,640 --> 00:00:18,320 go see the movie. And I have to say that 7 00:00:18,399 --> 00:00:21,760 I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't a great movie. It's 8 00:00:21,800 --> 00:00:25,800 pretty mid in general in terms of movies, but it 9 00:00:25,879 --> 00:00:28,960 definitely wasn't woke. I have to say. It wasn't d I. 10 00:00:29,320 --> 00:00:32,799 It wasn't It didn't have all of the the annoying 11 00:00:32,880 --> 00:00:36,200 characteristics and the kind of preachiness that you see in 12 00:00:36,479 --> 00:00:38,479 that you've been seeing in movies now for the past 13 00:00:38,920 --> 00:00:43,119 two decades. It was a Superman movie, a basic Superman movie. 14 00:00:43,320 --> 00:00:46,240 There was, of course, one trope that was changed, and 15 00:00:46,280 --> 00:00:48,079 I'll mention that at the end of the video if 16 00:00:48,119 --> 00:00:50,600 you don't want to get spoiled. But I wanted mostly 17 00:00:50,679 --> 00:00:53,439 at the outset to look at the symbolism of Superman 18 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:57,920 and to kind of understand the symbolism of Superman, especially 19 00:00:57,960 --> 00:01:02,600 in terms of it's a American narrative you could call it, 20 00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:06,799 or you could also call it something like again post 21 00:01:06,799 --> 00:01:09,959 World War two consensus narrative. Of course Superman comes from 22 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:15,159 before World War Two. But there is already that story 23 00:01:15,280 --> 00:01:18,519 of the relationship, let's say, between two different types of 24 00:01:18,560 --> 00:01:21,040 thinking of the excess of the one and the excess 25 00:01:21,040 --> 00:01:24,840 of the many, was already there before World War Two. 26 00:01:24,879 --> 00:01:27,040 It's just that because the Allies are the ones who 27 00:01:27,120 --> 00:01:29,840 won during World War Two, that story, you know, you 28 00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:34,719 could say, the Superman's story, the American story, became the trope, 29 00:01:34,799 --> 00:01:38,319 or became the pattern for most storytelling, at least in 30 00:01:38,359 --> 00:01:54,000 the West. And what is that story? This is Jonathan Pegel, 31 00:01:54,680 --> 00:02:07,400 Welcome to the symbolic world. Now. The first thing to 32 00:02:07,480 --> 00:02:12,800 understand about Superman, just from a conceptual level, I really 33 00:02:12,800 --> 00:02:15,719 do believe that it is to understand it as a 34 00:02:16,199 --> 00:02:22,879 reaction or as as a comment on Nietzsche's uber Mensh. 35 00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:27,319 In some ways, Superman is very much not directly on 36 00:02:28,199 --> 00:02:31,319 the uber mans per se, but on a vision or 37 00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:34,439 an interpretation of the uber Mansh as was being developed 38 00:02:34,800 --> 00:02:38,960 in Germany with the kind of slow rise of fascistic ideas. 39 00:02:39,759 --> 00:02:43,639 The Superman character becomes in some ways a reaction to that, 40 00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:47,199 to that, whether conscious or not, it doesn't really matter. 41 00:02:47,639 --> 00:02:50,599 It's a different type of Superman. What's the difference between 42 00:02:50,879 --> 00:02:55,000 the one Superman and the other. And so Superman is, 43 00:02:55,599 --> 00:02:58,919 first of all, was created by two Jewish writers, and 44 00:02:59,039 --> 00:03:01,159 in some ways I do believe that it does reflect, 45 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:04,960 if not their personal experience, but in some ways the 46 00:03:05,759 --> 00:03:09,159 reality of the Jewish reality in Europe and the Jewish 47 00:03:09,199 --> 00:03:12,039 reality in the world for the past few thousand years, 48 00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:14,599 which is in some ways to be a stranger in 49 00:03:15,039 --> 00:03:18,120 a strange land. You know. You can also of course 50 00:03:18,199 --> 00:03:23,120 understand the destruction of Crypton and the exiling of Superman 51 00:03:23,919 --> 00:03:27,159 into a strange land, as you know, the destruction of 52 00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:31,719 Jerusalem and the exiling of the Jews into strange land. 53 00:03:33,759 --> 00:03:35,960 And so that is the one thing that is important. 