Incredibles 2: Mr. Incredible as Faustian man in decline

In Oswald Spenglers’ Decline of the West he describes the progress of Western Civilization in three phases, 1.) Classical Greek or Appolinian , followed by 2.) Magian (the Abrahamic religions during medieval times, and 3.) a modern or Faustian modern culture exemplified by Goethe’s novels Faust and Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship. For the majority of the book he compares Appolinian to Faustian cultures, and in drama these two cultures are differentiated by the presence of the chorus in Appolinian plays and the absence of the chorus in Shakespeare’s dramas. From Decline of the West:

The Apollinian man regarded “home” in the genuinely corporeal sense as the ground on which his city was built — a conception that recalls the “unity of place” of Attic tragedy and statuary”

… by comparison the modern, Faustian man:

“an impalpable unity of nature, speech, climate, habits and history — not earth but “country” no point-like presence but historic past and future, not a unit made up of men houses and gods but an idea the idea that takes shape in the restless wanderings, the deep loneliness,

The exemplar of Faustian drama is Hamlet, in which Hamlet displays his internal conflict through soliloquy in a manner completely foreign to Thucydides. Spengler notes that as Hamlet was translated into German it was exceptionally popular, and in Wilhelm Meister’s Apprentice the excitement with which our friend Wilhelm adapts this fine play to his German audience is palpable. The Faustian man craves achievement, conquest, and solitude, whereas the Appolinian seeks harmony with the city-state and by extension approval of the chorus.

Other examples of the Faustian men are Michaelangelo who as a sculptor “imposed his will upon the marble”:

For Michelangelo marble was the foe to be subdued, the prison out of which he would deliver his idea as Siegfried delivered Brunhilde. Everyone knows his way of setting to work. He did not approach the rough block coolly from every aspect of the intended form, but attacked it with a passionate frontal attack, hewing into it as though into space, cutting away the material layer by layer and driving deeper and deeper until his form emerged, while the members slowly developed themselves out of the quarry.

Michaelangelo’s victory over stone is a victory of the living will over death itself.

Bob Parr of the Incredibles is Pixar’s Faustian man made manifest, his raison d’etre is not merely to raise a family and sell insurance, it is to be a guardian of his city and provide a role model family, the MOST INCREDIBLE family. When that position is taken from him he gives his own haphazard soliloquy to psyche himself up for battle, like Hamlet he attempts to work out his conflict for the audience. Mr. Incredible’s internal conflict is about the mismatching identity as the Superman, and the role assigned to him by society, house husband. Mrs Incredible has no such inner conflict. She accepts the superhero/breadwinner role with ease to the point that she forgets to even check up on her family as she is so caught up in her career. Left without a mission Mr. Incredible attempts to breathe some Faustian conflict into mundane tasks such as learning the new way they teach Math these days.

Villains as the dark mirror

Incredibles 2 begins in media res as the Underminer attacks central city. The Underminer, like Mr. Incredible has grand Faustian plans, for example digging tunnels UNDER EVERY BANK AND TAKE ALL THE MONEY. The Underminer is Bobs dark shadow in Jungian terms and provides the kind of incredible task Bob needs to validate his title. Both Bob and the Underminer want to impose their will on the world but the Underminer is the pure selfish Id to Bob Parr’s Superego. Like most Superheroes Mr. Incredible is Faustian in that he wants to impose his will on events but also Magian in that he has clear boundaries of right and wrong, and uses his will to maintain order and in a sense the status quo. Bob, in Faustian fashion, leaves his family for cleanup and perimeter patrol while he loudly confronts the super villain. In what may be a first, Bobs counterpart wins and actually achieves his grand scheme to at least steal a good chunk of central city’s massive treasury.

It is important to point out that the Underminer is never heard or seen again. Although his plan mostly succeeds, it is not the Underminer that ultimately defeats Mr. Incredible. It is bean counters, consultants, the city representatives explaining that Mr. Incredibles’ effort was unnecessary because the banks were insured and that Elastigirl’s approach was more successful on a Cost/Benefit Analysis. Beneath the thin veneer, this is the Appolinian city-state dragging the Faustian Mr. Incredible back to earth.

