Jews… In… Stories!
In my head, the title of this entry is spoken with the same intonation as The Muppet Show’s “Pigs… In… Space!”
*ahem*
The title actually might as well be “Religion… In… Stories!”, but as I’m Jewish, this is really the only aspect of religion I’m somewhat qualified to blog on. Here’s my basic thesis: we need more stories with religion.
Now, hold on, my imaginary straw-you protests. Don’t we have enough religion making its way into things where it doesn’t belong? What’s wrong with a secular story?
Well, nothing’s wrong with a secular story, per se. What’s wrong is when stories have characters who are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Wiccan, etc. and yet never actually show those characters being different at all from their colleagues who are secular or vaguely spiritual.
Maybe an example will clarify what I mean. This Passover, I idly watched the Coen brothers’ movie The Big Lebowski. Among other characters, The Big Lebowski features the Dude (Jeff Bridges) and his wacky bowling buddies, Donny (Steve Buscemi) and Walter (John Goodman). Walter is a crazy SOB who pulls a gun on some poor guy in the alley to enforce a tournament rule, comes up with ridiculous, violent, immoral schemes that mess up the Dude’s plans, and somehow works the Vietnam War into every conversation he has. He also has a recurring gag in which he’s Shomer Shabbus — that is, like all observant Jews, he refuses to work, drive, etc. on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.
He’s a funny guy, and it’s a minor, if amusing, note. But as I was watching the movie, I realized that Walter is actually the most observant Jewish* character I’ve seen in a story that’s not specifically about Judaism or faith. And that’s just sad.
Thing is, there are lots of Jewish characters in the otherwise secular stories I enjoy. Heck, on House alone, about half the characters have been established at some point as Jewish or Jewish-raised (Cuddy, Taub, Wilson, Kutner while he was still on the show). But they don’t act like Jews — not even like the least observant Jews who still consider themselves to be Jewish whom I know in real life.
Sure, when there’s a major life event that anyone, religious or not, would celebrate, their celebrations take a Jewish flavour (i.e. if there’s a wedding or a baby naming, everyone wears kippot). But I never see Jews in otherwise secular TV shows, movies, or books taking time off for the High Holidays, bringing matzah or gefilte fish for lunch during Passover, or having any social committments relating to the Jewish community. They don’t seem to belong to shuls, get pestered by Jewish charities, have gone to Jewish schools or camps, or even use Jewish verbal expressions.
For those who aren’t Jewish, all of this is like having even vaguely Christian characters who not only never mention Christmas or Easter, but also never encounter holiday decorations, food, and songs or seem to know anyone else at all who’s Christian. And note that the Christian activities I’m describing here are not the core of a religious Christian’s experience — a devout Christian would of course have way more denomination-specific religious and social activities, and have a set of deep theological, ethical, and metaphysical beliefs that I haven’t even hinted at here. The point is that religious characters in secular stories don’t even seem to touch at even the least of what it means to be Jewish, or Catholic, or Muslim, etc.
At first, I thought this was regrettable but okay — I mean, it would be difficult to work religion into secular stories, right? Wouldn’t the authors be raising a whole bunch of themes they didn’t really want to deal with? Do we really want a Very Special Episode of Friends where Ross and Monica explain to us all how to host a seder, or comment on being held as a “model minority” in the U.S., or delve into the issues facing the diaspora Jewish community when it comes to taking positions on Israeli politics? Of course not. But once I started working on my own story featuring a Jewish character in a secular plot and saw The Big Lebowski , I realized that having religious characters act religious without changing the focus of the story is actually… well, pretty easy.
It’s easy in the same way that establishing a character as liking soccer or enjoying taking a pottery class is easy. You off-handedly mentioned their hobby, and every once in a while, you have them do something small but related to the main plot that shows it — the soccer player might dribble pebbles on the road as she walks or not be able to help with a case because of a tournament. The potter might have made his own dishes or have met his newest friend at a class. Similarly, when half of that old TV staple, The Odd Couple Who For Plot Reasons Must Share an Apartment, walks in to annoy her roommate, maybe that roommate is struggling with a lulav and etrog or trying to remember how to put on tefillin.
I mean, sheesh, having religious characters actually be religious can even help storytellers. Need a reason one character is out of the way for a particular part of the story or can’t help the protagonist do something? Instead of using the excuse of a random “conference” or “meeting”, why not just say, oh, it’s her nephew’s bar mitzvah, or he’s helping with the JNF fundraiser at his shul, or it’s Yom Kippur and she’s taken the day off? Religious practice can be a funny subject for banter, the catalyst for a minor plot point, or an explanation for certain liberties the plot needs to take. If not all your characters are the same religion (or some aren’t religious at all), then they have an easy way to explain their customs to an audience who might come from a different background. And, c’mon, if you can tackle the infodumps on aliens or magic or esoteric medical science, you can handle it for religious customs.
As my mom pointed out, real religious practice gets shafted in fiction the same way realistic familial relationships do. (It’s hard to believe, for instance, that not a single character on various popular TV shows ever contacts his or her siblings or parents except once a year when they guest-star in special episodes.) But there’s really no good reason for either of these things to happen, since it could take two seconds to slip these worlds in unobtrusively, making the story richer without dragging in obnoxious unwanted themes.
Even a tiny mention of shul or family goings-on can help cultivate the impression that these characters are real people with real lives that revolve around them and go on even when they’re not onscreen or in the scene on the current page. And, better, it gives audiences who aren’t Jewish, or Muslim, or a member of a closely-knit family, etc. a much more accurate idea of how other real people live their lives. After all, the first Jew some audience members out there will encounter is Ron Stoppable or Grace Adler. Wouldn’t it be nice if they were actually reasonable examples of the people they end up representing?
* He converted for his ex-wife, according to the film.