54 00:03:35,960 --> 00:03:39,039 But that narrative of the let's say, the stranger that 55 00:03:39,159 --> 00:03:41,439 is exiled and is now living in this strange land 56 00:03:42,080 --> 00:03:45,479 gets in some ways tagged on to the very story 57 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:48,719 of the United States as a kind of federation, This 58 00:03:48,879 --> 00:03:52,599 idea of a group of diverse people of different people 59 00:03:52,719 --> 00:03:55,879 that kind of come into a place and decide to 60 00:03:55,879 --> 00:04:00,199 make a project together and decide to ally themselves in 61 00:04:00,319 --> 00:04:04,400 order to exist together. But this existence together is very 62 00:04:04,479 --> 00:04:09,919 much focused on the individual on individual rights, on difference 63 00:04:10,360 --> 00:04:13,960 as a kind of you know, a kind of power 64 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:16,519 that you can tap into, and multiplicity as a power 65 00:04:16,560 --> 00:04:19,839 that you can tap into. Now, you know, these narratives 66 00:04:19,839 --> 00:04:22,399 aren't completely clean, of course, you understand they are all 67 00:04:22,480 --> 00:04:24,680 kinds of little counter narratives. But if you kind of 68 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:29,160 see it basically generally as a basic story that it 69 00:04:29,199 --> 00:04:36,360 was especially becoming true in twentieth century America, especially, you know, 70 00:04:36,519 --> 00:04:40,240 moving towards the second part of the twentieth century, with 71 00:04:40,399 --> 00:04:43,800 the civil rights movement kind of becoming important and all 72 00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:46,839 of these different things happening, the World War Two consensus 73 00:04:46,920 --> 00:04:51,120 kind of setting itself down, Then the story of Superman 74 00:04:51,240 --> 00:04:59,720 crystallizes as really an important story in American's America's mythology. Now, 75 00:05:00,680 --> 00:05:04,160 which interesting about the superhero genre itself, and of course 76 00:05:04,160 --> 00:05:08,160 Superman is the first superhero, and to represent it very 77 00:05:08,240 --> 00:05:11,600 much is that there are a lot of things butting 78 00:05:11,680 --> 00:05:14,680 up against each other. One is, of course, people talk 79 00:05:14,720 --> 00:05:18,040 about the superheroes as the gods. That is a very 80 00:05:18,079 --> 00:05:21,079 big mistake. The superheroes are not the gods. They're more 81 00:05:21,120 --> 00:05:27,000 like demigods. They're more like they're more like Gargoyle's right, 82 00:05:27,040 --> 00:05:33,439 they're more like these hybrid figures that protect the world 83 00:05:33,639 --> 00:05:37,800 from danger. And that's why the superheroes look the way 84 00:05:37,839 --> 00:05:42,639 they do, right, They're not the ones that participate in 85 00:05:42,680 --> 00:05:46,560 the unitary identity of the world. They're always strange in 86 00:05:46,560 --> 00:05:48,399 some ways. They always kind of come from the outside. 87 00:05:48,720 --> 00:05:51,639 So you have Superman is an alien from another planet, 88 00:05:51,680 --> 00:05:55,399 Batman dresses up as an animal, and the Scary you have, 89 00:05:55,839 --> 00:05:58,600 you know, Martian Manhunter for Goodness Stake, you have Wonder 90 00:05:58,639 --> 00:06:01,759 Woman who's in Amazon. You know, all of these superheroes. 91 00:06:02,120 --> 00:06:05,000 You have this weird sense that in some ways they 92 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:11,439 are more like exterior things coming together, joining in a 93 00:06:11,560 --> 00:06:14,639 kind of league in order to defend the world against 94 00:06:14,639 --> 00:06:19,199 any So they have much more in common with protector 95 00:06:19,240 --> 00:06:22,040 figures in that sense, more much more in common with 96 00:06:22,439 --> 00:06:26,480 gargoyle type activities than they do with the idea of 97 00:06:26,480 --> 00:06:30,759 the gods themselves. So maybe they're like little titular spirits, 98 00:06:30,759 --> 00:06:34,160 but like titular spirits in the really in the apotropeic sense, 99 00:06:34,240 --> 00:06:36,600 that is, in the sense of something strong and scary 100 00:06:36,639 --> 00:06:39,319 that you put on the border in order to stop 101 00:06:39,600 --> 00:06:43,839 the stop the invaders from coming outside. And in that case, 102 00:06:44,240 --> 00:06:47,360 because that's what they are, they also have something in 103 00:06:47,439 --> 00:06:49,839 common with that which is from the outside, right, And 104 00:06:49,879 --> 00:06:53,560 so