CLANSGRESSION COUNTDOWN: 50 BAD DATES

In the second part of AND THE HALF-TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE, I referenced two particular works-- one by Gardner Fox, the other by Dave Sim-- each of which demonstrated the dominance of one of the four potentialities.

I've already devoted my movie-blog largely to sussing out the way the mythopoeic potentiality manifests in films and television shows, as well as having devoted countless words to the topic here. Thus it's a given that I'll almost certainly never devote that much attention to the other three potentialities work out. Myth is my main subject, because I believe that the "myth-criticism" outlook provides the groundwork for a pluralist criticism.

Still, once I get an idea in my head-- like what it would look like, to rate particular works on their respective potentials for the kinetic, the dramatic, the didactic or the mythopoeic-- I usually erect at least a template for how such a critical project might work.

Now, I'd been planning to address the topic of clansgression again, with respect to its place in my system. I first formulated this term here, as a catch-all for "the literal transgression of incest" and "every incest-like form of transgression." Like any other trope through which creators communicate to audiences, the clansgressive trope can be used very well or very badly. And in the various reviews I've done here on three of my four blogs, I've often called attention to potentialities of the kinetic, the dramatic, and the didactic, though never emphasizing them as much as the mythopoeic.

This essay's "fifty bad dates" are, in short, the 50 best usages of clansgression that I've reviewed so far. After each individual citation, I'll highlight which potentiality I believe to be dominant in that work, but with no further justification, beyond what's in the hotlinked review. Most of the cited reviews refer to works in which clansgression plays a strong role in the narrative, though there may be a few works where the trope is simply used with a noteworthy intensity.

If nothing else, it may be interesting to see what does or doesn't move my occasional viewers to click on.


AIRBOY MEETS VALKYRIE-- kinetic

APOLLO'S SONG-- didactic

BERENICE-- kinetic

BLACK CAT (1934)-- mythopoeic

BLOOD AND LACE-- mythopoeic

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN-- dramatic

BRIDES OF DRACULA-- dramatic

CLASH OF THE TITANS (2010)-- dramatic

DANCE IN THE VAMPIRE BUND-- mythopoeic

[DEATH OF IRIS]-- dramatic

DOOR THROUGH SPACE-- dramatic

DRACULA (1898)-- mythopoeic

DRACULA (1931)-- dramatic

ENTER THE DEVIL-- kinetic

FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (1839)-- didactic

FEAR AND LOATHING-- didactic

FORBIDDEN PLANET-- mythopoeic

FRANKENSTEIN (1931)-- dramatic

GAME KEEPER, THE-- mythopoeic

HANDS OF A STRANGER-- dramatic

HANDS OF THE RIPPER-- mythopoeic

HELLSING-- mythopoeic

HORROR OF DRACULA-- dramatic

ILLEARTH WAR-- dramatic

INVISIBLE STRANGLER-- kinetic

LOIS LANE'S SUPER-DAUGHTER-- dramatic

MAYO CHIKI-- dramatic

MISTER MONSTER: ORIGINS-- kinetic

MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (1971)-- dramatic

NIGHT OF BLOODY HORROR-- kinetic

NIGHT OF THE SPIDER-- kinetic

ORIGIN OF METAMORPHO-- mythopoeic

PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1909)-- dramatic

PLANET OF OUTCASTS-- mythopoeic

PSYCHO (1960)-- didactic

PSYCHOPATH, THE-- didactic

SCORPION KING 2, THE-- mythopoeic

SHE (1886)-- mythopoeic

SISTER SYNDROME-- dramatic

SPECTACLES, THE-- didactic

STRAIT-JACKET-- dramatic

SUPERMAN'S RETURN TO KRYPTON-- dramatic

SUPERMAN'S SUPER-COURTSHIP-- dramatic

TEACH ME!-- kinetic

TEARS OF THE SEA-- mythopoeic

TERROR, THE-- dramatic

THAT YELLOW BASTARD-- dramatic

TOWER OF THE SATYR-- mythopoeic

WORLD OF KRYPTON-- didactic

YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN-- dramatic