Friday, March 10, 2006
You want he should leap a tall building?
I'm hardly the first person to point out that Superman is Jewish (and not, as some would proclaim, a Methodist), but I am the only person I know who has spent years ranting to anyone who will listen that the Superman mythos contains elements of Jewish esoterica, with Exhibit A being the Man of Steel's contentious relationship with Mr. Mxyzptlk. An all-powerful and all-obnoxious visitor from another dimension, Mxyzptlk can only be defeated if he is made to say or spell his name backwards. Thus Superman's knowledge of Mxyzptlk's name is the only means he has of dealing with him. Mxyzptlk is probably kicking himself for telling Superman what his real name was.
Is it too much of a stretch to see parallels with the Secret Name of G-d, a moniker so powerful that only the High Priest of the Temple knew it, and only he could say the name one day a year in the most sacred chamber of the temple? Like Mxyzptlk, the Old Testament God existed in another dimension, needed to be appeased or he would cause trouble, and could be controlled to some degree through a knowledge of His name.
A related theory in the world of Supermanistics holds that Mxyzptlk is a thought experiment, proposing what would happen if the Being known as YHWH were persuaded to say His own name. Would the Celestial Voice, invoking the Celestial Name, generate a mega-explosion of... Godness? Would it restart the universe? And if YHWH said His name backwards, would that cause Him and the universe He created to cease their existences?
If you don't have an answer to these questions, then you need to read more comics.
I'm hardly the first person to point out that Superman is Jewish (and not, as some would proclaim, a Methodist), but I am the only person I know who has spent years ranting to anyone who will listen that the Superman mythos contains elements of Jewish esoterica, with Exhibit A being the Man of Steel's contentious relationship with Mr. Mxyzptlk. An all-powerful and all-obnoxious visitor from another dimension, Mxyzptlk can only be defeated if he is made to say or spell his name backwards. Thus Superman's knowledge of Mxyzptlk's name is the only means he has of dealing with him. Mxyzptlk is probably kicking himself for telling Superman what his real name was.
Is it too much of a stretch to see parallels with the Secret Name of G-d, a moniker so powerful that only the High Priest of the Temple knew it, and only he could say the name one day a year in the most sacred chamber of the temple? Like Mxyzptlk, the Old Testament God existed in another dimension, needed to be appeased or he would cause trouble, and could be controlled to some degree through a knowledge of His name.
A related theory in the world of Supermanistics holds that Mxyzptlk is a thought experiment, proposing what would happen if the Being known as YHWH were persuaded to say His own name. Would the Celestial Voice, invoking the Celestial Name, generate a mega-explosion of... Godness? Would it restart the universe? And if YHWH said His name backwards, would that cause Him and the universe He created to cease their existences?
If you don't have an answer to these questions, then you need to read more comics.
# posted by toner_low @ 2:35 PM 
