Missing work...

Vogler #4
This section was about the ordinary world. Vogler said that most stories take place in "special worlds". Therefore, the ordinary world is where the hero starts out before he crosses the border from one world to another. It also makest he special world seem more special. Vogler also talks about the call to adventure. This is what actually causes the hero to start his journey; it is usually issued by the herald.
I don't think the ordinary world is too necessary because nowadays, many stories take place in the original ordinary world. I do feel however, that the call to adventure is in just about every story. A story would be completely boring if the hero just continued to do what he had started out doing the entire duration of the plot. For example, if Cinderella had just decided to continue being a slave to her family the entire time, the story would have been extremely boring, not to mention depressing.
I think in day to day life, people see a call to adventure. It can come in the form of a phone call from a friend to go do something, or an assignment on a syllabus. Every day a call to adventure beckons someone to do something out of the ordinary.
Questions
1. Have you been called to adventure lately?
2. Have you transcended from the ordinary world to a special world?

Vogler #5
These sections were about the refusal of the call and the meeting with the mentor. The refusal of the call is how the hero usually reacts to the call to adventure; he usually refuses it. A hero doesn't always have to refuse the call, but may hesitate. The next section was about the meeting of the mentor, in this section the hero may gain supplies or advice from a mentor figure to help him on the way.
I don't like the refusal of the call section because Vogler even says that the hero doesn't necessarily refuse the call. I think it would be more properly named hesitation, or maybe the two sections can be combined into "preparing for the journey". The meeting with the mentor is important because a hero can't just go from zero to 60, he must prepare himself.
In everyday life I refuse calls all the time. I choose to not answer a phone call, not go out, and obviously not do an assignment from time to time. Every time I answer the call, however, I must "meet with my mentor" aka prepare for the journey. For example I go to the ATM to get money, find my car keys, or find my computer to start work.
Questions
1. Have you ever refused a call to adventure?
2. What mentors have prepared you for your journeys?

Extra Credit

EC 1: free rice

I donated the 1000 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program by answering vocab questions correctly. I learned I can "volunteer" without even getting off the couch!

EC2: 6 word memoir

Just riding the chaos every day.

This one was interesting because it is a lot harder than it seems to summarize your life in just six words. I think my six describe me pretty well though.

EC3: StoryCorps

I listened to the one about the old lady with the blow up bra. It really was funny. I expected it to be about an exploding bra, so I was a little let down when I found out she meant blow up more like inflatable... still funny though.

EC4: 1000000 monkeys

This was very confusing, I couldn't figure out how to start a story... I did try though and read some good ones. The choose your own adventure was fun!

EC5: The web of language

Article This is an article saying that in England, a university has made a Masters Degree in Facebook and Twitter. This just seems absolutely ridiculous to me! Maybe a class makes sense, but this university is offering a Masters!

EC6: Random acts of kindness

I read a story where a little girl befriended a lonely little girl at a carnival, making her day better. She's starting random acts of kindness at an early age!

My act of kindness was to make a lunch for my roommate after she had a hard day at work :)

EC7: YouTube

A song called Rock and Roll McDonalds it tells the viewer how it will make them fat. This kind of seemed like brainwashing!

This is a clip from Supersize me. Its the food test clip. This shows what it does to you over time vs food from regular restaurants. The McDonalds food doesn't seem to age!

This is called the Fast Food Song. I just thought it was funny!

EC8: Organization

The Mayo Clinic is trying to prevent childhood obesity through educating the public on ways to prevent it as well as do something about it. Basically children these days don't exercise enough, eat more, and the food that is eaten is unhealthy. Kids need to get out more and avoid junk/fast food.

EC9: email

I emailed Dr C-E Floodmark asking whether he could find any hard evidence to support the correlation between childhood obesity and fast food.

EC10/11: Get out of jail free/attendance

N/A

Toni Morrison Annotation

Summary: The interview was between writer Toni Morrison and Charlie Rose. In the interview, they discussed some of Toni's books, including her new one, Love. Aside from discussing the books, the two also spoke about Toni's philosophies on how she does her writing, projects she's working on now, and different aspects of her life.

Reaction: I had no idea that Toni Morrison was such an accomplished woman, she's a professor at princeton, has won all sorts of awards for literature, and on top of all that, she's extremely humble. I really liked how attached she gets to her characters when she's writing and how she describes herself like an actress when she gets into their heads.

Reflection: I don't really plan on becoming an author or anything but as I said earlier I liked how Toni Morrison says she's like an actress when she writes. If I ever have to write something involving characters I think that mentality would be very helpful.

