I NetFlixed this out of curiosity and am totally hooked. Can’t wait for Season 2 (set for release on DVD Nov. 28)!
Joan of Arcadia is just what it sounds like: god appears to a 15 year old, Joan, on a regular basis. Instead of being in France in the early 15th century, we’re in California, early 21st century. She hasn’t been burned yet, but maybe that was a story arc that would’ve been in season 3…Joan is, in all respects other than having visions of god on a regular basis, a normal teenage, high school, girl: school isn’t just hard because of classes but because of the students.
God appears to Joan but His denomination is never revealed: her parents were brought up Catholic and one gets the feeling that the kids were baptized, but no one goes to church. Joan admits that, until He started appearing to her, she didn’t believe He existed. God’s guises are many and varied but occasionally repeat: my favorite is Goth God, but there’s also Little Kid God, Old Lady God, and Chess God. In order to establish Who He is when appearing in a new guise, God will tell Joan something that only He would know: when she’s alone, the Celine Dion song from Titanic makes her cry, for example.
God’s dramatic purpose is to drive the story line by creating conflict. God sends Joan on errands. From the mythic (build a boat), to the teenage weird (ask Ramsey to the dance), to the profound (get a gift for her friend). She frequently misunderstands the purpose behind the request (she thinks there’s going to be a flood, an obvious conclusion when she’s asked to build a boat, but really, its presence in the garage serves as a way for her oldest brother and her father to re-connect), or simply thinks she’s failed (had she not taken Ramsey to the dance, he would’ve gone alone and, ultimately, pulled a Columbine; but he didn’t since she did and since the next day at school is normal, it seems as though her actions didn’t do anything). She also often thinks that the request is for something completely different than what it is (the “gift” she thinks she’s supposed to give her friend is her virginity; it turns out to be faith in himself). One is often left to wonder if God is being intentionally misleading or if His wishes are simply too ineffable for our language.
Joan’s interactions with God are, obviously, a metaphor for humanity’s interactions. How often has God told us to do something and we get it wrong? How often do we think that He has really told us something entirely different? It’s also a question put to the audience: if God appeared to you today, what would you do? Joan asks a lot of questions (most often, “Why?”) but God rarely answers. When He does, it’s in an ineffable way that aggravates her. She frequently gets angry at him: for not letting her in on The Secret, for being mysterious, and for asking things that are too hard for her (like taking AP Chem).
I think that there is a great value in having a (almost) child interacting with God in this manner. As a teenager, she can be moody and emotional with him in a way that, in an adult would be less believable, though in no way less sincere. How often have we been angry at God, not understanding The Plan? How often would we have liked to swear and cry at Him? Joan gets to on a regular basis. I think that might be the trade off: she gets to speak to Him directly but then she has to do His tasks.
My favorite part is all the different guises God appears in. Very frequently, it’s someone that Joan (and probably me, too) would ignore: the trash collector, a homeless guy. There’s a (pantheist/namaste) meditation that I do: “I worship the god/dess in [insert person here]”. It’s often difficult for me to recognize the divine in those close to me. I will admit that I’ve never tried it with strangers. In any case, I like thinking that God is in everyone (or could be anyone) we meet every day. Et in Arcadia.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Jonathan // Oct 13, 2006 at 6:42 am
Miko (Reg?) - Sounds like an interesting series! And it does make you think about God and how He interacts with us. I think you are right about the divine in us all. It seems to me that we were made divine from the start - made in the image of God (Him/Herself)- meaning we are conscious and have a personality on one hand, but on the other we are unique, beautiful, passionate, and creative beings - each one of us are wonderful, awe-inspiring, or at least we have the potential to be.
So what would I do if I met God? Well, I believe I did come fact to face with him in a dream/vision, numerous times actually. But to tell that story here would be inappropriate - folks here will already think I’m quite insane by just stating that alone, that is, the ones that haven’t already thought that
But to give you a picture of what happened, I talk about it here using an analogy. Meeting my wife was amazing, but meeting God was a hundred times more intense. (This statement will make more sense if you read the post) I may write about that encounter sometime, but my ability to write about something so beautiful would end up conveying very little of the reality of what actually happened. I think it is something that cannot be described intellectually with any accuracy or even well using spiritual language, but must be experienced personally to be best understood.
Anyway, the next time I head to the video store, I’ll rent a season and check it out!
2 John // Oct 16, 2006 at 3:33 pm
This gives a whole new meaning to “Deus ex machina!” Seriously, though, this reminds me of a favorite quote from C.S.Lewis. He interpreted it literally, and I metaphorically, but I think it’s still powerful nonetheless:
Jonathan, I’m inspired by your capacity for mystical experience.
3 Jonathan // Oct 16, 2006 at 8:36 pm
John - That’s so funny… You COMPLETELY read my mind - I was thinking of that very same quote when writing my comment above. I was actually tempted to quote it myself, but I was too tired to look it up. I guess great minds think alike
4 Reg // Oct 18, 2006 at 9:43 am
Jonathan—I’ve come to the conclusion that everyone (everyone I know) has had profound spiritual experiences (like meeting or talking to the divine) that we each feel (a) are too special to share or (b) could become objects of ridicule. I would love to share experiences with the MoF community because I think the latter is moot. I’ve no solution to the former, however. So we shall leave it at that; perhaps that’s why I like Joan of Arcadia: I get to see someone else’s spiritual experience and their struggles surrounding it. In some ways it’s like mine, in other ways, it’s very different. I also, personally, find amazing the fact that something spiritual got on national television!
5 Jonathan // Oct 18, 2006 at 10:39 am
Thanks Reg
It’s good to know that the MoF crowd is comfortable with people sharing personal, mystical experiences.
When talking with people who have a different faith then I do, I have always tended to lean towards intellectual discussion and away from the mystical because I can’t quickly ground those experiences with good logic and reasoning, and I feel that when I talk about that stuff anyway, people get uncomfortable and write me off as being nuts. In the context of MoF, I think (probably incorrectly) this would mean some folks will stop coming here and you will loose your readership because of my mystical ramblings, and I would hate to see that happen because there is so much good discussion and great honest thinking going on here.
..but it might be all in my head! I’ll try to be a little more brave.
6 Reg // Oct 18, 2006 at 10:48 am
I’d had issues with that (intellectual vs. feeling) until I heard the Dalai Lama say something about whether or not Buddhism might be right for “you”. He said that, if it feels right to you, it is; if it doesn’t, it’s not. I think that’s the most “logical” approach to religion: given, as Harris claims, that we can’t prove any religious belief, it is enough to believe it in our hearts. If we can’t believe it in our hearts, then it ought not be believed. I’m not sure if that makes sense, it’s one of those difficult-to-articulate thoughts…
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