What's in a Title?

Old bottles of wine aging by candle light
 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The mouse is dead!  A good thing, too, because I was starting to think that Rebbie needed her eyes (or maybe her mind) examined.  Anyway, I'm still revising my research paper, and I finally came up with a title that I like.  Dr. Toffee wants us to try to use what she calls a "double-barrelled" title, which just means a title with a subtitle, divided by a colon.  And, I guess she's right, because all of the articles I've looked at for my project have that kind of title. 

I was home for dinner last night, for once, and the 'rents were asking me about how my classes were going.  I never know how to answer that in a way that won't have them giving me advice or a lecture (you know what I mean!).  I didn't even mention geology, because that would have brought on the lecture for sure, but I talked about my PJ1 paper to distract them, since that seems to be going okay.  When I explained what it was about, they were both interested, and we talked about neo-mythology until we were done eating.  One of the things my dad said gave me an idea.  He said, "so, it's like new wine in old bottles, isn't it?"  I'd never heard that expression before, but in a way, he's right.  The filmmakers aren't using their old bottles (existing mythology/folklore) to trick the audience, but it is kind of a selling point just the same. 

And, that's why I've decided to call my paper "New Wine in Old Bottles:  Neo-Mythology and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief."  I like it.    

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The Last Neo-Mythology Characteristics

English: This image outlines the basic path of the monomyth, or "Hero's Journey". (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I've been so busy (and grossed out over the mouse, which is still missing) that I almost forgot to finish my model explanation.  So, the third characteristic is that the story using existing mythology is new:  new plot, new hero(es).  This is sort of self-explanatory, isn't it?  Some films that fit into this category have more new aspects than others, but I'm not going to rule any out on this basis. 
The fourth requirement is that the setting must be at least partly in the current reality.  Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief  has Mt. Olympus at the top of the Empire State Building and the entrance to Hades via the Hollywood sign, both of which are instantly recognizable to most people on the planet, I would guess.  Of course, this definitely rules out Tolkein, but I think that's very reasonable.  Yes, it's a new (20th century) mythology, but as for genre, it's traditional fantasy.
And lastly, number 5 is that it must be a quest.  I'd almost have to say that this would rule out the Twilight movies, since I can't see anything like a hero's journey (I can't even see a hero!) in them, but I don't want to argue about it, so if anybody wants to take it on, they're getting a free pass from me.
And that's that.  

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Two Demigods and a Satyr Walk into Medusa's Lair . . .

Perseus with the head of Medusa,
by Antonio Canova, completed 1801
 (Vatican Museums)
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Starting with number 1 from the list in my last post, it should be obvious to those who have seen the film or read the book that Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief  is based on already existing Greek mythology:  he's the son of Poseidon, his real first name is Perseus (the original Perseus's father was Zeus, but that's another myth), and he is destined to be a hero.  The second requirement is also obvious, because as the film goes on Percy encounters all kinds of elements, fighting mythological monsters like the Minotaur, Medusa, and a hydra, meeting Chiron, visiting the land of the lotus eaters, and so on, but these, except for Chiron, whose role in the myths was as the mentor/trainer of demigods, are all serving different functions in this story than they did in the Greek myths.

And that's just for starters.  There's more to come.

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At Long Last, NEO-MYTHOLOGY Is Here!

English: Various mythos. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I'm taking a break from working on my research paper draft (it's due on Thursday, sigh) because I need one and because I've finally got my critical model in a finished state, or so I hope.  It works not just for Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief but also for a bunch of other films.  So, here are the defining characteristics of the Neo-Mythology genre:
1.  The film (or book, too, I guess) is based on already existing mythology and/or folklore.
2.  It uses elements (characters, plot points, etc.) from that mythology/folklore for other than their original purposes.
3.  It creates a new story out of that material.
4.  It is set in a hidden reality that secretly co-exists with the known current reality.
5.  It is in the form of a quest.

I'll discuss these in my next post (since I've met the required 100-word length already).

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Falling Behind in Mythic Fashion

And I Was There (Photo credit: Brave Heart)

Yeah, I'm behind again.  I've turned in my annotated bibliography, and I'm revising my literature review.  For now, I'd like to talk about one of the books I'm using.  It's Rick Altman's Film/Genre, and it's pretty much invaluable for my project, mainly because he covers all of the issues about genre criticism as an approach.  He's apparently an expert on musicals but writes on other genres as well, including sword and sorcery, but he doesn't say anything about sword and sandal, biblical, or pepla.  I've gotten some good material, and the way he talks about specific films has given me a feel for how to use this approach on PJ1.

Altman, Rick.  Film/Genre.  London: BFI, 1999.  Print.

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Prewriting the Critical Analysis Paper

Rue pointing at the trackerjacker
nest.

I'm supposed to write about the prewriting for my paper on the scene from The Hunger Games.  As I understand it, I need to prewrite two sections:  the explanation of my critical approach (myth criticism), and the analysis of the scene (the one where Rue dies).  I started with the explanation, because I thought that would be the tougher part, and I was right.  When I got to the analysis, I had to keep going back to the explanation because I remembered something I left out.

When I prewrite, I usually just brainstorm, but sometimes I'll start writing a paragraph or two because I have an idea how to handle it, which means that it looks pretty strange.  This is what works for me, though, so I'm going to keep on doing it that way.  The things I came up with for the explanation were:  Road of Trials, death of the mentor (yes, Rue is a mentor, if only for a short time, and this is one of the things that came to me when I was working on the analysis), hero archetypes, the goddess Artemis, Atalanta, virgins in Greek mythology, tricks in mythology, monsters (I think Cato is a monster in a way, kind of like the Minotaur).  There was more that I got rid of.

With the analysis, I had the following, plus a couple paragraphs in the middle that I'm leaving out here:  explain plan to destroy food, Katniss as hero, Katniss as Artemis/Atalanta, Rue as mentor (signals with mockingjays), shooting the apples (Atalanta?), attack/instant retribution, Rue dies - last words, song, flowers, salute (I really want to mention the explanation of this from the book, but I guess I can't), grieving.

I'll bet a lot of that doesn't make sense to anybody but me, but that's what I've got for now, and I may have a thesis already.  On to the draft.

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Picking a Scene

Artemis statue in Louvre, Paris, France
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I left my Norton Field Guide in Reb's car, so I'm going to talk about my proposal this time instead of the reading (I'll get to it.  Really.).  Okay, so I'm proposing using a myth criticism approach to The Hunger Games, and I'm going to focus on determining what kind of hero (or heroine) Katniss is.  I've been having trouble picking a scene for the project, and I really wish I could analyze two scenes, because she has a lot of different qualities.  She's self-sacrificing, above everything else, angry, clever -- but not about people, and she's a survivor.  This may sound weird, but I think she really fits the pattern of the Greek goddess Artemis, who is known as the Huntress.  I'll talk more about this next week, but for now, I am stuck on finding a scene, and I think I'm going to have to watch the film again.

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