Greg Dwyre
Annotated bib
Vogler, Christopher, and Michele Montez. The Writer's Journey : Mythic Structure for
Writers. Boston: Michael Wiese Productions, 2007. 83-105.
During this section Volger talks about the start of the heroes journey. This includes
describing life before the adventure starts, and what causes the hero to go on the
adventure. He talks about how all stories need a hook to take the reader in and keep
their attention. I agree with him about how the beginning is one of the more important
parts of the story and that if you don?t have a good start then you lose the reader and
thus the story is done. Some stories start with off with a back-story, or some action
before the ordinary world. These things can give hints to what is to come or what?s
wrong with the hero?s ordinary world. There are a couple of important parts to the
ordinary world, which enable the hero to go on to the next stages of his journey. First
you need to have a clear contrast between the ordinary world and the mysterious new
world. To have a complete reason for the hero to need to leave the ordinary world you
need inner and outer problems. The outer are physical and deal with something in the
ordinary world. The inner has to deal with problems that the hero has to face and
conquer threw out his journey. This inner is usually are focused on something the hero
lacks like patience. The main purpose of the ordinary world is to establish what is at
stake and it has to be important or you leave the audience saying so what. Once you have
the ordinary world set up you need something to start on the hero on his way.
This is called the call to adventure. The call to adventure is the trigger that changes
the hero?s life. The Herald or mentor is usually what gives the hero this call and be
through things such as messages or a certain event that changes their life tin a way that
cant be ignored. Some times the change rely completely on the hero with him just being
restless or fed up with their life. What the call to adventure basically comes down to
is there is a change that moves the hero from the ordinary world to the new world.
From all the things that Volger brought up I want to focus and analyze what is the first
thing you want your audience to think and know about the movie. In the text he says
?today many elements go into making those first impressions before the book or the movie
ticket is bought.? As someone who has taken a lot of videography classes I have learnt
about one method in particular, commercials. These are a tool for film industries to
call in a audience of their choice. They can make a comedy seem scary or a romance seem
like a action movie. Their goal is to get you to buy the ticket and after that they
don?t care if its not what you expected. Though this is also a good tool for getting
the audience ready for the movie and in the right mood/state of mind. When you go to a
movie what do you expect? I am pretty sure there has never been a time when you haven?t
know what your going to see.
Questions
1) How big of a contrast do you need between the ordinary world and the new world? Is
there ever a time where maybe the hero does leave the ordinary world that everything
happens in that world?
2) How important is the beginning of a story? If a story has a slow or bad start will
people not enjoy the rest of the story even if its very well written?
3) Stories where the hero is either not relatable or distant usually leave you a little
dissatisfied, why?
4) Why is it that we like heroes who are lacking in qualities that make them good and
complete people?
Monday, September 29, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Ana bib 3
Gregory Dwyre
Pledged
Annotated Bibliography
Vogler, Christopher, and Michele Montez. The Writer's Journey : Mythic Structure for Writers. Boston: Michael Wiese Productions, 2007. 49-80.
In this section Volger focuses on the people/archetypes that the hero might encounter. These include the threshold guardian, the herald, the shape shifter, the shadow, and the ally. The threshold guardian is an interesting character, they are the person who stands in the way of the hero from entering a new world. I like how Volger said you are not suppose to defeat them but to incorporate them. In many stories you can see what Volger is talking about when he says there is a symbiotic relationship between villain and threshold guardian. I feel that what the threshold guardian stands for is the hero’s inner demons in physical form.
The Herald I felt was like a mentor with out the guidance. He herald comes in gives the hero a challenge and a kick in the butt to get him started. I liked how Volger said that the Herald doesn’t have to be a person, that it could be a storm or such.
The shape shifter was one of the more difficult characters to understand and felt that it could be stretched among a lot different situations. The nature of the shape shifter according to Volger is to be shifting and unstable. This character appears to be changing constantly from the hero’s point of view. In most stories these characters are witches, wizards and such. He focuses the shape shifting idea more to how girls and guys act and how we think they are suppose to act, such as mood swings.
I found this to be a very hard character to understand. The shadow is used to represent the dark side, the unexpressed, unrealized, or rejected aspects of something. I really liked how he broke down this part of the shadow saying that the shadow “can be all the things we don’t like about ourselves, all the dark secrets we cant admit, even to ourselves.” The important thing that Volger points out is that the Shadow might not be 100% evil and that it can be a good idea to humanize them.
The Ally plays an important role. They are then to provided company guidance help to the hero during the journey. They can act as the heros conscience when the hero is able to use it. I liked how Volger says that a important job of the Ally is to humanize the hero making them more open and balanced. The hero could have one Ally or a thousand.
The last character that Volger talks about is the Trickster. This is one of my favorite characters. I like the humor they add and the fun chaos. Their job is to cut down big egos down to size and bring people down to earth. I liked how there can be a trickster hero, those are always funny.
When reading these it was interesting to see how there were two lines to the characters. One was clear, as “this is what this character does”. The other line was fuzzy and many different archetypes seemed to be strangely familiar. The mentor and the Herald seemed to play very similar roles. This might be why certain characters wear different masks at different times. Over all I liked how with many of the characters he wrote about he related them one way or another to our lives and how by understanding these character we can understand obstacles in our life.
