Mythology of Carnivàle
Encyclopedia
Carnivàle
is an American
television series
set in the United States during the Great Depression
. The series traces the disparate storylines of a young carnival
worker named Ben Hawkins and Brother Justin Crowe, a preacher in California. The overarching story is built around a good and evil theme, which serves as a human-scaled metaphor
within a complex structure of myth and allegory
. Samson, the carnival's dwarf manager, sets up the show's mythology with a prologue in the pilot episode, talking of "a creature of light and a creature of darkness" being born "to each generation" preparing for a final battle.
Most mythological elements in Carnivàle relate to so-called Avatars (or Creatures of Light and Darkness), fictional human-like beings with supernatural powers who embody good and evil. Carnivàle does not reveal its characters as Avatars beyond insinuation, and makes the nature of suggested Avatars a central question. Reviewers believed Ben to be a Creature of Light and Brother Justin a Creature of Darkness. Other than through the characters, the show's good-and-evil theme manifests in the series' contemporary religion
, the Christian
military order
Knights Templar
, tarot divination, and in historical events like the Dustbowl and humankind's first nuclear test. Show creator Daniel Knauf
did not respond to questions about the mythology but did provide hints about the mythological structure to online fandom both during and after the two-season run of Carnivàle. Nevertheless, many of the intended clues remained unnoticed by viewers. Knauf left fans a production summary of Carnivàle' s first season two years after cancellation. This so-called Pitch Document, originally written to give HBO and Knauf's co-writers an overview of the intended storyline, backed up and expanded upon the assumed mythological rules.
(also spelled Avatara) originates in Hindu mythology
, where it most commonly refers to the incarnation
(bodily manifestation) of a higher being or the Supreme Being onto planet Earth
. Carnivàle's story never clearly establishes the meaning of this term, yet HBO and the writers used the term interchangeably with the Creatures of Light and Darkness of the series' opening monologue. The series portrays Avatars as human-like beings with supernatural powers who embody good and evil, and whose constant and age-long struggle serves to explain the Dark Ages and Ages of Enlightenment
in mankind's history in the real world. Carnivàle represents this Avataric duality as Light and Dark in several instances. The surnames of the main characters, Ben Hawkins and Justin Crowe, suggest a symbolic link to hawk
s and crow
s, the winged Creatures of Light and Dark. The last two Tarot cards seen in the Carnivàles opening title sequence are "The Sun
" and "The Moon
", standing for God
and the Devil
. By the same token, the show's title card and the logo of the carnival depict a sun placed opposite a moon. Show creator Daniel Knauf
designed this logo.
, and granting small measures of powers to a mortal. Although the series showed the powers of Ben and Brother Justin, reviewers were still unsure about the main characters' Avataric nature by the end of the first season. When Ben's good nature and Justin's dark heritage became clearer in Season 2, reviewers began to describe Carnivàle' s underlying message as "essentially the opposite of spiritual belief: fatalism
". Daniel Knauf disputed any theory of determinism
, and repeatedly pointed to the characters' free will
to overcome their destiny
. Free choice allows the story to portray Avatars as deliberately not making use of their powers or as acting contrary to their nature; an Avatar would however still have to put consistent effort into not lapsing back into his defined moral behavior.
The Pitch Document described Avatars as sharing the ability to envision the past, present and future, both literally and symbolically. Accessing this plane of pure truth is given as an Avatar's birthright and can be improved through study and practice. Avatars can manipulate and transmit the resulting visions through dreams to others. As far as established, only Creatures of Darkness suffer physical weakness or pain when their opposite makes use of his powers. Avatars can sense the existence of their moral opponent, but are unable to detect or identify them outside of close physical proximity. They can, however, easily detect and locate an Avatar of like kind over great distances with great accuracy. These abilities contribute to the convergence of the two storylines in Carnivàle.
and Prince
are replaced in the series with Vectori, Prophet and Prince. Female royals like Queen
s and Princess
es do not have a fictional counterpart and are instead replaced with the concepts of the Alpha, the Omega and the Usher. These Wild Card Avatars have special rules in addition to, or replacing, the normal ones. Reviewers rarely focused on the significance of the mentioned Avataric terms and their implied characteristics in the story, despite detailed explanations by Knauf and the later public availability of Carnivàle' s Pitch Document, setting out the complex mythological structure.
The first Prophet in the mythology of Carnivàle is the Alpha. This creature is never mentioned in the series, but Knauf described her as a female who lived before the Flood and whose story was lost with the destruction of the Royal Library of Alexandria. The Alpha spawned the first pair of Avatara, manifestations of some higher power or House; one is Light and the other Dark. A Creature of Light and a Creature of Darkness have been born to each generation since, and unlike the Alpha, they have always been male.
The Avataric Blood travels within families forming a dynasty. The first-born son of an Avatar receives a so-called mantle at birth that manifests him as an Avatar of a new generation; whether the new Avatar is Light or Dark is chance. Therefore, there is one Avatar to each House per generation. Giving birth to a new Avatar leaves the mother barren and insane. Before that time, she can give birth to an unlimited number of females from an Avatar. These children as well as their respective offspring are called Vectori, beings with Avataric Blood who are not themselves Avatara, and who thus become generationally further removed from an Avatar in the bloodline. While Vectori cannot become Avatara, as that mantle is only conveyed upon birth, they can still exhibit some minor powers and often show signs of insanity
.
The eldest generational Avatar within a House is dominant and called the Prophet. He possesses blue blood, also called Vitae Divina. The next in line is the Ascendant Prince. Any additional Avatara within the House are Princes ranked by generation. Although Avatara form blood dynasties from father to son, House affiliations can be mixed within a dynasty. If the youngest Prince in a dynasty dies, the dynasty is ended. Most dynasties only last on average three generations, since typical Avatara can be killed by any means. When a dynasty ends, the first male child born elsewhere in the world with the most Avataric blood will be a new Prince starting a new dynasty.
When a Prophet dies while an Ascendant Prince also lives, one of two things happens. If the Prophet is killed by his Ascendant Prince, the Prince will gain the mantle of the Prophet with a boon (full measure of power). For the boon to be passed, the Prophet must be of sound mind, and either willingly pass on the boon, or be taken by surprise so that he cannot put up a psychic defense. If however the Prophet is impaired, the Ascendant Prince may be driven insane. If a Prophet dies in any other way, the Ascendant Prince will be automatically raised to Prophet in his stead, without chance of a boon.
Two unique Avatars join the Alpha as an exception to the Avataric rule. Carnivàle' s Avataric mythology prophesied the Usher of Destruction throughout the ages as a harbinger of the End Times
to usher in the Armageddon
. He is known by a thousand names in a thousand books, but can only manifest once. He appears as the Tattooed Man in visions, and he can only be killed with a weapon infused with the Vitae Divina that is thrust into the bough of his tree tattoo where his dark heart dwells. Injuries from such anointed weapons are said to never fully heal. Also prophesied is the Omega (known in the Pitch Document as Omega The Destroyer and the Antichrist
), whom Carnivàle' s occult characters had assumed for a long time to be one and the same with the Usher. The Omega is, like the Alpha, a female and the only other known exception to the male restriction in Avatar succession, and because of the allusion to "the Beginning and the End
" in naming, the Omega is commonly accepted as the last Avatar.
Certain characters have seemingly supernatural abilities from the beginning of the series. Ben Hawkins and Brother Justin Crowe not only have common visions of two soldiers (one of them also appearing in a tuxedo
) and a man with a tattooed tree on his chest, but also of each other. Ben can heal and resurrect beings at the cost of others' life, while Brother Justin can read and manipulate people's minds. Ben and Lodz, a blind mentalist of the carnival, experience visions of the medieval Knights Templar
. Carnival fortuneteller Sofie can communicate telepathically with her catatonic mother, whom she once sees being raped by the Tattooed Man. The progressing story increases the importance of the two mysterious soldiers, who are revealed as Henry Scudder and Management. Strange words of unknown meaning appear throughout the series. Variations of the phrase "Every Prophet in his House" are repeated, seemingly without context. Ben finds the repeating letter string TARAVATARAVA in a mineshaft, which he is later able to interpret as Avatar. Season 2 introduces the word Usher in particular relation to Brother Justin. Management repeats this term to Ben in two instances. After Management's death, Ben has sudden knowledge about Princes, Prophets and the Usher, even knowing to whom these terms apply, respectively. The sentence "Sofie is the Omega" is seen once, written across a mirror without further explanation. Sofie demonstrates powers and attributes similar to those of Ben and Brother Justin in the last Carnivàle episode.
