Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Creating a Fictional Religion

Those who've read The Last Protector know that a major (not to say the major) plot element is the so-called "Church of Spafu the Friendly Dragon." If you've ever wondered where I got the idea of creating a religion around a cartoon character, or want to read about the joys and woes of fleshing out a corporate-inspired bogus faith, you might want to skip over to Karina Fabian's Faith-Filled Fiction website, which features a two-part essay on Spafuism. The first part describes the process of creating the bogus religion, while the second (which comes after the essay on Saralee Rosenberg's "Big Fat Jewish Blockbusters") gives an overview of Spafuist doctrine.

Y'know, someday I'd like to get back to Ann Arbor and see if the "Good Shepherd and His Flock" stained-glass window featuring the burger-joint mascots looking adoringly upon the Clown is still there... Probably not. Fast-food franchise marketing stuff turns over pretty quickly.