Monomyths [Tuesday, March 16, Period 3]

[steel-not-glass.livejournal.com]

When the students filed in, a single word was written on the blackboard: DEATH.

"Hey all," Cindy said, nodding a bit as they took their seats. "So, we're onto the Sixth Stage of the journeys, today. This marks the end of Act II and is usually the climax of the story. 'Death' may seem a little extreme when there's still, roughly, a quarter to a third left to go, but, in most cases anyway, the death we're talking about is metaphysical--or, at least, not meant to last very long. Though, again, I did say 'most cases.'"

"Death is the Sixth Stage for the feminine journey only--death is a possibility for the masculine journey as well, but that comes in the third act for them. We'll discuss the why's and wherefore's of that later, but for now, let's discuss this feminine death. Remember, it comes right on the heels of her Eye of the Storm, where the hero is feeling strong, proud, and accomplished. Everything seems to be going so well--and then this stage happens, bringing about almost a complete and utter reversal of where she was before. The villain reappears and all is lost. Remember, this villain doesn't have to be an actual person; it can be societal, like when the heroine realizes she's being forced to remain a victim so others can feel good about rescuing her. 'Villain' in this case means anything she's been fighting against since she began."

"This stage is complete rock bottom for the hero. She believes she has failed at her journey and accepts defeat. Everything pig-piles on her: if her husband left her, this is the stage where she sees him kissing a new woman--at the same time that she loses the house, her job, or custody of their children. If she was physically attacked, her attacker is set free and people may think she fabricated the story; if she was trying for a promotion, not only does she learn that it went to someone else, but her position is being terminated--" Cindy gave an odd twitch at that word "--or a fellow employee makes up lies to get her fired. She becomes a nonentity, either because society has turned against her, she's been made to feel as if she has no worth as a person, or because she has literally died."

"Many novels from the last few centuries with female protagonists who attempt to buck the system end with the literal death of their protagonists. The heroes would flaunt conventions and go through their journeys and never make it out of this stage. They could either die, live ostracized, or return to their former lives, martyred and shamed. That's a much longer death, but a death nonetheless. The Epiphany ends with the protagonist swimming out to sea to drown, for example. Sometimes these deaths are presented as a kind of Pyrrhic victory, where death is chosen before compromising one's own principles. Other times it's an object lesson to show the hopelessness of people in a certain situation. The choice between death of the body and death of the spirit is a difficult one."

[OCD up]

Comments

Class Activity

[steel-not-glass.livejournal.com]

"There are probably very few of us in this room who haven't been in a situation where we've been at rock bottom before; where we've felt abandoned and worthless; like failures. This isn't something I'd require you to discuss with your classmates if you don't want to, but think about that time and, more specifically, what happened that allowed you to get back out of it. Did you receive help from someone? An inspiring message or thought? Did something happen to allow you to recover? Take out a piece of paper and write down the details of what the situation was and how it was resolved."

"If that's still too much for you, or you don't feel like you have a relevant experience, or you just wish to talk to your classmates, feel free to discuss a relevant movie or novel where this occurs. What happened to the hero there? How did they move on?"

Re: Class Activity

[life_inshadow]

Tara wrote a sketchy, short paper about her experiences with her father and brother the previous parents' weekend. It implied more than it said, but the whole story was there if you looked closely.

Re: Class Activity

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Anemone tilted her head, chewing her lip slightly before writing. She didn't mind talking about it, if someone asked, but she knew things like this often made her classmates uncomfortable.

I am the Anemone, she wrote finally. It's what I am, not just my name. I am the 'death of hope,' the windflower. I was created to be the ending, not a beginning.

I ended up changing because one person was willing to believe I could be more than my nature, and he convinced other people to let him try. If it wasn't for Dominic, I would, actually, be dead.

Re: Class Activity

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

Oh, Gabrielle could think of a couple of situations that qualified. Just wait until she lives through the rest of canon. She'd be here all day narrowing them down. She tapped her pencil -- pen and ink were too messy to haul around everywhere -- thoughtfully against her lips and began to write.

And write.

. . . and write. This was Gabrielle; she wouldn't know how to be concise if she tried.

I sing of Perdicas; a boy I knew, a man I loved who mysteriously de-aged and got way hotter than he was in the pilot episode . . .

What Cindy was going to end up with was a good dozen pieces of paper's worth of the entire story, everything from the fall of Troy to Xena's body-swap with Callisto, concluding with the following:

Recovery, full recovery, is a point on the path I haven't yet reached. I'm still journeying toward that point, and I don't know when I'll reach it, but I do know I'd never have made it this far down the road without Xena . . . and even the lessons I learned from her when I had to look into the face of my worst enemy to do so. When I reach it, whenever that is, it will be because I had her by my side.

Gabrielle invented her own fandom's badfic. Trufax.

[OOC: SHUT UP I KNOW HOW TO DO HTML REALLY I SWEAR.]

Re: Class Activity

[robinthefrog.livejournal.com]

Robin thought for a bit, then began to write.

When I was little, I was overlooked and ignored by many people because of my size. It got so bad that I finally decided to run away.

Then Bernadette Peters led a singalong to cheer me up.