The context for some of these events is provided by the (fictionally used) Gospel of Matthias
, a book in Season 2 that connects the Templars to Ben's father. Written in archaic
English, reminiscent of the King James Bible translation, it contains parts of Samson's Season 1 prologue, mentions the Avatara, and alludes to an apocalyptic passage in the Book of Revelation
. It also contains etching
s of a gnarled and bent tree, which in one image is attacked by a Knight Templar holding a knife. Wilfred Talbot Smith interprets this book to Brother Justin, quoting, "By the hand of the Prince, the Prophet dies. Upon his death, the Prince shall rise," and "[Beware the Usher. A dark heart dwells where branches meet.] Anointed dagger plunge thee deep." Management and Ben repeat these verses independently of Smith.
Several women in Carnivàle are tied to Avatars, but only two have Avataric blood: Belyakov's daughter Iris is a Vectorus by definition, and Justin's daughter Sofie is the Omega. Although Sofie is two years older than Ben, her father's Avataric generation places her in the next Avataric generation. The other affected women are human mothers who began to suffer from mental illness or strange behavior after giving birth to an Avatar. Ben's mother Flora was a religious fanatic who would not touch her son. Scudder's mother Emma cut her eyes out and killed several of her family members the night Scudder was born. Sofie's mother Apollonia became catatonic after Sofie's birth. Justin's and his older sister Iris's mother receives no special mention in the series, but the Pitch Document mentions her chronic paranoid schizophrenia after Justin's birth. As far as known, none of these mothers became pregnant after giving birth to an Avatar.
Knauf hinted at more Avatars in a February 2005 chat: "What do Jesus, Caligula
, Alexander the Great, Caesar
, Buddha
, Vlad the Impaler, Brother Justin, Ben Hawkins, Luscius Belyakov, Hilton Scudder, and Henry Scudder have in common?" The Pitch Document stated, "If an Avatar was dedicated to developing and mastering his power, he could direct it with the precision of a scalpel. Such was the case with many of the Prophets, with Buddha, Jesus and Mohammed, with Caligula and Vlad Dracul." In this early plot summary, Rasputin and the Borgias were Avatars as well. But like other Avatars in Carnivàle, none of these historical figures were explicitly revealed as such on the show.
A man with a tattooed tree on his chest and back is introduced in the opening minutes of Carnivàles pilot episode, and appears in many other Avataric visions and dreams: in Ben's and Brother Justin's common recurring dreams chasing Henry Scudder in a cornfield, in Ben's microsleep-like visions, in Sofie's visions of the rape of her mother, and in an extended vision of Brother Justin foreshadowing his dark future. Ben encounters a little boy with a similar tree painted to his chest and back late in Season 1. Brother Justin finds this tree grown on a hill early in Season 2, which prompts him to get his chest and back tattooed accordingly. The tree is also depicted in the show's Gospel of Matthias
book, in a painting at the Templar Hall in Loving, New Mexico, and on many images in the room of Templar chaplain Kerrigan. Management and Wilfred Talbot Smith imply the tree's significance for the resolution of Carnivàle.
Show creator Daniel Knauf stated that the tree in Carnivàle is the iconic Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
in the Garden of Eden
. Its implied meaning and power prompted him to place it on the Tattooed Man's chest because "this is where you will build your empire. This is what it all boils down, [...] and it just had a certain power." Played by Don Swayze
, the Tattooed Man is often depicted without a focus on his face, although a few frames in the pilot episode show him played by Clancy Brown
(Brother Justin). Knauf confirmed the Tattooed Man as the spiritual representation of the Usher of Destruction.
, a time of massive social and political upheaval. Unemployment rates were high, and European fascism
was on the rise, in the years leading up to the Second World War. People in the Great Plains
suffered from the effects of the Dust Bowl
. Farmers often not only ran into debt and lost their properties but also risked their health; dust pneumonia
was a common cause of death.
Carnivàle is a retrospective interpretation of these times. Okie
Ben loses his mother and his farm to the dust when a carnival
picks him up. While the carnival travels throughout the Southwestern United States
, California
preacher Brother Justin tends to the needs of Dust Bowl refugees, who slowly become his biggest supporters. Although Carnivàle replaces the real sociological-scientific reasons for the drought conditions with fantasy elements and the presence of the Devil
, it still addresses the Dust Bowl situation repeatedly. Samson's catch phrases are variations of "Let's shake some dust!" The episode "Black Blizzard" focuses on Ben and the carnival coping with a major dust storm
. Rain only occurs twice in the show. The first occurrence is when Ben and Sofie copulate; the writers wanted to highlight that Avataric sex "affects the heavens". The second is when Brother Justin forcibly takes the Boon from Henry Scudder in the episode "Cheyenne, WY".
' s story is religion
. Samson's prologue in the pilot episode is based on a few introduction paragraphs on the Pitch Document's cover sheet that were initially not planned to be performed . But whereas Samson's prologue only shortly mentions the Genesis creation narrative before introducing the fictional mythology, the original segment put more emphasis on the battle between God
and Satan
:
Show creator Daniel Knauf
believed Carnivàles religious aspects stemmed from the epic of good and evil as a major fabric of the 1930s, while executive producer Ronald D. Moore
regarded religion as a way to express the struggle of good versus evil, faith, and the nature of man. Neither the audience nor the actors were given advice on how to interpret the show's biblical imagery. Clancy Brown
, the actor who portrayed Brother Justin, did not know whether his character was the Creature of Light or Darkness during the first season. He however thought that the visions made Brother Justin believe to be on a righteous mission of God until late in the first season. Compared to Brother Justin, Brown stated he practiced religion in moderate ways.
Daniel Knauf felt that Brother Justin shares patterns with certain religious leaders who were often persecuted for their delusional visions. Historical figures like Father Coughlin, Aimee Semple McPherson
and Brigham Young
served as inspiration, although the writers refrained from re-telling their particular stories. Daniel Knauf originally thought of making Brother Justin a Protestant minister, but when the producers needed to decide on a specific religious affiliation, Knauf contested their plans to make him a Catholic
priest. Knauf, a Catholic himself, settled on the Methodist denomination, which he perceived as significantly less cliché, suspicious or controversial. When asked whether God had influenced him to write the story, Knauf replied no.
Carnivàle relies on other religious symbols and parallels for its mythology. The National Shrine of the Little Flower
, funded by Father Coughlin in the 1930s, was an inspiration for the temple in Brother Justin's vision in the episode "Los Moscos". This vision foreshadows the world that Justin will potentially build as he comes to power as a radio preacher. The producers planned to use radio towers instead of regular steeples for the temple; the design also incorporated Eastern European domes and Western European cathedrals. In the same vision, the Tattooed Man appears near a tree that resembles the iconic Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
, and implies that Justin is the Usher. According to Knauf, the Usher represents a "timeless character who shows up in all different cultures", and who is "there to usher in the Armageddon
" as "the harbinger of End times
".
Carnivàle introduces the Knights Templar
, a medieval Christian
military order
, in the late Season 1 episode "Lonnigan, TX", where Ben meets the freak finder Boffo Phineas. When Ben comes in contact with Boffo's ring, he experiences a powerful series of visions of the Knights Templar practicing rituals, putting heads on spikes, and being burned at the stake
. The ring bears a red-crossed symbol, and when Samson passes a trinket with the same symbol to Lodz, the mentalist has the same visions as Ben and falls to the floor chanting "in hoc signo vinces
" ("in this sign you will conquer"). The Knights Templar remain a recurring subplot until Ben discovers the symbol's significance in early Season 2. The Lodge of the Benevolent Order of Templar has its last appearance in the mid-Season-2 episode "Old Cherry Blossom Road", where the escaped convict Varlyn Stroud uses it to track Ben. When Wilfred Talbot Smith asks for the location of the Saunière manuscript late in Season 2, Scudder answers that it is hidden in Rennes-le-Château
.
