This may be new for some of you, but I think most of America has heard about LOLcats. They are a ton of random cat pictures with silly mis-grammared captions on them.

The internet has made it incredibly easy for just about anything to go viral and become a cultural icon. We can see this with the Numa video and also with LOLcats. People love the stupidest things. I wonder what that says about our culture.

Do y’all remember this guy? It’s been awhile. But when this video first came out it flooded the internet world. This may have been the first video to ever go viral online. Everyone loved it, watched it, and occasionally broke out into it’s song. At least I did. Back in the day.

Only in our day with the internet is this sort of thing possible. The youtube-video-gone-viral-celebrity is yet another cultural icon in our day. Many of us post things on YouTube in hopes of becoming the next Numa guy. Others of us try to keep every video on lock-down to prevent this very thing from happening.

Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you. Jesus Christ and the American Soldier. One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.

I’m not sure who came up with this quote, but I’m pretty sure I don’t like it. Don’t get me wrong. I love my country. I’m immensely thankful for the freedom we have here. I have family members in the military. I’m incredibly grateful to them for all that they do. But I think statements like this one are a little over the top.

You see, there’s a difference between a healthy amount of patriotic camaraderie and idolatry. I think that statements like this place the American Soldier a little too close to Jesus. America may be the home of the free, but we certainly don’t have a monopoly on it. And even if we are free from political oppression, I feel like we might be one of the most enslaved nations to our own flesh and to the tactics of the enemy.

The American Soldier is yet another cultural icon that has become elevated to the level of legend and myth. We don’t really know many soldiers or really what we do. But we know that we should place our hands over our hearts when we see them. We give them the utmost respect, yet we don’t know much about them or their mission.

I want to honor the men and women who lay their lives down for our country, but let us not forget that our true freedom comes from Jesus Christ alone.

American Idol has become part of the fabric of American society. Aside from the obvious religious title of the show, it literally brings people into spiritual experiences. The contestants worship in song and then sit before the judgement seat where salvation is decided for them. Only the few elect are left in the end.

But apart from all the religious imagery, the “American Idol” represents the ultimate singer/performer in America. They are legendary, perhaps even mythical. It is universally known and sits as the pinnacle of what people desire to accomplish. Let’s mark down American Idol as yet another cultural image of mythology.

Have you ever heard one of these Chuck Norris jokes or maybe another one? It’s clear that Chuck Norris has become a cultural legend, maybe even a myth. No one is really sure who he is. But, we all know of him.

I was recently reading the latest issue of Bible Study Magazine. This issue was mostly focused on the Old Testament. The whole second half of the magazine was devoted to this. The introduction to the latter half of the magazine began like this:

It’s the first thing we do at parties and the first idea we have when public speaking: storytelling. We tell of the big fish that weighs more with each tale and of the ones that didn’t quite make it into the boat because it nearly capsized. Cultures revolve around stories. People like Mark Twain, the great American novelist, and Victor Hugo, the French proponent of the Romantic literature movement, transformed culture through story. Through wit, humor, and suspense they showed us who we are–faults and all–and who we should be.

The Bible is part of this great narrative tradition, and of course, so much more. Storytelling itself started in biblical times with people who led lives of biblical proportions. Their stories are true and so much greater than our myths about the “one that got away” because they’re about divine actions in the midst of our mundane and insane. But to understand their stories, we need to know about the stories behind the Old Testament. These usually untold stories illuminate the great narrative of God and His people.

It looks like Bible study is following the shift into searching for narrative. Indeed, the Bible is primarily narrative. It is not filled with much exposition and proposition, but rather with stories. Even the Law is weaved into narratives of Israel. The Torah (“law”) isn’t merely a list of rules, but is a series of stories about Israel’s mingling with the Lord.

Stories are both from us and are forming us. We hear them and they shape our character. Then we retell them and they carry our own added character. They take a new shape. They have a new flavor. Stories are like the waters upon this earth that are always cycling and moving. It falls from the sky; it moves upon the ground; it flows into the sea. The stories of our culture are like this.

One of the earliest stories, and literary artworks, to emerge from the English language is the great epic poem Beowulf. Like the Iliad and the Odyssey most of us studied Beowulf in our high school years. We know the story of Beowulf, the Geats, Grendel, and the Dragon. We know the great battles, the hero, and the villains. This story came from the Middle Ages. It suited and reflected the culture that it emerged from.

This story has been told for centuries. It has been studied in schools for ages. But in 1971, John Gardner had a new story to tell: Grendel. Grendel is a novel that moves from the perspective of Beowulf, the mighty hero, to Grendel, who was considered a monster. During this time, society had been questioning the status quo and so a new story needed to be told. This is a perfect example of the retelling of an old story for new times, cultures, and philosophies. In the same way that people change, so will the stories they are telling.

The retelling of this story shows how culture transformed over time. There are a few ways we can see by contrasting the poem, Beowulf, with the novel, Grendel.

In Beowulf everything seems to have a predetermined purpose. Battles are fought for glory. Past victories are proclaimed like resumes. Everyone embraces this. The reader is given no explanation. The culture is simple and known. Yet, in Grendel everything seems to be without purpose. Many have said that Grendel is a product of existentialism. Purpose is determined by the individual. Throughout the whole novel, Grendel wrestles with purpose.

Another difference is that in Beowulf the characters are flat. Beowulf is good. Grendel is bad. That is about all that you need to know. The entire existence of Grendel challenges that assumption. Being written from Grendel’s perspective readers begin to identify with Grendel and accept him as a legitimate being. Someone to be known and cared about.

A final difference to be observed is the nature of life. The poem describes life in actions. Characters are known for what they do. Beowulf introduces himself by reciting long lists of things he’s done; victories he’s one; enemies he’s conquered. That has changed almost completely in Grendel where life is described in thought. The book reads like an exposition of life through the lens of nihilistic existentialism. In other words, it’s like a philosophical creed. Life is lived and characters are known for what they think.

Life has transitioned much. Existentialism, and what has come to be called Postmodernism, has brought from it many questions of purpose and character and life. These questions are being asked, sorted out, and dreamt of. As a result, the story of Beowulf has been retold. Grendel has been cast center stage and we will all learn with him what our lives are all about.

Back at the beginning of the semester, we read about how Tolkien began to look around in his culture and he realized that there was a desperate lack of mythology. The authors of From Homer to Harry Potter write, “J. R. R. Tolkien set out to fill that gap and provide through his Middle-earth Ledendarium a mythology and body of legend for England.” (26)

Today I was reading through some articles on NPR and stumbled across one about N. D. Wilson, a man who has observed the same thing in America. He said, “Growing up, I loved [The Chronicles of Narnia]. Now, I can look at Harry Potter, and I can see my kids loving Harry Potter. But the assumption that I had growing up was you had to be in England if you wanted to have a magical adventure.” In his book, The Dragon’s Tooth, Wilson seeks to change that assumption about fantasy.

The article continues to say that “Wilson set out to make magical adventure possible in America. And with that in mind, he wrote a story that connects global mythology to everyday Americana, with its roadside diners, truck stops and waffle irons.”

It looks to me like the contagious desire for adventure, fantasy, and to be part of a story is still spreading. I know that these books were probably written for kids, but after taking this class, I might just try to find some time to read it. It sounds exciting and adventurous, but also near and not foreign. That, I think, is the point.

Click Here to read the whole article on NPR