The Supernatural

Have you noticed how many modern TV shows and movies have a supernatural component? Not God really, but characters with beyond-the-real abilities. Ghosts, superheroes, super-powers, anthropomorphic devils, clairvoyance, mysterious forces, and the lot. Also, we have characters visiting the past, the future, and alternative realities. It seems to portray or offer secular-religious experiences.

When I was a kid, we had superman, then batman. That was about it until into the atom bomb age when insects grew to monumental proportions. Also, there was a clear bad guy, to be defeated by the good guy. You can’t really count Frankenstein, as he was a medical invention. But then came Dracula, who is revived twice a year, every year. (We like evil defeated.)

Historical biographies are gone completely. Family dramas have vanished, but family comedies featuring kids with the stupid dad continue. Protagonists with a great moral dilemma, once a staple, have largely disappeared. War movies make annual appearances. And those damn Nazis persist year after year in multiple forms.

Does anyone have an explanation?

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