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prairiedust · 5 years

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The Folklore of Supernatural

Part two of a series I started with this post.

I’m reposting this as the second installment of my midseason hiatus “The Folklore of Supernatural” series, even though it was originally written as kind of a long cracky way of looking at the “sleeping beauty trilogy” of episodes in season 14 (The Scar, Mint Condition, and Nightmare Logic.) The original question I was tagged into was “Is Dean actually dreaming?” and I can not find the original post about this, so I won’t tag anyone in particular (you know who you are and I love you because this was fun to write.) I posted it once in the dead of night with no tags, but I’m republishing it as part of my larger take on folklore as a theme in season 14 of Supernatural. Bear in mind that this was written before Optimism, when it became clear that these were not part of an extended dream-sequence, BUT ALSO before The Spear when it was revealed that Michael could repossess Dean. (I’m going to talk a little bit about timing and writing meta, further on.)

I want to say a couple of things before the cut, too. This is a big old Sleeping Beauty post. I know there’s a lot of SB ideas out there in the metasphere but I’ve deliberately avoided them because I wanted to get my thoughts out here and I am Very Slow. Feel free to tag me into other posts, send me asks, whatever, because I think it’s fun to talk about. However, just because this is a “sleeping beauty” meta does not mean I want to go all the way to the end of that metaphor in this series. This particular post is general audience meta. I can’t tell anyone who might read this that no, you aren’t allowed to see a DeanCas parallel in a meta which relies heavily on a romantic fairy tale and one that was a destiel fandom in-joke after Cas died, at that. I will say, though, that I see it, so if you want to duck out now because I’m a lowkey shipper feel free. Also, I can’t endorse predictions based on meta, either, even my own, even when I think there is a big neon “Texan Star” sign saying “destiel goes here;” there is absolutely nothing stopping anyone involved in the show from making a hard left when the signs said we were going right. So rather than seeing this as a defense of DeanCas subtext, let’s call it an experiment in close reading. If nothing else, it will be fun. (Bear in mind that I am a massive dork so my definition of fun involves Charles Dickens.)

Aaand... here we go.

Is Dean asleep, and have the last three episodes (The Scar, Mint Condition, and Nightmare Logic) been a dream? How can we possibly “answer” that question at this point in the show?

We’re trying to speculate about a text that is a constantly moving target. If, for instance, you start to read the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and you know from a blurb on the back of the book that she was an anthropologist who collected African-American and Caribbean folklore, and you get to the place where the protagonist Janie’s second [redacted] ends, but there are a lot of pages left ahead of you, and you think, wow if this happens a third time, I have a theory that the third [redacted, go read this book] would be special based on what I know about folklore and the “rule of three,” well by the end of the book you will know whether or not you were right. Janie either finds a third [redacted], or she doesn’t, and it’s either special, or it’s not.

Supernatural has not ended, so there is no way of saying “Oh, the main theme we are supposed to take away from this show is ____.” I mean, we can put big money on “family” but still. With a television show, it’s hard to even say, “The over-arching themes in this season are____” until the season finale, because it is a text that is being written, filmed, and published serially. The fluid nature of subtext in serial literature was something I studied under a Brit Lit professor– she said, when we set out to read David Copperfield, that sometimes themes in Dickens concluded early or evolved late, or didn’t pan out, because Dickens changed his mind or was pressured by readers to maintain a character that he hadn’t planned to keep around (I think that character was Micawber but I can not find a shred of evidence anywhere, even in my notes from my Brit Lit class, because she kind of mentioned it in passing and I didn’t like Dickens very much when I was younger, so obviously I didn’t learn it well.) And even when you get to the end of a Dickens serial, you still might not get closure– he totally rewrote the conclusion of Great Expectations because his friends wanted angst with a happy(ish) ending.

But this particular “sleeping” symbolism that has been pointed out is really, really structurally sound and can be very well supported. What it means is (shrug emoji)

Going back to the first post in this series, the support for this reading comes from an understanding of folk tales. I’ll be primarily using European Sleeping Beauty stories, as that is what is most accessible to an American/Western audience. And, it was deliberately alluded to in the text of the show. But first let’s talk about formula tales in more depth because that is what sets this theme up in the very first episode of season 14.