what does Superman protect us against? You see it 105 00:06:53,560 --> 00:06:57,639 in Superman too, especially he protects us against the He 106 00:06:57,759 --> 00:07:02,480 protects us against the the the Kryptonians, right, he protects 107 00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:06,959 us against things that are similar to where he comes from. 108 00:07:07,319 --> 00:07:13,160 You know. The stranger that enters in and then gets 109 00:07:13,279 --> 00:07:16,079 joined to the unity of the group is the best 110 00:07:16,079 --> 00:07:18,839 tool you have in order to fight that which comes 111 00:07:18,839 --> 00:07:22,279 from the outside. If you think about how, for example, 112 00:07:22,480 --> 00:07:26,279 the Byzantine Emperor had a Ringian guard. He had all 113 00:07:26,319 --> 00:07:29,920 these Scandinavians that he hired in his service, and they 114 00:07:29,959 --> 00:07:33,480 would come to Byzantium and then would owe everything to him, 115 00:07:33,720 --> 00:07:36,079 of course, because he's the one who brought them there, 116 00:07:36,319 --> 00:07:39,040 and so therefore became very loyal to the emperor and 117 00:07:39,199 --> 00:07:42,879 was able to defend the emperor against outer threat and 118 00:07:42,920 --> 00:07:46,519 also defend the emperor against people who would be corrupt 119 00:07:47,319 --> 00:07:50,000 in his own organization. So this is of course the 120 00:07:50,079 --> 00:07:53,160 model that we're looking at when we're looking at figures 121 00:07:53,240 --> 00:07:55,839 like Superman or like the superheroes. In some ways, it 122 00:07:55,920 --> 00:07:58,839 is the power of the convert, right, the power of 123 00:07:58,839 --> 00:08:01,160 the convert who who comes into the church from the 124 00:08:01,199 --> 00:08:04,920 outside and then becomes a Christian and then has a 125 00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:08,839 kind of zeal to defend the church against heresy and 126 00:08:08,879 --> 00:08:11,800 to defend the church against people from the outside. And 127 00:08:11,839 --> 00:08:14,800 it's the same in some ways with the immigrant who 128 00:08:14,879 --> 00:08:17,480 kind of really wants to come in and to join 129 00:08:17,720 --> 00:08:22,759 into the nation. And once that person has joined, you know, 130 00:08:22,800 --> 00:08:25,480 once they've been let in, you could say they owe 131 00:08:25,519 --> 00:08:27,600 so much to the people that let them in that 132 00:08:27,720 --> 00:08:31,480 now they become And also because they know about what's 133 00:08:31,519 --> 00:08:33,399 on the outside, they kind of come from the outside, 134 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:35,960 they have the power of the outside, if you can say, 135 00:08:35,960 --> 00:08:37,919 a kind of strength of the border, a strength of 136 00:08:37,960 --> 00:08:42,480 the outside, so they can then turn that strength towards 137 00:08:42,759 --> 00:08:46,240 the outer power. There are all kinds of stories like that. 138 00:08:46,279 --> 00:08:49,440 There are insane stories that we use in God's Dog. 139 00:08:49,559 --> 00:08:51,519 Legends that we use in God's Dog. For example of 140 00:08:51,600 --> 00:08:55,399 Saint mer Curius who encounters the dog headed men and 141 00:08:55,440 --> 00:08:58,080 then he converts these dog headed men to his service. 142 00:08:58,440 --> 00:09:01,360 But then when he faced his monsters and when he 143 00:09:01,399 --> 00:09:03,840 face his enemies, he can kind of turn the dog 144 00:09:03,919 --> 00:09:07,279 headed men against the enemies. And so he has these 145 00:09:07,279 --> 00:09:10,240 monstrous converts that come in and then they become the 146 00:09:10,279 --> 00:09:12,799 best tool to fight on the outside. And so this 147 00:09:12,919 --> 00:09:18,320 is what in some ways Superman represents. And so what 148 00:09:18,440 --> 00:09:23,440 makes Superman, though, such a perfect superhero? Why is he 149 00:09:23,519 --> 00:09:26,799 the perfect superhero? And it is because Superman in some 150 00:09:26,840 --> 00:09:32,240 ways is the integrated stranger. He is the fully integrated stranger. 