Supernatural by Means of Plato's Supernatural Mediation

## Introduction

Technology was once, and still is by some, viewed in a negative light when it comes to communication, story-telling, and entertainment.  Plato was one of the first philosophers to view reading and writing in this light in his dialogue, Phaedrus.

    He thought reading and writing gave people the impression of knowledge but not actual knowledge.  He was also worried about widening the gap between communicators.  When there was no reading and writing, you were only able to communicate with those in your immediate surroundings, but what reading writing did was get rid of the barriers of location and time of existence.  Plato presented these thoughts in a dialogue that we are able to study today because it was written down.  This along with the scientific discoveries that humanity has been able to accomplish due to being able to read and write information go against Plato's arguments pretty strongly.

Plato’s ideas that technology is not the best means of communication are not exclusive to him though.  As pointed out in Nicholas Carr's "Is Google Making Us Stupid," the way the internet has evolved into an endless source of information on almost any topic one could imagine, and because of this, the way we process the information that we get from this endless database has changed.  Instead of deeply understanding material that we might experience in person or read in a paper book, society has grown to quickly glance over information plucking out only small chunks of the information presented in an online format, and then rapidly go on to another topic, and so on, and so on.

Another organization that believes the progression of technology in regards to communication is not a good thing is the National Endowment for the Arts.  Through the information they presented in "Reading at Risk Report," they came to the conclusion that, "The accelerating declines in literary reading among all demographic groups of American adults indicate an imminent cultural crisis."  This organization views reading "literature" as the superior means of mediation.  While many would agree with this, there are also many that would argue that some of the newer means of mediation are just as good if not better than reading literature.  The internet, video games, movies, and T.V shows are some of the many new ways of communication and they present us different ways of processing this information.  These ways can be different but it does not make them worse than before.

Walter Ong presents the advancement in technological communication in a different light.  He points out that writing was also once the "new technology" that people are fearing today.  While referencing Plato's arguments I mentioned earlier, he points out some of the invalidity within them that I also mentioned.  He believes that the advancement of technology will be viewed as the norm eventually just like reading and writing is today, which is ju

   st a part of the evolution of humanity.  This evolution will come with good and bad consequences, but so does not progressing.  Which consequences are viewed as worse is only supported by what is normal at whichever time, but that will also change.

T.V. shows are one of the many unintentional beneficiaries of the advancement in communicative technologies.  Before the internet, people would watch T.V. casually and normally only discuss it with people who watched it with them or not discuss it at all.  Since the internet has grown so much, a large part of this endless database is now occupied by fandoms and fan fiction stories of many different movies, books, video games, and T.V. shows.  One particular T.V show that has benefitted from the creation and presence of the internet is Supernatural.  This show is about two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester, who live in a world where monsters (vampires, werewolves, ghosts, ghouls, etc.) are real, and they are raised as hunters of said monsters.  This T.V. show has a large and strong following/fan presence and much of what these fans are fans of and why they are fans would not exist if this medium of communication, the internet, did not exist.

## Interperative Disputes

The T.V. show Supernatural, there are quite a few aspects that are debated in various online forums.  One particular debate is about the quality of the show after a certain point.  With 14 seasons, the show has inevitably had some up and down seasons, but which ones were the best/worst are not completely agreed upon.  On the Supernatural Reddit page, user SpiritMountain posted, "How does Supernatural get after 9.22?" , He stated that it seemed that the writers may have made some mistakes in being consistent with information they had already previously established, and that the writing was bad.  Most of the comments consisted of agreeing with the statements with support or

    disagreement of the statement with support.  This fan base shows through these disputes that they are all extremely supportive of the T.V. show and keep a great relationship with other fans.  This is seen specifically through the way they comment on the thread.  Almost every comment on the thread ends with the commenter sharing what is their favorite part of whichever aspect of the show it is that they are talking about.  If they did not support each other and the T.V. show, the comments would not end in the same tone.

## Knowledge Communities

Because the internet exists and people from all around the world with all different backgrounds access it, they all are able to come together and pool their knowledge on any given subject and create knowledge communities.  Much like the knowledge community for Survivor that Henry Jenkins refers to in his article, "Spoiling Survivor," the Supernatural fan base also consists of people from all across the globe that bring themselves to the community of Supernatural fandom to share their knowledge and expertise about the topic with others.  In the Wikipedia page for Supernatural, you can see the depth of knowledge that is attained and written for anyone to see. This information was not collected and published by one individual.  Some of the information given consists of ch

    aracter lists and analyses, full season synopses for all fourteen seasons, recurring elements from the entire series, fandom presence, and much more information.  Within all of those broad categories are links to pages dedicated to specific items within the show, symbols, quotes, or even weapons.  One example of this is found on the Supernatural Wikia page titled, "Castiel's trench coat". There is a page dedicated to an article of clothing that one of the main characters wears and how it changes throughout the show.  Many of the individuals that come in contact with this fandom on the internet will hold a particular expertise toward the show that others can use in making their own opinions on the show, or lean more about actors, etc.  The amount of information given through just this website would not have been the same had people not been able to pool their knowledge together to create a database for this particular subject.  This vast amount of information also gives people the opportunity to gain a deeper appreciation of the show and do more with it besides watch it.

## Remediation

*Supernatural* has a widespread online fan base that has lots of fan fiction and creators that communicate with the fans who write them.  The creator, Eric Kripke has integrated some of this fandom into the show in a very unique way.  He has almost collaborated with the fans creating parts of the show and has put into actual episodes points where the characters in the show talk about their own story as if it was made up within the show itself.  This is pulled off because the universe that the show takes place in dow not really have any limits to what can happen.  The way Kripke does it is by having Sam and Dean run into an author, Chuck Shurley who writes a low selling novel series, *Supernatural.* The contents of the book are coincidentally the exact lives of Sam and Dean, that he sees in his dreams.  What including the story you are showing within the story you are showing does is give the show a

    platform to do many things in regards to their story.  It lets them poke fun at themselves by talking about the "critics of the book series," it lets them read up on the "fan fiction of the book series," and lets them portray fans of the "book series" within the show.  This is all possible because of the fan community that exists within websites like this.  The show would not have lasted as long and parts of the show would not be the same without some of the input from the fan base.

## References

1. ↑  Plato, "Phaedrus." Course Readings, HUM211
2. ↑  icholas Carr, "Is Google Making us Stupid?. Course Packet, HUM211
3. ↑  National Endowments for the Arts, "Reading At Risk report." Course Packet, HUM 212
4. ↑  Walter Ong, "Writing Restructures Consciousness." Course Packet, HUM 212
5. ↑  Reddit: [1]
6. ↑  Henry Jenkins, "Spoiling Survivor." Course Packet, HUM 212
7. ↑  Wikipedia: [2]
8. ↑  Wikia: [3]
9. ↑  Eclipse: [4]
10. ↑  Wiki: [5]