The Assimilation of Yogic Religions through Pop Culture

The image of the meditating yogi has become a near-universal symbol for transcendent perfection used to market everything from perfume and jewelry to luxury resorts and sports cars, and popular culture has readily absorbed it along similar lines. Yet the religious traditions grounding such images are often readily abandoned or caricatured beyond recognition, or so it would seem. The essays contained in The Assimilation of Yogic Religions through Pop Culture explore the references to yogis and their native cultures of India, Tibet, and China as they are found in the stories of many famous icons of popular culture, from Batman, Spider-Man, and Doctor Strange to Star Trek, Doctor Who, Twin Peaks, and others. In doing so, the authors challenge the reader to look deeper into the seemingly superficial appropriation of the image of the yogi and Asian religious themes found in all manner of comic books, novels, television, movies, and theater and to carefully examine how they are being represented and what exactly is being said.

Table of Contents:
Foreword David Gordon White Editor's Preface Paul G. Hackett Acknowledgements Preliminary Notes Part I: Theatre and Film Introduction Ken Derry 1. The Yogi, the Prince, and the Courtesan: Izéÿl in Europe and America Samuel Thévoz 2. Supermen, Mystical Women, and Oriental Others: Dynamics of Race and Gender in Pop Cultural Yogis and the Universal Superhuman Anya P. Foxen 3. From the Razor's Edge to the Scalpel's Blade: Larry Darrell, Doctor Strange, and the Trope of the Rehabilitated Western Man as Yogi Paul G. Hackett Part II: Television and Serials Introduction Jane Naomi Iwamura and Paul G. Hackett 4. “I’ll See You Again in Twenty-Five Years:” Tibetan Buddhism in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and American Pop Culture in the 90s Adam C. Krug 5. The Future is Not What it Used To Be: Religion, Yogic Power, and Tibet in Star Trek and Doctor Who Paul G. Hackett 6. The Blank Scriptures of the Xiyou ji: Interpretive Flexibility and Religious Stability in Post-1949 Adaptations of The Journey to the West Nathan Faries and Yuanfei Wang Part III: Comic Books and Graphic Novels Introduction A. David Lewis 7. The Spiritual Superhero: A Historical Overview of Tantra in Comics Albion M. Butters 8. The Implied Spider-Man: Transcreating Religious Imagery and Meaning in Spider-Man: India Rex Barnes 9. The Dark Knight of the Soul: Death as Initiatory Ordeal in Grant Morrison’s Batman R.I.P. Joel Bordeaux Afterword Paul G. Hackett

About the Author :
Paul G. Hackett received his Ph.D. in religion and has taught at Columbia University.

Review :
Inspired by the richness of discussion and insight in each chapter, even non-experts of comparative religions or non-fans of these pop-cultural icons will find interesting the insights provided into various streams of traditional religious practices and identities from exotically-othered parts of Asia which have historically played a role in shaping popular representations of Tibetan Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, various strands of Hinduism—particularly Tantra—and how these continue to be borrowed, appropriated, misrepresented, filtered, or woven into the practices and imaginary fabric of global popular culture. This volume explores the hitherto-unrecognized complexity of the earliest connections between the Euro-American world and the cultures of Asia. With carefully constructed and nuanced historical case studies, we see how the beliefs and practices of various Asian religions were imported, adopted, and at times twisted to fit into expressions of Western culture. These include new spiritual movements, performing arts, and literature. This skillfully-compiled and broad collection of essays adds completely new examples of the phenomenon of Orientalism in context; the detail and insights found here are sure to interest a broad audience as well as inspire further explorations of this fascinating phenomenon. Here is a brilliant collection detailing the pretzel logic of yoga in popular culture. It demonstrates how pervasive and deep Asian religions and spiritualities permeate the West’s best, even super-heroic, imaginings of itself.