Theos-Talk Archives (November 1999 Message tl00034)

In a message dated 11/4/99 12:32:14 AM Central Standard Time,
kymsmith@micron.net writes:

> First of all, the people you name above are not what the general public
>  consideres action "heroes" in films.

And who is the general public?  Is your definition of general public such that
only those who watch American films are considered the general public?  If so,
how very ethnocentric.

>  In films of the past, the "bad guy" usually wore a dark color,

I see you assume Hollywood is the [film] universe.  In the Soviet films
of the past, good guys and bad guys were distinguished by camera
angle.  The good guys were shot at a lower angle looking up at them,
making them look like soviet workers posters, while bad guys were
shot slightly from above to look small and petty.  So, the world at large,
even movies, is not as your Hollywood matrix tells you.

>  It's been relatively consistent throughout history - angels are white and
>  demons are black.  The Devil gives off a reddish-black glow and God gives
>  off the much talked about "brilliant white light."

Now you generalize, again, about history from the matrix of your Hollywood
experience, which is what I was originally responding to.  In Taoism, the
demons are white or yellow and the powerful immortals or gods are a very
bright fire
engine red or dark redish brown (like a glowing coal).  In west Africa, demons
are white and gods are black.  In eastern Africa,
Ethiopian/Somalia/Kenya/Sudan,
ghosts/demons are white and gods/heroes are black or almost a glowing
krishna blue.  In south India, most depictions of demonic asuras have
them white while the gods are blue/black.  In the northern Vaisnavite cult,
the god and hero, and the avatar Krsna, is black or dark blue (although
Krsna means black) while the demons and Rakshasas are pale white.
And in Indian movies, that is how good guys and bad guys are depicted.

In Armenia, Georgia, and some isolated parts of the Caucasus where
one can still find the pre-Zoroastrian and pre-Christian Ossets, demons
were a sickly pale grey or white and gods/heroes were red or green or
golden.  And the demons of Iran, Zoroastrian or Muslim, are all sorts
of colors, whereas jinas are black or blue and ambivalently neutral,
while the forces of good are golden or emerald green.  Emerald Green
is the light of Kibr, the column of light from God on down to new
initiates of Naqshibandhi Sufism, the color of the seven keshvar holders
of the world's spiritual cardinal points, and the color of those one
by blood or spirit with Mohammed.  And such is the canonical style
in middle eastern movies.  And since places like San Francisco, LA
Seattle, NYC, Boston, Atlanta, Nashville, Chicago, and so on have
large emigre populations from these countries, there are theatres and
video stores for them.  Or are you saying the general public is the
WASP American public found outside major cosmopolitan metroplexes?

Grigor