Retcons - continuity by reinterpretation
Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2015 3:19 pm
"Retcon" is short for retroactive continuity, and it is a technique for resolving discrepancies in serial fictional works. What is less well-known is how well the concept works for various theological apologetics.
- Addition. Of features that clarify parts of the existing story world, usually without contradicting existing features. These may take the form of additional adventures that were only alluded to in the original works, like someone's novels about the Star Trek Eugenics Wars.
- Modification. Some of the features get revised to make continuity possible. A character who dies in one work and returns in a following work my have their death explained as only a seeming death, something common enough in some genres to be called a comic book death. Monsters that die in some movie but that are liked enough may return in later movies. Two very notable characters have also died comic-book deaths:
- Sherlock Holmes died in The Adventure of the Final Problem and was resurrected in The Adventure of the Empty House. He had made it seem like he had died at Reichenbach Falls to fool Dr. Moriarty's associates.
- Spock died in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and was resurrected in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. It seems rather contrived to me, it must be said -- reassembling Spock from his Genesis-Machine-created body and his McCoy-carried soul.
Likewise, some works may be explained as dreams of some of the characters (Pam Ewing dreamed an entire season of Dallas!), an alternate universe, etc. - Subtraction. Disliked works are ignored or written out, and they effectively no longer exist. Perhaps the ultimate form of subtraction is the reboot, that is, wiping the slate clean.
- The two creation stories of Genesis are often retconned together by supposing the second one to be what happened when humanity was created in the first one.
- The Genesis snake's pre-crawling mode of motion and Cain's wife have been the subject of various retcons.
- Isaiah's famous virgin or young woman who becomes pregnant is clearly a part of contemporary events, but the authors of the Gospels retconned that account into a prophecy of Jesus Christ's virgin birth.
- Jesus Christ's Matthew and Luke genealogies are retconned as either of:
- Only one of them is for Joseph; the other one is for Mary.
- Each one of them contains only some of the names of Jesus Christ's ancestors back to King David.
- Matthew, Mark, and Luke make Jesus Christ's Temple temper tantrum late in his career as a religious prophet, while John makes that temper tantrum early in his career. These occurrences are sometimes retconned by supposing them to be two temper tantrums, one early in JC's career, and one late in it.
- The details of JC's resurrection appearances have been the subject of numerous retcon attempts. In fact, those details themselves may plausibly be interpreted as separately-invented retcons, derived from Paul's mentions of JC's resurrection and Mark's original ending with an empty tomb.
- Jesus mythicists often argue that Paul had known little or nothing about JC's earthly life, and Jesus historicists often rebut that with the retcon that Paul did not go into those details because he expected his audience to know them.
- Mohammed had many predecessor prophets who were proto-Muslims, but their teachings became corrupted by their followers, thus retconning their differences.
- Jesus Christ did not really die on that cross, but Allah lifted him up into heaven, and gave him the appearance of having died there (a Docetic belief; Koran 4:157-8), an obvious retcon for his crucifixion.