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Supernatural and the Prodigal
Okay, I admit it: quite possibly the biggest kink-button SPN hits (or rather, pounds with its mighty fist) for me is its playing around with prodigal narrative. And when I say kink-button, I mean kink-button. Like, when I talk about it in posts like this? What I can actually examine and articulate is the tip of the iceberg. The massive, unaccessible giant hunk of ice below the surface tends to make itself known in pretty much any creative endeavor I undertake, and the extent of it is not something I am consciously aware of, that much I know for sure.
Anyway. Supernatural and the prodigal narrative.
Lawrence, Kansas. Aside from (or should I say, as well as) Dean's whole "I swore I'd never go back there" stuff, I am freaking head-over-heels for the Winchester family's relationship to Lawrence. John's diary talks about how after Mary's death he stayed with Mike (the guy he co-owned his garage with) and his wife, how they were increasingly disturbed by his behaviour, and how he eventually left them - without saying goodbye, before they were even awake.
In other words, John Winchester disappeared. John Winchester and his infant children disappeared. This is something that would not be taken lightly, despite the fact that the police closed the case of Mary's death and ruled out foul play.
In 'Home' we see Sam and Dean talking to Mike, and he mentions a police investigation following John's disappearance, that the case was never closed.
And in 'The Benders' we see Dean & Sam's names come up on the police record search, but not John's (ignoring, of course, the fact that there are more Winchesters than 3 in the world anyway). And hey, why isn't Mary's name on there? Does John have any other relatives? What happened to *his* parents? (and no matter what the answer to that one is, it's completely relevant.)
I like the concept that John leaving Lawrence signals *that* John Winchester ceasing to exist - at least in that world. That Sam and Dean come up in the police search because they are so totally removed from their childhood identities, pre-fire.
Because really, police records? Open (albeit old) police case? There would have to have been some severance there to ensure the connection between the Sam and Dean Winchester in the police records and infants Sam and Dean Winchester who disappeared from Lawrence in 1983 was never made.
I am totally pinged by Sam and Dean visiting Mike, visiting Lawrence, and Lawrence (and Mike, with whom they lived with some twenty years earlier) not recognising them. That is the most ... stimulating part of the prodigal narrative for me: the return from the other world, changed. How the pieces won't fit together anymore, how that effects the players on both sides (those who left, those who were left behind). What happens when the surfaces of each are pressed to the other.
The "I can never go home" refrain of the Pilot is something that echoes throughout the very elements of the show, I think.
And speaking of homes, Bobby has a home. Daniel Elkins has a home. Pastor Jim has a home, and gathering from the arsenal mounted on the wall behind him, Caleb has a home.
That is to say, the nomad lifestyle isn't par for the course for hunters. Why does John choose this lifestyle? Ostensibly he's chasing the demon, but he said that trail had been cold for nearly 20 years before he goes 'missing'. Are we to assume that they did, in fact, spend the past 20 years on the road? In the draft pilot, they had a home base they roamed from. There's certainly no mention of a home, or base, in what we see aired, but was that always the case? It *is* nice to think, and possibly more likely than motel after motel for 20 years, especially with schooling, that they rented places here and there.
How long they stayed in each and what made John choose those places and choose to move on is something many a fic-writer has speculated on. Maybe they were relatively stable, if moving around a lot, before school ended and Sam left? And then Dean and John took well and truly to the road.
Some things to think about, anyway.
Anyway. Supernatural and the prodigal narrative.
Lawrence, Kansas. Aside from (or should I say, as well as) Dean's whole "I swore I'd never go back there" stuff, I am freaking head-over-heels for the Winchester family's relationship to Lawrence. John's diary talks about how after Mary's death he stayed with Mike (the guy he co-owned his garage with) and his wife, how they were increasingly disturbed by his behaviour, and how he eventually left them - without saying goodbye, before they were even awake.
