The Heroic Journey, Thursday, Period 4

[spin_kick_snap]

To say that Kathy was nervous today would be an understatement. By this point, Dante could probably recite her lecture for her and more than once, Ronin'd had to nose her hands apart so she didn't accidentally hurt herself wringing them together.

She made her way to her classroom early to make sure that she had plenty of time to prepare. Like writing (and rewriting) her notes on the board to make sure they were perfectly legible. And her handwriting was even. And nothing was misspelled.

When they class arrived, they'd find the following written on the board:

Masculine Journey:
*The journey where the hero resists inner change until Act III, where he must choose to awaken and go onto victory or choose to rebel and go onto failure
*He starts with his power intact and awakens only when he realizes his power is holding him back from fully experiencing life.
*He must let go of his power to realize his authentic goals and connectedness;
*Thus, his journey is the path that leads him to give up that power and control.
*At the beginning of the story, the hero does not realize the power he has in the world only helps him reach the goals society deems acceptable. He does not realize that he must give up some of that power for him to fulfill inner goals that do are not socially approved.
*Generally, the hero is fully supported by the group and society as a whole when he chooses to embark upon his journey. He may even be assured that things will be taken care of in his absence.
*Action films, cop movies, buddy movies, epic narratives.

Feminine Journey:
*The journey where the hero must go deep inside herself and change throughout the story.
*She 'awakens' in Act I and journeys towards rebirth
*She comes into her power to realize her authentic goals and connectedness;
*Thus, her journey is the path that leads her to power and control.
*At the beginning of the story, the hero does not realize she's living a life filled with other people's goals and ambitions. They have no idea what they truly want or are capable of doing until they are forced to reexamine everything as part of their journey.
*Generally, the hero is not supported at the outset. She may face censure and public disapproval for her desire to leave the community and embark on her journey.
*Character-based stories, rom-coms, and Lifetime Originals

"Hi," Kathy said when all four of her students were sitting in their seats. "Welcome to The Heroic Journey, where we're going to examine the character arcs and themes that make up a surprising amount of classic and modern media. Ever wonder why there are so many farm boys who go off on adventures? Ever wonder why every gray-bearded old guy dies in a tragic scene? Or why the hero always loses before they can win? That's because all these stories are following the traditional heroic journey, or the monomyth. Over the next seven weeks, we'll be looking to examples from media to break that down and see how these play out."

She took a deep breath and gave the class a shaky smile. So far so good! "To be clear, there are generally two different kinds of heroic journey, the masculine and the feminine. Now, gender essentialism is bullsh--is nonsense, and any person of any gender can find themselves on either journey. But when these tropes were named, they were playing into gendered stereotypes of the time. For many, many years, it was thought that men should have power and be more active, whereas women were dependent and passive. That's why there's usually a difference in support. For men, it was considered right and natural for them to leave on an adventure. Women were expected to stay home with the children, to watch over things in the men's absence, so for her to leave home on an adventure was a transgression. So, according to these stories, the men have to learn that whatever temporal power they wield may actually hinder their personal growth, and women have to learn that however powerless they may feel, there's an inner strength there for them to draw upon. But there are plenty of people who have found themselves hindered by society and needed to regain their own power, and plenty of other people who thought they knew best and needed to be shown otherwise, so please don't think your gender determines what heroic arc you are on. Also, life is messy, so you may find yourself dealing with aspects of both, or even none at all."

Okay, good. Got it all out. The rest of the lecture was easy after that part.

"So, unless things have changed a lot, this weeks is for introductions. I'd like your name, where and when you're from," since it was almost never 'this Earth, current year,' "and for you to pick one of the bullet points on the board and tell me what you think it means." She smiled at them. "Don't worry if you're not sure or don't know the answer. This is class one, after all."

Comments

Sign In 1

[spin_kick_snap]

Hit the random button!

Re: Sign In 1

[dauntlessdragoon]

Freya Crescent

Re: Sign In 1

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina Argentum

Re: Sign In 1

[sexy_giraffe]

Tahani al-Jamil

Listen to the Lecture

[spin_kick_snap]

Yup! This is a talky class. Hope you have your note-taking supplies handy!

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[bookbeltof_love]

Of course Nina had her note taking supplies handy and if, like, anyone thought she wasn't going to write down the entire bulleted list well... they probably didn't know her very well.

The fact that she was rating each bullet point on her own personal scale of interest was, like, well.

That was also very Nina.

And she couldn't help but note there wasn't much about romance in this list...

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[dauntlessdragoon]

Freya was more than okay with a talky class. It was nice to be involved in at least one class that didn't mean having to remove her coat!

(Which was unfair, she'd had just as many where so far where she got to keep her coat as she had ones where it was better if she removed it, but twice was still more than she'd have expected!)

And as someone on her own journey, which was intricately tied to someone else on their own journey, she was paying very close and rapt attention the whole time, as well. Would any of this apply beyond a storytelling capacity, to be applied and helpful in her real life quest? She supposed time would tell, and, while she was here, she would have plenty of that, it seemed.

Introductions

[spin_kick_snap]

Name, where and when you're from, and an explanation for one the the bulleted points on the wall.

Re: Introductions

[bookbeltof_love]

"I'm, like, Nina Argentum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she said, beaming at Kathy.

Okay, okay, it was awkward because the last time she'd seen Kathy she'd nearly cried and had been hugged by her but, like, Nina couldn't just ignore Kathy's obvious nervousness! It was must easier to ignore her own awkwardness.