Questions
1) Can these archetypes be a mixture of the different kind ex can you have a anti/trickster hero?
2) Can the shadow be good?
3) By understanding these archetypes is it really possible to deal with problems in you r life better?
4) Are there ever characters in stories that don’t follow any of these arechtypes?
Pledged
Annotated Bibliography
Vogler, Christopher, and Michele Montez. The Writer's Journey : Mythic Structure for Writers. Boston: Michael Wiese Productions, 2007. 49-80.
In this section Volger focuses on the people/archetypes that the hero might encounter. These include the threshold guardian, the herald, the shape shifter, the shadow, and the ally. The threshold guardian is an interesting character, they are the person who stands in the way of the hero from entering a new world. I like how Volger said you are not suppose to defeat them but to incorporate them. In many stories you can see what Volger is talking about when he says there is a symbiotic relationship between villain and threshold guardian. I feel that what the threshold guardian stands for is the hero’s inner demons in physical form.
The Herald I felt was like a mentor with out the guidance. He herald comes in gives the hero a challenge and a kick in the butt to get him started. I liked how Volger said that the Herald doesn’t have to be a person, that it could be a storm or such.
The shape shifter was one of the more difficult characters to understand and felt that it could be stretched among a lot different situations. The nature of the shape shifter according to Volger is to be shifting and unstable. This character appears to be changing constantly from the hero’s point of view. In most stories these characters are witches, wizards and such. He focuses the shape shifting idea more to how girls and guys act and how we think they are suppose to act, such as mood swings.
I found this to be a very hard character to understand. The shadow is used to represent the dark side, the unexpressed, unrealized, or rejected aspects of something. I really liked how he broke down this part of the shadow saying that the shadow “can be all the things we don’t like about ourselves, all the dark secrets we cant admit, even to ourselves.” The important thing that Volger points out is that the Shadow might not be 100% evil and that it can be a good idea to humanize them.
The Ally plays an important role. They are then to provided company guidance help to the hero during the journey. They can act as the heros conscience when the hero is able to use it. I liked how Volger says that a important job of the Ally is to humanize the hero making them more open and balanced. The hero could have one Ally or a thousand.
The last character that Volger talks about is the Trickster. This is one of my favorite characters. I like the humor they add and the fun chaos. Their job is to cut down big egos down to size and bring people down to earth. I liked how there can be a trickster hero, those are always funny.
When reading these it was interesting to see how there were two lines to the characters. One was clear, as “this is what this character does”. The other line was fuzzy and many different archetypes seemed to be strangely familiar. The mentor and the Herald seemed to play very similar roles. This might be why certain characters wear different masks at different times. Over all I liked how with many of the characters he wrote about he related them one way or another to our lives and how by understanding these character we can understand obstacles in our life.
Questions
1) Can these archetypes be a mixture of the different kind ex can you have a anti/trickster hero?
2) Can the shadow be good?
3) By understanding these archetypes is it really possible to deal with problems in you r life better?
4) Are there ever characters in stories that don’t follow any of these arechtypes?
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Cartoon Charater
I would like to think that everyone has seen Tom and Jerry at least once in his or her life. I grew up on this show and I am in love with it. I would be Jerry and the my brother would be Tom.
The basics behind the story is that Tom the cat is always trying to catch and eat Jerry the mouse. In the old, and I consider better, versions there was no talking only music, everything else was conveyed through the characters actions. I have always been close to my brother and I still am. I like to say that we lived what I call a healthy sibling relationship, which for obvious reasons I am going to call the “Tom and Jerry effect”. When ever our parents took their eyes off of us we would be chasing each other and trying to get at eat others throats.
In the cartoon Tom the cat is the one who usually tries to start the conflict, which was what my brother did. Jerry usual tried to keep to himself and mind his own business. When I was younger I liked to daydream and wonder off on my own. My brother would always find me and be waiting around the corner with some evil plot of chaos planned. In the movie the cat would always take things to far and get in trouble, and who was there to help him get out of it, Jerry! That has been true with my brother our whole life. No matter how rough our fights got I was always willing to help him out.
The basics behind the story is that Tom the cat is always trying to catch and eat Jerry the mouse. In the old, and I consider better, versions there was no talking only music, everything else was conveyed through the characters actions. I have always been close to my brother and I still am. I like to say that we lived what I call a healthy sibling relationship, which for obvious reasons I am going to call the “Tom and Jerry effect”. When ever our parents took their eyes off of us we would be chasing each other and trying to get at eat others throats.
In the cartoon Tom the cat is the one who usually tries to start the conflict, which was what my brother did. Jerry usual tried to keep to himself and mind his own business. When I was younger I liked to daydream and wonder off on my own. My brother would always find me and be waiting around the corner with some evil plot of chaos planned. In the movie the cat would always take things to far and get in trouble, and who was there to help him get out of it, Jerry! That has been true with my brother our whole life. No matter how rough our fights got I was always willing to help him out.
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