The World is like a Writer Suffering From a Severe Case of Writer's Block...But that's okay.

So my memory is pretty bad. The things that I remember about my own life are some of the most useless memories one can have but its worked for me so far...But I totally don't remember watching Star Wars for the first time. I mean, I'm sure young me was excited about it or something but who knows.

I remember being forced to watch Lord of the Rings and I was not there for that. I was very anti-movies when my family wanted to show me something. I was a jerk as a kid.

Anyway, watching Star Wars for this class was kinda like watching it for the first time. I hadn't remembered anything and so it was actually like a brand new movie. I felt like I was meeting new characters and watching something innovative even though I knew the plot and exactly what was going to happen.This is where I got to thinking about Joseph Campbell's quest narrative study.

Its hard to not get peeved at the idea of there being one entertaining story that only had the most minute changes made to it and then it's sold to us. But, and this is me completely disregarded the subconscious blah blah, wasn't this narrative new to us at some point? When you're reading a book as a kid you don't have the library of knowledge as when you're an adult and so each story is different. Even if it is a quest narrative that checks off all of the requirements you really aren't going to know that until you've read other things. You're sitting there thinking it's the most amazing thing in the world and that no one has ever (or can ever) write something like that again. Tons of people probably never bother to see that many T.V shows they watch, movies, and books are quite similar. And I don't think that its a bad thing.

I really don't think acknowledging that there is a rhythm, pattern, system, whatever detracts from the initial experience at all. I don't think that it shows a lack of creativity or innovation because it isn't readily apparent. I also think that time will really tell if Campbell's idea is true. It can be true for now and for much of the past but there is still a universe of uncharted territory in story telling. With new technology like the internet new narratives are being created every second and that is astounding. So don't be so down! There is a new story out there waiting to be written in GIF format! GET PUMPED TO WITNESS A NEW KINDA STAR WARS!!!! YEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Star Wars, Campbell, Buddha, and The Wise Man's Fear

Rewatching Star Wars was a really enjoyable experience for me. It had been a while since I had last watched it and it was one of my favorite movies as a child. While I may not have seen the movie as much, I loved the other products it produced especially the amazing video games (Star Wars: Rogue Squadron being an absolutely amazing game and a sin on the video game industry for not reviving it) This is one thing I feel Star Wars was incredibly successful at doing. They make consistently great content beyond just the movies. As a gamer, videogames mean a lot to me and Star Wars, is one of the few movie properties, that was able to make multiple videogames, in multiple genres with some success.
 First Person Shooters(Jedi Outcast)

 Third Person Shooters (Battlefront)

Those ATATs? Yeah you can get in them

Ship Combat (Rogue Squadron)

 RPGs ( Knights of the Old Republic)

Racing (Podracer)

 There was even a Dance game that was made of it...

 whether its good or not depends on your sense of humor and how you feel about Vader and the Emperor having a dance-off but the mechanics were decent at least (admittedly completely ripped off)

Star Wars used a very classic narrative, the Heroes Journey, but I feel that so much of its success came, not even from the narrative, but from the compelling worlds and characters it created. It made a world you wanted visit, and a world that could be visited from some many different angles from action adventure, to resolving all the problems in the world through dance and it still holds up as a cohesive whole.


On a slightly unrelated note
Warning: Comparing Campbell to non-class Book read at your own risk
One thing that really struck me while reading Campbell was his description of Buddha and his interaction with the tree and how that fit into the Heroes Journey, as the resurrection of the bringing back of the boon. The thing that really struck me about it was that almost an inverse of that same event occurred in one current favorite books The Wise Man's Fear. In the book the main character, after entering the world of the Fae. He has certain... "encounters" in it, but eventually he goes exploring. In his explorations he comes upon a tree and talks to it. And the tree reveals many things that disturb and discomfort him. Later we find out that the tree houses a being that is evil and malevolent known as the Cthaeh. And this being knows everything, including all futures. Because of its knowledge it is able to know what words to say to cause the most devastation and destruction to the world. It is held as responsible for some of the worst tragedies in the world.
 I can not say for sure, but it seems likely that the author intentionally modeled the scene and the character after this idea. Both characters are all knowing, both represent truth, to get to both of them requires difficulties, struggle and going into an entirely different world. And both bring back something to the human world, that has the potential to change the world as it changed the hero. The only difference is in the heroic journey the change is positive, good wins out in the end. And in this story the change is decidedly the opposite

Is the Dark Side Misunderstood?

            So I had mixed feelings about Campbell’s supposition of the Monomyth. I am always a little wary of texts that start with Freud (and or Jung) but this is probably the first time I that their theories have been applied in a way that even resembled sense. For the most part Campbell’s argument seems to follow logical steps from his base and that follow the evidence he points out. Unless I have read this wrong, he asserts that the Monomyth is essentially, and this is an over-simplification, a result (and vital part) of basic human psychology. I can argue the foundation but the better part of structure built on top of it appears sturdy enough. The very end of his argument, however, seems to have something really out of joint.

The last section in the chapter we read is on The World Navel. He discusses the point where the good material from the subconscious come (through the hero) into the waking world; “the hero as the incarnation of God is himself the navel of the world, the umbilical point through which the energies of eternity break into time” (41). So far I follow. This is what the hero must be if he is bringing that knowledge back. Campbell’s following statement does not seem to fit; “the World Navel, then, is ubiquitous. And sense it is the source of all existence, it yields the world’s plentitude of good and evil” (44), and further “Virtue is but the pedagogical prelude to the culminating insight, which goes beyond all pairs of opposites” (44). He follows these statements with the tale of Edshu and his multi-colored hat. Maybe this fits with the argument of insight that came before, but the hero of the Monomyth cannot possibly be as ambiguous as Campbell seems to be saying. Is not the hero saving people from their miss-development that leads to tyranny? So that at least has to actually be evil.

I just finished watching Star Wars and one of the things that stood out to me this time round was just how stark the division between the two sides are. Even Han, as the rough kind of hero, does in fact have to pick whether to side with the Rebels or leave with his reward, which is really an indirect way to side with the Empire. Luke even says that he hates the Empire, a comment that Obi-Wan seems to have no quam with. What’s more, Obi-Wan guides Luke to completely obliterate the Death Star. From what Campbell seems to be saying, the hero should come to something of a higher understanding from which he sees all sides, because none is actually evil. Perhaps I am completely missing what Campbell is saying but best I can tell that never plays out in any Monomyth I am familiar with. The Dark Side always remains so.

Oh and I thought this too. I see some similarities…

Helm's Deep
(http://staticmass.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/towers_5.jpg)
The Falcon
(http://www.coronasquadron.com/wallpics/s-flcn-str.JPG)