'Jaynestown' and the nature of faith
POSTED BY: PhoenixRose
UPDATED: Monday, August 7, 2006 05:06
VIEWED: 4692
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Am I the only one who saw this? The whole episode seemed to be a deconstruction of faith structures, from the obvious ("Bible's broken" "Every man had a statue made of him was one kind sumbitch or another; ain't about you, it's about what they need") to the subtle ("Our time together is a symbol, a ritual, it means something to your father, but it doesn't make you a man.")
I really wish there had been an essay on this in "Finding Serenity". There's just so much to it!
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Quote:
Originally posted by PhoenixRose:
Am I the only one who saw this? The whole episode seemed to be a deconstruction of faith structures, from the obvious ("Bible's broken" "Every man had a statue made of him was one kind sumbitch or another; ain't about you, it's about what they need") to the subtle ("Our time together is a symbol, a ritual, it means something to your father, but it doesn't make you a man.")
I really wish there had been an essay on this in "Finding Serenity". There's just so much to it!
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I never noticed this before, but it all makes sense. It's an interesting observation and would make a lovely essay.
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Surely the leitmotif is symbol, not faith? However, I do believe in the power of The Tick returning to Edlund's aid when the Studio Notes demanded less gloomy episodes - not that he didn't turn it dark when he guessed the Suits weren't watching 
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Oh God, Jayne as the Tick!! Did you have to put that in my head? Spoon! (Someone do this image for the Blue Sun Room, please)
Firefly is shot through with questions of faith. Serenity spelled it out - just believe. But it is very much finding your own thing to believe in, and thinking it through, rather than blind faith or obedience. Mal believes in his crew, Jayne has a rudimentary faith (which I believe is from childhood: see CCM for details...) The Operative has his faith taken from him, and Simon believes in science.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SpaceAnJL:
But it is very much finding your own thing to believe in, and thinking it through, rather than blind faith or obedience.
Yeah, that's it exactly. I just think this episode was really going after that. Almost even more than the movie in its own special way. It tore down the idea that blind faith was really the way to go.
Jayne even said it; "It don't make no sense."
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Blind faith and obedience are the scariest things in the 'Verse', RL or FF. 'Only following orders', for example? I've already aired a few of my concerns over the subject of religious faith, and I'm a bit careful about treading on toes (it's the sandals they wear 
) but watching people lose themselves to a nebulous concept that grew out of a way of controlling slaves just makes me a little tweaked.
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Everyone has to find something to believe in order to make it from day to day. Believing in something outside of ourselves is a natural human condition ever since human kind's been around. You will find this in every culture and people on the planet in one form or another.
If it isn’t a god it’s the sun or the stars or plants, or animals, or science, and technology, or even humans. And for some it’s themselves. People have an inner need to believe in something. This need seems to be hard-wired into all of us.
Some people have great difficulty in finding something to believe in, so they attach themselves to a group of people and believe in what that group of people believes in because it gives them a sense of belonging and purpose. They end up believing in the group.
Canton was populated by indentured slaves, or prisoners…wasn’t really clear on what they were, but I was clear that most of the people there were forced to be there slaving away for a small, elite few who had all the money, and they were unhappy about it. It seems that the people there were exploited, and not paid very much. Judging by the way everyone was dressed it seemed that life was not all that good in Canton for years. Then along comes Jayne and Stitch. They steal from the top rich guy; they make an escape with Stitch getting pushed out of the aircraft. In order for Jayne to escape he ended up dumping a bunch of boxes of money on top of a town, populated by people who up until that that point saw their collective lives as dull and without hope.
From the town’s people perspective, these guys’ shows up one day, steals money, flies over the town and dumps that money all over it, and then disappears. Robin Hood. He robs from the rich and he gives to the poor. Of course they were going to make him a hero. He gave them hope and something to believe in. He stuck it to the man. He laughed in the face of authority and got away with it.
Jayne’s action gave a community of people faith…something to believe in; something to think about, something to fight for. Jayne’s thieving actions gave the community of Canton hope, hope to live and fight another day, and the statue of Jayne was a symbol of that hope, of being able to take everything the ‘verse dishes out to you and still be able to stand tall and stick it to the man, and live another day to tell the tale.
River
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Faith and belief (religious or otherwise) was a constant theme in Firefly/Serenity.
Consider "Safe", where River is nearly burned as a witch by a group of blind believers.
Or the two Saffron episodes: she was clearly portrayed as someone who (like Mal) had lost faith in everything but her own self-interest. The scene between her and Mal at the end of Trash makes this explicit. Tracy (in The Message) was also adrift, without a core of belief.
Joss' commentary to Objects In Space points out its origins in the writer's own complex relationship to traditional belief systems and their flip side, existentialism.
Now, I wonder... does this focus on belief systems connect to another main theme of the series -- that of family?
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I'm pointin' right at it!
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I think everyone needs to believe in something. It's just blind faith and such that scare me. I guess that is because i believe in reason, logic, and science. To me, without evidence, i can't believe in it. Most religious faith is not based on reason, and that that is isn't based on good logic or evidence in my opinion.
Everyone does need to believe in something though. Something bigger, something to make them want to do good and whatnot (even if their beliefs twist them into neo-fascists or terrorists or gay-haters or racists, or whatnot). Mal had himself, not much. Jayne didn't have much either, except himself and money, maybe also a kind of decency of some form on a very very very low level. Book had God (not a good one in my opinion). Simon had science i guess, or maybe River or something. River had herself and Simon. Maybe Serenity's crew as well. And probably science and whatnot as well. Kaylee had Serenity. Zoe had Mal and possibly God, not sure. Wash had... idk. Inara had... idk. Point is, everyone believes in something. And i think we have to.
It all depends on what you choose to believe in. I personally believe in science, as i said, and also human potential. I can't believe in humanity, because humanity sucks really at this point. But i can believe in what humanity is capable of being. How far we can go. Our potential.
Blind faith is the scariest thing in the 'verse, all aspects, of all 'verses. It gives you Nazi Germany, the USSR, people like Ted Haggard (a deeply frightening person, him and all like him), the current president, the president of Iran and all of those problems in the middle east and all that. Blind faith does nobody any good. Of course, that's my opinion, based on my belief in logic and science. But i still think it is valid. Idk, i think i'm rambling. So i'll stop for now.
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Inara is a Buddhist, I think, looking at the Training House. But there are also some Hindu elements in there.
Oddly enough, the split looks to be a sort of Buddhist or atheist vibe in the Core, and a slightly more Christian vibe out to the Rim. Maybe I'm reading that wrong, though.
People are unremittingly dumb, though. I don't think five hundred years would do anything to make 'em any better - still gonna look for the biggest bully in the playground to either run from or hide behind.
Not a fan of blind anything, be it faith or obedience. I have a little problem with authority figures.
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