151 00:09:32,559 --> 00:09:37,840 He is someone who has this identity from the outside 152 00:09:37,879 --> 00:09:41,159 and in this sense also a very powerful identity, one 153 00:09:41,200 --> 00:09:45,159 which is kind of a sense of almost like heavenly 154 00:09:45,799 --> 00:09:49,480 royal or scientifically advanced. That's the version you get, of 155 00:09:49,519 --> 00:09:54,159 course in the can I say this, that's the twentieth 156 00:09:54,200 --> 00:09:57,799 century version of that, which is like this highly technically 157 00:09:57,879 --> 00:10:00,600 advanced civilization that he's left and that he's kind of 158 00:10:00,679 --> 00:10:03,039 brought with him, you could say. And he has all 159 00:10:03,080 --> 00:10:06,960 of that power, the power of the outside, but he 160 00:10:07,200 --> 00:10:11,320 fully joins to the nation. That is that he submits itself. 161 00:10:11,399 --> 00:10:14,120 He submits himself, especially in the early comics of the 162 00:10:14,159 --> 00:10:18,840 American way, he fights for the country that has adopted him. 163 00:10:19,320 --> 00:10:24,840 He also passes for one of the people, for the 164 00:10:24,879 --> 00:10:27,879 people of the nation. So his Clark Kent figure is 165 00:10:27,960 --> 00:10:31,840 completely integrated into society. He doesn't stand out, he doesn't 166 00:10:32,240 --> 00:10:36,600 he doesn't you know, try to go against the grain, 167 00:10:36,759 --> 00:10:42,559 try to impose his Kryptonian ways on the humans. Rather, 168 00:10:42,840 --> 00:10:46,559 he takes on completely the identity of the people inside, 169 00:10:46,639 --> 00:10:50,279 and he only manifests, you could say, his strangeness when 170 00:10:50,759 --> 00:10:56,559 he is defending the nation or defending his new home 171 00:10:56,879 --> 00:11:01,440 from outside attackers or from corruption within. And so because 172 00:11:01,440 --> 00:11:03,519 of that, that's why in some ways he becomes the 173 00:11:03,519 --> 00:11:07,080 perfect superhero, because he is he both has the power 174 00:11:07,600 --> 00:11:13,960 of this outside monstrous kind of strange, extraterrestrial alien sense, 175 00:11:14,720 --> 00:11:19,000 but then he is also completely devoted to the people 176 00:11:19,080 --> 00:11:22,759 that he has joined, and he uses his strength to 177 00:11:23,039 --> 00:11:28,000 defend the world against the evils from the outside that 178 00:11:28,279 --> 00:11:30,600 are coming to attack it. So that's why, in some 179 00:11:30,679 --> 00:11:34,639 ways Superman is such a perfect superhero. And it's also 180 00:11:34,720 --> 00:11:38,279 i think a reason a good image of what America 181 00:11:38,360 --> 00:11:43,399 the United States can be if America is properly aligned, 182 00:11:43,720 --> 00:11:49,320 which is to understand that, you know, when more hardright 183 00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:52,720 wing people say, you know, America isn't a land of immigrants, 184 00:11:52,759 --> 00:11:56,519 it's like America is the land of immigrants, folks. America, 185 00:11:56,559 --> 00:12:00,320 you know, its whole narrative is about people gathering people 186 00:12:00,320 --> 00:12:04,399 from the outside and then joining them to the nation. 187 00:12:04,720 --> 00:12:06,960 In a way that is a melting pot and in 188 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:10,559 a way that brings about the American identity. But that 189 00:12:10,799 --> 00:12:14,320 is what gives the strength. That's an aspect of the 190 00:12:14,320 --> 00:12:16,720 identity of America that gives its strength is that it 191 00:12:16,799 --> 00:12:20,519 is capable of bringing in a lot of difference in multiplicity, 192 00:12:20,840 --> 00:12:24,039 but then it does join it to its to itself. 193 00:12:24,440 --> 00:12:27,879 So what is the power of the immigrant, the power 194 00:12:27,919 --> 00:12:32,120 of the immigrant. If the immigrant gives himself to the 195 00:12:32,240 --> 00:12:36,320 new identity, you kind of unleash this secret power, right, 196 00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:39,320 the secret power of the convert, the secret power of 197 00:12:39,679 --> 00:12:42,440 the newcomer that has all this new energy and that 198 00:12:42,519 --> 00:12:45,799 once it's joined to the group, then radiates out. Right. 