In other words, John Winchester disappeared. John Winchester and his infant children disappeared. This is something that would not be taken lightly, despite the fact that the police closed the case of Mary's death and ruled out foul play.
In 'Home' we see Sam and Dean talking to Mike, and he mentions a police investigation following John's disappearance, that the case was never closed.
And in 'The Benders' we see Dean & Sam's names come up on the police record search, but not John's (ignoring, of course, the fact that there are more Winchesters than 3 in the world anyway). And hey, why isn't Mary's name on there? Does John have any other relatives? What happened to *his* parents? (and no matter what the answer to that one is, it's completely relevant.)
I like the concept that John leaving Lawrence signals *that* John Winchester ceasing to exist - at least in that world. That Sam and Dean come up in the police search because they are so totally removed from their childhood identities, pre-fire.
Because really, police records? Open (albeit old) police case? There would have to have been some severance there to ensure the connection between the Sam and Dean Winchester in the police records and infants Sam and Dean Winchester who disappeared from Lawrence in 1983 was never made.
I am totally pinged by Sam and Dean visiting Mike, visiting Lawrence, and Lawrence (and Mike, with whom they lived with some twenty years earlier) not recognising them. That is the most ... stimulating part of the prodigal narrative for me: the return from the other world, changed. How the pieces won't fit together anymore, how that effects the players on both sides (those who left, those who were left behind). What happens when the surfaces of each are pressed to the other.
The "I can never go home" refrain of the Pilot is something that echoes throughout the very elements of the show, I think.
And speaking of homes, Bobby has a home. Daniel Elkins has a home. Pastor Jim has a home, and gathering from the arsenal mounted on the wall behind him, Caleb has a home.
That is to say, the nomad lifestyle isn't par for the course for hunters. Why does John choose this lifestyle? Ostensibly he's chasing the demon, but he said that trail had been cold for nearly 20 years before he goes 'missing'. Are we to assume that they did, in fact, spend the past 20 years on the road? In the draft pilot, they had a home base they roamed from. There's certainly no mention of a home, or base, in what we see aired, but was that always the case? It *is* nice to think, and possibly more likely than motel after motel for 20 years, especially with schooling, that they rented places here and there.
How long they stayed in each and what made John choose those places and choose to move on is something many a fic-writer has speculated on. Maybe they were relatively stable, if moving around a lot, before school ended and Sam left? And then Dean and John took well and truly to the road.
Some things to think about, anyway.
no subject
I see them moving more in the first few years and then staying in places for maybe a couple of months at a time (in cheap furnished apartments and the like) for the boys to go to school ('cause they are clearly educated and I don't see John managing to teach them all the hunting skills and school stuff, it wouldn't leave him much time for actual hunting). And then motel hoping during the summer.
I figure the reason the settle one place for so long while Sam's in high school is due to his insistence. He probably wanted it to happen before (his yearning for a normal life and all) but not until he's a teenager would he really have the power (which is not exactly the right word there but I'm just going to go with it) to push John in the direction he wanted. John wouldn't be happy about it which would lead to more tension between them culminating in his telling Sam to not come back (or whatever the actually wording was) when Sam gets accepted to Standford.
I could also see Dean not liking the idea of staying in one place (all those comments to the effect of normal being bad/not making sense) but staying, even when John goes on hunts, for Sam as company and protection.
And, even if they did settle for more than a couple of months (or years) at a time I don't think either John or Dean would consider the place home. Sam would, but not John and Dean.
Well, now that I've go that out of my system. The reason I found myself here in the first place was that I wanted to tell you how very very awesome the Super-Canon site is (I spent a good deal of time wandering around there today when I should have been doing other things). And now that I've realized that you are also a Firefly person I'm also going to friend you.
no subject
I'm glad you find the Super-canon site useful!! I'm rather fond of it myself.
And yaye, Firefly. Though I'm pretty much SPN!SPN!SPN! all the way these days :D
no subject