Sin and Salvation in The Righteous Gemstones (w/ Jesse Brenneman)
Added 2023-07-21 21:41:22 +0000 UTCMatt and Sam welcome their intrepid producer and great friend Jesse Brenneman back to the third mic to talk about HBO's The Righteous Gemstones. In addition to being a wildly entertaining entry to the Danny McBride cinematic and television universe, the show perceptively explores the culture of American megachurch, evangelical Christianity—and offers your hosts plenty of fodder to discuss where faith ends and cynicism begins, the relationship between evangelicalism and consumer capitalism, cheap grace vs. real grace, whether or not people can change, the pathologies of evangelical purity culture, and much more. Plus: Jesse takes us behind the scenes of his brilliant, very funny podcast Tech Talk and its surprising connections to Elon Musk, Eli Gemstone, and others.
Sources:
John Jeremiah Sullivan, "Upon This Rock," GQ, January 24, 2004
Austin Considine, "Danny McBride Keeps It Righteous," New York Times, June 14, 2023
Doreen St. Félix, "The Lost Sheep of Danny McBride's The Righteous Gemstones," New Yorker, January 17, 2022
Matthew Sitman, "Speaking of New York: An Interview with Fran Lebowitz," Commonweal, February 7, 2019
Comments
I've got some very half-baked undergraduate term paper ideas about this, so please bear with me. The discussion of what Amy Lee and Baby Billy represent in the Gemstones universe reminded me of the Marxist conception of the commodity and its two sides, use value and exchange value. Amy Lee represents use value - a very real human want or need that requires some kind of fulfillment, in this case the need for meaning in one's life. Baby Billy represents exchange value - the capacity to fetch a return for the use value on the market. A use value can only become real in capitalist society if it can be sold on a market and consumed. At the same time, you're going to have trouble selling your product unless it speaks to some kind of real need that makes people want to buy it. Amy Lee's death represents the transformation of the Gemstones' faith into a pure exchange value. We're not talking about C-M-C or even M-C-M' anymore, just M-M', money which begets money, abstracted away from the fulfillment of human needs. And that's why they're all so alienated and weird and corrupted, especially the kids. Anyway, I've got a newborn and not sleeping a ton at the moment - this all makes sense to me but I grant that I may have lost my mind! Great episode, thanks for all your hard work on the podcast.
Chris Maisano
2023-07-25 15:55:55 +0000 UTCSuccession and gemstones are about the fantasy that our malformed family relationships are okay, and actually the best that we can do in this fucked up world of money and atomized relationships. The enchantments of mammon angle is present in both, but it’s not the hook.
Dan
2023-07-25 05:05:07 +0000 UTCtotally fair! looking forward :)
Maurice Marion
2023-07-24 21:41:33 +0000 UTCCan't please all of the people, all of the time, but the next main episode should hit your sweet spot! - Sam
Know Your Enemy
2023-07-24 20:23:08 +0000 UTCI feel like the l itch KYE scratches is this special combination of 1) talking about conservative intellectual history 2) with a basis in meaty academic theory 3) in a sincere way that connects to the way most youngish lefty ppl feel. Idk these latest tv / masculinity episodes don’t rly hit that same mark for me — i think it’s missing (2) (and sort of (1) too) so it starts to just feel a bit like NPR or smth… Not trying to be a troll, still rly dig the pod in general
Maurice Marion
2023-07-24 17:55:10 +0000 UTCGood ep! I often find myself wondering if an under-appreciated divide in our society is basically Evangelical-pattern versus not. I think these patterns of thought and behavior carry over into non-religious aspects of life, this faith in “the show,” in epiphanic moments of grace mattering more than the rest of one’s life, etc that you highlight in this episode. I don’t believe in god, but I am a product of generations of Catholics and Jews who lived, even in the US, among other Catholics and Jews. And I think that cultural pattern, underneath the general overlay of Americanness, is pretty different. I get that it might not be that salient, next to the shared whiteness and Americanness of white American Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, but I do think it makes a difference in a lot of odd places.
Peter Berard
2023-07-24 13:09:02 +0000 UTCover the past month I have memed myself into unironically loving "There'll Come a Payday"
Phil Christman
2023-07-23 22:24:07 +0000 UTCIt's always fun to hear a shoutout to Larry Norman, who was, in fact, the one good Christian rock artist.
Jamie McAfee
2023-07-22 20:55:40 +0000 UTCThe Sturgill Simpson cameo is a nice Easter egg.
Taylor Washburn
2023-07-22 20:02:42 +0000 UTCLarry Norman is the "only person to do Christian music well"? What the hell, Jesse? Have you forgotten AMY GRANT?!?!
Russell Arben Fox
2023-07-22 17:55:35 +0000 UTCHonestly I find the show funny but it manages to irritate me as well. I grew up in a megachurch as a 10yo, so I went into the show hoping for some comeuppance. The characters are well written & spot on to the megachurch scene, but it does get to me that their shenanigans & immoral life can continue without consequence. Sure, it's realistic in the sense that the real televangelists do carry on, but it would be good for them to get caught or collapse. They don't need to suffer horrendously but something realistic or humbling would be good. I haven't seen S3, buy y'alls episode did convince me. Again, I feel conflicted about the show. Maybe it's a little too far to say this show might not actually help people view megachurches as the beast that they really are and should be handled? Sometimes satire does end up helping the topic they are critiquing (like Loadsamoney). Anywho, great episode! Always happy to hear another KYE discussion into American Evangelism.
Thomas Garcia
2023-07-22 03:35:19 +0000 UTCGuys. Great episode. Any chance we can get a Paul Harvey episode?
Kent Andrade
2023-07-22 02:28:28 +0000 UTCFrom the coverage, I get the impression a "Sound of Freedom" bonus episode might be called for.
Ben Bush
2023-07-21 23:45:55 +0000 UTCToday’s ep has cemented it - there NEEDS to be a KYE / Good Christian Fun crossover ep! Also, when are we going to get a Patreon tier that includes Matt asking you to attend Mass with him?
Jenna Harmon
2023-07-21 23:18:29 +0000 UTCOne of my favorite Podcasts talking about one of my favorite ever comedies, very excited to listen!
A. B.
2023-07-21 22:09:48 +0000 UTC
