Wait Till I Apply It To Zelda Games

[bloodyrosemccoy]

So my friend is an English teacher, and this year she decided to teach The Hobbit to her seventh graders. She asked me if I have any ideas about what to teach them. I think she was expecting a few thoughts. I NOW HAVE TWO SEMESTERS' WORTH OF LESSON PLANS.

Now to get a teaching certificate and go find some seventh graders.

At the moment we're discussing how Joseph Campbell's monomyth relates to The Hobbit.* I'm arguing the case that stopping at Rivendell counts as a Meeting With The Goddess. My case is that the Goddess is more a convenient archetype meant to suggest a well-known meeting of a sage guiding figure, and also that Elves are incredibly fabulous. I am glad she's more interested in my academic argument than my spurious bullshit, though, because otherwise I would have to pull out The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert as Exhibit A arguing Elrond's goddesslike qualities, and my friend is Mormon, so it would go unviewed.

Maybe we'll just skip right on to the Atonement. There are fewer drag queens involved.

(I'm always surprised at how overtly gendered Campbell's theory is. I think he's pretty cool, but to start with "The meeting with the Father Figure" and then immediately have to explain that the father figure doesn't necessarily have to be your dad or even a MAN tells me you need to find better terminology. Also, it tells me that George Lucas has always been one damned literal bastard.)


*Answer: pretty much exactly.

Comments

[beccastareyes]

I was listening to a podcast on using the monomyth in writing, and one of the casters remarked that Lucas was a good example of What Not To Do, because he tended to throw in things seemingly because 'Campbell Said So': the example cited was Shmi's virgin birth to produce Anakin. Rather than use the structure as a basis for a story, he fixates on the details.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, using it as a checklist overdoes it a little. Plus, it's supposed to be figurative as HELL. I'm sort of surprised Lucas didn't actually stuff Luke into a whale at some point. (He DID put everyone else into that giant implausible space worm for a minute or two. Close enough.)

I don't think the "virgin birth" was even one of Campbell's steps. Not that it mattered to George! And I hated Anakin's virgin birth for another reason, too--god dammit LUKE is the hero of Star Wars, and Darth Vader is the VILLAIN. You can't go back and decide that VADER is the series protagonist and ARGH PREQUEL RANT ETC.

(One of the coolest figurative virgin births is actually in Emma Donoghue's crazy awesome book Room. The hero's mother stubbornly insists that "Jack is nobody's son but mine," and by god it's true even though you know exactly who Jack's father is. THAT'S how you do it.)

[shadesofmauve]

Shmi's virgin birth to produce Anakin

OMG, that was IN there? I must've blocked it out or something. Here I thought I couldn't take the prequels less seriously, but no!

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Obi-wan asks about the father and she says something like, "There was no father. I carried him, I gave birth ... I don't know what happened." And then later Obi-wan declares that Anakin's blood is so stuffed full of bullshit midichlorions that "It's possible he was conceived by them!"

Which would mean that Shmi must have had one interesting background, herself ...

[shadesofmauve]

...yup. Definitely blocked it out. Preserving my sanity/emotional equilibrium. Otherwise the twin-yet-divergent rants -- "I'm tired of all the jesus myths already, give it a break" and "You've forgotten who your hero is, haven't you?" -- might have torn me apart. :P