199 00:12:45,799 --> 00:12:50,159 It's the secret power of the Norman conversion that when 200 00:12:50,200 --> 00:12:54,120 the Normans convert to Christianity, they bring in this new 201 00:12:54,279 --> 00:12:57,200 secret power and then they go out and they you know, 202 00:12:57,240 --> 00:13:01,480 they basically become they they do the crusades because it's 203 00:13:01,519 --> 00:13:04,240 this kind of new energy that joins with this this 204 00:13:04,320 --> 00:13:07,480 world and then radiates out. And so this is one 205 00:13:07,480 --> 00:13:09,879 of the important things about Superman, and I think it 206 00:13:09,919 --> 00:13:15,600 also speaks in some ways to the if we come 207 00:13:15,639 --> 00:13:18,799 back to Siegul and Schuster, who created Superman in some ways, 208 00:13:19,559 --> 00:13:23,480 it comes back to one to one of the aspects 209 00:13:23,480 --> 00:13:26,600 that has made America so powerful is that one of 210 00:13:26,639 --> 00:13:30,600 the things that the United States did is that they 211 00:13:30,679 --> 00:13:34,559 welcome the Jewish people that were excluded from all the 212 00:13:34,600 --> 00:13:38,320 different nations. And so they said to the Jews that 213 00:13:38,360 --> 00:13:42,120 were being that were being kind of beaten on in 214 00:13:42,559 --> 00:13:45,840 Russia during the around the times of the Russian Revolution, 215 00:13:46,399 --> 00:13:48,279 and they said, you can come to America. The same 216 00:13:48,320 --> 00:13:50,919 with those in Europe that are being persecuted, and they said, 217 00:13:50,919 --> 00:13:53,440 come to America. And in some ways the deal was 218 00:13:53,559 --> 00:13:57,200 come to America. But it's the same deal as everybody else, 219 00:13:57,279 --> 00:14:02,279 like put your service in put your intelligence, put your capacities, 220 00:14:02,320 --> 00:14:07,679 put your strength in service of the nation. And that 221 00:14:07,840 --> 00:14:10,679 is one aspect of what has made the United States 222 00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:14,600 so great. So for those who have been following, we 223 00:14:14,639 --> 00:14:18,279 are about to launch our new Rapunzel books very soon. 224 00:14:18,799 --> 00:14:21,080 We were so excited to get this into people's hands 225 00:14:21,080 --> 00:14:25,000 that we actually airshipped about one thousand copies and some 226 00:14:25,080 --> 00:14:27,960 people were able to access those one thousand copies we 227 00:14:28,039 --> 00:14:30,039 sold I think it was nine hundred copies we had 228 00:14:30,039 --> 00:14:32,759 on sale. We sold nine hundred copies in like twenty 229 00:14:32,799 --> 00:14:37,080 six hours. And so I'm really excited to see how, 230 00:14:37,360 --> 00:14:40,159 you know, people reading it and getting the first glimpses. 231 00:14:40,159 --> 00:14:43,240 We already have some reviews coming in. It was also 232 00:14:43,279 --> 00:14:45,759 a way for us to test our new shipping service 233 00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:48,159 and our new distribution service, and we couldn't believe it. 234 00:14:48,240 --> 00:14:50,639 People were getting their books. Some got it on the 235 00:14:50,639 --> 00:14:53,639 same day that they ordered it, other people's got them 236 00:14:53,639 --> 00:14:57,159 one day two days later, and so we're really happy 237 00:14:57,200 --> 00:15:01,480 to see this new distribution system work out. And so 238 00:15:01,559 --> 00:15:04,039 we decided that the book is going to be launching 239 00:15:04,480 --> 00:15:07,919 explicitly in about a month, but we decided to still 240 00:15:07,919 --> 00:15:10,879 do a pre order for those who are interested because 241 00:15:11,360 --> 00:15:14,159 I recorded an audiobook version of the Rapunzel Book, and 242 00:15:14,200 --> 00:15:17,039 we also put together a kind of worksheet to go 243 00:15:17,080 --> 00:15:19,440 through the story with your kids, with your family. So 244 00:15:19,480 --> 00:15:21,600 we thought we could offer that to those who were 245 00:15:21,639 --> 00:15:24,159 willing to pre order the book. Those that already bought 246 00:15:24,159 --> 00:15:26,919 the first very first one thousand copies were able to 247 00:15:26,919 --> 00:15:28,840 get in, and so we wanted to extend that offer 248 00:15:28,919 --> 00:15:31,360 to those who wanted to pre order, and so go 249 00:15:31,440 --> 00:15:35,840 to rapunzelbook dot com and get your book. I cannot 250 00:15:35,840 --> 00:15:37,919 wait for people to read this because this is where 251 00:15:38,120 --> 00:15:40,360 the story gets interesting. This is where the threads are 252 00:15:40,399 --> 00:15:42,639 going to start to come together and where the characters 253 00:15:42,679 --> 00:15:45,399 are going to start to repeat. So get in on 254 00:15:45,720 --> 00:15:47,799 Tales for once and ever. This is the third book. 255 00:15:47,799 --> 00:15:50,919 We still got a whole bunch coming. We've got three 256 00:15:50,960 --> 00:15:56,159 books that are in production right now, and so yeah, excited. 