JAC : A Journal Of Composition Theory ISSN : 0731-6755

DISCOURSE OF MYTH AND DEMYTHIFICATION IN ’S

Dr.G.Dhanavel, Assistant professor, Sri Balaji Arts and Science College, Chennai.

Abstract

Gore Vidal is one of the greatest twentieth century American novelists. He wrote

almost every genre except poetry. He wrote short-stories and novels, and he was also

considered as a master essayist. His powerful satire of the religious, mythological, historical,

sexual, literary and academic ideologies of America in the characteristic method of textual

play of conflictive discourses which engenders a decenterd worldview thus proves beyond

doubt that he is a deconstructive satirist.

This paper deals with Gore Vidal’s parody on the myths perpetuated by religious

ideologies as perceived in Vidal’s Julian. It shows how Vidal uncovers the fraudulency of the

religions, especially Christianity and the various cults that emanate from them. He also

deconstructs Christ by exploiting the volatility of these signifiers which do not have any

objective signified, and by a reversal of the Christ/Antichrist opposition in John Cave. The

deconstruction of these figures also effects the subversion of the doctrines of Christianity and

mocks at those who believe in them. The affectation, hypocrisy and superstition found m

historical Christianity and bred by the religions and cults are also delineated. It also

elucidates the effects of the commercialization of religion, its power and hegemony over the

masses that could result in a totalitarian religious order or unleash a potent destructive force

that can destroy the world, through the machinizations of a crazy cult leader. Vidal’s

uncovering of the evils within the ideology of the system of organized religions ruptures any

blind adherence to them.

Keywords: Christianity, Myth, Religion, Demythification

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Gore Vidal is one of the greatest twentieth century American novelists. He wrote

almost every genre except poetry. He wrote short-stories and novels, and he was also

considered as a master essayist. His powerful satire of the religious, mythological, historical,

sexual, literary and academic ideologies of America in the characteristic method of textual

play of conflictive discourses which engenders a decenterd worldview thus proves beyond

doubt that he is a deconstructive satirist. But this has so far been lost on critics, clouded by

his reputation as a popular writer. This is further compounded by the fact of his versatility as

writer. The ease with which he succeeds in every field he enters has baffled many critics.

More than either of these factors, however, the radical indeterminacy of his works has made

it difficult for critics to categorize him. It is the decentered view of the world combined with

the radical indeterminacy in his novels and essays which makes it difficult for critics to

categorize Vidal. The indeterminacy of his novels is further evidenced in the dual nature of

his works which also defies a critic’s attempt at any final say on Vidal’s art. Having been

persistently anti-American, anti-institutional, anti-Christian and anti-traditional, His

purported allegiance to the eighteenth century aesthetic of the novel has puzzled many critics.

One would have expected a person so anti-traditional to have accepted the vanguard of

experimental art. Yet Vidal with his iconoclastic outlook of life and his ridicule of all that is

traditional only mocks at experimental art/postmodern theory. This is rather difficult for

critics to reconcile with.

The popularity, moreover, of Vidal’s writings is a sore in the eyes of the

academicians. For years, his books have been on the list of bestsellers. But, he has also

proved to his critics and readers alike that his books are not mere slapstick entertainers

without substance. The painstaking research of the historical novels and scholarship of all the

works in general, as well as the parody of the academic/experimental novels show that even

Vidal is academic to an extent and can play with the academic as the academic plays with

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words. Again, his mobile skills defy unambiguous labeling.

Religion is a very common subject of satire. The serious demands religion imposes on

man and affectation and hypocrisy that it engenders has always been the butt of ridicule. Both

clergy and laymen are thus favourite targets of attack. Yet not many have attacked, mocked

or ridiculed Godhead itself. Traditionally, it is a forbidden subject and is considered an act of

hubris. But the sense of ennui, meaninglessness of life, and the consequent declaration of the

“death of god” by the existentialist, during the post-war period, saw the myth of godhead

exploded and made possible a satirical attack of godhead itself.