Despite being of only tangential importance to the series' two seasons, the Knights Templar have an elaborate backstory that was left untold due to the cancellation. The Pitch Document described the fictional Order, then simply called the "Order Templar", as a fraternity of fellow travelers that was once charged by the Roman Catholic Church
with locating and aiding the Avatars. Knauf said both Henry Scudder and his father Hilton were members of the Templars; Scudder was so because he wanted access to their knowledge and library. The Saunière manuscript would have been "mildly relevant" for the future storyline.
The Season 2 episode "Los Moscos" has Management urge Ben to seek Scudder; Ben needs to learn the name of the preacher of his dreams (Brother Justin) to prevent a future catastrophe. An induced vision transports Ben into a desert where he suddenly hears an alarm-like noise. A massive explosion occurs, followed by a rising mushroom cloud. When Ben opens his eyes from the blast of dust, Justin kneels in front of him and asks "Ye offspring of serpents, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" Ben drives past this location one episode later in "Alamogordo, NM". In a shared vision in the episode "Creed, OK", Ben and Sofie kiss in a desert, surrounded by bright light and swirling dust. Season 2 takes place in 1935.
Reviews interpreted these visions as Ben's challenge to find and defeat Brother Justin; Ben has to ultimately stop the creation of the atomic bomb as "the world's march towards doomsday." The Season 1 prologue already suggested this interpretation, mentioning "a false sun explod[ing] over Trinity," at which point "man forever traded away wonder for reason." The Trinity test
near Alamogordo, New Mexico
was humankind's first test of a nuclear weapon in 1945, and Daniel Knauf would have finished Carnivàle' s six year run with the explosion of an atomic bomb as the beginning of the "Age of Reason". Still, Knauf's story is "not about the deployment of the bomb, it's more about the invention of the bomb," with the focus "around Alamogordo and the Trinity test site rather than Hiroshima and Nagasaki
." Much research was put into the visual effects
of the explosion. Stock footage of the first beats of nuclear explosions and a self-created explosion of 300 gallons of gasoline were used for reference. The ground effects and blowing dust were created with combinations of volumetric computer graphics smoke, and the fireball of the nuclear explosion was built from Hubble
images of the Sun
. Knauf left the interpretation of the kiss vision open to both the characters and the audience.
When incorporating tarot symbolism into the show, show creator Daniel Knauf started with the Rider-Waite tarot deck
and then took liberties in interpretation. The same deck was used in the series and in several web games, as tarot divination played a significant part in Carnivàle' s online marketing. The producers had wished to provide a "personalized, interactive tarot-card reading experience similar to what is depicted in the series". The official HBO website collaborated with RealNetworks
to offer Fate: The Carnivàle Game, a downloadable game based on tarot symbolism available for trial and purchase.
Carnivàles opening title sequence features tarot cards that are panned in and out of in camera perspective; these cards were digitally designed based on paintings and are not available for purchase. As the creative team behind the opening titles stated, it was their goal "to create a title sequence that grounded viewers in the mid-1930s, but that also allowed people to feel a larger presence of good and evil over all of time." The creators offered a detailed interpretation of the tarot cards in the opening titles, and covered topics like good and bad, heaven
and hell
, wars, and the age of science as the antireligion
in the 1930s. The following list specifies the tarot cards featured in the opening sequence, the provided keywords and the used artwork.
was confident that Carnivàle was one of the most complicated shows on television, while show creator Daniel Knauf
admitted that "you may not understand everything that goes on but it does make a certain sense." In stating that Carnivàle was meant to be a demanding show with a lot of subtext, Knauf refrained from giving explicit clues. He did not wish his intent as an author to supersede the viewer's interpretation.
Carnivàle' s central premise was considered "cloudy", "unconventional", and filled with "convoluted symbolic interpretations of historical events" after Daniel Knauf had told TV critics that he regarded the 1930s as "the last great age of magic" being ended by an atomic bomb to herald the Age of Reason. Many reviews quoted and commented on Samson's prologue to explain both the apocalyptic premise and the mythology of the show. Some reviews asserted that the good and evil creatures described in the prologue were Ben and Justin, preparing for a final battle. Still, many reviews were reluctant to state who of the main characters was good and who was evil, aware that it might take some time until this question was answered for sure. Ben and his healing powers led most reviewers to believe that he was the good creature, and that Justin was a demon or at least a dangerous zealot who received instructions from either God or Satan. Some reviews described the question of Ben's parentage as one of the big puzzles and the show's driving mystery, but refrained from defining further details of the series. The lack of revelation of the characters' roles was apparent by the end of the first season, although critics expected Sofie to gain significance later in the story.
DVD reviews for Season 1 and previews for the Season 2 premiere had the advantage of retrospective on the first season, and some reviewers continued to consider the show's mythology convoluted, circuitous, "peek-a-boo" and silly. The significance of the prologue was emphasized again, while previous reviewers' character descriptions, the good-versus-evil theme and the assumed story merge were generally repeated. The good nature of Ben and evil nature of Brother Justin seemed clearer to most reviewers, with "many bizarre coincidences that seem to imply a deeper and more sinister connection" between the two main characters. Visions were summarized as disturbing and grotesque, dreams as cryptic and mysterious, and abilities as unexplainable. Henry Scudder was noted to be "connected to everything and everyone", and it was considered Ben's job to piece together the mystery of his own past. The events of early Season 2 were said to mark a shift in the story from mystery to journey, with Ben accepting and exploring his powers, while Brother Justin was seen completely embracing his evil nature. Reviewers regarded Sofie's turn in the final episode as an unexpected new threat in the story.
's 1990s mystery TV series Twin Peaks
and John Steinbeck
's 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath
. Matt Roush of TV Guide
called Carnivàle "the perfect show for those who thought Twin Peaks was too accessible", whereas the show reminded Salon.com
's Heather Havrilesky of the "disappointment you feel as a kid when you come to the last few pages of The Grapes of Wrath." She argued that a "surreal Twin Peaks-style shockfest [...] hardly bears repeating," especially if it "avoid[s] the 'hugging and learning' of mainstream television [by serving up] such a steady diet of anguish and dashed hopes that viewers refuse to take the risk of making an emotional connection." Carnivàle, as The Australian
stated, "seems to have been conceived in essentially literary terms" which "can sometimes work on the page but is deadly on the large screen, let alone a small one. It's almost like a biblical injunction against pretension on television." A reviewer admitted his temptation to dismiss the first season of Carnivàle as "too artsy and esoteric" because his lack of involvement prevented him from understanding "what the heck was going on, [which] can be a problem for a dramatic television series." TV Zone
however considered Carnivàle "a series like no other and [...] the fact that it is so open to interpretation surprisingly proves to be one of its greatest strengths." Carnivàle was lauded for showing "the hopelessness of the Great Depression
to life" and for being among the first TV shows to show "unmitigated pain and disappointment", but reviewers were not confident that viewers would find the "slowly unfolding sadness" appealing over long or would have the patience or endurance to find out the meaning of the show.
s. Knauf approached Marvel Comics
to continue the future Carnivàle storyline that he had kept to himself. They seemed interested, but HBO, who own the show and the characters, would not confer their rights. During the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike, Knauf stated that "an idiosyncratic show like Carnivàle would never be greenlit today," and claimed that present-day television included a high percentage of "talking heads" with "the vast majority of television writers [not being] visual storytellers." Enjoying his creative freedom as graphic storyteller, he has considered directing his efforts away from television series creation. Meanwhile, the mythology of Carnivàle remains in the public conscience. In 2008, Alessandra Stanley of the Australian newspaper The Age
remembered Carnivàle as a "smart, ambitious series that move[s] unusual characters around an unfamiliar setting imaginatively," while A.V. Club called the show "a fantastically rich series with a frustratingly dense mythology".
