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)
• Angelic protectors..... (wepresson.wordpress.com)

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.    

Related articles

• Paper wine bottle to go on sale in US (thedrinksbusiness.com)
• Chill Wine Like A Pro (wine.answers.com)
• No really, They're Making Wine For Cats (ktla.com)
• How much wine do you need for a party? (grapeadventure.wordpress.com)

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).

Related articles

• Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief (reelryan.com)
• 'I am a storyteller, not preacher' (thehindu.com)
• Daily Mythological Creatures: Arion (devenluca.wordpress.com)
• norse mythology (mythology123456789.wordpress.com)
• A Post-panofkian View of Mythological Painting in the Xxi Century (taboofart.com)
• Women of Celtic Mythology (multimediaauthoring2.wordpress.com)

A Whole Bunch o' Heroes

Cover of Jason and the Argonauts

When I was reading the first page in the assignment packet about our research options, I got an idea from the very short explanation of myth criticism:  "Films and other works of art draw on patterns established in cultural myths."  I read down to the list of films we can use, and the one I was thinking of (The Fellowship of the Ring) was there.  My idea was that one of the myth patterns in this film is (and this is really hard to state clearly, so bear with me) a group of heroes goes on a quest together.  This came to me because when I read the statement about myth crit, I immediately thought of a few myths, one of which was the story of Jason and the Argonauts (I saw a movie of that when I was little, and it stuck with me because the army of skeletons gave me nightmares for a long time).  I also remember an episode of Hercules (the tv show), where he went to see Jason and the rest of the Argonauts.   

I want to talk to the prof about this some, just in case I'm totally on the wrong track, so I guess I'm getting up early tomorrow to make it to her office hours.