Po Mo Lesson 9Lisa Sceptic + Iconoclast

Lyotard

Season 5 Episode 18.

• In the episode “Burns’ Heir”, Homer offers Lisa and Bart some paternal advice typical of The Simpsons’ satire on resolution:

• “Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is: never try”.

• Postmodern – challenging conventional morality – no meta narratives – Lyotard.

No meta narratives in “The Simpsons”

• The Simpsons’ use of postmodernist techniques, such asfragmentation, serve to highlight the diversity of our culture and the impossibility of establishing moral authority in the pluralism of postmodern society.

Like Lyotard

• It is a sentiment closely related to Lyotard’s theory of metanarratives,which involves a distrust of totalizing explanations of the world.

Lyotard and “The Simpsons”

• In effect, The Simpsons’ stance is the same as Lyotard’s – to reject systems that aim to exert their authority in order to proclaim absolute truths.

• Lyotard’s view is that these metanarratives, which purport to explain and re-assure, are really illusions, fostered in order to smother difference, opposition and plurality.

“Simpsons” postmodern because….

• The Simpsons essentially criticizes any and all who perpetuate such metanarratives.

• One of the ways The Simpsons does this is by making anti-authoritarianism one of its most prominent recurring themes.

Challenge to authority

• If a message is to be found buried underneath the highly satirical surface of The Simpsons it is opposition to authority, whether religious, political, academic or legal.

How “The Simpsons” does it.

• A number of supporting characters in The Simpsons are figures traditionally associated with authority, such as politicians, policemen, teachers, Principal, doctors, lawyers and ministers.

• The characters used to represent these figures in The Simpsons are depicted as either dangerously incompetent or criminally corrupt.

Examples.

• Mayor Quimby, the most frequently featured politician on the show, seldom appears in a scene without taking bribes or lying to the public. He has no morality – he has a mistress!

• Springfield’s Chief of Police, Chief Wiggum, has the mental ability of a young child.

Bart the rebel.

• The consistency with which The Simpsons puts a negative spin on its figures of authority reflects a postmodernist distrust of authority.

• This postmodern, subversive inclination is often demonstrated in the subversive antics of the show’s most ruthless rebel, ten-year-old Bart Simpson.

Bart Simpson.

• Bart is an icon of youth rebellion, fiercely opposed to those who exert power over him and might force him to obey their rules. “Eat my shorts!”

• His enemy is Principal Seymour Skinner, against whom Bart has committed countless malevolent (nasty) pranks.

Lisa

• Lisa Simpson represents the show’s anti-establishment stance. Like Lyotard she dislikes the power authorities wield.

• Throughout the series, Lisa exposes many of the wrongdoings committed by authorities in Springfield.

Series 7 Episode 16 Disc 3.

• In the episode “Lisa the Iconoclast” Lisa uncovers a conspiracy orchestrated by the Springfield Historical Society, which has been forging documents and deceiving the public to propagate the false ennoblement of Jebediah Springfield.

Series 7 Episode 16 Disc 3.

• In the episode “Lisa the Iconoclast” look out for:

• The ridiculing of biblical authority –”misinterpretation”.

• The Flanders moustache – all who are naive and are fooled by meta-narrative authority have one.

• The link between meta-narratives and vested interests.

“Lisa the Iconoclast”

• The entire town has a radical religious-like faith in the myth of Jebediah ( a false meta narrative believed by everyone ).

• Lisa tries to inform her community that Jebediah was in fact a murderous pirate by the name of Hans Sprungfeld. Everyone denies the truth and becomes hostile to Lisa.

“Lisa the Iconoclast”

• Even Marge, who usually serves as the rational, moral centre of the family, ends up yelling at Lisa: “Everyone knows Jebediah Springfield was a true American hero, end of story!”