The Screenslavers manifesto both highlights the central conflict of the movie and offers a cultural critique, below:

The Screenslaver interrupts this program for an important announcement. Don’t bother watching the rest. Elastigirl doesn’t save the day; she only postpones her defeat. And while she postpones her defeat, you eat chips and watch her invert problems that you are too lazy to deal with. Superheroes are part of your brainless desire to replace true experience with simulation. You don’t talk, you watch talk shows. You don’t play games, you watch game shows. Travel, relationships, risk; every meaningful experience must be packaged and delivered to you to watch at a distance so that you can remain ever-sheltered, ever-passive, ever-ravenous consumers who can’t free themselves to rise from their couches, break a sweat, and participate in life. You want superheroes to protect you, and make yourselves ever more powerless in the process. While you tell yourselves you’re being “looked after”. That your interests are being served and your rights are being upheld. So that the system can keep stealing from you, smiling at you all the while. Go ahead, send your supers to stop me. Grab your snacks, watch your screens, and see what happens. You are no longer in control. I am.

There are two main critiques brought about here, the first superficial and the second speaking to a deeper substratum of the mythos. Superficially Screen Slaver (aka Evelyn Deavor, clever pun) is offering a cultural critique on the populace who do not perform real accomplishments but rather live vicariously through game shows and superheroes. It is hard to refute this, a recent leading Box office movie was a Spider-Man CARTOON, which is like the eight installment and third or fourth iteration in the last 16 years. Following that was Aquaman, the perennial punchline of an exhausted mythos. The cultural detritus of a bygone era has become the modern western, the dominant genre tentpoling the entire film industry. Even auteurs such as Ang Lee and Christopher Nolan have directed superhero movies. As goofy as the Incredibles sometimes is, the team here gives some thought to family dynamics, modern culture, dialogue. The average Marvel movies offers little of this by comparison, just a few monosyllabic utterances on freedom, something that translates easily to Chinese subtitles. Add a few three-point stance landings and deus ex machina and call it a day. That and the over-reliance on smartphones and the complete zombification of our society, people holding cell phones while riding bikes across the street (!). The Incredibles at no point even address this critique, and why would they?

But beyond this sleek manifesto is Evelyn’s conflict with her brother, which mirrors the tension between Mr Incredible and Elastigirl. The impetus behind their conflict is a differing view of the same event, the death of their parents. The Deavors were being robbed by evildoers when the father reached out using a superhero phone, whereas the mother wanted to go to the safe room. In reality, you would install the emergency phone in the safe room but that would not allow for the central conflict at play. Thus, Evelyn’s brother blames the banning of superheroes, of Faustian men writ large (consider the horrible treatment of men like Andrew Jackson and Christopher Columbus amongst liberal commentators, schools, movies), and by contrast Evelyn blames the existence of superheroes, or such Faustian men who dare to dream big, dig giant holes under Los Angeles or go to the moon. In Evelyn’s logic such great heroes invite their shadow counterparts.

More insidious is the admission, or is it something Brad Bird and company notice, that both the heroic and horrific events of the day are controlled by an ever-shrinking pool of oligarchic lever-pullers. The endorsement and boosting of heroes by the brother deavor and the nefarious manipulation by Screenslaver. The admission is this: that the first iteration of the screen slaver that Elastigirl defeats is a mere pizza boy. The powerful elite, via clever employment of a combination of selective and broadcast hypnotic powers, can trigger idealistic loners to commit acts of terror. It may not be as direct as Screen Slaver goggles but the probability of an angry loner picking up the terrorism messaging du jour (ISIS, White Nationalists, Black Lives Matter) and attacking the closest population center.

In the final battle Bobs Faustian vision is also manifest. His daughter, Violet has internalized her role as maternal protector and babysitter despite her leadership skills being strong enough to rescue her parents. When the cruise ship is veering to central city Bob again sets out alone to stop the engine, he confronts Krusher He knocks off Krushers hypnosis-Goggles and asks if Krusher can un-crush the pipes impeding the engine room. Krusher in a bit metaphysical humor asks if Mr Incredible can UN-punch someone. But, it is Violet who expressly has this ability as she shows in a defensive manner when battling Krusher and even specifically un-crushing a hole in the wall to release her parents from the hypnosis goggles. It is an Easter egg for parents, and likely feminists.

For Mr. Incredible the spectacle of saving the day in the most dramatic fashion trumps a Cost/Benefit analysis. This is a man that throws the anchor off a speeding boat in order jerry-rig a more complicated and impressive last second heroic act. As Michaelangelo did with Marble, Mr. Incredible confronts evil plots with a frontal attack.