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

[stormteller.livejournal.com]

I'm not super up on Campbell, but isn't the meeting of with the goddess a subtype of supernatural aid? (Granted, the elves are pretty feminine in any case) Bilbo doesn't get Sting in Rivendell, but he does learn of its past, and there's a lot of information dropped. It has a definite "our heroes are now girt for battle" feel.
Of course, Bilbo's biggest boon is the Ring, but that's his reward for escaping Gollum, which is obvious Belly of the Whale territory. In fact, the Ring isn't as useful to him as is the confidence it bestows.

As for the gender thing, there's a very significant difference between a paternal relationship and a maternal one. Even more broadly, characters can be male but have a feminine bond, at least as recognised by the rubric of Western society. That said, Campbell uses some really obscure terms sometimes.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I dunno, the ring seemed pretty useful when he was hiding out with the Wood-Elves ...

It just seems Campbell has a hard time articulating what he's getting at sometimes. Especially since the Goddess step gets weirder when the hero herself is female--he goes kind of Freudian when that happens. I can see where he got the terms, but the need to instantly qualify them suggests he needs to find better ones.

Of course, I just realized that I really DO think of these steps in terms of video games now (the Meeting The Goddess is totally meeting the sage or the Great Fairy, and Atonement With The Father Figure = Final Boss), so once again it just goes to show that apparently he's right that people filter the monomyth through their own cultural ideals.

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

AIUI Campbell was Jung at heart hur hur a Jungian, so he's got that gendered animus/anima thing going on.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

HURRRR He was Jungian, all right. I find a whole lot of things about Jungianism interesting takes on culture, but the gendering gets a little overdone. (Actually, a lot of it gets overthought. Academia is like that.)