In Julian (1964) Vidal deconstructs the myths of Christ and attacks the religious

ideologies of Christianity. Through a subversive portrayal of the deity in the protagonist of

the novel, Vidal undoes the deityship of Christ, contests their doctrinal claims, and

simultaneously ridicules the adherents of these faiths. In the process Vidal uncovers the

superstition, hypocrisy, affectation, and destructive force of the religious cults that prosper on

the gullibility of masses. Vidal’s process of ‘demythification’ in his novels strikes at the very

heart of godhead and the spuriousness of religion itself, thereby positing a re-examination of

religious beliefs that man so blindly adheres to. Religion has played a major role in shaping

the character, society, and culture of America. As the Pilgrim Fathers flew from persecution

into the New World, they also created myths that assured them of God’s special protection

and care. America was, to them, the Promised Land, and they saw themselves as the covenant

people. While the country evolved through the centuries, religion too evolved into h plurality,

but the essence of the Christian beliefs was never lost. America still visualised itself as the

nation “under God” and religion directed the social, political, and even economic

considerations of the country, indeed of life itself.

The decades of the 1950s were no exception either. When Vidal wrote Julian,

America was revelling in the optimism of its post-war materialistic boom. Having emerged

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unscathed from the war and establishing itself as a world power economically, militarily and

scientifically, America, proved itself, as it were, to be a nation “under God.” As dollars after

dollars rolled out from the mint with the legend “In God We Trust,” America experienced a

religious revival. Simultaneously there occurred a media explosion making the world a

“global village.” Revivalists were quick to grab this opportunity and turned the television into

a pulpit, where sinners could be saved by the “blood of the Lamb.” Consequently, religious

organizations on the lines of industries and enterprises cropped up their influence as ever

permeating the culture of the States. Each of them proclaimed a saviour, knowledge of

afterlife, a second coming, and the end of the world with different yet appealing flavours. In

spite of the seeping materialism and scientific spirit America accommodated various mystic

theologies propounding life after death that was, in Vidal’s view more often than not, ridden

with deep-seated superstitious beliefs.

Julian is written in this background but it is primarily products of Vidal’s reading of

the life of Christ in the Gospels, and Ecclesiastical history. The life of Christ exists as extant

myths in the national consciousness of the nation, America. This enabled Vidal to accomplish

with the participation of the reader, the deconstruction of the myths. Vidal’s strategy follows

the method explained in the last chapter. As he converts his reading into writing, that is, the

history of Christianity and the myths of Christ into the novel, Vidal retain the original

significance or the formal structure of the history/myth while introducing an opposing

signification, thereby rupturing the original mythical/historical text.

Julian supplements in its questioning of Christianity. Its method is that of

direct denunciation and the traditional ironic differences of ideal and practice/appearance and

reality. But the story emerges through the separate discourses of three narrators, which

question, relativize each other and render the text problematic. In the context of Christianity,

however, Vidal brings such binaries as Old Testament/New Testament,

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Christianity/Hellenism into play to rupture the deityship of Christ and the doctrines of

Christianity. In the process he also works on the image of Julian, redeems him to that of a

secularist while simultaneously undercutting it by a contradictory ironic discourse of his

belief in Mithraism. He thus renders the figure of Julian problematic by juxtaposing his

opposition to Christianity with secularism which is in turn undermined by Julian’s faith in

Mithraism.

The mythical/historical content of all the three novels traverses, crosses and informs

each other. But Vidal uses this mythical/historical content in the postmodernist manner.