Carnivàle
Carnivàle is an American television series set in the United States during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. In tracing the lives of two disparate groups of people, its overarching story depicts the battle between good and evil and the struggle between free will and destiny; the storyline mixes...
is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television series
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
set in the United States during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. The series traces the disparate storylines of a young carnival
Traveling carnival
A traveling carnival is an amusement show that may be made up of amusement rides, food vendors, merchandise vendors, games of chance and skill, thrill acts, animal acts or sideshow curiosities. A traveling carnival is not set up at a permanent location, like an amusement park, but is moved from...
worker named Ben Hawkins and Brother Justin Crowe, a preacher in California. The overarching story is built around a good and evil theme, which serves as a human-scaled metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
within a complex structure of myth and allegory
Allegory
Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
. Samson, the carnival's dwarf manager, sets up the show's mythology with a prologue in the pilot episode, talking of "a creature of light and a creature of darkness" being born "to each generation" preparing for a final battle.
Most mythological elements in Carnivàle relate to so-called Avatars (or Creatures of Light and Darkness), fictional human-like beings with supernatural powers who embody good and evil. Carnivàle does not reveal its characters as Avatars beyond insinuation, and makes the nature of suggested Avatars a central question. Reviewers believed Ben to be a Creature of Light and Brother Justin a Creature of Darkness. Other than through the characters, the show's good-and-evil theme manifests in the series' contemporary religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
, the Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
military order
Military order
A military order is a Christian society of knights that was founded for crusading, i.e. propagating or defending the faith , either in the Holy Land or against Islam or pagans in Europe...
Knights Templar
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
, tarot divination, and in historical events like the Dustbowl and humankind's first nuclear test. Show creator Daniel Knauf
Daniel Knauf
Daniel Knauf, sometimes credited under the pseudonyms Wilfred Schmidt and Chris Neal, is an American screenwriter, comic book writer, director and producer best known for his creation of the 2003 HBO series Carnivàle.-Biography:...
did not respond to questions about the mythology but did provide hints about the mythological structure to online fandom both during and after the two-season run of Carnivàle. Nevertheless, many of the intended clues remained unnoticed by viewers. Knauf left fans a production summary of Carnivàle
Avatars
The term AvatarAvatar
In Hinduism, an avatar is a deliberate descent of a deity to earth, or a descent of the Supreme Being and is mostly translated into English as "incarnation," but more accurately as "appearance" or "manifestation"....
(also spelled Avatara) originates in Hindu mythology
Hindu mythology
Hindu religious literature is the large body of traditional narratives related to Hinduism, notably as contained in Sanskrit literature, such as the Sanskrit epics and the Puranas. As such, it is a subset of Nepali and Indian culture...
, where it most commonly refers to the incarnation
Incarnation
Incarnation literally means embodied in flesh or taking on flesh. It refers to the conception and birth of a sentient creature who is the material manifestation of an entity, god or force whose original nature is immaterial....
(bodily manifestation) of a higher being or the Supreme Being onto planet Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
. Carnivàle
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
in mankind's history in the real world. Carnivàle represents this Avataric duality as Light and Dark in several instances. The surnames of the main characters, Ben Hawkins and Justin Crowe, suggest a symbolic link to hawk
Hawk
The term hawk can be used in several ways:* In strict usage in Australia and Africa, to mean any of the species in the subfamily Accipitrinae, which comprises the genera Accipiter, Micronisus, Melierax, Urotriorchis and Megatriorchis. The large and widespread Accipiter genus includes goshawks,...
s and crow
Crow
Crows form the genus Corvus in the family Corvidae. Ranging in size from the relatively small pigeon-size jackdaws to the Common Raven of the Holarctic region and Thick-billed Raven of the highlands of Ethiopia, the 40 or so members of this genus occur on all temperate continents and several...
s, the winged Creatures of Light and Dark. The last two Tarot cards seen in the Carnivàles opening title sequence are "The Sun
The Sun (Tarot card)
The Sun is a trump card in the tarot deck. Tarot trumps are often called Major Arcana by tarot card readers.-Rider-Waite symbolism:A. E. Waite suggested that this card is associated with attained knowledge. An infant rides a white horse under the anthropomorphized sun, with sunflowers in the...
" and "The Moon
The Moon (Tarot card)
The Moon is the eighteenth trump or Major Arcana card in most traditional Tarot decks. It is used in game playing as well as in divination.-Symbolism:* Two large, foreboding pillars are shown...
", standing for God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
and the Devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
. By the same token, the show's title card and the logo of the carnival depict a sun placed opposite a moon. Show creator Daniel Knauf
Daniel Knauf
Daniel Knauf, sometimes credited under the pseudonyms Wilfred Schmidt and Chris Neal, is an American screenwriter, comic book writer, director and producer best known for his creation of the 2003 HBO series Carnivàle.-Biography:...
designed this logo.
Characteristics
The characters Ben Hawkins and Brother Justin Crowe are revealed to be Avatars through the usage of their supernatural powers; however, viewers did not find it immediately apparent whether a suspected Avatar served as good or evil. The series gave clues, such as depicting the Creatures of Darkness with coal-black eyes (according to Daniel Knauf, Creatures of Light have an invisible aura). An Avatar's nature is determined by the type and application of his powers. As the Pitch Document states, Avatars draw their talents and powers from the same pool. These abilities may vary in type and strength, and include but are not limited to the manipulation and transfer of life force, spiritual healings, telekinesis and telepathyTelepathy
Telepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...
, and granting small measures of powers to a mortal. Although the series showed the powers of Ben and Brother Justin, reviewers were still unsure about the main characters' Avataric nature by the end of the first season. When Ben's good nature and Justin's dark heritage became clearer in Season 2, reviewers began to describe Carnivàle
Fatalism
Fatalism is a philosophical doctrine emphasizing the subjugation of all events or actions to fate.Fatalism generally refers to several of the following ideas:...
". Daniel Knauf disputed any theory of determinism
Determinism
Determinism is the general philosophical thesis that states that for everything that happens there are conditions such that, given them, nothing else could happen. There are many versions of this thesis. Each of them rests upon various alleged connections, and interdependencies of things and...
, and repeatedly pointed to the characters' free will
Free will
"To make my own decisions whether I am successful or not due to uncontrollable forces" -Troy MorrisonA pragmatic definition of free willFree will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. The existence of free will and its exact nature and definition have long...
to overcome their destiny
Destiny
Destiny or fate refers to a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual...
. Free choice allows the story to portray Avatars as deliberately not making use of their powers or as acting contrary to their nature; an Avatar would however still have to put consistent effort into not lapsing back into his defined moral behavior.
The Pitch Document described Avatars as sharing the ability to envision the past, present and future, both literally and symbolically. Accessing this plane of pure truth is given as an Avatar's birthright and can be improved through study and practice. Avatars can manipulate and transmit the resulting visions through dreams to others. As far as established, only Creatures of Darkness suffer physical weakness or pain when their opposite makes use of his powers. Avatars can sense the existence of their moral opponent, but are unable to detect or identify them outside of close physical proximity. They can, however, easily detect and locate an Avatar of like kind over great distances with great accuracy. These abilities contribute to the convergence of the two storylines in Carnivàle.
Terms and order of succession
Daniel Knauf overlaid the Avatars of the fictional universe with an elaborate order of succession by blood, similar to the ascent of royal families. The descriptors Royals, KingKing
- Centers of population :* King, Ontario, CanadaIn USA:* King, Indiana* King, North Carolina* King, Lincoln County, Wisconsin* King, Waupaca County, Wisconsin* King County, Washington- Moving-image works :Television:...
and Prince
Prince
Prince is a general term for a ruler, monarch or member of a monarch's or former monarch's family, and is a hereditary title in the nobility of some European states. The feminine equivalent is a princess...
are replaced in the series with Vectori, Prophet and Prince. Female royals like Queen
Queen regnant
A queen regnant is a female monarch who reigns in her own right, in contrast to a queen consort, who is the wife of a reigning king. An empress regnant is a female monarch who reigns in her own right over an empire....
s and Princess
Princess
Princess is the feminine form of prince . Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or his daughters....
es do not have a fictional counterpart and are instead replaced with the concepts of the Alpha, the Omega and the Usher. These Wild Card Avatars have special rules in addition to, or replacing, the normal ones. Reviewers rarely focused on the significance of the mentioned Avataric terms and their implied characteristics in the story, despite detailed explanations by Knauf and the later public availability of Carnivàle
The first Prophet in the mythology of Carnivàle is the Alpha. This creature is never mentioned in the series, but Knauf described her as a female who lived before the Flood and whose story was lost with the destruction of the Royal Library of Alexandria. The Alpha spawned the first pair of Avatara, manifestations of some higher power or House; one is Light and the other Dark. A Creature of Light and a Creature of Darkness have been born to each generation since, and unlike the Alpha, they have always been male.
