Religious enemies... angels and pregnancy

Supernatural and The Secret Life of the American Teenager take two pretty different approaches to using religion as a theme in their millennial representation, but I think they were both fairly effective and intriguing.

First of all, Supernatural is clearly a magical world where the fantastical is accepted on a daily basis, even though it doesn’t stop sneaking up on the characters in new types of creatures. In the article Renegotiating religious imaginations through transformations of "banal religion" in Supernatural, Peterson says that shows like Supernatural take mainstream Western religious myths and reshape them. Building on and distorting institutionalized beliefs appeals to the viewers, keeping them entertained by the new and in the loop.

Here are some of the myths I noticed Supernatural revised: Deans memories of hell involve red and black, colors often associated with the devil in religious iconography since probably even before the Renaissance. It takes an angel to raise Dean out of hell, much like it took an Angel (Beatrice) to get Dante out of hell in the Inferno, written back in the 1400s. The angel still has wings, although now they’re black. The setting feels pretty western for being Illinois, with all the plaid, gruff men, and cowboy-like speaking. This rings true since the rural west has traditionally been a coming together of Christian ideals and the unexpected, unruly wild.

Another interesting twist to religious representation is the intertwining of technology, which we millennials will relate. The tv turns on when demons and angels are nearby. An ipod replays a car stereo. And the angel’s voice sounds like static.

In The Secret Life of the American Teenager, religion does not deal directly with biblical figures – it’s sort of twice-removed because people practice it in their daily lives (prayers, church, chastity pledges) instead of encountering godly manifestations. Yet it does become very confrontational.

Religion’s biggest enemy here is sex. All the kids are obsessed with it, or with not doing it, or by the problems it causes… pregnancy. The show’s protagonist is purposefully a good girl, and not in an overly-showy way like the cheerleader Grace. She’s cute, nice, a hard worker, and doesn’t deserve to have a jerk knock her up. This show’s message right off the bat tells millennials that teens, no matter how Christian, or how innocent, will make mistakes. I’m interested to see where religion goes on this show: it’s unclear to me if religion will become more positive or negative, or continue to have a mixed effect on the characters’ morals.

Meet the Macaron

I keep swearing my next post will not involve food. Even though I’m a college student, I do more than eat, homework, eat, sleep, and eat. Did I mention eating? No really, I have a life. Like last night, I went to the Anaïs Mitchell concert – she’s a doll. And a toga party. And I started synchronized swimming. But it’s hard to act natural with a D40 hanging from your neck in a bathing suit or bedsheet. So alas, here’s another food post…

My study abroad experience could be called: Kaylen in Paris: A 5-month Critical Investigation into Every Single Patisserie Shop in the City. (Forget criminals, Veronica. This is the real stuff). I spent so much time in Pierre Hermé, the god of the macaron, (sorry Ladurée), that I started getting free macarons from the cute assistant. (I thought he had a crush on me, until I brought my whole family in and realized he was just relieved to see I had friends. How embarrassing).

What is a macaron? It’s a French almond-based cookie with a buttercream or jelly filling that comes in every color and flavor imaginable. Chocolate passion fruit. Hazlenut truffle. Chestnut green tea. Figue fois gras (should have steered clear of that one). My tried-and-true favorite rose. (It’s pink!). I can’t even describe the delight of biting into one – so many different textures exist in such a small, delicate beauty.  

This weekend my copaines of La Maison Française and I made Chocolate Salty-Caramel macarons. The recipe wasn’t too hard to follow, but apparently macarons are finicky things – they need to be shiny and ooze the right way as batter, must be whapped and left alone in peace for some precise time before put into the oven, can crack in humidity, become overly hard if they aren’t taken out at the right time, must be turned after precisely 3.5 minutes, and should be firm but sort of jiggly afterward. So it takes a few tries, or a Cordon Bleu student (it pretty much rocks that I have a pastry chef living upstairs) to master them.

All in all, ours came out delicious. What made the event kick ass was the fact that I decided to neglect homework and spent the sunny afternoon in the kitchen, actually speaking French while making French pastry with my French-loving ladies. I’ve promised myself I’m going back to Paris one day. But til then, I’ll be making macarons.