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Random Philosophical Thoughts
Sep. 26th, 2010 10:37 pmI've been rereading bits and pieces of Tim Allen's book I'm Not Really Here, and something about some of the discussions on the nature of God sparked a thought about Corpse Bride. Specifically, how the hell is Victor (and hell, probably the rest of the town) supposed to get back to a normal life?
Let me put it like this: The town in Corpse Bride is nominally Christian. (The original folktale is Jewish, yes, but we're just focusing on the movie here). That is, they've got a church, and they've got a pastor. This seems to indicate that the town is Protestant, though Wikipedia says some of the other branches of Christianity use the term too. Whatever they are exactly, they're Christian. Now, this means Victor's grown up in that faith, right? He's probably gone to church all his life. His background includes a religion that's told him there's two afterlives -- heaven for the good, hell for the bad. Possibly he's heard of purgatory, I'm not up on who gets taught what. He's also probably been taught that magic doesn't exist (except for miracles), or if it does, it's evil witchcraft. (I can definitely see Pastor Galswells taking that line.) He most likely never thought twice about what he's learned theologically.
Then he marries a corpse bride.
Now, think about this for a minute. At the end of the movie, Victor's received what amounts to a MAJOR mindfuck! He's not only temporarily raised the dead, he's discovered the afterlife is not at all what he thinks it should be! The Land of the Dead wasn't mentioned in any Bible. Some people do believe it's a form of purgatory, but let's face it -- none of us know the rules. And neither does Victor. He's seen an afterlife that is neither eternal punishment nor eternal paradise -- it's just life with brighter colors, rotting flesh, and the fun meter turned up to the maximum. One where dogs and children can end up no less. And he's learned that magic is in fact real -- if being dragged down to the Land of the Dead by a corpse bride wasn't proof enough, Elder Gutknecht's Ukrainian Haunting Spell had to be. Everything he's been taught to believe may in fact be wrong. How exactly do you deal with that?
As for the villagers -- they saw the dead fucking rise. And while it was a happy event overall, that's gotta leave some confusion/fear/what have you behind. How do they deal with it?
Most fanfic writers I've seen who write about Victor and Victoria post-CB gloss over this. Player Piano's fics, for example, are all pretty simple pieces about an ordinary life between two people in love. One of her fics did deal a little with how weird it was for everything to just go back to normal, but the damn thing's unfinished, and I'm not entirely sure everything would. Another does touch upon Victor's parents and Victor having an argument about whether or not this "Land of the Dead" really exists, though the main thrust of that fic is people thinking Victor faked his own death to commit adultery and then murdered Barkis Bittern (and this one is unfinished too). Most fics, though, just focus in on Victor and Victoria having kids or something like that.
To be fair, though, what little I've written for canon-related CB (instead of hooking Victor up with Alice) does the same. I do mention in "Corpse Mask" that Stephen, Victor's friend and the "Charlie" analogue (from The Mask) thought he'd initially moved into a town of lunatics when he first heard the corpse bride story. And Pastor Galswells now very firmly believes that Victor is touched by Satan (in "Bonds of Holy Matrimony," my Victor/Victoria wedding fic, he actually refuses to marry them because of this). It's a tough issue to tackle, though, especially when you're as theologically impaired as I am. (My family and I don't really believe in any organized religion, ya see.) I suppose I should be thankful I'm more interested in hooking up Victor and Alice and dodging most of the issue. Though, if I ever wanted to try and get that "Victor goes a little crazy after the movie" fic off the ground. . . .
Anyway, sorry to ramble at you all like this -- I really just needed to get it out of my head.
Let me put it like this: The town in Corpse Bride is nominally Christian. (The original folktale is Jewish, yes, but we're just focusing on the movie here). That is, they've got a church, and they've got a pastor. This seems to indicate that the town is Protestant, though Wikipedia says some of the other branches of Christianity use the term too. Whatever they are exactly, they're Christian. Now, this means Victor's grown up in that faith, right? He's probably gone to church all his life. His background includes a religion that's told him there's two afterlives -- heaven for the good, hell for the bad. Possibly he's heard of purgatory, I'm not up on who gets taught what. He's also probably been taught that magic doesn't exist (except for miracles), or if it does, it's evil witchcraft. (I can definitely see Pastor Galswells taking that line.) He most likely never thought twice about what he's learned theologically.
Then he marries a corpse bride.
Now, think about this for a minute. At the end of the movie, Victor's received what amounts to a MAJOR mindfuck! He's not only temporarily raised the dead, he's discovered the afterlife is not at all what he thinks it should be! The Land of the Dead wasn't mentioned in any Bible. Some people do believe it's a form of purgatory, but let's face it -- none of us know the rules. And neither does Victor. He's seen an afterlife that is neither eternal punishment nor eternal paradise -- it's just life with brighter colors, rotting flesh, and the fun meter turned up to the maximum. One where dogs and children can end up no less. And he's learned that magic is in fact real -- if being dragged down to the Land of the Dead by a corpse bride wasn't proof enough, Elder Gutknecht's Ukrainian Haunting Spell had to be. Everything he's been taught to believe may in fact be wrong. How exactly do you deal with that?
As for the villagers -- they saw the dead fucking rise. And while it was a happy event overall, that's gotta leave some confusion/fear/what have you behind. How do they deal with it?
Most fanfic writers I've seen who write about Victor and Victoria post-CB gloss over this. Player Piano's fics, for example, are all pretty simple pieces about an ordinary life between two people in love. One of her fics did deal a little with how weird it was for everything to just go back to normal, but the damn thing's unfinished, and I'm not entirely sure everything would. Another does touch upon Victor's parents and Victor having an argument about whether or not this "Land of the Dead" really exists, though the main thrust of that fic is people thinking Victor faked his own death to commit adultery and then murdered Barkis Bittern (and this one is unfinished too). Most fics, though, just focus in on Victor and Victoria having kids or something like that.
To be fair, though, what little I've written for canon-related CB (instead of hooking Victor up with Alice) does the same. I do mention in "Corpse Mask" that Stephen, Victor's friend and the "Charlie" analogue (from The Mask) thought he'd initially moved into a town of lunatics when he first heard the corpse bride story. And Pastor Galswells now very firmly believes that Victor is touched by Satan (in "Bonds of Holy Matrimony," my Victor/Victoria wedding fic, he actually refuses to marry them because of this). It's a tough issue to tackle, though, especially when you're as theologically impaired as I am. (My family and I don't really believe in any organized religion, ya see.) I suppose I should be thankful I'm more interested in hooking up Victor and Alice and dodging most of the issue. Though, if I ever wanted to try and get that "Victor goes a little crazy after the movie" fic off the ground. . . .
Anyway, sorry to ramble at you all like this -- I really just needed to get it out of my head.