Why would Lyotard like “Lisa the Iconoclast”? Copy into book.• The episode challenges establish meta-narratives and explains how

they become self-perpetuating. The episode highlights how people are encouraged to live with a false consciousness that prevents them from understanding the true nature of a situation. In the episode biblical authority and an iconic figure like ‘Founding Father’ George Washington are ‘debunked’. The power of vested interests to promote false meta-narratives is also highlighted.

“Lisa the Skeptic” Series 9 Episode 8 Disc 2.

• Watch this episode.

“Lisa the Skeptic” Series 9 Episode 8.

• In the episode “Lisa the Skeptic”, Lisa puts herself in a similar position against the common beliefs of her community in Springfield.

• Everyone in the community is convinced of the authenticity of an angel fossil excavated near a shopping mall.

• At the end Lisa is proved right when it is revealed that the whole thing was a publicity stunt.

Power of Authority.

• In both of these episodes, Lisa combats brainwashing powers in Springfield by

criticizing the blind faith which people have towards myths (meta narratives).

Like Lyotard she distrusts meta narratives and hierarchical authority.

Lisa

• Lisa does not agree with the way Springfield society accepts authoritative knowledge without proof.

• This is the kind authoritarian belief system that Lyotard describes and opposes in “The Postmodern Condition”.

Knowledge and Power challenged.

• When knowledge becomes hierarchical, as it is in Springfield, only ideas from select groups will be admissible.

• It is in authority’s best interest to encourage this because this enables those in charge to maintain power.

• With such a system comes totalizing systems of knowledge, or metanarratives.

Metanarratives.

• Metanarratives exclude those sectors of society that are not situated at the top of the knowledge hierarchy, such as Lisa Simpson.

• Who would listen to an eight year-old girl’s protests when a much more qualified source, for example the Springfield Historical Society, has already legitimized its knowledge?

The Postmodern Condition” by Lyotard

• In “The Postmodern Condition”, Lyotard proposes a different system of knowledge.

• Lyotard wants hierarchy is replaced by a “flat network of areas of inquiry”. This would include contributions from the likes of Lisa Simpson.

Mininarratives.

• Instead of large metanarratives, Lyotard wants a series of local narratives, or mininarratives.

Lisa and Lyotard.

• Lisa shares the same belief as Lyotard that “consensus (agreement) has become an outmoded and suspect value” (Lyotard, 1979: 66).

• “The Simpsons” is postmodern because all her non-conformist efforts throughout the series serve to condemn blind consensus (agreement) to metanarratives.

Season 7 Episode 24 Disc 4.

• Christianity is one of the most visibly predominant metanarratives in Springfield, as it is in the rest of America.

• The Simpsons regularly features religion in a critical spotlight: when Homer is asked what religion he is in episode “Homerpalooza” (season 7 Episode 24), he replies; “You know, the one with the well-meaning rules that don’t work in life.”

“Lisa the Skeptic” Season 9 Episode 4 Disc 2

• Lyotard is a postmodern philosopher. He challenges the power of metanarratives like religion. “Lisa the Skeptic” is postmodern because it challenges religion by …..

“Lisa the Skeptic” Season 9 Episode 4

• Ridicules belief in angels

• Ridicules Christians who refuse to believe in science

• Ridicules people who believe in places like Lourdes to cure illness (old lady with foot)

• Ridicules the commercialisation of religion

• Highlights religious division – angel of what?

• Highlights the hysteria religion can cause

• Highlights the aggression religion can cause

• Highlights the fear of judgement some religious leaders use to scare people.

“Lisa the Skeptic” Season 9 Episode 4 Disc 2

• Lyotard is a postmodern philosopher. He challenges the power of metanarratives like religion. “Lisa the Skeptic” is postmodern because it challenges religion by …..

Season 5 Episode 22

• Even Reverend Lovejoy, who should be Springfield’s strongest advocator of Christianity, feels constricted by his religion’s rigid set of rules. In “Secrets of a Successful Marriage” he confides in Homer that just about everything is a sin.

• Pointing to the Bible, he says: “Have you ever sat down and read this thing? Technically, we’re not allowed to go to the bathroom”.