The Avataric Blood travels within families forming a dynasty. The first-born son of an Avatar receives a so-called mantle at birth that manifests him as an Avatar of a new generation; whether the new Avatar is Light or Dark is chance. Therefore, there is one Avatar to each House per generation. Giving birth to a new Avatar leaves the mother barren and insane. Before that time, she can give birth to an unlimited number of females from an Avatar. These children as well as their respective offspring are called Vectori, beings with Avataric Blood who are not themselves Avatara, and who thus become generationally further removed from an Avatar in the bloodline. While Vectori cannot become Avatara, as that mantle is only conveyed upon birth, they can still exhibit some minor powers and often show signs of insanity
Insanity
Insanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including becoming a danger to themselves and others, though not all such acts are considered insanity...
.
The eldest generational Avatar within a House is dominant and called the Prophet. He possesses blue blood, also called Vitae Divina. The next in line is the Ascendant Prince. Any additional Avatara within the House are Princes ranked by generation. Although Avatara form blood dynasties from father to son, House affiliations can be mixed within a dynasty. If the youngest Prince in a dynasty dies, the dynasty is ended. Most dynasties only last on average three generations, since typical Avatara can be killed by any means. When a dynasty ends, the first male child born elsewhere in the world with the most Avataric blood will be a new Prince starting a new dynasty.
When a Prophet dies while an Ascendant Prince also lives, one of two things happens. If the Prophet is killed by his Ascendant Prince, the Prince will gain the mantle of the Prophet with a boon (full measure of power). For the boon to be passed, the Prophet must be of sound mind, and either willingly pass on the boon, or be taken by surprise so that he cannot put up a psychic defense. If however the Prophet is impaired, the Ascendant Prince may be driven insane. If a Prophet dies in any other way, the Ascendant Prince will be automatically raised to Prophet in his stead, without chance of a boon.
Two unique Avatars join the Alpha as an exception to the Avataric rule. Carnivàle
End times
The end time, end times, or end of days is a time period described in the eschatological writings in the three Abrahamic religions and in doomsday scenarios in various other non-Abrahamic religions...
to usher in the Armageddon
Armageddon
Armageddon is, according to the Bible, the site of a battle during the end times, variously interpreted as either a literal or symbolic location...
. He is known by a thousand names in a thousand books, but can only manifest once. He appears as the Tattooed Man in visions, and he can only be killed with a weapon infused with the Vitae Divina that is thrust into the bough of his tree tattoo where his dark heart dwells. Injuries from such anointed weapons are said to never fully heal. Also prophesied is the Omega (known in the Pitch Document as Omega The Destroyer and the Antichrist
Antichrist
The term or title antichrist, in Christian theology, refers to a leader who fulfills Biblical prophecies concerning an adversary of Christ, while resembling him in a deceptive manner...
), whom Carnivàle
Alpha and Omega (Christianity)
The term Alpha and Omega comes from the phrase "I am the alpha and the omega" , an appellation of Jesus in the Book of Revelation ....
" in naming, the Omega is commonly accepted as the last Avatar.
Manifestation in the series
Tuxedo
A tuxedo is a type of semi-formal dress for men.Tuxedo may also refer to:-Places:Canada* Tuxedo, Winnipeg, Manitoba, a city neighborhood** Tuxedo , a provincial electoral district in Manitoba...
) and a man with a tattooed tree on his chest, but also of each other. Ben can heal and resurrect beings at the cost of others' life, while Brother Justin can read and manipulate people's minds. Ben and Lodz, a blind mentalist of the carnival, experience visions of the medieval Knights Templar
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
. Carnival fortuneteller Sofie can communicate telepathically with her catatonic mother, whom she once sees being raped by the Tattooed Man. The progressing story increases the importance of the two mysterious soldiers, who are revealed as Henry Scudder and Management. Strange words of unknown meaning appear throughout the series. Variations of the phrase "Every Prophet in his House" are repeated, seemingly without context. Ben finds the repeating letter string TARAVATARAVA in a mineshaft, which he is later able to interpret as Avatar. Season 2 introduces the word Usher in particular relation to Brother Justin. Management repeats this term to Ben in two instances. After Management's death, Ben has sudden knowledge about Princes, Prophets and the Usher, even knowing to whom these terms apply, respectively. The sentence "Sofie is the Omega" is seen once, written across a mirror without further explanation. Sofie demonstrates powers and attributes similar to those of Ben and Brother Justin in the last Carnivàle episode.
The context for some of these events is provided by the (fictionally used) Gospel of Matthias
Gospel of Matthias
The Gospel of Matthias is a lost text from the New Testament apocrypha, ascribed to Matthias, the apostle chosen by lots to replace Judas Iscariot . The content has been surmised from various descriptions of it in ancient works by church fathers . There is too little evidence to decide whether a...
, a book in Season 2 that connects the Templars to Ben's father. Written in archaic
Early Modern English
Early Modern English is the stage of the English language used from about the end of the Middle English period to 1650. Thus, the first edition of the King James Bible and the works of William Shakespeare both belong to the late phase of Early Modern English...
English, reminiscent of the King James Bible translation, it contains parts of Samson's Season 1 prologue, mentions the Avatara, and alludes to an apocalyptic passage in the Book of Revelation
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
. It also contains etching
Etching
Etching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...
s of a gnarled and bent tree, which in one image is attacked by a Knight Templar holding a knife. Wilfred Talbot Smith interprets this book to Brother Justin, quoting, "By the hand of the Prince, the Prophet dies. Upon his death, the Prince shall rise," and "[Beware the Usher. A dark heart dwells where branches meet.] Anointed dagger plunge thee deep." Management and Ben repeat these verses independently of Smith.
What is an Avatar?
As confirmed by Daniel Knauf and the Pitch Document, the Avatars of the current generation (at the end of Season 2) are Ben as the Creature of Light and Brother Justin as the Creature of Darkness. Justin is also the Usher, spiritually represented by the Tattooed Man. Their respective fathers were Avatars of the previous generation: Henry Scudder was the Creature of Darkness, and Lucius Belyakov (Management) was the Creature of Light. At each time, an Avatar's blood color mirrored his status. Ben's and Brother Justin's blood were red when they were Princes, and upon becoming Prophets, their blood turned into Vitae Divina (blue blood). Management had the Vitae Divina as well, while Scudder's blood was never shown in the series. Scudder's father Hilton was an Avatar of undisclosed nature. The mentalist of the carnival, Lodz, was merely a mortal who had once received Avataric skills from Scudder in exchange for his sense of sight.Several women in Carnivàle are tied to Avatars, but only two have Avataric blood: Belyakov's daughter Iris is a Vectorus by definition, and Justin's daughter Sofie is the Omega. Although Sofie is two years older than Ben, her father's Avataric generation places her in the next Avataric generation. The other affected women are human mothers who began to suffer from mental illness or strange behavior after giving birth to an Avatar. Ben's mother Flora was a religious fanatic who would not touch her son. Scudder's mother Emma cut her eyes out and killed several of her family members the night Scudder was born. Sofie's mother Apollonia became catatonic after Sofie's birth. Justin's and his older sister Iris's mother receives no special mention in the series, but the Pitch Document mentions her chronic paranoid schizophrenia after Justin's birth. As far as known, none of these mothers became pregnant after giving birth to an Avatar.
