Papers by Richard M Logsdon
This paper agrues that, in this age of disbelief, the popularity of "Call the Midwife" is its str... more This paper agrues that, in this age of disbelief, the popularity of "Call the Midwife" is its strong Christian subtext.
While scholars have provided some insight into Penny Dreadful, no one has addressed the relations... more While scholars have provided some insight into Penny Dreadful, no one has addressed the relationship of the piece’s overall design to the writer’s vision. Indeed, Penny Dreadful is offered as a warning of a darker age to come. Accordingly, writer John Logan sets his series in a late Victorian, Gothicized London that serves as a microcosm for a contemporary Western world experiencing a psychological and spiritual disintegration that touches the individual and the larger culture. Logan calls attention to the anxieties generated by this disintegration by incorporating into his series characters from late Victorian Gothic fiction: Frankenstein and his creature, Dracula, the Wolf Man, Dorian Gray, and Dr. Jekyll. The individual and cultural anxieties suggested by these characters’ “monstrous” behaviors have their basis not only in their sexual dysfunctions but in their despair over God’s absence. This crisis is centered in sexually adventurous Vanessa Ives, whose attempts to return to th...
Abstract of essay titled
Of Backstories and Epiphanies in Dallas Jenkin’s The Chosen
This essa... more Abstract of essay titled
Of Backstories and Epiphanies in Dallas Jenkin’s The Chosen
This essay touches upon several factors that explain the sudden popularity of the YouTube sensation The Chosen, a somewhat didactic series about Jesus’ ministry as rendered from the perspective of his followers. One factor is the use of a “pay-it-forward system” by which the entire series has been funded by its viewers. Another is that the series was released during the period that marked the beginning of the Covid pandemic is the United States. Analysis of this series reveals that writer Dallas Jenkins has crafted almost every episode of the first two series to center upon the epiphany that Jesus Christ is simultaneously both God and man. It’s a message that Jenkins and his staff communicate though the conversations and interactions that Jesus has with characters whom He calls to follow him. For instance, Mary Magdelene’s life-changing epiphany occurs in episode one of the first season when Jesus speaks to her and calls her his own, with words spoken by God in Isaiah 43: 1-3.
But now thus says the LORD,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
In episode 5 of the same series, the life changing epiphany occurs after Simon Peter and Andrew, following Jesus’ directions, catch two boatloads of fish and when Simon Peter falls on his knees before Jesus and proclaims, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”
In The Chosen, those who experience life changing epiphanies that Jesus Christ is, simultaneously, God and man are often social outcasts.
Several recent crime dramas, most of them European, center around the pursuit of individuals who ... more Several recent crime dramas, most of them European, center around the pursuit of individuals who mutilate, dismember, torture, and/or kill for pleasure. These dramas reflect a sociocultural phenomenon that, while not new, seems to have become more widespread. Of these dramas, one of the most noteworthy is Alan Cubitt's _The Fall_. Indeed, Cubitt incorporates some elements traditionally associated with Gothic literature to capture the anxiety created by this disturbing phenomenon.
My essay represents a significant contribution to the currently existing body of scholarsh... more My essay represents a significant contribution to the currently existing body of scholarship devoted to Logan’s Gothic TV narrative. While scholars have provided some valuable insight into various aspects of _Penny Dreadful_, no one—as far as I can tell—has tackled the question of overall design. Indeed, the apocalyptic angle of the series, that _Penny Dreadful_ may be seen as a kind of warning of a darker age to come, has not been commented upon.
To begin, writer John Logan sets his penny dreadful in a late Victorian, thoroughly Gothicized London that serves as a microcosm for a contemporary Western world that is experiencing a disintegration that touches both the individual and the larger culture. In fact, during one interview, Logan commented that late Victorian England, as it approached the so-called Modern Age of the late nineteenth early twentieth centuries, was seized by a level of fear and apprehension that finds its counterpart in our contemporary world.
Quite in line with traditional Gothic literature, John Logan offers _Penny Dreadful_ as a “codification” of our culture’s fears and anxieties over the arrival of a new, possibly darker age. He emphasizes the fears and anxieties by incorporating into his series several legendary monsters: Frankenstein and his creature, Dracula, the Wolf Man, Dorian Gray, and Dr. Jekyll of Mr. Hyde. Accordingly, in the first section of my essay, with the exception of Dracula, I focus upon how Logan uses these “monsters” to emphasize the connection existing between these characters’ psychic disintegration and the spiritual and psychological dissolution not only of the late Victorian society but of Contemporary Western culture as well. In my essay’s second section, I go on to discuss the various sexual dysfunctions that fuel these characters’ “monstrous” behaviors and exist as manifestations of an individual and social disintegration that fueled, and continues to fuel, a crisis of spirit.