Michael met with three different beings in the season opener Stranger in a Strange Land and asked each of them “What do you want?” This is in no uncertain terms a formula tale found in folklore all over the world, and you know about the rule of three even if you’ve never actually acknowledged it. In Goldilocks and the Three Bears, for instance, Goldilocks tries two bowls of porridge before finding one to her liking. She tries two chairs before settling on Baby Bear’s chair. She tries two beds before falling asleep in the one that was “just right.” There were three challenges, two of which failed and one that satisfied her. Goldilocks is an original work (and please read the Wikipedia article, it is fascinating how many revisions this story has gone through, and in fact “Goldilocks” wasn’t even the original main character) but it was based on a folk formula and has entered American oral tradition. Similarly, in the German folk tale The Three Little Pigs, the first pig’s house is destroyed because it was made of straw, the second house failed because it was made of sticks, but the third house was made of brick and withstood the huffing and puffing of the wolf. So the pattern in the rule of three is often two challenges that fail or are flawed and one that finally succeeds or satisfies the necessary conditions. For short, I’m going to call this grouping 2/1. In the Michael story, 2/1 is human, who fails, then angel, who fails, then monster, who Mikey likes. In addition, there is a primer to the rule of three in that first scene, just to make absolutely certain that the audience notices it-- Michael has Jamel guess his identity three times.

This 2/1 formula could be just something Dabb did because he wanted to do it. It’s ancient, and Michael is an ancient being. But. Can it also mean that “folktales” is a theme on the show now?

As the saying goes, “Once is an occurrence, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern.” Folklore continues into the season in many different ways.

In Gods and Monsters, the scene where Dean shakes loose and punches the mirror probably lit up everyone who saw it with “mirror mirror on the wall” vibes, from the story of Snow White. The enchanted mirror is such a common “trope” in folklore that it has an index number that folklorists and others use to refer to it in their scholarship– it’s Aarne-Thompson index number D1163. So, another solid subtextual reference to folk tales. There is so much more in that episode about storytelling and retelling and the concept of sequels, but that’s for another discussion.

We get to The Scar and Jack mentions Sleeping Beauty and no lie I ascended for a full minute. “Sleeping Beauty” is Aarne-Thompson-Uther Classification of Folk Tales number 410 because this is another story that is found freaking everywhere. (I have to make an aside about the use of the term “folk tale” just because it is in my nature not to leave things like this ambiguous– it isn’t completely certain that the Sleeping Beauty we know of Brothers Grimm and Disney fame is 100% for shore an oral tale, or at least isn’t a tale that got a little finessed when it was first written down. See, a guy in pre-Renaissance Naples named Giambattista Basile included a version of it in a collection of child’s tales hundreds of years ago (it’s horrifying btw, cw for non-con at the very least if you go looking for it) then Charles Perrault (of Puss in Boots fame) got hold of it and rewrote it in French, and folklorists are pretty certain that the story of “Briar Rose in the Forest” that the Grimm brothers collected was the Perrault story that had made its way back into oral tradition in Germany. And, like, it’s not a huge reach to say that the history of the Sleeping Beauty story that is explicitly mentioned in the show’s dialogue by Jack is more subtext about how stories are transmitted, how they are told, what happens when they get loose in the wild, etc. That’s how allusions work, and that’s coming up in my third post.)

So, three times means green light to consider “folk tales” an official thing this season, at least for a while. And the cherry on top is that Sleeping Beauty was the third story referenced. It’s neat.

But NOW. On to THE question the OP posed:

Have the last three episodes been Dean’s dream?

I’m going to pass up surface mentions of dream states and solely focus on the actual “sleepers” in these episodes in order to get at the allusion’s architecture.

In Nightmare Logic, the sleeping beauty OP has identified is Sasha’s father, who is locked in a dream-state by a djinn. In Mint Condition, the sleeping beauty is Stuart, who is in a mysterious coma-like sleep after an attack by a possessed chain-saw. In The Scar, Lora is in a sleep-adjacent death-state after being hexed by a witch. (I saw that her name on the iTunes subtitles is “Lora” which is a variation of Laura but spelled this way evokes “of lore” and that was pretty neat. Another tiny detail that bolsters the theme.)

Is Lora really a sleeping beauty, though, and why is that important?

