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fandomhigh2010-03-02 12:37 pm
steel-not-glass.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh2010-03-02 12:37 pm
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Monomyths [Tuesday, March 2, Period 3]
Cindy was both hungover and tired this morning, but that wasn't going to stop her from having class. Armed only with a cup of strong, black coffee, Cindy was going to face down this hangover and teach class, dammit. She wouldn't be much good as a spy if she let feeling a little (okay, a lot) under the weather get in the way of her cover.
Which probably showed just how new she was to Fandom, as being hungover and exhausted were considered perfectly acceptable reasons to let the TAs take over or even just a movie day.
Instead, Cindy was in front of the class, perhaps a little heavier on the eye makeup than normal, but otherwise acting normal. Just ignore the occasional squinting at the light and slight glare anytime someone spoke especially loud.
"So today we move to Act II of the heroic journeys," she said, massaging her left temple briefly. It had a miniature headache all its own. "For the feminine journey, Act II is all about transformation; for the masculine, it's about obstacles. This is where both journeys really diverge, but just remember that both journeys are all about the hero hitting rock bottom, of scraping away everything extraneous until the only thing that's left it the very essence of the hero and then working from there."
Stifling a yawn, she continued, "So, we're starting with the masculine journey today because Stage Four of this journey is a very easy one. Stage Four is called 'Small Successes,' because the masculine hero has a small taste of success, which feeds into his desire to reach a much larger goal. Whatever his overall goal is, in this stage, he meets his first major obstacle and overcomes it. After this success, he feels invincible, that there is nothing he cannot do, and often also decides that he needs no one's help in achieving anything. His ego is boosted and he moves further away from true self-awareness. Failure would have pushed him to reexamine things and teach him humility and he's just not ready for that yet. So, for now he succeeds. If, as I said a few moments ago, the purpose of the journey was for the hero to hit rock bottom, this stage increases how far he has to fall."
"Stage Four sees the masculine hero climbing ever higher, but sees the feminine hero descending every further. This stage of the feminine journey is called 'Passing the Gates of Judgment.' Here, the feminine hero has made her life-changing decision, gave up her coping strategies, and rejected the illusion of her perfect world. Now she has to move forward and face her fears. Unfortunately, things don't go smooth. As she travels, everything external to her is challenged and taken away. Her weapons--manipulation, sexuality, beauty, blackmail, whatever--prove useless and powerless for her. If she comes face to face with a challenge, rather than overcoming it like her masculine counterpart, she'll lose. She'll escape, but barely, and with nearly nothing. She'll feel like she can't go on another minute and she'll want to turn back and go home. This is why the betrayal or realization is so important; when faced with the desire of continuing on or turning back, the feminine hero's only option must be to go forward."
She paused to take a much-needed sip of her coffee. Oh bitter yet life-saving coffee, how she loved thee. Any guardian trying to take away her coffee was going to get shot in the face. "As we'll read in a moment, this concept comes from Inanna's Descent. Long story short, as Inanna follows the road to the Underworld, she is stopped at seven different gates by the gate's guardian, judged, found wanting, and loses one of her mes, or the sacred attributes of civilization. Look back in your notes if you've forgotten about those in the past two weeks. From that journey, we get the seven archetypal issues that the feminine hero faces. Inanna faces them all, but most modern heroes generally face no more than two or three."
She'd debated writing these on the chalkboard, but the squealing of the chalk had suggested that was a Bad Idea. Instead, she was just going to slowly enumerate them instead. "The seven issues are as follows: fear, guilt, shame, grief, lies, illusion, and attachment. She'll be forced to confront these issues, so that later she can learn to deal with them and move beyond them. By facing fear, she learns to survive and find safety and security. Facing guilt, she learns to express sexuality and emotions in healthy ways, and truly understands her own desires. Facing down shame, leads to her defining power and will and gaining her own identity. With grief, she can learn to give and receive love without fear and to accept herself. With lies, she learns to communicate and express herself clearly and honestly. Confronting illusion, she will learn to honor intuition and imagination, and by confronting attachment--usually to things at the expense of knowing her true self--she will discover self-awareness."
[OCD is on its way]
Which probably showed just how new she was to Fandom, as being hungover and exhausted were considered perfectly acceptable reasons to let the TAs take over or even just a movie day.
Instead, Cindy was in front of the class, perhaps a little heavier on the eye makeup than normal, but otherwise acting normal. Just ignore the occasional squinting at the light and slight glare anytime someone spoke especially loud.
