Wicked is religious, actually

Modern Relics is a (currently) intermittent newsletter about all that sneaky religion (compliment) that gets into your pop culture and internet. The vibe is like:

I have been limping towards the end of the year, but it’s Advent! And Sydney (where I live) is getting consistent 30 degree days. Glorious.

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The many faiths of Oz, as told by Wicked's Gregory Maguire

A confession: Despite being a fan of the musical Wicked, I have not read Gregory Maguire's original novel. So, I didn't know that religion plays a big part in the story because a lot of the explicit religious references were removed from the musical adaptation.

Kathryn Post at RNS has set me right with this article and interview with Maguire himself where he talks about the various faiths in Oz, including Lurlinism, Unionism, Pleasure Faithism and Tiktokism.

From RNS:

Named after a saint, Elphaba is an atheist who believes she has no soul, yet spends several years living in a convent and longing for forgiveness. Though the musical removes the novel’s more explicit religious references, the questions at the heart of the story — What differentiates good from evil? Where does wickedness come from? — are central in all its adaptations.

Maguire has a new book coming out that focusses on Elphaba's childhood, and he dwells on her religious influences a bit more too.

Please enjoy this TikTok before it gets banned in the United States in like two weeks

I guess when TikTok goes under I'm going to have to post Instagram Reels? What a time to be alive.

I cannot fucking believe Conclave isn't out in Australia yet

When I was growing up in Australia in the 90s it was a common thing for movies to be released here months or even years after their premiere in the United States. Eventually releases smoothed out a lot to counter movie piracy, and now with streaming releases are usually more-or-less concurrent.

Well. WELL. For some reason that doesn't apply to Conclave, the most hotly-anticipated movie release of 2024 (for Modern Relics readers??)

I am so insanely pissed off about this. There was a bunch of discourse around the film in both Weird Christian world and gay world and I basically missed it.

There are a handful of pre-screenings in my area I might be able to make, but I think I'm going to end up waiting until 9 January when it finally releases here and watch it with a bunch of friends. So, no spoilers please!

Actually here's a post that I assume is a spoiler comparing Conclave with one of the final scenes of Mean Girls.

How many hours do you spend on phone as a child of God?

Click through to see the video. Some people, they watch nonsense. They send nonsense.

Please do not forget that there was another much older script for Gladiator II written by Nick Cave

Sorry to repeat myself I know I've written about this before, but I'll never shut up about how the first time someone had a crack at a Gladiator II script, it was Nick Cave and it involved Maximus coming back from the dead so he could kill Jesus.

Bluesky has the juice

I think we are finally – FINALLY – at the stage where Bluesky is just obviously better than Twitter/X and Threads. It's fantastic for me because now I don't have to pay close attention to an objectively terrible website to make this newsletter.

I'm keeping my old account up on Old Twitter, but if you've sent me a post on there in the last year or so you've probably noticed I only log in every couple of weeks.

I encourage you to move over if you haven't already.

Jump in the water is great.

Baldur's Gate 3 in Vatican City

Love this little aside from BG3 developer Larian Studios that two digital copies of the game have sold in Vatican City. It would be just a fun curiosity except that it's a game heaving with difficult moral choices and religious themes. What kind of choices did those players make, and why?

Luce is in hell but for good reasons

In case you missed it, the Vatican commissioned an official anime-style mascot for the 2025 jubilee year. Her name is Luce and I love her.

Is this the Doomguy? Kind of looks like it. Anyway, don't forget that in the Doom novels, the Doomguy, Albert Gallatin, is a Mormon. It's nice to see some ecumenical/interfaith fighting evil.

OH! By the way, there's a new Catholic Lofi album and it's Luce themed.

Please don't forget about my Advent playlist

It's Advent, so I am making a playlist of songs about the apocalypse and the culmination of all things. It's only little right now, but you can help by expanding it!

Thanks for reading. I'll do my best to get a Christmas edition out to you before the 25th. I'm on some annual leave from my job as well, so I might have time to do a new year's post of all the bits and pieces I saved over 2024 but never actually made it into the newsletter. Anyway, until next time!