"I'm definitely not from here," she said, "since I'm from Greenhill City, in the Greenhill Principality, in the City-States of Jowston????????????????? And, like, I guess my world's pretty far behind tech-wise?????????"

This had not stopped Nina from adapting until she was basically glued to her phone and social media at all times.

"Like, coal stoves are pretty rare kind of behind???????????????" She shrugged a little. "An explanation, um, like.... how about 'He must let go of his power to realize his authentic goals and connectedness'?????????????????"

Some of those bullet points were rejected simply because they resonated.

"It's like when a high-powered businessman has a choice between a promotion that would take him away from his family but make them lots of money or to turn it down and be able to spend more time with his family????????????????" Hush, this was the sort of media Nina was interested in. "So society is all 'yeah!!!!!!!!!!! You've got to support your family by making money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' but he realizes that, in making all the money that he's missing things like birthdays, first days at school, practicing sports together........... and, so, like in this case he's got the power to keep making money and make life easier but if he gave it up and, sure, there wouldn't be as much money and things would be a little more difficult and people would squint about him giving up prestige, power, and money.......... he'd get to spend time with his family??????????????????"

Re: Introductions

[spin_kick_snap]

"That is exactly right," Kathy said. "Good job, Nina, ten out of ten."

Honestly, this was a great start to the class. Unless this meant that what she was teaching was redundant?

No, no. She was gonna go back to it being great. "So, next question. Can you think of any books or media that you recognize as using either journey?"

Re: Introductions

[bookbeltof_love]

No, no, it was great! She loved getting to think about this stuff!

"Ummmmmmmmmm............"

Most of her romance novels did not follow any appreciable journey aside from 'hot guy' and 'hot girl' find romance. She could squint and slot them into a journey but, like, they didn't really follow it mostly.

"Oh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I really liked this one movie about this lady who designs buildings and she's in this accident where she winds up in an alternate world where she's the center of a rom-com and it's through being there and getting the guy and everything that she realizes that she doesn't want the super hot guy who'd take credit for all of her work??????????????? She wants the cute best friend of hers who has supported her for years and she wants credit for her own work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Nina's taste in media was... sorry, Kathy. She was trying.

"That's, like, following the feminine path, right????????????"

Re: Introductions

[spin_kick_snap]

Hey, there was a reason rom-coms were listed on the board.

...Had Nina been introduced to K-dramas yet?

"Exactly," Kathy said with an encouraging nod. "She needs to understand who she is first and then realize that the guy that society wants her to consider as 'the best' isn't the one who will make her happy. Especially since he won't respect her newfound agency and sense of self." Kathy gave Nina a crooked grin. "...What's this movie called?"

Re: Introductions

[sexy_giraffe]

"I'm Tahani al-Jamil, from London and...now," Tahani said, who hadn't quite figured out it wasn't 2000-something yet.

"My question is about the first point for the masculine journey," she said. "Why must resistance to understanding your inner power lead to failure? I know a number of extremely dense members of royalty who have never failed at anything."

Re: Introductions

[spin_kick_snap]

"Nice to meet you, Tahani," Kathy said with a smile. She was grateful she wasn't in high school anymore - Tahani would have intimidated her too much to speak if they'd met back then. "The very first part of the journey is an 'Introduction to the Ordinary World' and in that place, everything seems to be going okay for them," Kathy explained. "That's why they have to leave it - they're comfortable. Not just comfortable - coddled. The masculine journey requires a Call to Adventure and even then, it's usually refused. So these dumb royals of yours, they've never failed because they've never actually been challenged."

Re: Introductions

[sexy_giraffe]

"If Wills took a look at his father's hairline once in a while, he'd know a challenge was coming," Tahani muttered.

Re: Introductions

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina was totally giggling at that, yes.

Because ohmygosh. And yet? And yet true...

Re: Introductions

[spin_kick_snap]

"No, that's not - I mean, okay yes," Kathy was forced to concede. Because Tahani had a point. "But that's not the kind of challenge this is talking about. Inner challenges, to become a better person."

Hint hint, Tahani.

Talk to Ronin

[spin_kick_snap]

Or Kathy, but she knew that her dog was likely to be more of an attraction, even if he currently appeared to be napping in a sunbeam.

Re: Talk to Ronin

[that_oldsaying]

Ah, but Ronin wasn't more of an attraction for Alluka.

She hovered in the hallway patiently until class was over and it looked like the students were done before poking her head in to beam at her big sister.

"Kathy, Kathy, Kathy!" she said. "How did it go?"

Today, Alluka was in yellow with pink striped tights.

Re: Talk to Ronin

[spin_kick_snap]

Honestly? Kathy loved that dress. It was a lot closer to the kind of dresses she used to wear, when she first arrived on the island, but even now it made her smile.

Or maybe that was just Alluka?

"I think...I think it actually went well," she said with a delighted laugh. "I didn't forget my lecture halfway through and I didn't do anything embarrassing and nobody died, so like...pretty sure it was good!"

Re: Talk to Ronin

[that_oldsaying]

"Congratulations!" she cheered, going in for a hug. "That's fantastic!"

Though she was...

"How would someone die?"

It was a lecture class!

OOC

[spin_kick_snap]

Man, looking at the comment numbers from the first time I ran this class is a TRIP.

Re: OOC

[imafuturist]

This is all I think about when I see this class.

Re: OOC

[spin_kick_snap]

You can't just publish MY WHOLE SYLLABUS at once, Lainey, damn.

Re: OOC

[imafuturist]

I CAN CONFIDENTLY SAY THAT THIS CLASS ENDS WITH AT LEAST ONE NORTED BOY.