Simpson's Critique

Summary: This critique showed how the television series, The Simpsons, related to the consumerism of the american culture. For instance, Marge was the stereotypical housewife, Homer was males personified, Lisa was reason, and Bart was the child who won't succeed.

Reaction: I definitely felt that this piece had good points. I did feel, however, that they were not well developed; when the writer used an example to support what he said, it was not thoroughly explained; I could make some connections because I know what happened in most episodes, but for someone who hasn't seen the show it was not explained well. What's more, I got annoyed with how repetitive it was.

Reflection: I have watched The Simpsons many times and now when I watch it I'm going to notice the stereotypical roles each member of the family plays. I see these roles in other programs as well; Peter from Family Guy resembles Homer, Lois resembles Marge, Chris and Meg resemble Bart and Lisa, and Stewie somewhat resembles Maggie.

The Bell Jar

There are different kinds of crazy:
Gnarls Barkley's Crazy


Love isn't as easy as many stories make it out to be:
Bon Jovi's You Give Love a Bad Name


Asylums of the past may not have been as helpful as they appeared to be:

"This is like a whole other part of humanity that's very disturbing. I can't believe people were institutionalized for having a temper tantrum. It's unsettling to think that because of their lack of knowledge in the field of psychiatric disabilities, they locked these people up for the rest of their lives."

Suitcases from an insane asylum tell of lives long lost

The other sex

Vogler- 03.02.09

The first section was going into detail about the refusal of the call. Vogler goes into detail about different ways the call may be refused as well as some of the consequences. A hero may avoid the call, make up excuses, receive conflicting calls, or actively set out looking for a call. If a hero refuses a call multiple times, tragedy usually follows. Next Voger talks about the meeting with the mentor. This section goes into detail about the variety of functions and faces mentors have in a story. What they all have in common is they teach a hero a lesson, either directly or indirectly, and help the hero get going with the journey.

In the refusal of the call section the only two that I didn't necessarily agree with were the positive refusal and artist as a hero. I think if a character never actually accepts the call, then they never really go on the journey. The artist as a hero is really a stretch to me. I think it's important to have a wide variety of mentors because if not, every story would be extremely predictable. This is why I appreciate the mentor-hero conflicts and misdirection methods of mentors.

In my own personal experience I either actively seek out my own adventure, or if the call is less inviting I'm definitely the type that just tries to avoid the call. I've experienced most of the mentor-hero interactions, but the two that come about most often in my life are mentor-hero conflicts and the mentor as evolved hero.

Revision Plan

My two strengths are that I have a good topic because it's easy for me to write about, and also that my first part is pretty good because it's descriptive.

I need to work on making it flow by transitioning between paragraphs better, and I also need to make it all relate better by adding more details in my later paragraphs.

Vogler 3

This section explains the psychological and dramatic functions of each of the remaining archetypes—the threshold guardian, the herald, the shapeshifter, the shadow, the ally, and the trickster. The threshold guardian embodies the external, physical obstacles and the internal psychological obstacles a hero must face. A threshold guardian’s dramatic function is to test the hero, which in many cases actually aids the hero. A herald brings the message of a need for change, which in turn motivates the hero to get on with the adventure. Characters have the shapeshifting quality to maintain an internal balance; this archetype brings suspense and doubt to a story. The shadow represents repressed feelings and brings drama to the story. There are many different types of allies, but they all in some way or another humanize heroes and add extra dimensions to their personalities. Finally, a trickster’s main functions are to put things in perspective and many times provide comic relief.

            I liked that in this section Vogler didn’t just rely on examples from film to support his points; this time he used circumstances that really happened in history or that regularly occur in everyday life. For example when explaining how the threshold guardian tests a hero, he uses a scenario where an individual makes a positive change in himself or herself but others resist. This tests the hero’s resolve, resulting in making the hero stronger. I like this example because I can imagine myself as that ordinary person in an everyday situation instead of trying to imagine myself in an alternate world or as someone with extraordinary talents.

            I liked how in this section I could easily find each archetype in my own life. I see threshold guardians and heralds in my day-to-day challenges, the herald alerts me of my challenge that is brought to me by my threshold guardian. Perhaps a syllabus acts as herald informing me of what homework I must do, while the work involved in doing the homework acts as my threshold guardian. People change with regards to their personalities and moods all the time, in these people I see a shapeshifter. Luckily I don’t often see the shadow archetype in my daily life, but I have definitely “taken over by the shadow” and done things that I later doubted or felt guilty about. Lastly, my friends are of course my allies, and in them I also see traits of a trickster.

 

Q1: How can you relate these archetypes to people in your own life?

Q2: How do these traits feed off of one another?

