Rinaldo Francesca Myth: let's talk about 'a Myth, come on, what with the "M" capitalized. The British author Salley Vickers
, interviewed by the Guardian, 3 November 2010, has given us a peek - so to speak - to his thoughts and reflections on what she believes are the elements that make a long-lived myth, keeping it handed down from century in the century.
"The myth makes explicit - in narrative form - those types of permanent fixations that belong to humans" says Salley Vickers in the video (see below) and you could say that this is more or less true over time, culture, history [that is] that there is a sort of recurrence of certain issues. Birth, of course, sex, relationships with parents or with their children, death: these are themes that continue to reappear continually in Mito. [Myth] has a kind of evolutionary survival: what I mean is that if certain myths work, is because they continue to have a fascination, continue to be taken over by artists of any kind. "
In other words, a myth has good chances of continuing Darwinian through the ages as long as it contains a number of elements fixed, if one can call, rooted in the collective psyche of mankind; and so far, nothing particularly shocking.
Then, having in mind that the longevity of a myth has nothing to do with whether or not based on fact, and - always in the mood to do more, shocking discoveries of warm water - a myth may continued for two millennia, while telling the "facts" never happened and simply made up (let's see who guesses where you want to end up) ...
Why not have X-ray Master Jesus the Good? So, just to see if the longevity of this legend is no longer due to his match all'identikit of a Legend "made-to-last", compared all'immarcescibile interpretation that constantly feel out of the mouth of the apologists of various kinds - part -time, full-time professionals and amateurs - and that is that "in short, if continues today, after two thousand years, means that there must be something true, no?"
Now, where do we start when we begin to identikit chasing this phantom? In fact, the difficulty here lies not in lack of material, and in its abundance: that it is dusty academics interested essence of the myth itself (Károly Kerényi springs to mind), or psychologists in search of a distillate to classify human emotions and behaviors (archetypes of Otto Rank, or Carl Jung), who have been, over the centuries, scholars have attempted to sift through the mythological fabric of the five continents, in search of common denominators?
In particular, addressing the plots of myths, it is remarkable that the impulse was given to this research in the synthesis of essential elements which, with appropriate changes, are found in all the plots of success, they are tragedies , comedy, films, novels, etc, this is usually done under the pressure of wanting to set up courses in creative writing (How to Become a successful novelist in 36 Practical Lessons), or create software algorithms that allow a computer to write the entire plot of a film from scratch. Usually, to tighten as much as possible the list of possible combinations - and with a wink at psychologists such as Robert Plutchik and Paul Ekman, samples of "eight primordial emotions" - the most common interpretation is that there are essentially eight basic plots, and that every story ever conceived by mankind will adapt, more or less, with contamination and "migration" of certain items from one plot to another.
who attended one of these courses for screenwriters will tell you that probably these 8 basic patterns are: 1
- Cinderella: virtue is rewarded not recognized at the beginning to the end
2 - Achilles: a weakness of character leads to tragic consequences
3 - Orpheus: what happens when an asset is removed from the hero
4 - Romeo and Juliet love story with obstacles (not necessarily end in tragedy)
5 - The hero: the hero must overcome trials and obstacles , triumphing at the end of the story
6 - Circe: the hero is attracted to his knowledge in a trap set by the "bad"
7 - Tristan: a ménage à trois
8 - Faust: a contract with an evil entity - that sooner or later will be honored
Well, I think I can say without fear of contradiction that in the case of Jesus, while admitting elements drawn from seven other plots, the number five is that focus should now.
What then are the elements that suggest how far-sighted was the marketing team behind the Gospels?
proceed: to narrow the scope of the aspects of the typical "hero who overcomes obstacles and tests" (the one made to last through the ages), I propose to confine ourselves to two schools of thought: the Campbell and Vogler Lord Raglan.
Joseph Campbell [1] is certainly a good starting point, as George Lucas would agree.
was the mythologist Campbell to devise, in 1949, the idea of \u200b\u200bnineteen necessary steps in the evolution of an archetypal hero, releasing the now classic The Hero with a Thousand Faces result of a comparative study of the grueling Western mythological heritage and hundreds of tribal legends and stories taken from various cultures and historical periods more different.
liked Campbell's book on George Lucas, to the point where he decided to adopt practices to the letter to his Star Wars (1977), as we shall see later.
Subsequently, lo sceneggiatore disneyano Christopher Vogler, costantemente alla ricerca della “ricetta segreta” per la sceneggiatura di successo, fece la conoscenza de L'Eroe dai Mille Volti e non riuscì più a scrollarselo di dosso: amore a prima vista.
Dopo aver ridotto questi diciannove punti a dodici, per amore di semplificazione, Vogler concepì nel 1985 la struttura definitiva su cui d'ora in poi si sarebbe basato ogni sceneggiatore alle dipendenze della Walt Disney; è appunto questa struttura in dodici punti che andiamo adesso a esaminare.
Allora, tenendo a mente che questi dodici punti non devono necessariamente seguire un ordine cronologico prestabilito, siamo pronti a vedere come se la caverebbe Gesù nei Become a hero in Walt Disney style? Keep popcorn on hand.