Too, in the first two sections of my essay, I make the point that Logan uses heroine Vanessa Ives as the series’ central organizational principle: that is, the narratives of the individual “monsters”—Vanessa’s companions—are reflective of her own struggles, which occasionally take the form of a socially- and religiously-induced psychosis that is presented as a form of demonic possession. In short, the spiritual and psychological conflicts that afflict the “monsters” are fully realized and intensified in the character of the sexually adventurous Vanessa Ives. Indeed, Vanessa’s severely conflicted nature becomes a metaphorical representation of the crises of spirit experienced by both the late Victorian period and our own troubled age.
It is in the third section of my article that I focus upon the problem of ennui. Vanessa’s death at the end of the series signals the loss of hope for her companions and merely heightens their own crises, each one of which is a manifestation of the ennui that gripped nineteenth century Europe and that has seized our own culture in the form of the dread over the coming of a new age.
Producer Bryan Fuller has commented that his aim--or one of his aims--in creating the Hannibal TV... more Producer Bryan Fuller has commented that his aim--or one of his aims--in creating the Hannibal TV series is to create a sense of "collusion" between Hannibal and the viewer. This paper examines how Fuller accomplishes this end. I begin with elements within the actual narrative: point of view, character development, and aesthetic depictions of death. I move on to consider two external factors that contribute to the creation of this "collusion": the existence of an existential vacuum in Western culture, the seeming disappearance of God, and the hypothetical existence of the demonic (Thus the title "Playing with Fire.")
Drafts by Richard M Logsdon
Are we witnessing the death of the traditional vampire narrative, built around blood-sucking... more Are we witnessing the death of the traditional vampire narrative, built around blood-sucking fiends who have pledged themselves to the Prince of Darkness? Several Gothic scholars seem to think so, among them Fred Botting and Joseph Crawford, author of the much talked about _The Twilight of the Gothic?_ Then again, in his classic text _The Horror Film_, Peter Hutchings assures the reader that Dracula, or the evil that he and the traditional vampire have always represented, always finds his way back from the dead.
Indeed, these contemporary counterparts of the vampire can be found in several TV documentaries, in reality TV shows that often focus upon particularly brutal murders, and in several crime dramas. Most notable among these crime dramas may be BBC's highly acclaimed psychological thriller _Luther_ . Peter Cross, writer and creator of the series and the the novel on which the series is based, has skillfully incorporated into his four-season TV narrative elements traditionally associated with the Gothic works of the late 18th and early 19th centuries:a dark and creepy setting, several hauntings, a brooding and Byronic hero, and the abiding presence of an evil that, like the cosmic black hole, threatens to consume and annihilate. Perhaps the most important element that ties _Luther_ to traditional Gothic horror is the character of Alice Morgan, an enchanting and brilliant psychopath, who murders her parents before the first episode begins and who represents not only Luther's "shadow self" but the so-called "monstrous feminine."
In this essay, Logsdon discusses John Logan's _Penny Dreadful_ as a "codification" of the overwhe... more In this essay, Logsdon discusses John Logan's _Penny Dreadful_ as a "codification" of the overwhelming anxiety of living in an age characterized by mass-shootings, generally perpetrated by deranged young white adults; by jihadists' acts of violence that target the Western World; by senseless be-headings, used by ISIS and other terrorist groups to terrify the Western world; by the continued existence of a sub-culture of serial killers; and by the rise of atheism and Satanism as a response to the fading of the JudeoChristian paradigm. In this essay, Logsdon pays special attention to the series' spiritually-conflicted protagonist Vanessa Ives (brilliantly played by Eva Green), whose decision to cast her crucifix into the fire at the end of season two may be the most significant action of the entire series (so far).