Knauf hinted at more Avatars in a February 2005 chat: "What do Jesus, Caligula
Caligula
Caligula , also known as Gaius, was Roman Emperor from 37 AD to 41 AD. Caligula was a member of the house of rulers conventionally known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Caligula's father Germanicus, the nephew and adopted son of Emperor Tiberius, was a very successful general and one of Rome's most...
, Alexander the Great, Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
, Buddha
Gautama Buddha
Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...
, Vlad the Impaler, Brother Justin, Ben Hawkins, Luscius Belyakov, Hilton Scudder, and Henry Scudder have in common?" The Pitch Document stated, "If an Avatar was dedicated to developing and mastering his power, he could direct it with the precision of a scalpel. Such was the case with many of the Prophets, with Buddha, Jesus and Mohammed, with Caligula and Vlad Dracul." In this early plot summary, Rasputin and the Borgias were Avatars as well. But like other Avatars in Carnivàle, none of these historical figures were explicitly revealed as such on the show.
The Tattooed Man and the tree
Gospel of Matthias
The Gospel of Matthias is a lost text from the New Testament apocrypha, ascribed to Matthias, the apostle chosen by lots to replace Judas Iscariot . The content has been surmised from various descriptions of it in ancient works by church fathers . There is too little evidence to decide whether a...
book, in a painting at the Templar Hall in Loving, New Mexico, and on many images in the room of Templar chaplain Kerrigan. Management and Wilfred Talbot Smith imply the tree's significance for the resolution of Carnivàle.
Show creator Daniel Knauf stated that the tree in Carnivàle is the iconic Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
In the Book of Genesis, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or the tree of knowledge was a tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden. . God directly forbade Adam to eat the fruit of this tree...
in the Garden of Eden
Garden of Eden
The Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...
. Its implied meaning and power prompted him to place it on the Tattooed Man's chest because "this is where you will build your empire. This is what it all boils down, [...] and it just had a certain power." Played by Don Swayze
Don Swayze
- Early life :Swayze was born in Houston, Texas, the middle son of Patsy Yvonne Helen , a choreographer, dance instructor, and dancer, and Jesse Wayne Swayze , an engineering drafter. He is a younger brother of actor Patrick Swayze and of sister Vicky Lynn, and the older brother of Sean Kyle and...
, the Tattooed Man is often depicted without a focus on his face, although a few frames in the pilot episode show him played by Clancy Brown
Clancy Brown
Clarence J. "Clancy" Brown III is an American actor and voice actor. He is known for his roles in live action as The Kurgan in the cult classic film Highlander, Byron Hadley in the award-winning The Shawshank Redemption, Brother Justin Crowe in HBO's critically acclaimed Carnivàle, and Career...
(Brother Justin). Knauf confirmed the Tattooed Man as the spiritual representation of the Usher of Destruction.
Dust Bowl
The story of Carnivàle takes place in the mid-1930s during the worst of the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, a time of massive social and political upheaval. Unemployment rates were high, and European fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
was on the rise, in the years leading up to the Second World War. People in the Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
suffered from the effects of the Dust Bowl
Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl, or the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936...
. Farmers often not only ran into debt and lost their properties but also risked their health; dust pneumonia
Dust pneumonia
Dust pneumonia describes disorders caused by excessive exposure to dust storms, particularly during the Dust Bowl in the United States. A form of pneumonia, dust pneumonia results when the lungs are filled with dust, inflaming the alveoli...
was a common cause of death.
Carnivàle is a retrospective interpretation of these times. Okie
Okie
Okie is a term dating from as early as 1907, originally denoting a resident or native of Oklahoma. It is derived from the name of the state, similar to Texan or Tex for someone from Texas, or Arkie or Arkansawyer for a native of Arkansas....
Ben loses his mother and his farm to the dust when a carnival
Traveling carnival
A traveling carnival is an amusement show that may be made up of amusement rides, food vendors, merchandise vendors, games of chance and skill, thrill acts, animal acts or sideshow curiosities. A traveling carnival is not set up at a permanent location, like an amusement park, but is moved from...
picks him up. While the carnival travels throughout the Southwestern United States
Southwestern United States
The Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
preacher Brother Justin tends to the needs of Dust Bowl refugees, who slowly become his biggest supporters. Although Carnivàle replaces the real sociological-scientific reasons for the drought conditions with fantasy elements and the presence of the Devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
, it still addresses the Dust Bowl situation repeatedly. Samson's catch phrases are variations of "Let's shake some dust!" The episode "Black Blizzard" focuses on Ben and the carnival coping with a major dust storm
Dust storm
A dust / sand storm is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions. Dust storms arise when a gust front or other strong wind blows loose sand and dirt from a dry surface. Particles are transported by saltation and suspension, causing soil to move from one place and deposition...
. Rain only occurs twice in the show. The first occurrence is when Ben and Sofie copulate; the writers wanted to highlight that Avataric sex "affects the heavens". The second is when Brother Justin forcibly takes the Boon from Henry Scudder in the episode "Cheyenne, WY".
Religion
A major part of CarnivàleReligion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
. Samson's prologue in the pilot episode is based on a few introduction paragraphs on the Pitch Document's cover sheet that were initially not planned to be performed . But whereas Samson's prologue only shortly mentions the Genesis creation narrative before introducing the fictional mythology, the original segment put more emphasis on the battle between God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
and Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
:
"Before the Beginning, after the great celestial war that rocked the very foundation of Heaven and Hell, God and Satan established an uneasy truce. Never again would they face each other in direct confrontation. So God created the Earth, inhabiting it with the crafty ape he called Man. And henceforth, to each generation was born a creature of Light and a creature of Darkness, and they would gather to them men of ilk nature and thus, by proxy, carry on the war between Good and Evil."
Show creator Daniel Knauf
Daniel Knauf
Daniel Knauf, sometimes credited under the pseudonyms Wilfred Schmidt and Chris Neal, is an American screenwriter, comic book writer, director and producer best known for his creation of the 2003 HBO series Carnivàle.-Biography:...
believed Carnivàles religious aspects stemmed from the epic of good and evil as a major fabric of the 1930s, while executive producer Ronald D. Moore
Ronald D. Moore
Ronald Dowl Moore is an American screenwriter and television producer best known for his work on Star Trek and the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica miniseries and television series, for which he won a Peabody Award for creative excellence in 2005 and an Emmy Award in 2008.-Early life and...
regarded religion as a way to express the struggle of good versus evil, faith, and the nature of man. Neither the audience nor the actors were given advice on how to interpret the show's biblical imagery. Clancy Brown
Clancy Brown
Clarence J. "Clancy" Brown III is an American actor and voice actor. He is known for his roles in live action as The Kurgan in the cult classic film Highlander, Byron Hadley in the award-winning The Shawshank Redemption, Brother Justin Crowe in HBO's critically acclaimed Carnivàle, and Career...
, the actor who portrayed Brother Justin, did not know whether his character was the Creature of Light or Darkness during the first season. He however thought that the visions made Brother Justin believe to be on a righteous mission of God until late in the first season. Compared to Brother Justin, Brown stated he practiced religion in moderate ways.
Daniel Knauf felt that Brother Justin shares patterns with certain religious leaders who were often persecuted for their delusional visions. Historical figures like Father Coughlin, Aimee Semple McPherson
Aimee Semple McPherson
Aimee Semple McPherson , also known as Sister Aimee, was a Canadian-American Los Angeles, California evangelist and media celebrity in the 1920s and 1930s. She founded the Foursquare Church...
and Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...
served as inspiration, although the writers refrained from re-telling their particular stories. Daniel Knauf originally thought of making Brother Justin a Protestant minister, but when the producers needed to decide on a specific religious affiliation, Knauf contested their plans to make him a Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
priest. Knauf, a Catholic himself, settled on the Methodist denomination, which he perceived as significantly less cliché, suspicious or controversial. When asked whether God had influenced him to write the story, Knauf replied no.
Carnivàle relies on other religious symbols and parallels for its mythology. The National Shrine of the Little Flower
National Shrine of the Little Flower
National Shrine of the Little Flower Catholic Church in Royal Oak, Michigan is a well known Catholic Church and National Shrine executed in the lavish zig-zag Art Deco style. It was completed in two stages, from 1931 to 1936, and funded by the proceeds of the radio ministry of the controversial...
