High and Low Intensity Mythology in the Pop Mediascape - H. P. Lovecraft’s Case

Oct 7, 2026

Explores how myth persists and transforms within the contemporary pop mediascape, where literature, comics, film, TV series, and narrative video games continuously expand imaginative forms. The discussion centers on Peppino Ortoleva’s framework of high- and low-intensity myths, using cultural references and theoretical foundations to connect pop narratives with media studies and historical-religious approaches. It examines Neil Gaiman’s A Study in Emerald and the TV season of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina to introduce H. P. Lovecraft as a key reference for mythopoiesis and media religiosity.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages24

Reading Time37 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Stories and Mythology

High and Low Intensity Mythology

The Two Levels of Intensity

High and Low Intensity Mythology in the Pop Mediascape: H. P. Lovecraft’s Case Federico Palmieri Di Pietro Introduction This contribution considers a theme that calls into question the persistence of myth in the contemporary world. The contemporary pop mediascape 1 is characterized by a proliferation of contents and products that appeal to the imaginative dimension: literature, comics, movies, television series, and video games. This article presents Peppino Ortoleva’s myths of high and low intensity,2 which are greatly suited to account for this modern context. It will take into consideration the cultural references and the theoretical foundations on which his thought is based, connecting it with a broader dimension of media and historical-religious studies. From this point of view, there will be an examination of A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaimanand of the fourth season of the television series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, allowing us to introduce the figure, the work and the thought of H. P. Lovecraft, one of the most important pillars of the mythopoiesis of the twentieth century, who continues to be an inescapable reference point for the religiosity of media products and pop consumption with continuous reappropriation and reinterpretation. Stories and Mythology Stories have a great power to fascinate, to bewitch. As Jonathan Gottschall writes, we are much more like Peter Pan than we realize. We come out of our playroom because we have to work and take on adult responsibilities, Federico Palmieri Di Pietro is an independent scholar with a Master of Arts with Honours in Historical Sciences and Religious Studies from the Sapienza University of Rome. 1 Arjun Appadurai, ‘Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy’, Theory, Culture & Society, vol. 7, nos 2-3 (1990), pp. 298-299. 2 Peppino Ortoleva, Miti a bassa intensità: Racconti, media, vita quotidiana (Torino: Giulio Einaudi Editore, 2019) . High and Low Intensity Mythology yet we only change the manner by continuing to practice fiction: “Novels, dreams, films, and fantasies are provinces of Neverland.”3 We must grapple with the great narratives on which historical religions are based, which have been one of the cornerstones of the culture of Western civilization, as well as urban legends or prosaic stories of everyday life. In addition, we consider the visual or interactive storytelling that characterizes video games that are increasingly narrative in nature, not to mention the image that we build of ourselves on social networks. Producing stories is a sort of categorical imperative of humankind and we consume them every moment of our lives in a direct or indirect way: we are immersed up to our necks. John Boorman, director of the famous film Excalibur (1981), explains perfectly the yearning for storytelling: I have a theory about a good story. We know it already, we’ve heard it a thousand times, but it holds us, we listen, we want to know what happens next. Why? I think we’re hearing echoes of some deep pattern of early happenings in the human race that is now being repeated. Listen carefully to the echoes of myth. It has much more to tell us than the petty lies and insignificant truths of recorded history.4 In Miti a bassa intensità (‘Myths at low intensity’), Peppino Ortoleva offers a compass to orient oneself in what he calls the nebula of the mythical universe; that is, the way in which stories are articulated, thickened and rarefied within the consumer system. Myth can be defined as a tale, a story: “All of the theories considered in this book deem myth a story […] Theories that read myth symbolically rather than literally still take the subject matter, or the meaning, to be the unfolding of a story.”5 Mythology, Plato tells us, (through the locutions mythologia, mythous légein, and mythologein) is a genre of poiésis whose subject is tales about gods, divine beings, heroes, and descents into the afterlife. In fact, in the

FAQs

What does the article argue about myth in the contemporary world?

It argues that myth persists by constantly reappearing in modern pop media through stories and products that appeal to imagination.

What framework does the article use to analyze myths?

It relies on Peppino Ortoleva’s distinction between high- and low-intensity myths and the way stories are articulated within the consumer system.

How are examples from pop culture used in the analysis of Lovecraft?

The text examines works including Neil Gaiman’s A Study in Emerald and a season of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina to introduce H. P. Lovecraft and relate him to ongoing mythopoiesis in media consumption.

Oct 7, 2026

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