Remember our rule of three pattern that we were given in the premiere– 2/1. Two people in this group will be more similar to each other than to the third. Both Stuart and Sasha’s father are alive, while Lora is technically all the way dead when she is in the sleep-like state. Superficially, Stuart and Sasha’s father are men, whereas Lora is a woman. Just throwing that out there. If I were writing this post for a grade, that right there is called “padding for word count.” But it is also a valid point, so we’re going to use it. Neither Stuart nor Sasha’s father are shown to resume consciousness by the end of their episodes– Stuart not at all, and Mr. Rawlings only stirs fitfully. Lora is revived when Jack breaks the spell. On the other hand, Stuart is never in continued danger in Mint Condition after his “touch and go” operation (he’s presumably safe inside the salt circle) and is expected to recover naturally, whereas both Mr. R and Lora will die/stay dead if the threat against them isn’t neutralized. Mr. Rawlings is similar to Lora because they are both under “medical care”– Mr.R is ostensibly in hospice and Lora is in the Bunker’s sick bay, and to top things off Stuart is the only one who was treated by an actual doctor: Mr. R‘s nurse was a djinn and Cas is not a doctor he just played one on TV.

The thing about close readings is that anything you can argue is probably valid, but one thesis might be better supported than another. I’m really really tired and there might be more differences and similarities that I am missing. But when you’re gathering the evidence to support a theory about a text, you can end up going a bridge too far and you’ll find yourself staring into the void, completely unable to make any progress, so at some point you just have to stake out your foundations and start digging. (Yeah, I mixed metaphors, I mixed three of them, it’s awesome, get off me.)

So. There is more evidence that Stuart and Mr. R are more similar to each other than either one is to Lora. If we apply the 2/1 template, Lora is the character who satisfies the parameter of being “odd man out.” That still might not make her a sleeping beauty for the purposes of answering the “Is this Dean’s dream” question, and here’s why.

(This is the speculation part. I love this stuff, but again I offer the caveat that using subtext to make plot predictions in Supernatural is like trying to write on a cloud with smoke. Anyway.)

If she’s the sleeping beauty, the subtextual message is that Dean might actually be dead (or might have to die to satisfy the condition that Michael is destroyed.) That possibility was brought up in both 14x01 and 14x02, before Dean came back. And eugh no one wants that. It also means that we had to have read these three episodes backwards to find the character that fits the template, because if Lora is a sleeping beauty, and if she is “the” sleeping beauty for subtextual purposes, she actually came first in the series, and you have to run the episodes backwards to get to the 1. That is subverting the trope. However, if you get the thing you want the first time why go on to the other two challenges? There is a lot in this season about calling back to earlier parts of the narrative to contextualize the present– for instance, in Gods and Monsters, Michael says to the werewolf, “You think you were picking me up in that bar?” or something to that effect and then revealed that he was, in fact, the one stalking her. In Mint Condition, we are introduced to the Janitor Victim as a Dean mirror, but we do not know for certain yet that Hatchet Man is a post-Azazel John Winchester mirror, so that scene is given greater meaning by information that is revealed later in the episode. Structurally speaking, it would be fair to say that the information we have now, that Lora the dead girl is “the” sleeping beauty, based on having seen the other two candidates, means a dead Dean reveal has been primed by the subtext. And like, no thank you?

The other possibility is that Lora, since she was dead and not unconscious, is not “the” sleeping beauty. The third “sleeping beauty” (IF there is one) would show up in 14x06 Optimism. (That title is really stressing me out.) Why would that be Dean and not some other random character? Because if we exclude Laura, the pattern resets from 1/2 to 2/1 beginning with Stuart. Stuart is a Castiel mirror, though, which is not quite right. Mr. R is a John mirror (although that episode is a lot murkier and I’ve said before if someone wants to say he’s a Dean mirror because of the djinn connection I’d agree, in which case BLAM we already have a winner.) [editor’s note, I only left Jack out because we already knew he was dying and thought this subtext was priming a twist, more at ten, this aside has been brought to you by the letters LOL.]