Conference Presentations by Richard M Logsdon
Far West Popular Culture Conference, 2021
Sam Mendes’ film tells the story of two lance corporals, Blake and Schofield, who are ordered to ... more Sam Mendes’ film tells the story of two lance corporals, Blake and Schofield, who are ordered to go the northern French city of Ecoust, find the second Devons’ battalion of 1600 soldiers, and tell Devons’ commanding officer Col MacIntosh to call off next morning’s attack upon the German front line, whose retreat is intended to lure Devons into a trap to annihilate them. Just as the corporals are beginning their journey, commanding officer General Erinmore recites the last couplet of the first stanza of Rudyard Kipling’s “The Winnners”: “Down to Gehenna or up to the Throne,/ He travels fastest who travels alone.” The couplet is the key to the film. The counterpart to Gehenna, where the Israelites once burned their children alive as offerings to the Fire God Moloch, is the vast European wasteland, where millions of soldiers lost their lives during World War I; the World War I counterpart to the Israelites (generally of high rank) who sacrificed their children to Moloch are those military and political leaders whose decisions resulted in the deaths of millions. Further, the film’s seemingly nihilistic approach to war is countered by the old spiritual “The Wayfaring Stranger,” sung by one of the Devons and affirming that those who die in the upcoming battle will be reunited with their parents and meet Jesus Christ in an afterlife that transcends a world in which the war is fueled by the demonic. (236)
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Papers by Richard M Logsdon
Of Backstories and Epiphanies in Dallas Jenkin’s The Chosen
This essay touches upon several factors that explain the sudden popularity of the YouTube sensation The Chosen, a somewhat didactic series about Jesus’ ministry as rendered from the perspective of his followers. One factor is the use of a “pay-it-forward system” by which the entire series has been funded by its viewers. Another is that the series was released during the period that marked the beginning of the Covid pandemic is the United States. Analysis of this series reveals that writer Dallas Jenkins has crafted almost every episode of the first two series to center upon the epiphany that Jesus Christ is simultaneously both God and man. It’s a message that Jenkins and his staff communicate though the conversations and interactions that Jesus has with characters whom He calls to follow him. For instance, Mary Magdelene’s life-changing epiphany occurs in episode one of the first season when Jesus speaks to her and calls her his own, with words spoken by God in Isaiah 43: 1-3.
But now thus says the LORD,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
In episode 5 of the same series, the life changing epiphany occurs after Simon Peter and Andrew, following Jesus’ directions, catch two boatloads of fish and when Simon Peter falls on his knees before Jesus and proclaims, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”
In The Chosen, those who experience life changing epiphanies that Jesus Christ is, simultaneously, God and man are often social outcasts.
To begin, writer John Logan sets his penny dreadful in a late Victorian, thoroughly Gothicized London that serves as a microcosm for a contemporary Western world that is experiencing a disintegration that touches both the individual and the larger culture. In fact, during one interview, Logan commented that late Victorian England, as it approached the so-called Modern Age of the late nineteenth early twentieth centuries, was seized by a level of fear and apprehension that finds its counterpart in our contemporary world.
Quite in line with traditional Gothic literature, John Logan offers _Penny Dreadful_ as a “codification” of our culture’s fears and anxieties over the arrival of a new, possibly darker age. He emphasizes the fears and anxieties by incorporating into his series several legendary monsters: Frankenstein and his creature, Dracula, the Wolf Man, Dorian Gray, and Dr. Jekyll of Mr. Hyde. Accordingly, in the first section of my essay, with the exception of Dracula, I focus upon how Logan uses these “monsters” to emphasize the connection existing between these characters’ psychic disintegration and the spiritual and psychological dissolution not only of the late Victorian society but of Contemporary Western culture as well. In my essay’s second section, I go on to discuss the various sexual dysfunctions that fuel these characters’ “monstrous” behaviors and exist as manifestations of an individual and social disintegration that fueled, and continues to fuel, a crisis of spirit.
Too, in the first two sections of my essay, I make the point that Logan uses heroine Vanessa Ives as the series’ central organizational principle: that is, the narratives of the individual “monsters”—Vanessa’s companions—are reflective of her own struggles, which occasionally take the form of a socially- and religiously-induced psychosis that is presented as a form of demonic possession. In short, the spiritual and psychological conflicts that afflict the “monsters” are fully realized and intensified in the character of the sexually adventurous Vanessa Ives. Indeed, Vanessa’s severely conflicted nature becomes a metaphorical representation of the crises of spirit experienced by both the late Victorian period and our own troubled age.
It is in the third section of my article that I focus upon the problem of ennui. Vanessa’s death at the end of the series signals the loss of hope for her companions and merely heightens their own crises, each one of which is a manifestation of the ennui that gripped nineteenth century Europe and that has seized our own culture in the form of the dread over the coming of a new age.
Drafts by Richard M Logsdon
Indeed, these contemporary counterparts of the vampire can be found in several TV documentaries, in reality TV shows that often focus upon particularly brutal murders, and in several crime dramas. Most notable among these crime dramas may be BBC's highly acclaimed psychological thriller _Luther_ . Peter Cross, writer and creator of the series and the the novel on which the series is based, has skillfully incorporated into his four-season TV narrative elements traditionally associated with the Gothic works of the late 18th and early 19th centuries:a dark and creepy setting, several hauntings, a brooding and Byronic hero, and the abiding presence of an evil that, like the cosmic black hole, threatens to consume and annihilate. Perhaps the most important element that ties _Luther_ to traditional Gothic horror is the character of Alice Morgan, an enchanting and brilliant psychopath, who murders her parents before the first episode begins and who represents not only Luther's "shadow self" but the so-called "monstrous feminine."