, funded by Father Coughlin in the 1930s, was an inspiration for the temple in Brother Justin's vision in the episode "Los Moscos". This vision foreshadows the world that Justin will potentially build as he comes to power as a radio preacher. The producers planned to use radio towers instead of regular steeples for the temple; the design also incorporated Eastern European domes and Western European cathedrals. In the same vision, the Tattooed Man appears near a tree that resembles the iconic Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
In the Book of Genesis, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or the tree of knowledge was a tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden. . God directly forbade Adam to eat the fruit of this tree...
, and implies that Justin is the Usher. According to Knauf, the Usher represents a "timeless character who shows up in all different cultures", and who is "there to usher in the Armageddon
Armageddon
Armageddon is, according to the Bible, the site of a battle during the end times, variously interpreted as either a literal or symbolic location...
" as "the harbinger of End times
End times
The end time, end times, or end of days is a time period described in the eschatological writings in the three Abrahamic religions and in doomsday scenarios in various other non-Abrahamic religions...
".
Knights Templar
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
, a medieval Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
military order
Military order
A military order is a Christian society of knights that was founded for crusading, i.e. propagating or defending the faith , either in the Holy Land or against Islam or pagans in Europe...
, in the late Season 1 episode "Lonnigan, TX", where Ben meets the freak finder Boffo Phineas. When Ben comes in contact with Boffo's ring, he experiences a powerful series of visions of the Knights Templar practicing rituals, putting heads on spikes, and being burned at the stake
Execution by burning
Death by burning is death brought about by combustion. As a form of capital punishment, burning has a long history as a method in crimes such as treason, heresy, and witchcraft....
. The ring bears a red-crossed symbol, and when Samson passes a trinket with the same symbol to Lodz, the mentalist has the same visions as Ben and falls to the floor chanting "in hoc signo vinces
In hoc signo vinces
In hoc signo vinces is a Latin rendering of the Greek phrase "" en touto nika, and means "in this sign you will conquer"....
" ("in this sign you will conquer"). The Knights Templar remain a recurring subplot until Ben discovers the symbol's significance in early Season 2. The Lodge of the Benevolent Order of Templar has its last appearance in the mid-Season-2 episode "Old Cherry Blossom Road", where the escaped convict Varlyn Stroud uses it to track Ben. When Wilfred Talbot Smith asks for the location of the Saunière manuscript late in Season 2, Scudder answers that it is hidden in Rennes-le-Château
Rennes-le-Château
Rennes-le-Château is a commune in the Aude department in Languedoc in southern France.This small French hilltop village is known internationally, and receives tens of thousands of visitors per year, for being at the center of various conspiracy theories, and for being the location of an alleged...
.
Despite being of only tangential importance to the series' two seasons, the Knights Templar have an elaborate backstory that was left untold due to the cancellation. The Pitch Document described the fictional Order, then simply called the "Order Templar", as a fraternity of fellow travelers that was once charged by the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
with locating and aiding the Avatars. Knauf said both Henry Scudder and his father Hilton were members of the Templars; Scudder was so because he wanted access to their knowledge and library. The Saunière manuscript would have been "mildly relevant" for the future storyline.
Trinity
Reviews interpreted these visions as Ben's challenge to find and defeat Brother Justin; Ben has to ultimately stop the creation of the atomic bomb as "the world's march towards doomsday." The Season 1 prologue already suggested this interpretation, mentioning "a false sun explod[ing] over Trinity," at which point "man forever traded away wonder for reason." The Trinity test
Trinity test
Trinity was the code name of the first test of a nuclear weapon. This test was conducted by the United States Army on July 16, 1945, in the Jornada del Muerto desert about 35 miles southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, at the new White Sands Proving Ground, which incorporated the Alamogordo Bombing...
near Alamogordo, New Mexico
Alamogordo, New Mexico
Alamogordo is the county seat of Otero County and a city in south-central New Mexico, United States. A desert community lying in the Tularosa Basin, it is bordered on the east by the Sacramento Mountains. It is the nearest city to Holloman Air Force Base. The population was 35,582 as of the 2000...
was humankind's first test of a nuclear weapon in 1945, and Daniel Knauf would have finished Carnivàle
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...
." Much research was put into the visual effects
Visual effects
Visual effects are the various processes by which imagery is created and/or manipulated outside the context of a live action shoot. Visual effects involve the integration of live-action footage and generated imagery to create environments which look realistic, but would be dangerous, costly, or...
of the explosion. Stock footage of the first beats of nuclear explosions and a self-created explosion of 300 gallons of gasoline were used for reference. The ground effects and blowing dust were created with combinations of volumetric computer graphics smoke, and the fireball of the nuclear explosion was built from Hubble
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation. A 2.4 meter aperture telescope in low Earth orbit, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared...
images of the Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
. Knauf left the interpretation of the kiss vision open to both the characters and the audience.
Tarot divination
The tarot readings of fortunetellers Sofie and her mother Apollonia advance the plot significantly. Sofie's readings in the pilot episode induce visions in Ben that give insight into his healing powers of his childhood. Season 2 shows Sofie's attempts to leave her former job, which is repeatedly interrupted by tarot cards reappearing. Another of her readings sets Ben on a journey to Scudder, the man he has been looking for since the beginning of the series.When incorporating tarot symbolism into the show, show creator Daniel Knauf started with the Rider-Waite tarot deck
Rider-Waite tarot deck
The Rider-Waite tarot deck is the most popular Tarot deck in use today in the English-speaking world . Other suggested names for this include the Rider-Waite-Smith, Waite-Smith, Waite-Colman Smith or simply the Rider deck...
and then took liberties in interpretation. The same deck was used in the series and in several web games, as tarot divination played a significant part in Carnivàle
RealNetworks
RealNetworks, Inc. is a provider of Internet media delivery software and services based in Downtown Seattle, Washington, United States. The company is the creator of RealAudio, a compressed audio format; RealVideo, a compressed video format; RealPlayer, a media player; RealDownloader, a download...
to offer Fate: The Carnivàle Game, a downloadable game based on tarot symbolism available for trial and purchase.
Carnivàles opening title sequence features tarot cards that are panned in and out of in camera perspective; these cards were digitally designed based on paintings and are not available for purchase. As the creative team behind the opening titles stated, it was their goal "to create a title sequence that grounded viewers in the mid-1930s, but that also allowed people to feel a larger presence of good and evil over all of time." The creators offered a detailed interpretation of the tarot cards in the opening titles, and covered topics like good and bad, heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
and hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
, wars, and the age of science as the antireligion
Antireligion
Antireligion is opposition to religion. Antireligion is distinct from atheism and antitheism , although antireligionists may be atheists or antitheists...
in the 1930s. The following list specifies the tarot cards featured in the opening sequence, the provided keywords and the used artwork.
- "The WorldThe World (Tarot card)The World is a trump or Major Arcana card in the tarot deck. It is usually the final card of the Major Arcana or tarot trump sequence. In the tarot family of card games, this card is usually worth five points.- Description :...
" — Completion. Perfection. Eternal life. – The Last JudgmentThe Last Judgment (Michelangelo)The Last Judgment is a canonical fresco by the Italian Renaissance master Michelangelo executed on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City...
by MichelangeloMichelangeloMichelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
. - "Ace of SwordsAce of SwordsAce of Swords is the first of the suite of Swords. This card indicates decisive ability and cutting through confusion, taking a radical decision or standpoint and the ability to see through deception, and expose it....
" — Ardent love. Ardent hate. A vanquisher is born. – Destruction of Leviathan by Gustave DoréGustave DoréPaul Gustave Doré was a French artist, engraver, illustrator and sculptor. Doré worked primarily with wood engraving and steel engraving.-Biography:...
. - "DeathDeath (Tarot card)Death is the thirteenth trump or Major Arcana card in most traditional Tarot decks.It is used in Tarot, tarock and tarocchi games as well as in divination.-Description:...