Vogler 2

These sections explained what archetypes are and described two major archetypes: the hero and the mentor. According to Vogler an archetype is not definite and attached to one character, instead it is only a temporary function that is performed by one of the characters to move the story along. Vogler goes on to describe the archetypes of the hero and the mentor with respect to each one's psychological function and dramatic function in a story. A hero's psychological function is the ego and the psychological task is to find wholeness through integrating all the different archetypes parts and finally becoming the self (this is what the mentor embodies). The hero's dramatic functions are providing a window into the story, learning, giving action to the story, and performing some act of sacrifice (the hero embodies self-sacrifice). As I said before, the mentor is the self personified, this means that he is a whole person that has probably gone through the hero's journey to reach this completeness. A mentor's dramatic function is to teach, protect, and give heroes gifts (whether material things, advice, a conscience, etc.).

Once again I felt like Vogler wasn't specific enough because his definitions of mentor and hero are so vague. He explains each one's archetype well and specifically; then, within the explanation of the archetype, he includes too many different types. For example there is the Hero archetype, the hero can either be willing or unwilling, inside of those types are different kinds of willing and unwilling heroes (anti-hero, loner hero, etc.). To me, the mentor archetype is even more vague. First, there is the overall mentor archetype. Next, inside the archetype are varying types of mentors such as: mentor as a teacher, a gift giver, a conscience, a sexual initiator, a fallen mentor, a comic mentor, etc. I think there are way to many, and that once again the author uses all the types to cover his ass so that he is right instead of making the readers/analyzers bend the definition and make the connection themselves. I do, however, like how he explains the archetypes as masks. The archetypes are not specific to each character but instead to each role that the characters play. He says that this can produce hybrids such as the hero-trickster; I agree with this because, with more complex characters, one archetype couldn't define their function to the story.

While reading this I began to notice that the author has a valid point when he writes about the archetypal figures of fairy tales (the wolf, hunter, stepmother, etc.); I can see that there are definitely stereotypical people put into the different archetypes. He says that there are now more modern archetypes like "Whore with the Heart of Gold" and "Arrogant West Point Lieutenant". I think the setting is modern, but the archetypes are still the same; the "Whore with the Heart of Gold" is just like Cinderella if you take away the job title. I've really started to realize that many of the new movies I see are the same plots and characters as stories from hundreds of years ago, just with different names and locations.

Questions:

1. Because the mentor is the Self (contains all parts) can it be a hybrid with another archetype?

2. Since the archetypes are like masks, can the characters "wear" both at one time?

Vogler

This section of The Writer's Journey talks about the format  of most books and just stories in general: the hero's journey. The journey consists of three different acts: separation, descent and initiation, and return. Within those three acts are a total of 12 stages: 1) ordinary world, 2) call to adventure, 3) refusal of the call, 4) meeting with the mentor, 5) crossing the first threshold, 6) tests, allies, enemies, 7) approach to the innermost cave, 8) ordeal, 9) reward, 10) the road back, 11) resurrection, and 12) return with the elixir. The author goes on to explain each stage and gives examples from films. He admits that not every story contains all the stages and that these stages don't necessarily have to occur in a particular order.

I really liked how the author seems to try to fit everyone's taste. For example in his examples he incorporates a variety of types of movies; they range from comedies such as Beverly Hills Cop to classics such as An Officer And A Gentleman. The wide range makes his argument more believable to me because it can apply to any circumstance. On the other hand the stages are pretty vague and by saying not all of them need to be used or need to be in a particular order lets him off the hook and makes me less impressed.

The only way I could really think of applying the author's ideas was to think about them in relation to all the movies I have seen recently. I realized that most of the ones I thought of as really bad were the ones that lacked more of Vogler's stages. What's more, the ones I regard as good contained more, though I found them in different orders. After reading this, many movies and stories are kind of ruined for me, they now seem a lot less original. On the other hand, I'm now more impressed with the writers and directors who can make a movie or story seem so different.

1. How does his setup differ from Campbell's?

2. Does this just work for fiction or for all types of writing (analytic and persuasive for example)?

My Childhood Hero

My childhood hero was Doug Funnie from the cartoon series Doug. My favorite quality of his was a wildly overactive imagination. Whenever Doug went off into his daydreams he would become an older, cooler, alter ego of himself like Quailman the superhero, Smash Adams the secret agent or Race Canyon the Indiana Jones-like hero. I'm similar to this character because I am extremely clumsy which, like Doug, has always gotten me into sticky situations. Along with teaching viewers an assortment of morals, Doug inspires his audience to expand their imagination through writing and art. I'm not going to lie, I definitely tried to start a journal because he made it look like so much fun.

Doug's first episode