Great post, SR. I’m amazed at how shallow most lives are on TV. No family, friends, activities, or synagogues/churches. No school plays, sports teams, or even a dog to walk.
Of course, you could have the opposite problem, which afflicts Native Americans (and probably First Nations of Canada as well). You only exist to be a spiritual being, and your faith defines your TV and movie characters. It’s almost impossible to find an aboriginal character who is just living life in a big city, or even a small town. Or you could consider the trope of the ultra-Catholic mobsters, which gives Catholic piety a bad rap. So there might be a bit of a silver lining to the lack of Jewishness in the character’s lives.
But the big problem is that TV/movies really do shape how we think about life and define normal. So now it feels odd to even mention that you attend a house of worship, no less discuss anything religious or theologic in public. We’ve gone from separation of church and state to separation of church and life.
I remember reading sometime recently that The Simpsons is the most religious show on TV. They show normal people going to church, praying, and having doing church-related activities. So badly-drawn yellow cartoons are in some ways more real than the characters portrayed by actors. Ironic, huh?
Thanks, Ted, and good point about “over-religion”. I feel like it’s part of the same problem, but different side of the coin — movies/TV/books don’t show how it is to be a person with faith or from a certain faith-related group of people in day-to-day life. They either pretend it doesn’t exist or make a big deal of it in silly circumstances.
(e.g. when we do hear about Jews doing Jewish things on House, it’s not because it’s a Jewish holiday or anything, it’s because something major has happened to the characters in their personal plotline; when a Christian character does something “Christian”, it has less to do with actual everyday Christianity and more to do with whatever crisis the plot has churned up now — e.g. Scully never prays because she’s Christian, she prays to show the audience how worked up she is about Mulder’s latest escapade)
Anyway, I think you/your source are right about the Simpsons (well, not counting specifically religious shows like Touched by an Angel or 7th Heaven), which is just kind of… sad.
My gosh, Ted is right. Simpsons is the only show on TV where I’ve seen Ganesh show up on a regular basis, where Lisa studies rabbinical law in order to argue with Krusty’s dad, and where you see the inside of a church on a regular basis. I love that it’s not just Christianity that shows up in the story — and that when Homer runs around in a Ganesh suit, he gets stepped on by an offended elephant.
Usually Christians show up in TV shows — or books! — in order to show a closed-minded view of life that the MC ends up refuting. I keep wanting to write a story about a fundamental Christian who loves her faith and practices what she preaches, and I’ve met a few of them.
I’ve read repeatedly that sex isn’t the last taboo in books — religion is.
Have you seen “Saved!”? It sometimes gets a bad rap as anti-Christian, and it *is* pretty cynical, but I think they do a really good job of showing what it *really* means to behave as a Christian through the character Patrick – seems like what they’re actually trying to poke fun at are the organizations that support pharisee-ism and prejudice in the name of Christianity.
Er… my point there was this elaborate reference in agreement with your comment: Christians in secular stories often wind up being hypocritical fundamentalists, like the character Hilary Faye in Saved! (who throws a Bible at someone else yelling, “I am FILLED with Christ’s love! You are just jealous of my success in the Lord!”) without providing the counterpoint of a character like Patrick.
HEY SARAH!
I was thinking about this topic and now I’m trying to come up with examples of people who are religiously observant on secular shows. One that is kind of a good example is Friends. Monica and Ross are established as Jewish and there are a few times where that is brought up in natural ways. They reference Monica’s bat mitzvah a bunch of times and talk about celebrating Hannukkah with thier family, even going through a whole episode where Ross is trying to teach his son about the holiday and about being Jewish and struggling to compete with Santa. Thought-provoking post, SK!
HEY SARAH!
Thanks, SL! I defer to your greater expertise on the subject of Friends :) Although I do get annoyed when the only Jewish holiday mentioned is Hannukah, because it’s kind of the equivalent of Christian characters who never talk about Christmas or Easter but make a big deal out of St. Patrick’s Day. But I can see why it’s a convenient one for writers to mention, and it’s definitely better than nothing (which I’m sure is the representation you find those of Bahai faith getting… aaaaaaaggggghhhhhhh….)
This IS an interesting point, SK! :)
You’re right… as a skilled writer, it would definitely just deepen the character… and also that whole thing about siblings, annoys me in the same way. Having a random guest star sticks out oddly TOO… like… how do you not have more of a relationship with this person??
Weeeeeeeeeeeird/interesting. I think Friend’s religion stuff is similar to how it deals with homosexuality. Like, it’s cool that they have Carol and Susan marrying and such, but it still annoys me a little how they deal with it… I don’t know why, come to think of it… maybe that they’re just side characters and/or one of them is hateful. I don’t know. I still like that they’re there, though! And they’re mentioned more than Judaism, that’s for sure!
Thanks, JB! You’re right, I’m always weirded out by fictional characters’ relationships — or lack thereof — with their siblings (nevermind their parents, cousins, etc.), probably because I, like I know you do, come from a family that’s very close, and it’s just like… really? My mom talks to her siblings and siblings-in-law at least once a week, and I phone her, like, once a day, so why is Cuddy’s sister a throwaway doesn’t-even-appear-onscreen character in season six? How come Scully never mentions her bros and sis even once in the entire first season? This is another thing Dexter does relatively well (although maybe only because both sibs are main characters?)…
I like the comparison between the way Friends deals with homosexuality and the way it deals with Judaism. I think maybe for me it’s that (well, the idea I have about TV in general, since you know the only reason I’ve ever seen Friends is because of you guys and other roommates) you can feel that it *is* “dealing with it”, you know? Like, here’s An Issue that we have to Deal With This Episode and then forget about. Not like Judaism and homosexuality and having a close family are things that shape people’s day-to-day lives.