1 - Ordinary World
Here the hero is seen in its initial element, the adventure has yet to begin (preferably the hero is still a kid). And yet ... yet we can already see now that our hero is different: some kind of tension is clearly visible. In
Matrix, Neo is like a fish out of water in the life he leads during the day, clock in at a computer company, and so spends his nights trying to contact the cyber-criminal Morpheus. In
Star Wars Luke hates his life on desert planet Tatooine, and would like to join the academy to go as far as possible.
Jesus too, for its part, does not lose time, scribes and priests teaching their craft from the age of twelve, not to mention the impressive magic tricks such as transforming water into wine at weddings.
2 - The Call to adventure
That is the confirmation that the hero is much more than previously believed, or that there is an obstacle course that awaits him, or a defined goal (a reward, a kingdom , a treasure, etc) at the end of this "mission".
Thus, in the case of King Arthur, the Lady Lake over the hero's sword Excalibur, informing him that the time has come to embrace his destiny. Or maybe Rubeus Hagrid in the first Harry Potter book, the hero comes home and announces that his new life as a witch awaits.
In the Gospels, symbolically, this first step is the baptism that John manages to Jesus (see also paragraph 5). Does anyone remember that it is at this point that the voice of God tells Jesus in front of everyone present: "You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Luke 3:22).
3 - Refusal Appeal
Yes, sometimes anche se non è sempre obbligatorio, questo appello è rifiutato dall'eroe (inevitabilmente mi càpita di pensare a Bilbo Baggins, ne Lo Hobbit di JRR Tolkien, e al suo impanicato rifiuto di seguire Gandalf nella sua missione, così come a Ulisse nell'Iliade, che si finge pazzo per non andare in guerra); oppure un tentativo viene fatto da agenti esterni di sbarrare la strada all'eroe (come, in Guerre Stellari , nel caso dello zio Owen, che trattiene Luke Skywalker con sé nella fattoria dove si coltivano ortaggi blu).
Con un po' d'immaginazione si possono vedere le tre tentazioni di Gesù da parte del diavolo (nei Vangeli secondo Matteo, Marco e Luca) come un impedimento a seguire l'appello. Sono tuttavia più propenso a inserire le tentazioni al punto 7. Per il momento, accontentiamoci della celeberrima e controversa citazione “Padre mio, se è possibile, trapassi da me questo calice” (Matteo, 26:39).
4 – L'Incontro con il Maestro
Sì, naturalmente un mentore ci vuole, non può mancare. Il Maestro, è bene sapere da sùbito, onde evitare di affezionarsi, è in genere sacrificabile: diciamo che non deve a tutti i costi morire, ma insomma, se muore è meglio.
È inoltre obbligatorio il cliché dell'allievo che supera il maestro, come è consigliabile ritrarre il Maestro come una persona che ha passato la vita a preparare la strada per l'avvento dell'Eroe.
Inutile dire che, nel caso di Guerre Stellari , Obi-Wan Kenobi è il Maestro per eccellenza (muore), come nel caso dei Vangeli questo ruolo di preparatore/precursore è affidato a Giovanni Battista (che muore).
Se si vuole parlare dei miti classici, si può menzionare Chirone il centauro, che alleva Giasone. Personalmente memore di certe pacchianate hollywoodiane di fine Ottanta, vorrei però aggiungere per la cronaca che i miei mentori cinematografici preferiti restano sempre Brian Brown in Cocktail , con Tom Cruise, uscito nel 1988 (un altro mentore che muore), e la sua controparte Sam Elliot in quel film con Patrick Swayze, uscito un anno dopo (essenzialmente bouncer for a Cocktail ), the "masterpiece" Roadhouse (yes: dies Sam Elliot).
5 - 'Crossing the First Threshold
This "is the act of will by which the hero is dedicated body and soul to the company, dealing with the problem and begin to act. This step requires great courage on the part of the hero. It 's a passage from which no going back, the jump is done with faith, trusting that somehow it will fall to his feet. "Writes Stephen Roberts [1]. Think of Jonathan Harker, and take the first train from London, in his long train journey that takes him to the Castle Dracula, or Perseus, in his quest to kill Medusa, arrives in the cave of Graie as a detective in search of information. For Jesus, the equivalent is certainly represented by the forty days spent in the desert to fast and meditate in preparation for the mission (Matthew and Luke, chapter 4, Mark, Chapter 1) in Star Wars, this place is Mos Eisley, The room where we serve drinks and a greenish band plays the same song.
6 - Tests, Allies and Enemies
mandatory, we are here at the moment in which the hero is on the way the various characters are alive, some of which will prove to friends and other enemies. The first test of the hero in fact potrebbe essere proprio questa: saper distinguere da sùbito gli uni dagli altri (ma questa è una variante). Nelle leggende tradizionali, questa è la fase in cui si costituisce una squadra, che si tratti degli Argonauti di Giasone, dei Merry Men di Robin Hood, degli apostoli di Gesù, o di Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbacca e Obi-Wan in Guerre Stellari .