"So today we move to Act II of the heroic journeys," she said, massaging her left temple briefly. It had a miniature headache all its own. "For the feminine journey, Act II is all about transformation; for the masculine, it's about obstacles. This is where both journeys really diverge, but just remember that both journeys are all about the hero hitting rock bottom, of scraping away everything extraneous until the only thing that's left it the very essence of the hero and then working from there."
Stifling a yawn, she continued, "So, we're starting with the masculine journey today because Stage Four of this journey is a very easy one. Stage Four is called 'Small Successes,' because the masculine hero has a small taste of success, which feeds into his desire to reach a much larger goal. Whatever his overall goal is, in this stage, he meets his first major obstacle and overcomes it. After this success, he feels invincible, that there is nothing he cannot do, and often also decides that he needs no one's help in achieving anything. His ego is boosted and he moves further away from true self-awareness. Failure would have pushed him to reexamine things and teach him humility and he's just not ready for that yet. So, for now he succeeds. If, as I said a few moments ago, the purpose of the journey was for the hero to hit rock bottom, this stage increases how far he has to fall."
"Stage Four sees the masculine hero climbing ever higher, but sees the feminine hero descending every further. This stage of the feminine journey is called 'Passing the Gates of Judgment.' Here, the feminine hero has made her life-changing decision, gave up her coping strategies, and rejected the illusion of her perfect world. Now she has to move forward and face her fears. Unfortunately, things don't go smooth. As she travels, everything external to her is challenged and taken away. Her weapons--manipulation, sexuality, beauty, blackmail, whatever--prove useless and powerless for her. If she comes face to face with a challenge, rather than overcoming it like her masculine counterpart, she'll lose. She'll escape, but barely, and with nearly nothing. She'll feel like she can't go on another minute and she'll want to turn back and go home. This is why the betrayal or realization is so important; when faced with the desire of continuing on or turning back, the feminine hero's only option must be to go forward."
She paused to take a much-needed sip of her coffee. Oh bitter yet life-saving coffee, how she loved thee. Any guardian trying to take away her coffee was going to get shot in the face. "As we'll read in a moment, this concept comes from Inanna's Descent. Long story short, as Inanna follows the road to the Underworld, she is stopped at seven different gates by the gate's guardian, judged, found wanting, and loses one of her mes, or the sacred attributes of civilization. Look back in your notes if you've forgotten about those in the past two weeks. From that journey, we get the seven archetypal issues that the feminine hero faces. Inanna faces them all, but most modern heroes generally face no more than two or three."
She'd debated writing these on the chalkboard, but the squealing of the chalk had suggested that was a Bad Idea. Instead, she was just going to slowly enumerate them instead. "The seven issues are as follows: fear, guilt, shame, grief, lies, illusion, and attachment. She'll be forced to confront these issues, so that later she can learn to deal with them and move beyond them. By facing fear, she learns to survive and find safety and security. Facing guilt, she learns to express sexuality and emotions in healthy ways, and truly understands her own desires. Facing down shame, leads to her defining power and will and gaining her own identity. With grief, she can learn to give and receive love without fear and to accept herself. With lies, she learns to communicate and express herself clearly and honestly. Confronting illusion, she will learn to honor intuition and imagination, and by confronting attachment--usually to things at the expense of knowing her true self--she will discover self-awareness."
[OCD is on its way]
Sign in #7
Listen to the Lecture
Literary Context!
Contrasted with their story, Inanna's Stage Four is unfair with a heaping side of not even cool. Inanna decides to visit the Underworld, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inanna#Inanna.27s_descent_to_the_underworld) supposedly to attend Gugalanna (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gugalana), who'd been killed by (shocker) Gilgamesh and Enkidu. She is challenged by all seven guardians and all of her mes are stripped from her, leaving her naked in front of the dark goddess Ereshkigal.
Class Activity
"For example, if her issue is fear and survival, she may have quite her job, but now the bills are piling up and she's about to lose her home. Or for guilt, perhaps she is tracking a killer and arrives at the scene of the crime, too late to save another victim. There are any number of ways that these issues can be portrayed. So pair up and discuss the temptation that could be presented to her, one for each issue."
Talk to the TAs
Talk to "Professor Perrault"
OOC
Off to a doctor's appointment, be back in a few hours to pick up pings.
Re: Sign in #7
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Poking at the issues would either earn you a snarl, or a cheery explanation that yes, she was completely bonkers from her issues, but she was okay with that. It really depended on how much sugar was in her system at the moment.
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God I love this icon even though it's not a hangover, it's morning-sicknessRe: Listen to the Lecture
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Gabrielle got so lost in her thoughts about it -- by her calculations, between her and Xena they'd gotten through all seven gates -- that she forgot to take notes after a while.
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