Photo by The Lazy Artist Gallery from Pexels
I recently binge watched the first and second seasons of Lupin on Netflix and as always when I watch a TV show, I get fascinated by the history behind that show. I won’t spoil Lupin for you, if you haven’t seen it, but to sum it up, it’s about a gentleman thief, set in modern day Paris, but the store is based on the character of Arsene Lupin. Maurice LeBlanc wrote the stories about the gentleman thief. I haven’t read them yet, but I found the show fascinating enough that I’m going to do some exploration of the original pop culture.
In the show the main character uses the original stories as his inspiration for his own feats of thievery, and at the same time he lives by the code of the original character. This is important because it ties the show back to the original pop culture, even as the show promotes that original pop culture. What’s also fascinating is that the show establishes that the original pop culture has a thriving fan community. A few of the different characters, beyond the main character, really enjoy the original pop culture and in some form or another don’t just read it, but end up making it part of their lives.
The question arises…how do we apply all of this to pop culture magic?
As always, this is a good question to ask. The answer is in the lessons that we can take from how modern retellings and explorations of older pop culture can simultaneously feed our interest in the older forms of pop culture, while also providing a new take on that pop culture, both of which can then be applied to how we might approach the practice of pop culture magic.
Any pop culture magic that is done ought to respect the pop culture its derived from. For example if you’re going to work with Lupin, either the original pop culture, or the modern show, you have to respect the code of the character, because it plays such an integral role in that pop culture. We can consider such details canon, and the value of respecting the canon of such details is that it truly connects to the original vein of creativity, which feeds the efficacy of whatever work we’re doing. When we go against those details, I think it takes away from the work, because the pop culture is alive in its own right and will be resistant to anything that goes such important details.
This may seem overly pedantic, but I also find that pop culture can be flexible. For instance, when FF7 came out, some people went crazy over Sephiroth, having hot, sweaty astral sex with him. This didn’t go against the canon, because there was no established canon around that aspect of him, and if anything it fed into his vampiric nature. My point is that there is flexibility in a given canon.
In the case of Lupin, if I was going to work with Lupin, I would want to do more research on the original pop culture, because the TV show frequently references it. Just working off the show alone wouldn’t be enough, because the original pop culture is pivotal to the show. I always recommend that if you decide to work with a given pop culture, you take the time to do the research before starting magical work. Get to know the characters, the universe and the mythos of what you want to work with. That will help you determine if its a good fit and make whatever pop culture magic you do be more effective.