257 00:15:56,279 --> 00:15:58,480 This is the thing that gets me the most excited 258 00:15:58,720 --> 00:16:00,919 is this fairy Tale project. Thanks to everybody and go 259 00:16:00,919 --> 00:16:05,720 get your book. One of the problems that is happening 260 00:16:05,759 --> 00:16:07,440 now this is in some ways that kind of the 261 00:16:08,159 --> 00:16:11,200 end of the World War two consensus or like that. 262 00:16:11,440 --> 00:16:14,799 How it's starting to mess with people's minds is that 263 00:16:16,480 --> 00:16:21,840 if Superman had come and had tried to, let's say, 264 00:16:22,120 --> 00:16:25,879 was serving the interest of Krypton while he was in 265 00:16:25,919 --> 00:16:29,919 America and it wasn't clear what his allegiance was, right, 266 00:16:30,120 --> 00:16:35,679 whether his allegiance was to America or to Crypton, then 267 00:16:35,759 --> 00:16:39,320 he would he could not be the same character. He 268 00:16:39,399 --> 00:16:42,840 could not be Superman, he could not have the power 269 00:16:42,919 --> 00:16:45,360 that he has, and in some ways he would be 270 00:16:45,480 --> 00:16:51,159 constantly suspect of being a trader, constantly suspect of serving 271 00:16:51,519 --> 00:16:54,639 the interest of something which is from the outside. Now, 272 00:16:55,039 --> 00:16:57,879 now it comes to the New Superman movie, which I'm 273 00:16:57,919 --> 00:17:00,399 going to spoil for you, so if you haven't seen 274 00:17:00,440 --> 00:17:03,240 it yet, you can maybe stop watching the video right now. 275 00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:05,200 And so one of the things they do in the 276 00:17:05,279 --> 00:17:09,680 New Superman movie is they change one aspect of his 277 00:17:09,720 --> 00:17:15,319 origin story. What they do is that when Superman arrives, 278 00:17:15,319 --> 00:17:19,119 there's a video with the spaceship and there's a message 279 00:17:19,119 --> 00:17:21,200 from his parents that tell him to kind of join 280 00:17:21,279 --> 00:17:24,559 to this new country. It's a beautiful new planet, and 281 00:17:24,240 --> 00:17:26,519 to join himself with these people. And I think it 282 00:17:26,559 --> 00:17:29,920 says to like serve these people. But then half of 283 00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:32,720 the message is corrupted and so he only hears the 284 00:17:32,759 --> 00:17:36,200 first half, and that's what leads him to become Superman, right, 285 00:17:36,240 --> 00:17:40,079 So basically he serves the people he has this kind 286 00:17:40,079 --> 00:17:45,200 of serves the good of the nation of the planet 287 00:17:45,200 --> 00:17:48,000 where he is. But then in the movie they figure 288 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:50,039 out a way to decode the last part of the message, 289 00:17:50,039 --> 00:17:51,839 and they find out that in the second part of 290 00:17:51,839 --> 00:17:55,359 the message, his parents basically say, you know, you're the powerful, 291 00:17:55,440 --> 00:17:58,680 they're very weak, you know, and so dominate them, rule 292 00:17:58,720 --> 00:18:03,200 over them. And then he also like basically inseminate as 293 00:18:03,240 --> 00:18:06,079 many human women as possible in order to kind of 294 00:18:06,079 --> 00:18:11,920 repopulate the world with the Kryptonian the Kryptonian lineage, you know. 295 00:18:12,839 --> 00:18:15,279 And so because of that, all of a sudden, now 296 00:18:15,440 --> 00:18:20,839 Superman is rightly so in the movie, rightly so suspect 297 00:18:21,279 --> 00:18:25,920 of being a kind of a foreign agent. He's suspect 298 00:18:26,039 --> 00:18:28,519 of being a foreign influence. Of all of a sudden, 299 00:18:29,079 --> 00:18:32,160 his power becomes dangerous for the for the United States 300 00:18:32,160 --> 00:18:35,319 because why is he doing it? Right? Is he doing 301 00:18:35,359 --> 00:18:38,880 it because he wants to take the strength of America 302 00:18:38,920 --> 00:18:42,359 and give it to the Kryptonian lineage, take the strength 303 00:18:42,359 --> 00:18:45,599 of American, give it to the Kryptonian power, and subjugate 304 00:18:45,759 --> 00:18:50,240 that power to himself. And so it's I found it 305 00:18:50,279 --> 00:18:52,680 to be a very smart move, a very interesting thing 306 00:18:52,799 --> 00:18:56,599 to do, because in some ways, what James Gunn does 307 00:18:56,680 --> 00:18:59,839 is he says, you know, the danger of people coming 308 00:18:59,839 --> 00:19:03,799 from from the outside is real, Like it's real if 309 00:19:04,119 --> 00:19:06,480 the people that come from the outside and join to 310 00:19:06,680 --> 00:19:11,599 your group are still have a strong allegiance to the 311 00:19:11,640 --> 