#on the other hand. rituals can be and have been used to indocrinate people and exploit them

[ananke-xiii]

This post contains spoilers for the lastest episode of Severance "Attila" (S2E6, I believe?), so big FYI here.

I've already shared my disappointment for how this season was headed and I was really hoping that, as the season progressed, I would've changed my mind but, alas, I haven't. Personally, I don't think the story is currently being told in a way that's engaging to me. Secretly, I just don't think that the storytelling in S2 was either planned or executed well enough for a show with that time and that budget at its disposal (I'm not talking about camera work and acting performances because they're genuinely the only two things I enjoy atm). Like, I can genuinely feel they're buying time for S3.

"Attila" didn't change my mind about it. However, it gave me an important clue as to why I'm not enjoying the show as I used to and it's also making me think that I might've been wrong in the sense that's not about poor planning but purposefully misleading planning.

With Burt's storyline, we've officially entered "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" territory. It's text now, it's clear as day, they couldn't actually spelled it out more than this for us in a way that wouldn't be boring and pedantic. There's not takesies-backsies now.

So I've been thinking... what if... and hear me out because this is a big "what if", the show's actually poking a little (a lot of) fun at its audience?

'Cause one of the things people love about "Severance" and shows like it is coming up with theories, collecting all the details as if they're evidence planned since the dawn of time by the Author that are there to reveal something to us and us alone, the only one who can interpret them just the way they're supposed to be interpreted via our obviously unique relationship with God, ooopsie, sorry, I mean the Author.

Because this is the attitude of lots of fans of this show, lol. Like, chill.

But also, this is Luther. This is Protestantism. This is Burt (allegedly) getting severed because he's been "a very bad girl Gaga" and now he knows he won't go to heaven with his good, good husband. This is Protestantism at its core.

By contrast, it's a Protestantism that's actually doing propaganda for Catholicism which is an INSANELY FUN concept and I actually PRAY that's intentional.

'Cause the facts are these:

Luther's core belief was that Christians didn't need the mediation of the Church. This meant that good deeds cannot be earned and also that everybody could interpret the Bible because everybody is their own priest and has direct access to the word of God.

Now, the fun thing in Severance is that, apparently, the actual, in-universe Lutheran Church is literally saying that the severance procedure can help people get to heaven. Which means that Kier is acting as a substitute for the Catholic Church. This is why rituals are so important in its office culture, because they give meaning to that reality.

Kier, as a corporation, has appropriated the importance and the centrality of rituals for humans to the point that it can now "bestow" salvation to them. Through rituals. The severance procedure being one of them, the most important one. It's a baptism, in a way. However, Kier's also a huuuuuge company. Which means that work has a central (protestant) role in how they run their operations. So we have a creepily fun hybrid between Max Weber's thesis and the emptiness, preoccupations and anxiety that people feel in-universe: "Normal" work is not enough. If you want to be saved, you must get severed. You need a Church that can provide you with this service. You need Kier.

Ngl, this is good shit.

But why did I say that the show was poking fun at its audience? Well, because the show itself has inundated us with soooo many signifiers (the goats, the forest, Ricken's second book, the dentist-like tools, the MDR substitutes, the reintegration process, Miss Huang, the Kier's twin brother fairy tale, the holograms etc.) and has given us so little meaning so far that we, the audience, are actually supplying meaning to the show to the point that, I think, we've reached saturation: forms and symbols don't actually mean that much, because there are just too many meanings.

As of now watching Severance feels like a job: after each episode you have to do homework to understand half of what you've just watched. I honestly feel like I'm working trying to keep up with the show. And this is not enough! Because the following week there's a new episode and new signifiers and new shit and absolutely no trace of payoff and I'm like, wtf? The setups in this show feel like fucking traps atm.

And yeah, of course nobody wants to be spoonfed but a girl also wants a story. Which means that a girl wants to be given meaning. A girl wants an Author that can save her from the excess of signs/interpretations. A girl needs a Church. A girl needs Kier. Boom, here I'm faced with an interesting dilemma: I am just like the people getting severed in the show, I'm also looking for someone to give me meaning, to save me from the meaningless of... excess of meaning. This is good!!!

If they're doing what I think they're doing,

aka a critique of the over-"protestantization" of art to the point that art disappears in the background because what counts is only the discourse around Art, aka each individual interpretation of Art holds the same weight and how this is fertile soil for Kier-like corporations that just can't wait to become the New Catholic Church and give us rituals and meaning and salvation!!! not in exchange for money but in exchange for our Time and half of our Life!!!...

well, if they end up there, I'll totally change my mind about the show.

I'll be waiting.