Aliens, or Angels? Who Knows?

English: "The Snake in the Grass or
Satan Transform'd to an Angel
 of Light." At the sides are a
 Puritan and a Covenanter above an
author writing. Courtesy of the
 British Museum.
 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yeah, I'm playing catch up again.  I really intended to post every day while I was off school, but after working so hard on my critical analysis draft, I was feeling pretty self-indulgent.  Anyway, this morning I realized it was Thursday, and now I'm kicking myself (also again).
I think my draft was okay, although my thesis was not.  I went with:  The information revealed about Quill's father in Guardians of the Galaxy adds up to him being an angel rather than just another nonhuman.  I don't think I really made that point.

I had to make a list of everything that is said about him in the film, and in the draft I basically used the list, except for the material that was in my scene.  The point of this was to include the info without saying too much about all of the other scenes, because I didn't want to give the impression that I was analyzing those scenes (something forbidden in the instructions).  I'll find out if this is a problem at my conference with the prof next Monday, when I also hope to get some help with my thesis.

Related articles (some of which are very strange)

• Why Seeing Lights is a Sign from Your Angels (higherdensity.wordpress.com)
• [Flash Sale] the Ultimate Angel Messages book ... (angelladytm.wordpress.com)
• The Sirius Transmission and the Multi-Dimensional Light Body Upgrade : Star Seed Transmissions 2015 | Starchild Global with Ceila Fenn (foreverunlimited.wordpress.com)
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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.  

Related articles

• Book Review: Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief (grimorde.com)
• The Heroes Journey and Monomythology (martinabrajkovic.wordpress.com)
• A little Greek Mythology.... (francalanger.wordpress.com)
• Hero's and Villain's Journeys (zachsurace.wordpress.com)

Myth Crit-- I Think I Get It

Hero's Journey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I just read the handout on myth criticism (it's on our Blackboard page now, guys), and so I thought this would be a good time to do my next posting, which is supposed to be me explaining my critical model.  Here goes nothing.

Myth criticism is centered around patterns of elements in stories (or poetry, or any kind of art) that are also found in myths.  After reading through the quest structure, it seems pretty obvious to me that this model makes a lot of sense, in that you really can see the quest turning up everywhere.  And, the quest is the hero's journey, right?  So, it's also easy to see how the hero archetype works.  And right there I'm thinking that I now have enough to go on to another posting, because it looks like my first thoughts about LOTR might work okay for this approach.

Related articles

• IF: Myth and the Hero Cycle (artandtheeveryday.wordpress.com)
• Words for a Wednesday, November 28, 2012: Myth, Magic and Mystery (onthewingsofthehummingbird.com)
• The Hero's Journey - A Lesson in Writing Myths (freetech4teachers.com)

Face to Face on my Horrible Draft

English: South facade of the Temple of Artemis seen from the South Theatre in Jerash, Jordan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A couple of days after the peer review on my critical analysis draft, I read it again.  Suddenly, it was horrible.  I don't know how this happened.  So, I went to my conference with Dr. Toffee last week under a cloud of angst.  It wasn't too bad.  She suggested a few tweaks for my thesis statement, and -- for once -- I saw what was wasn't working in the way I had put it.  She liked my explanation of my critical model, especially the parts about Artemis and Atalanta; I was kind of nervous about that, so it was a relief for me.  The analysis has to be reorganized some.  I need to put in a few references to other scenes from The Hunger Games to show that it's not just in the scene I'm focusing on that Katniss is following the archetypes.

All in all, it went okay.  I guess the draft wasn't as horrible as I thought.

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Hit or Myth?

Atalanta and Maleagar
(Jacob Jordaens)

Dr. Toffee has The Hunger Games in the Women's Studies category, but I've decided to use a myth criticism approach.  The way I understand it, I can discuss the characters and setting as archetypes and the scene I select as to where it fits into the pattern of the hero's journey.  What's interesting to me about this has to do with there being few archetypes of female heroes, which means I'm going to have to figure out which one of the male archetypes she fits.  And, since I have to talk about that male to female transformation (for lack of a better word), I'll be generating material for the paper right there!  It's a win-win choice.

Related articles

• THE HUNGER GAMES Animated Parody - The Slender Games
• Heros and Quests: equipping you for success - part 1
• 12 Archetypes by Jung
• H-Team ~ Archetypes - A Basic Understanding
• Master stories - harnessing the power of myth