00:19:13,759 place where they come from. Because in some ways you're 312 00:19:13,799 --> 00:19:17,160 taking the power right. In Proverbs five, it talks about 313 00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:20,200 the idea is you know that beware the strange woman, 314 00:19:20,359 --> 00:19:24,960 beware the loose woman. You know her tongue drips honey, 315 00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:27,640 but her feet are down in shale, and it says 316 00:19:27,680 --> 00:19:29,680 to beware of her because what she will do is 317 00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:33,119 she will basically take your strength and give it to 318 00:19:33,519 --> 00:19:37,799 the stranger. She'll take your identity and she'll dissipate it 319 00:19:37,880 --> 00:19:42,039 out into something else which is not you. And so 320 00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:44,240 I was really surprised and kind of impressed by the 321 00:19:44,279 --> 00:19:48,440 fact that James Gunn dares to make that part of 322 00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:52,240 his story to say that, you know, the Kryptonians can 323 00:19:52,319 --> 00:19:55,079 be represented as this invader in some ways, right, the 324 00:19:55,119 --> 00:19:58,880 alien invader that tries to take over. But that what 325 00:19:59,160 --> 00:20:02,680 happens is that super Man realizes that he finds more 326 00:20:02,759 --> 00:20:06,319 value in his adopted home and that he kind of 327 00:20:06,319 --> 00:20:10,480 swears allegiance to his adopted parents, realizes that they're the 328 00:20:10,519 --> 00:20:13,880 ones who really gave him his values. They're the ones 329 00:20:13,920 --> 00:20:17,000 that have provided for him a home to live, and 330 00:20:17,039 --> 00:20:21,240 so he basically switches and then starts to instead of 331 00:20:21,279 --> 00:20:25,319 playing that message from his Kryptonian parents, he then watches 332 00:20:25,359 --> 00:20:27,920 these videos of when he was a child being raised 333 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:32,279 by his very very American parents. Surprising again in the 334 00:20:32,279 --> 00:20:36,119 movie is that he gives those parents a Southern accent 335 00:20:36,440 --> 00:20:38,799 that might seem like a detail, but that is not 336 00:20:38,920 --> 00:20:43,359 a detail in American iconography, which is that the Southern 337 00:20:43,440 --> 00:20:48,160 accent in American Hollywood iconography is usually to show someone 338 00:20:48,200 --> 00:20:52,440 as being stupid, or to show someone as being backwards 339 00:20:52,599 --> 00:20:58,079 and as being you know, kind of hicic like and 340 00:20:59,400 --> 00:21:03,359 and social regressive. All of these are what is being 341 00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:06,519 signaled in American movies and in American media when they 342 00:21:06,519 --> 00:21:09,079 show someone with a Southern accent, which is why most 343 00:21:09,119 --> 00:21:12,480 people that enter into media try to get rid of 344 00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:15,799 their Southern accent. Which in the movie, of course Superman 345 00:21:15,920 --> 00:21:17,799 does that, you know, so we could. I don't know 346 00:21:17,799 --> 00:21:21,000 what that exactly means, but nonetheless, what he ends up 347 00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:24,359 doing is he ends up kind of giving his allegiance 348 00:21:24,440 --> 00:21:30,079 to his southern you know, kind of homegrown parents. And 349 00:21:30,119 --> 00:21:32,079 I found that to be a very beautiful thing in 350 00:21:32,119 --> 00:21:34,519 some ways, and I thought that I'm really surprised that 351 00:21:34,640 --> 00:21:38,279 Gun went in that direction and signal things in that direction. 352 00:21:38,839 --> 00:21:41,200 And so what it does is it shows you, you know, 353 00:21:41,279 --> 00:21:43,920 the need for yes, people that come from the outside, 354 00:21:43,920 --> 00:21:47,039 but also yes they have to if they want to 355 00:21:47,119 --> 00:21:49,720 join a nation, if they want to join if someone 356 00:21:49,720 --> 00:21:52,680 from the outside wants to join your team or your 357 00:21:52,799 --> 00:21:57,279 company or your nation, they have to have an allegiance 358 00:21:57,359 --> 00:22:00,400 to the reason why they're there. They can't own, only 359 00:22:00,839 --> 00:22:04,799 care for the place where they come from on the outside. 