But then, where have the last three episodes come from? If he is dreaming, it could be one reason why the djinn couldn’t wring a nightmare out of him, and that the moment before he killed the monster with a bookend was his subconscious trying to signal to him that something is wrong…

I have said a couple of times that subtext isn’t always predictive. Some authors will have multiple subtexts or will use subtext to straight-up fool you (*waves to thriller writers.*) But the exception proves the rule here– we as readers/viewers rely on subtext to prepare us for what might be coming next. Subtext helps provide that slow build to climax that makes, say, Neville Longbottom’s absolutely stunning house cup win in The Sorcerer’s Stone such a stand-up-and-cheer moment, or that makes Harry Potter’s realization that it is his patronus, not his father’s, that saves his past self in the Prisoner of Azkaban so satisfying. Lack of subtext is the reason there is so much grumping over Mary/Bobby. I mean, they what? Had a walk in the woods together? She called him “old man” once, is that even a term of endearment??? [full disclosure I never liked those two together until after Nightmare Logic.]

And scene!

That up there is where I stopped, and now it’s clear that the person who all this was pointing at was Jack, who fell into a dramatic swoon at the end of Optimism. There were two “sleeping beauties” in that episode, too in the 2/1 pattern of the folktales we’ve discussed– the zombie, who is in sort of a dream state, and Charlie, who is knocked out by fly guy. (Again, fully dead is a red herring and doesn’t count. That’s some positive subtext.) That was basically a lot of words to be able to summarize that, yes, sleeping beauty and dreamstates is a thing so far, but where it was going was hard to predict.

There is something really important that can be taken out of this close reading, though, that is carrying throughout the season.

Jack was the character who actually said the words “Sleeping Beauty.” Jack sort of volunteered himself as tribute. Another theme this season that was made explicit by Subtext Primer aka Mint Condition is that the words characters are saying are more important than they ever have been.

AND ONE MORE THING! The above was written before Unhuman Nature and Byzantium and The Spear! Dean has been put back to bed by Michael! But but Castiel stepped into the Sleeping Beauty deal! Where are we going! There’s no earthly way of knowing, which direction we are going…

Anyway in the next installment of this really long meta that will probably never end I want to explore what the history of the Amero-European Sleeping Beauty brings to bear on this season.

#the folklore of supernatural #the folkloristics of supernatural #season 14 #dabb era

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sisterhoodofthetravelingrai-blog · 7 years

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Sapphie Meets her Idol

July 2017, USA

Greetings Sapphic friends! You can call me Em. I’m 29 years old of age, and if you get that reference, you know why I’m here. I fully blame Santana Lopez, Brittany S. Pierce, and the Brittana fandom for unleashing my inner gay. And because sapphic Tumblr is basically the Hotel California, when Glee was done I stayed for the Shoot, the Cophine, and most importantly, the brilliant sapphic ladies who helped me along on my journey. It felt like we were all in this together… like a sisterhood, you might say.

And so, at one sleepless 4 in the morning, I thought… “there needs to be a Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants… but like… gay.” After some reassurance from my sapphic Tumblr tribe that this was, in fact, a great idea, plus some discussion re: what sort of inanimate gay object would make a good travel buddy, Sapphie the First was born!

Sapphie the First and I had a great time together. She helped me play my ukulele for the very first time, got to express her artistic side by painting Halloween pumpkins, and helped me with some other crafting projects. She then went on her merry way to meet my wonderful friend from college, Heather. From there, she went to meet a lovely young lady who was on her way home to India. Sapphie the First went in her suitcase, and I guess that suitcase must have been both very gay and very enthusiastic, because she decided to take Sapphie on her own adventure. We never heard from either of them ever again, so I’m assuming they are off in the Himalayas somewhere, meditating and taking in nature.

We waited a number of months to make absolutely sure Sapphie the First was on a permanent meditation retreat. Once we got confirmation, Sapphie the Second (heretofore referred to as Sapphie) was born!

Sapphie’s first adventure with me was a very gay adventure. That’s right, you guessed it: we went to go see Wonder Woman!

(Clearly General Antiope was impressed with Sapphie!)

Listen, friends. I had been hearing tales of sapphics ascending to new levels of gay when seeing this movie. I could not have anticipated just how true this would be. What is it about fierce, strong, beautiful women in battle that just makes everything turn rainbow??