" — Transition. Change. Death. – The Last Day of PompeiiThe Last Day of PompeiiThe Last Day of Pompeii is a large canvas painted by Russian artist Karl Briullov in 1830-33.The Russian painter visited the site of Pompeii in 1828 and made numerous sketches. Depicting the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, the completed canvas was exhibited in Rome to rapturous reviews of critics...
by Karl Brullov. - "King of SwordsKing of SwordsKing of Swords is a card used in Latin suited playing cards which include tarot decks. It is part of what tarot card readers call the "Minor Arcana"Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play Tarot card games....
" — A powerful commander. A wise counselor. A judge. – St. Michael Victorious by RaphaelRaphaelRaffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...
. - "TemperanceTemperance (Tarot card)Temperance is the fourteenth trump or Major Arcana card in most traditional Tarot decks. It is used in game playing as well as in divination.- Description :...
" — Moderation. Balance. Harmony. – The Peasant Dance by Pieter Bruegel. - "The MagicianThe Magician (Tarot card)The Magician, The Magus, or The Juggler is the first trump or Major Arcana card in most traditional Tarot decks. It is used in game playing as well as in divination...
" — Originality. Confidence. Skill. – Crucifixion by Josse LieferinxeJosse LieferinxeJosse Lieferinxe was a South Netherlandish painter, formerly known by the pseudonym the Master of St. Sebastian....
. - "The TowerThe Tower (Tarot card)The Tower is the sixteenth trump or Major Arcana card in most cartomancy Tarot decks. It is not used as part of any game.- History :...
" — Sudden change. Disruption. Downfall. – The Battle between the Romans and the Carthaginians by Jean FouquetJean FouquetJean Fouquet was a preeminent French painter of the 15th century, a master of both panel painting and manuscript illumination, and the apparent inventor of the portrait miniature. He was the first French artist to travel to Italy and experience at first hand the Italian Early...
. - "JudgementJudgement (Tarot card)Judgement , or in some decks spelled Judgment, is a Tarot card, part of the Major Arcana suit usually comprising 22 cards.-Rider-Waite symbolism:Very clearly, it is modeled after the Christian Resurrection before the Last Judgment...
" — Renewal. Rebirth. - "The MoonThe Moon (Tarot card)The Moon is the eighteenth trump or Major Arcana card in most traditional Tarot decks. It is used in game playing as well as in divination.-Symbolism:* Two large, foreboding pillars are shown...
" — Deception. Disillusionment. - "The SunThe Sun (Tarot card)The Sun is a trump card in the tarot deck. Tarot trumps are often called Major Arcana by tarot card readers.-Rider-Waite symbolism:A. E. Waite suggested that this card is associated with attained knowledge. An infant rides a white horse under the anthropomorphized sun, with sunflowers in the...
" — Success. Joy. – Creation of the Sun and Moon by MichelangeloMichelangeloMichelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
.
Reception, interpretation and legacy
Executive producer Ronald D. MooreRonald D. Moore
Ronald Dowl Moore is an American screenwriter and television producer best known for his work on Star Trek and the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica miniseries and television series, for which he won a Peabody Award for creative excellence in 2005 and an Emmy Award in 2008.-Early life and...
was confident that Carnivàle was one of the most complicated shows on television, while show creator Daniel Knauf
Daniel Knauf
Daniel Knauf, sometimes credited under the pseudonyms Wilfred Schmidt and Chris Neal, is an American screenwriter, comic book writer, director and producer best known for his creation of the 2003 HBO series Carnivàle.-Biography:...
admitted that "you may not understand everything that goes on but it does make a certain sense." In stating that Carnivàle was meant to be a demanding show with a lot of subtext, Knauf refrained from giving explicit clues. He did not wish his intent as an author to supersede the viewer's interpretation.
Interpretations during the run of Carnivàle
Reviewers of the first three episodes interpreted Carnivàles story as being full of myth and allegory. The show was seen as more than just a human-scaled metaphor of good and evil, with the power of spirits as one of the show's strongest elements. Some reviewers were deeply confused and described almost everything as "mysterious" – the characters and their powers and abilities, characters and scenarios within visions, the whole carnival – wondering how it all fit together. The visions of the two main characters were shortly addressed, distinguishing between violent and benign visions, but parallels between the visions and the beings of good and evil were not necessarily drawn. The characters' stories were described as unfolding in "zig-zagging starts, moving back and forth in time and space, dropping oblique clues along the way."Carnivàle
DVD reviews for Season 1 and previews for the Season 2 premiere had the advantage of retrospective on the first season, and some reviewers continued to consider the show's mythology convoluted, circuitous, "peek-a-boo" and silly. The significance of the prologue was emphasized again, while previous reviewers' character descriptions, the good-versus-evil theme and the assumed story merge were generally repeated. The good nature of Ben and evil nature of Brother Justin seemed clearer to most reviewers, with "many bizarre coincidences that seem to imply a deeper and more sinister connection" between the two main characters. Visions were summarized as disturbing and grotesque, dreams as cryptic and mysterious, and abilities as unexplainable. Henry Scudder was noted to be "connected to everything and everyone", and it was considered Ben's job to piece together the mystery of his own past. The events of early Season 2 were said to mark a shift in the story from mystery to journey, with Ben accepting and exploring his powers, while Brother Justin was seen completely embracing his evil nature. Reviewers regarded Sofie's turn in the final episode as an unexpected new threat in the story.
Reception and analysis of themes
Carnivàle was often compared to David LynchDavid Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
's 1990s mystery TV series Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...
and John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
's 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel published in 1939 and written by John Steinbeck, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962....
. Matt Roush of TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
called Carnivàle "the perfect show for those who thought Twin Peaks was too accessible", whereas the show reminded Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
's Heather Havrilesky of the "disappointment you feel as a kid when you come to the last few pages of The Grapes of Wrath." She argued that a "surreal Twin Peaks-style shockfest [...] hardly bears repeating," especially if it "avoid[s] the 'hugging and learning' of mainstream television [by serving up] such a steady diet of anguish and dashed hopes that viewers refuse to take the risk of making an emotional connection." Carnivàle, as The Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
stated, "seems to have been conceived in essentially literary terms" which "can sometimes work on the page but is deadly on the large screen, let alone a small one. It's almost like a biblical injunction against pretension on television." A reviewer admitted his temptation to dismiss the first season of Carnivàle as "too artsy and esoteric" because his lack of involvement prevented him from understanding "what the heck was going on, [which] can be a problem for a dramatic television series." TV Zone
TV Zone
TV Zone was a British magazine published every four weeks by Visual Imagination that covered cult television. Initially, it mostly covered science fiction, but branched out to cover other drama and comedy series.-History:...
however considered Carnivàle "a series like no other and [...] the fact that it is so open to interpretation surprisingly proves to be one of its greatest strengths." Carnivàle was lauded for showing "the hopelessness of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
to life" and for being among the first TV shows to show "unmitigated pain and disappointment", but reviewers were not confident that viewers would find the "slowly unfolding sadness" appealing over long or would have the patience or endurance to find out the meaning of the show.
Fate and legacy of the mythological storytelling of Carnivàle
Viewership did drop significantly in Season 2, and Carnivàle was cancelled in 2005 after two of six planned seasons. In a post-cancellation interview, Daniel Knauf was positive that someone would let him finish his story someday, if not as a television series, then possibly as a series of features or graphic novelGraphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
s. Knauf approached Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
to continue the future Carnivàle storyline that he had kept to himself. They seemed interested, but HBO, who own the show and the characters, would not confer their rights. During the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike, Knauf stated that "an idiosyncratic show like Carnivàle would never be greenlit today," and claimed that present-day television included a high percentage of "talking heads" with "the vast majority of television writers [not being] visual storytellers." Enjoying his creative freedom as graphic storyteller, he has considered directing his efforts away from television series creation. Meanwhile, the mythology of Carnivàle remains in the public conscience. In 2008, Alessandra Stanley of the Australian newspaper The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
remembered Carnivàle as a "smart, ambitious series that move[s] unusual characters around an unfamiliar setting imaginatively," while A.V. Club called the show "a fantastically rich series with a frustratingly dense mythology".