Traditionally mythology and literature were indistinguishable. The primal literature of many

nations is thus totally mythological. For example, Greek and Indian literatures cannot be

differentiated from their mythology. They are the same. In their use of such a mythology,

great masters drew heavily from it in the allusive and archetypal mode. Myths in literature

were a matter of common usage that more often than not provided the plot-structure and story

element of many works. It became a wholesome part of the content of these works thus

lending to them universality. In the modern age, however, myths emerged as a technique in

the works of modern writers. Coining the term ‘mythical method’ for this technique, Eliot in

his essay on Ulysses in 1923 defined it as a way of controlling and ordering the chaos of

contemporary history. Since there was no order m reality, the artist sought, through the

mythical method, to create order for himself in his work of art. He provided a semblance of

self- satisfying order to fill the lack in reality. But the postmodernist with his decentered view

of the world and his acceptance of chaos, sees this as an escape from reality. He disparages

this tendency of creating self-sustaining orders of art which cannot resolve the chaos of

reality. The postmodernist therefore carries out the “dismemberment of Orpheus.” He

incorporates myth in his work only to rupture its order, its semblance of unity and to

demonstrate the fact that no myth can suffice man’s needs. It is this kind of ‘demythification’

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that Vidal indulges in, in Julian.

Julian targets the history of Christianity. By reading into the past and uncovering

Christianity inside out, Vidal not only exposes the hitherto spotless image of the religion but

also reveals Julian, the ‘apostate,’ in a new light. The differences between ideal and practice,

divisions in the church, the evolution of doctrines which end in absolutism, the contradictions

between the Old and New Testaments and the appropriation of Hellenism portray Christianity

as an evil, while Julian’s anti-Christian image is redeemed to that of a secularist.

Julian’s questioning of Christianity starts on a personal level. At an early age his

father is killed by Constantius who is supposed to be a devout Christian. On another occasion

in childhood, Julian witnesses two old men being man-handled by priests for being heretics.

These events of his childhood sow the seeds of rebellion in him against Christianity. He

reflects: “Even a child could see the divisions between what the Galileans say they believe

and what, in fact, they do believe as demonstrated by their action” (31). Later the divisions

that arise from doctrinal quarrels and the violence they engender establish his opposition to

the religion. The Athanasian and Arians differed on the interpretation of Jesus’ relationship to

the Father and engaged in continuous quarrels over it. Protestantism and Catholicism also

took root in Julian’s lifetime and resulted m much strife, violence, and bloodshed. Moreover,

these divisions based on differing doctrines were themselves made by extrapolatary

interpretation of the scripture in a series of Ecumenical councils. The dogmatism, absolutism,

and intolerance of others made Christianity a very disturbing and peace-breaking religion.

Julian’s analysis of early Christianity is very much Vidalian. He calls it “an age diseased by

the quarrels and intolerance of sect...” (22). Castigating the religion with utmost contempt, he

says: “No evil ever entered the world quite so vividly or on such a vast scale as Christianity

did” (129). Elsewhere Vidal makes the point that American society has been shaped morally

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and intellectually for good or ill by Christianity. In “An Afterword” to The City and the

Pillar, Vidal says:

The murderous instincts of Christian absolutism first emerged in the

fourth century. And I do not think it an exaggeration to say that over the

centuries, Christianity has been responsible for more bloodshed than any

other force in Western life (163)

Julian’s record of contradictions between the Old and the New Testaments is rather

naive for an intellectual of his stature. Nevertheless they present indubitable paradoxes that

challenge the unity of the scriptures which are explained away as mysteries. Julian contends

that Jesus could not be the Son of God since he was a Jew and therefore calling himself Son

of God would mean blasphemy. He also disagrees with Paul’s vi6w that God is God both of

Jews and gentiles because by God’s own admission God is jealous God. Of Jesus’ deityship,

Julian says, “Are we to believe that there was no god until the appearance of a rabble-rousing

carpenter three-hundred years ago” (149). In Vidal’s final analysis, Jesus is a rebel Jewish

rabbi who acted out each prophetic requirement in order to fight the Roman .

Julian also accuses Christianity of appropriating all the myths of Hellenism. He

notes that in Christianity feast-days and saint were created as in Hellenism. Jesus was called

saviour-healer like Asklepois, while the doctrine of trinity is modelled on the Hellenist triune

Apollos, Helios, and Mithras. In this context Priscus remarks: “The Christians have slyly

incorporated most of the popular elements of Mithras and Demeter and Dionysus into their

own rites.Modern Christianity is an encyclopaedia of traditional superstition” (84).