Overwhelming gayness aside, Wonder Woman is now a favorite of both of ours. It’s funny, it’s sweet, it’s empowering. Diana is inarguably both adorable and awe-inspiring, Etta is a treasure, and the Amazons deserve an entire prequel just about them. After seeing this movie, Sapphie and I felt like we could take on the world! Which is why, two days later, we went to go see it AGAIN

After our second and equally awesome viewing of Wonder Woman, we went on an adventure to the craft store. I got some embroidery floss to make my brother a Ravenclaw bookmark, and Sapphie had lots of fun meeting the baby rainbows!

Sapphie’s next big adventure was big first for me: fireworks! I hadn’t been in years, and was so excited to finally celebrate the 4th of July by watching the bright, beautiful lights. We watched from our camping chairs in a parking lot, and the show was magnificent! Fireworks have definitely upped their game since the last time I saw them. My favorites were the gold ones whose sparkles lingered in the background long after the other colors disappeared. Sapphie loved it when there were as many colors as possible in the sky!

I’d planned to send Sapphie along on her next journey after that, but then, something amazing happened… I found out that Heather Morris was going to be on tour with Dancing with the Stars. In my city. Read: I had the chance to see Heather Morris dancing live and in person. As a former dancer and forever Brittana fan, I brought this to my mom’s attention immediately. As a former (sane) dance mom who appreciated Heather’s dancing as much as I did (we are both still salty about her early elimination from DWTS), she encouraged my immediate purchasing of tickets.

Oh, but it gets better. At this point, the tour was mostly sold out. The only seats we could get together were VIP tickets… tickets that included a photo opportunity with select dancers on the tour. Meaning, not only would I get to see Heather Morris dance live and in person and very close… I might actually get to see her face to face.

Show day came, and Sapphie and I both felt ready to go into orbit. Sapphie continually reminded me that Heather is half the reason she exists, while I had to continually remind both of us to breathe. There wasn’t much to do before the meet and greet, but we had fun talking to other fans, imagining what the show was going to be like, and taking pictures.

Finally, they started calling people up to the line for photos. It was somewhat awkwardly placed in a separate room, so we had no idea who was going to be there until two women we’d been talking to came back from their photo. They named four people. Heather was one of them.

And then I died.

Thankfully, I managed to restart my heart when it was our turn to get in line. I felt like I might go into orbit yet again, so I tried to chill by mentally rehearsing what I would say to everyone once we were let through the doors. I’m glad I did this, otherwise I probably would have gone mute when I met Heather’s strikingly blue eyes from across the room.

Listen, ladies. She. Is. So. Beautiful. She’s lovely on TV, but in person? Wow.

She is also much tinier in person. I was expecting to have to look way up to speak to her, but I didn’t! She said, “Nice to meet you,” and stuck out her hand to greet me. I shook her hand and asked if I could hug her, and she gave me a hug and asked my name. Sapphie was zooming around joyfully in my pocket the whole time. I greeted the other dancers and then stood next to Heather for the photo. Sapphie was in the pocket right next to her, putting on her best smile!

The show itself was a lot of fun. In the second number of the show, Heather did a fun jive with a hip hop break in the middle. It was only about 4 counts of 8, but it was the best 4 counts of 8 in the entire show. She was so confident and powerful and cool, and I swear to Wonder Woman it was impossible to see anything else in the theatre she was shining so brightly. It was incredible. Wow wow wow. My jaw is still on the floor as I write this. Sapphie almost lost her clouds over it. A. Freaking. Mazing.

The next day was Sunday, so Sapphie couldn’t fly away to her next friend just yet. Instead, she helped me work on my crochet blanket. I’m making one hexagon for each day: the color of the hexagon corresponds to the outdoor temperature, and special days have beads on them. Sapphie helped me make hexagons for Wonder Woman, the fireworks, and Dancing With the Stars! It was a lot of work to do all at once… luckily, some friends swooped in to help her:

We had a little pep talk about all the adventures she was going to have, and then Sapphie got tucked into an envelope for her long journey. The next morning she was off to the east coast! I’m so excited to see what her travels bring :) Thank you everyone for being a part of this!

Love and rainbows,

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Want to be a part of the Sisterhood? Read Sapphie’s Travel Guide and sign up! :)

#LGBT #wlw #queer #sisterhood #traveling rainbow #sapphie #sapphic #USA

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