360 00:22:04,799 --> 00:22:07,240 And that is in some ways what is happening now, 361 00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:10,720 like all of the madness of so many things that 362 00:22:10,759 --> 00:22:15,240 are happening in the narrative, you know, several of the wars, 363 00:22:15,319 --> 00:22:18,200 but then also the immigration crisis the United States, the 364 00:22:18,200 --> 00:22:21,960 illegal immigration crisis, all of these are this story shaking, 365 00:22:22,039 --> 00:22:25,759 which is, you know, how can we integrate things from 366 00:22:25,799 --> 00:22:31,920 the outside, you know, without being dissipated, without being completely 367 00:22:31,960 --> 00:22:36,319 taken over, and without our strength moving towards outer or 368 00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:41,079 foreign interests. So, you know, and if you pay attention 369 00:22:41,799 --> 00:22:44,880 right all of that, whether it is the way in 370 00:22:44,920 --> 00:22:47,880 which people are trying to suggest that, you know, the 371 00:22:48,519 --> 00:22:52,640 right wing people are beholden to Russia, or whether it's 372 00:22:52,839 --> 00:22:56,480 now people trying to say that Americas behold into Israel, 373 00:22:56,759 --> 00:22:59,440 or whether it's trying to say, you know, all of 374 00:22:59,480 --> 00:23:04,319 these different narrative everything about also the problem of you know, 375 00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:07,960 millions of immigrants coming from the southern border are all 376 00:23:08,039 --> 00:23:14,359 about how do we both understand America as as a 377 00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:17,400 nation that integrates people from the outside, But how do 378 00:23:17,440 --> 00:23:20,680 we formulate that integration as a true integration and one 379 00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:25,039 that serves the interests of the place itself and not 380 00:23:25,799 --> 00:23:29,119 and not the and not give power to the outside. 381 00:23:29,200 --> 00:23:32,079 And so Superman in some ways, in his in his 382 00:23:32,880 --> 00:23:36,079 imagery is the best example of that is a beautiful 383 00:23:36,079 --> 00:23:39,480 example of someone who comes from the outside and puts 384 00:23:39,519 --> 00:23:43,599 his strength to the service of the place where he is. 385 00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:48,279 You know, this is of course the story also that's 386 00:23:48,319 --> 00:23:51,079 kind of playing out in the movie in the series Invincible, 387 00:23:51,440 --> 00:23:54,000 you know, surprised to see also this coming into the 388 00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:56,759 Superman story. But these are the questions that are important. 389 00:23:57,799 --> 00:24:01,480 And uh and but I would say, you know, if 390 00:24:01,519 --> 00:24:03,119 you want to watch a movie, I would say, go 391 00:24:03,160 --> 00:24:05,359 see the Superman movie. It's worth. It's worth in some 392 00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:09,160 ways rewarding. People are not going insane. There are still 393 00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:11,559 tropes that are annoying in it. Of course, the bad 394 00:24:11,599 --> 00:24:15,279 guys Russian you know, of course, you know, I mean, 395 00:24:15,799 --> 00:24:17,839 there are things that are that are just kind of 396 00:24:18,240 --> 00:24:21,000 kind of tedious in the in the movie. But I 397 00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:23,599 would say most of all, it's just a basic kind 398 00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:29,039 of action superhero story that tries to recapture the power 399 00:24:29,079 --> 00:24:31,279 of the first superhero in a way that I think 400 00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:34,440 is is done quite well. And so thanks everybody for 401 00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:37,240 your attention. Hope you enjoy this and to talk to 402 00:24:37,279 --> 00:24:40,119 you very soon. Bye bye. If you enjoy these videos 403 00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:43,119 and podcasts, please go to the Symbolic world dot com 404 00:24:43,160 --> 00:24:45,799 website and see how you can support what we're doing. 405 00:24:46,079 --> 00:24:49,319 There are multiple subscriber tiers with perks. There are apparel 406 00:24:49,319 --> 00:24:51,799 in books to purchase, So go to the symbolic world 407 00:24:51,839 --> 00:24:53,960 dot com and thank you for your support.