Having shown early/historical Christianity in a denigrating light, Vidal now

establishes Julian as a secularist. He portrays Julian’s tolerance of all religions. After having

become an emperor, Julian issues an edict to the effect that all religions should be tolerated.

But the vindication of Julian does not overlook his weaknesses either. As Vidal lets

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Christianity fall on its own shortcomings, so he allows the anti-rational and superstitious side

of Julian’s personality to be revealed. Julian embraces Hellenism through rituals and

mysteries, which to Priscus is as nonsensical as Christianity:

Granted, no educated man can accept the idea of a Jewish rebel as god.

But having rejected that myth, how can then one believe that the Persian

hero-god Mithras was born of light striking rock on December, 25...(84)

Pricus sees no essential difference between Christianity and Mithraism. But Julian embraces

it and feels that he is “born again”, that he is the chosen one of the Sun god for the

accomplishment of a mission. Once more, Priscus notes that Julian’s belief in a magic

ceremony makes him fall into the same nonsense as the superstition of the Christians. Thus

while allowing Julian to undermine Christianity, Vidal does not vindicate Julian’s fanatical

adherence to Hellenism. Julian’s belief in Mithraism is shown to be as perverse as the belief

in Christianity. By debunking/decentering Christianity as a religion of superstition and ritual,

Julian undercuts his own rational stand, his only saving grace being his secularism. However

Vidal rewrites the early history of Christianity and through it reshapes the personality of

Julian to a positive one. The historical apostate of the Christian point of view is changed to a

secularist in Vidal’s version. While in Messiah Vidal displaces Christ from the centre of

history in Julian, he redeems Julian from the marginal and foregrounds him into the centre,

thus reversing the historical understanding of Julian’s image of apostasy.

In Julian, Vidal’s deconstructive satire demythifies the divinity of Christ, exalts

Julian the renegade, and thereby attacks the spuriousness of religion itself. Consequently, he

mocks at those who believe in these deities and the affectation and hypocrisy of those who

practice it. In choosing to examine two diametrically opposite religions, one Occidental and

one Oriental, Vidal points at the underlying continuum of incredulous beliefs that have

grasped people’s mind in the two hemispheres. The contrast between the two cultures and the

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two religions is, however, overcome by the underlying similarity of the archetype of the

incarnations. Julian thus has sceptical narrators who do not believe in an after-life and as

Luther points out, do not accept one recorded revelation at the expense of the other. Yet

ambiguously, Julian the intellectual who rejects Christianity almost embraces Mithraism.

Vidal’s questioning of the religious ideologies of Christianity subversion of the

divinity of Christ and exaltation of Julian demonstrate that man himself could fabricate such

ideologies for selfish ends. It opens the religious ideologies to a re-examination, a testing of

its validity without blind adherence to them, and is therefore to be viewed in a positive light.

It is pertinent that in his early twenties, Vidal met Santayana at the hospital of the Blue Nuns

in Home. At his parting Santayana told him: “I think you’ll have a happy life because you

lack superstition (88) as quoted in Berryman’s “Satire in Gore Vidal’s Kalki.” The prophecy

has proved true.

References

Berryman, Charles. “Satire in Gore Vidal’s Kalki.” Critique 22.2 (1980): 88-96. Print.

Davidon, A.M. “Gore Vidal and the Two Headed Monster.” Nation 218 (1974): 661-3. Print.

Dick, Bernard F. The Apostate Angel: A Critical Study of Gore Vidal. New York: Random

House, 1974. Print.

Kiernan, Robert F. Gore Vidal. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1982. Print.

Vidal, Gore. Julian: A Novel. New York: Signet Books, 1985. Print.

---. “An Afterword.” Revised. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1965. Print.

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