ON THE
Bookshelf
Mutants and Mystics
In his latest book, Jeff Kripal boldly goes where few religious studies pro fessors have gone before. In it, he writes about the creators of comic books and science fiction as heirs and producers of modern mystical literature. Kripal, the J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Religious Studies and chair of the Department of Religious Studies, introduced this idea in his previous book, “Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred.” Now, in “Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal,” he ar gues that much of the recent popular culture of the United States — from the early pulp fiction magazines of the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s, through the sci-fi novels of Philip K. Dick, to the most recent Marvel Comics blockbuster mov ies — is concerned with what has come come to be called the paranormal. In the opening chapter, Kripal explained his his project as “showing how these modern mythologies can be fruitfully fruitfully read as cultural transformations of real-life paranormal paranormal experiences, and how there is no way to disentangle disentangle the very public pop-cultural products from from the very private paranormal experiexperiences. And that, I want to suggest, is is precisely what makes them fantastic.” fantastic.” “Mutants and Mystics” is a work work of comparative religion set in the modern modern era. Starting with the fifirst rst “Superman” “Superman” comic in 1938, Kripal weaves discussions of of modern mythmaking, enlightenment experiences and autobiographical accounts of extreme religious experiences experiences into a single, overarching “super-story.” Describing the Superman Superman character as a sort of proto-shaman or “crashed alien,” the author author explores the mythical themes of mutation and alienation in the story of the “man of steel.” These concepts, in turn, link Superman to accounts of alien alien visitors that proliferated after World War II and continue into the present. “I think we should be looking very, very closely at these sorts of wild,
untamed experiences,” Kripal said in an interview, “as what I think we are looking at is religion in the making before it becomes religion.” Kripal is adamant that the narratives of these artists and authors contain meaning. “We simply need to stop shaming, humiliating, demonizing and dis missing individuals who come forward with heartfelt descriptions of their own encounters with the impossible,” he said. “We also need to integrate these narratives and experiences into our models of the world, be these advanced in the humanities or the sciences. I am completely completely convinced that the cultural taboos around these things are really quite quite weak and basically insecure. The truth is that the vast majority of thinking thinking individuals are utterly, and rightly, fascinated by these extraordinary extraordinary events.” Kripal wants his new new book to challenge the common assumptions people people make about profound, lifelife changing, often mind-blowing mystical experiences. “We think that the reexperiences. ally good stuff lies safely in the past, ally preferably in another language,” preferably Kripal said. “We think that these Kripal events are always coded in religious events or theological theological terms, that they have nothnoth ing to do do with psychical phenomena, that UFO or alien frames frames automatically translate into ‘fraudulent’ or ‘crazy.’” ‘crazy.’” Kripal suggests that anomalous religious experiexperi ences often are closely linked linked to artistic and literary genius. “Paranormal events often act act and look like living narratives or stories,” he said. “Most simply put, I want to revisit the notion that writing and reading are essentially magical activities.” —Franz Brotzen
”Mutants and Mystics” is the winner of the 2011 PROSE Award for Media and Cultural Studies from the American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence.
“Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmsted, Abolitionist, Conservationist, and Designer of Central Park,” by Justin Martin ’87 (Da Capo Press, 2011).
“Topsy-Turvy: How the Civil War Turned the World Upside Down for Southern Children,” by Anya Jabour ’95, assistant professor of history at the University of Montana (Ivan R. Dee, 2010).
“Matter in the Floating World: Conversations with Leading Japanese Architects and Designers,” by Blaine Brownell ’98, assistant professor of architecture at the University of Minnesota School of Architecture (Princeton Architectural Press, 2011).
“The World, the Flesh, and the Devil: A History of Colonial St. Louis,” by Patricia Cleary ’84, professor of history at California State University at Long Beach (University of Missouri Press, 2011).
“No Right Turn: Conservative Politics in a Liberal America,” by David T. Courtwright ’79, Presidential Professor at the University of North Florida (Harvard University Press, 2010).
Rice Magazine
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No. 12
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2012
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