Roland Barthes writes about the
importance of myth for every society in establishing different levels of
meaning. Popular culture routinely relies on cultural myths as a short–cut to
reaching audiences quickly. In the movies, for example, we instantly recognize
the underdog fighting the organizational giant, the poor kid who will rise to
the top, and the corrupt lawman that will be defeated by morality.
A few years, back while travelling up
British Columbia’s sunshine coast, I asked my self how Roland Barthes would decode
the role of Relic (Robert Clothier) on CBC's long running series, the Beachcombers?
Pan searing pacific halibut while camping in beautiful British Columbia and contemplating a Barthesian analysis of "The Beachcombers". |
Throughout the series Relic is treated
as a scoundrel (signified) his actions and also his attire are the signifier to
his role as villain. Relic cruises up and down the coast gathering logs in a
small but speedy craft designed to race the erstwhile hero character, Nick
Adonidas, in his prodding vessel the Persephone. So while Adonidas putted along
in his tug, named after the Greek goddess of vegetation, Relic raced ahead and
combed the beaches for logs in his nameless craft. All of these add up to the
sign that Nick is the hero and Relic is the Villain. Nick is steady and stable
like his boat and his friendship with his first nations sidekick Jesse, while
Relic is crafty, raving, scrawny, speedy and solitary. The nameless craft represents Relic's personality, swift and anonymous. Like his name he does not really belong here but to another time or place or world or culture.
Each week we are introduced to a
greater villain that comes either on the run from the law, represented by John
Constable the village’s RCMP officer caught between Dudley Dooright and Benton
Fraser, or smuggling drugs along the B.C. coastline.
The signifiers of Relic's character are
often betrayed in the TV show however when these new villains are right about
to make off with the loot. In the nick of time Relic shows up and teams up with
Adonidas to defeat the weekly carousel of criminals often for some financial
benefit. Perhaps Barthes would show that this is a new sign. Relic who has been
signified as the classic villain, having all the villainous traits betrays his
own nature showing Canadians that even the most contemptible among us have the
capacity in us to do good or maybe the myth becomes that good is inerrant to
Canadians.