Conference Presentations by Richard M Logsdon
Of Backstories and Epiphanies in Dallas Jenkin’s The Chosen
This essay touches upon several factors that explain the sudden popularity of the YouTube sensation The Chosen, a somewhat didactic series about Jesus’ ministry as rendered from the perspective of his followers. One factor is the use of a “pay-it-forward system” by which the entire series has been funded by its viewers. Another is that the series was released during the period that marked the beginning of the Covid pandemic is the United States. Analysis of this series reveals that writer Dallas Jenkins has crafted almost every episode of the first two series to center upon the epiphany that Jesus Christ is simultaneously both God and man. It’s a message that Jenkins and his staff communicate though the conversations and interactions that Jesus has with characters whom He calls to follow him. For instance, Mary Magdelene’s life-changing epiphany occurs in episode one of the first season when Jesus speaks to her and calls her his own, with words spoken by God in Isaiah 43: 1-3.
But now thus says the LORD,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
In episode 5 of the same series, the life changing epiphany occurs after Simon Peter and Andrew, following Jesus’ directions, catch two boatloads of fish and when Simon Peter falls on his knees before Jesus and proclaims, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”
In The Chosen, those who experience life changing epiphanies that Jesus Christ is, simultaneously, God and man are often social outcasts.
To begin, writer John Logan sets his penny dreadful in a late Victorian, thoroughly Gothicized London that serves as a microcosm for a contemporary Western world that is experiencing a disintegration that touches both the individual and the larger culture. In fact, during one interview, Logan commented that late Victorian England, as it approached the so-called Modern Age of the late nineteenth early twentieth centuries, was seized by a level of fear and apprehension that finds its counterpart in our contemporary world.
Quite in line with traditional Gothic literature, John Logan offers _Penny Dreadful_ as a “codification” of our culture’s fears and anxieties over the arrival of a new, possibly darker age. He emphasizes the fears and anxieties by incorporating into his series several legendary monsters: Frankenstein and his creature, Dracula, the Wolf Man, Dorian Gray, and Dr. Jekyll of Mr. Hyde. Accordingly, in the first section of my essay, with the exception of Dracula, I focus upon how Logan uses these “monsters” to emphasize the connection existing between these characters’ psychic disintegration and the spiritual and psychological dissolution not only of the late Victorian society but of Contemporary Western culture as well. In my essay’s second section, I go on to discuss the various sexual dysfunctions that fuel these characters’ “monstrous” behaviors and exist as manifestations of an individual and social disintegration that fueled, and continues to fuel, a crisis of spirit.
Too, in the first two sections of my essay, I make the point that Logan uses heroine Vanessa Ives as the series’ central organizational principle: that is, the narratives of the individual “monsters”—Vanessa’s companions—are reflective of her own struggles, which occasionally take the form of a socially- and religiously-induced psychosis that is presented as a form of demonic possession. In short, the spiritual and psychological conflicts that afflict the “monsters” are fully realized and intensified in the character of the sexually adventurous Vanessa Ives. Indeed, Vanessa’s severely conflicted nature becomes a metaphorical representation of the crises of spirit experienced by both the late Victorian period and our own troubled age.
It is in the third section of my article that I focus upon the problem of ennui. Vanessa’s death at the end of the series signals the loss of hope for her companions and merely heightens their own crises, each one of which is a manifestation of the ennui that gripped nineteenth century Europe and that has seized our own culture in the form of the dread over the coming of a new age.
Indeed, these contemporary counterparts of the vampire can be found in several TV documentaries, in reality TV shows that often focus upon particularly brutal murders, and in several crime dramas. Most notable among these crime dramas may be BBC's highly acclaimed psychological thriller _Luther_ . Peter Cross, writer and creator of the series and the the novel on which the series is based, has skillfully incorporated into his four-season TV narrative elements traditionally associated with the Gothic works of the late 18th and early 19th centuries:a dark and creepy setting, several hauntings, a brooding and Byronic hero, and the abiding presence of an evil that, like the cosmic black hole, threatens to consume and annihilate. Perhaps the most important element that ties _Luther_ to traditional Gothic horror is the character of Alice Morgan, an enchanting and brilliant psychopath, who murders her parents before the first episode begins and who represents not only Luther's "shadow self" but the so-called "monstrous feminine."