Traditions carve out space for meaning. They don’t just offer guidance for what a person should do at a particular time or in a particular situation, but help individuals become groups.
Unless those traditions come into conflict with an individual, threatening the cohesion of the group or the practice of the tradition. And that’s where storytelling can find plenty of uses for exploring (and exploding) those traditions.
Even something as mundane as getting a Christmas tree can offer room for conflict and comedy if Clark Griswold makes a big deal about the proper, traditional way to get that tree:
Leah Schnelbach looks at how The Nightmare Before Christmas isn’t just a story about Halloween creatures upending Christmas traditions, but how the film itself upends traditions of Christmas movies:
Most specials, television shows, and movies, from It’s A Wonderful Life to VeggieTales to Stephen Colbert’s 2006 special The Greatest Gift of All! to the in-universe Bojack Horseman holiday episode, come to a head around an uncanny event: the confirmation of Santa’s existence, an angel/God saving someone, snow falling miraculously to save a vampire, or at the very least a vague idea of “Christmas spirit”—something extra-normal that brings people together. […] The films depend on our understanding Christmas as a meaningful time so they can subvert our expectations. But Nightmare’s Christmas stands apart: the film doesn’t want to bash you about the head with the idea that there has to be a Meaning.
All three seasons of The Mandalorian have plot lines that test traditions. Vivian Asimos looks at how the show’s Mandalorian creed relates to creating shared identities centered in ethnicity and nationalism. Jillian Cheney hones in on one specific question the show returns to: When is it acceptable for Din Djarin to take off his helmet?
Ryoko Otomo finds the overlap between Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai and the ritual suicide of author Yukio Mishima, pointing out the way older traditions were injected into modern space:
We come to love Ghost Dog because he demonstrates lost values: the strength of will power, immaculate self-discipline and kindness towards the weak. These qualities effectively evoke nostalgia.
For some further reading on that film, Greg Tate relates how Ghost Dog pulls from and contributes to the narrative traditions of mafia, samurai, and blaxploitation films.
Jamie Kojiro discusses the ways Yasujiro Ozu’s Floating Weeds and Seijun Suzuki’s Tokyo Drifter respond to the Westernization of Japan and the generational clash between tradition and modernity.
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Previously on Inneresting…
In case you missed it, in last issue’s most clicked link Jason Bailey suggests adding The Ref to your holiday watchlist.
What else is inneresting?
Willow Katelyn Mackay writes about the close ties between persona swap films and the transgender experience.
How wealthy are the McCallisters? Pricing out their “Silver Tuna” of a home gives part of the answer.
A quick sidebar on specific family traditions:
Several Christmases ago, our older kiddo suggested we watch The Muppet Christmas Carol right before bed on Christmas Eve, but stop it right after the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Then, on our Christmas morning, we should start the day with Scrooge’s Christmas morning transformation.
Five years later, we still make time for it. We know what we’re about.
-Chris
And that’s what’s inneresting this week!
Inneresting is edited by Chris Csont, with contributions from readers like you and the entire Quote-Unquote team.
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