7 – L'Avvicinamento alla Caverna Più Segreta
Joseph Campbell chiamava questa fase “Il Ventre della Balena”, con riferimento metaforico al personaggio che viene inghiottito da qualcosa di molto più grande di lui – oltre a quello letterale di Giona, da Il Libro di Giona nella Bibbia e, ovviamente, Pinocchio . Sia come sia, questo è il momento in cui il protagonista si trova intrappolato da qualche parte e impossibilitato ad agire o, in varianti molto gettonate, a dover affrontare la cosa che teme di più, una sua nemesi, una prova finale che lo temprerà e preparerà per la sua missione. Di solito questa “cosa più temuta al mondo” è interpretata come una proiezione dell'inconscio o una manipolazione ad opera di un personaggio che sembra conoscere troppo bene il protagonista (La stanza 101 per Winston Smith in 1984 ; Luke Skywalker che combatte sé stesso in una caverna ne L'Impero Colpisce Ancora - una scena poi riproposta in modo simile da Terry Gilliam in Brazil ). In molti casi invece si tratta di un evento molto più prosaico, come il semplice arresto dell'eroe. Gesù, non per niente lo chiamano il Maestro, passa attraverso entrambe le versioni di questa dura prova: l'affronto dei demoni dell'inconscio (letteralmente, con le tentazioni nel deserto) e l'arresto.
8 – La Prova Suprema
Nella 'Prova Suprema' l'eroe deve morire, o sembrerà morire, per poter rinascere e ritornare cambiato, trasformato. Sì, tutta la via crucis di Gesù è una Prova Suprema, questo va da sé. Però, a ben guardare, anche Sansone nella sua fase di declino, accecato e tenuto prigioniero dai filistei, can be considered a dead hero - which of course will rise again, then died "with all the Philistines." The apparent death makes good cinema, with numerous examples, from ET to Conan the Barbarian . However, it is the resurrection that conquered the public (see paragraph 11).
9 - Award
do not die - or you deal with a passage like death - so much for sport: there must be a reward at the end of suffering. Evidently, this happens in the Gospels when Jesus is reunited with God the Father ("Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" - Luke 23:46) and, going in heaven, gets his reward for having saved the world - better than any game can offer the X Box! The Golden Fleece, the Holy Grail, the archaeological treasures chased by Indiana Jones, these are all examples of rewards.
10 - The Path of Return
This is the return of the hero to his ordinary world - that somehow was saved, while often ungrateful or ignorant of its own choice and its sacrifices. Needless to say, "the return" is merely a fake order to fool the reader / viewer lulled into a false sense of tranquility. Those who have doubts about it has only to reread the 'Odyssey !
Unfortunately, the canonical Gospels do not document the return journey of the hero Jesus on earth, which, admittedly, is a wonderful opportunity not: imagine how much more exciting would be the Gospels with a beautiful supersonic travel - like Rocketman - through the seven heavens , the firmament - perhaps even breaking up the notorious "French windows of heaven," those that according to Genesis (7:11) and the Psalms (78:23) you open up whenever you want to rain on the earth? Perhaps ending with a good joke to Schwarzenegger, the kind that make audiences roar with laughter throughout the film, like "I'm back, sorry for the delay? But no.
11 – La Resurrezione
Aah, ecco finalmente il momento che tutti aspettavamo! La resurrezione: questa è fondamentale. Non è difficile capire da dove provenga il mito della resurrezione – pur senza andare a scomodare i vari dei pagani dell'antichità che morirono e risorsero, come Osiride, Dioniso, Ishtar, Dumuzi, Dalmoxis, etc: dopotutto assistiamo a una resurrezione ogni giorno, con il sole che tramonta puntualmente dopo essere tramontato la sera prima, per non parlare del continuo rinnovarsi del ciclo delle stagioni, e così via. Orbene, anche Gesù, per non essere da meno, risorge e appare ai suoi discepoli, consolandoli del lutto.
12 – The Return with The Elixir
As Vogler says: "It is up to each of us determine what is the Elixir - wisdom, experience, money, love, fame, or the exciting adventure of a lifetime. But good story, and a good journey, leaving us with an elixir that transforms us, makes us more aware, more alive, more human, more integrated, more in fact part of a package. The circle of the hero's journey is complete " .
Because in the end, what is the return to the ordinary world if you are not able to cure him from his bad start? So Jesus comes back and gives the world its Elixir - salvation, forgiveness, immunity, or whatever it was that for which he suffered all 'I'm ordeal.
To tell the truth, I plead ignorance on this point: the only explanation I was given some time ago reference was made to pass a clean slate of original sin - you know, that Adam and Eve contract by accepting the offer of the Snake to embrace the knowledge and realize that they were naked, thus enriching the stylists, who had prepared the solution.
Since then a sieve of Scripture, in search of some passage that explains why all the generations that were born before the advent of Jesus were not deemed worthy of such a clean slate. For now nothing, but when I find, Have faith, be the first to be informed.
Whatever it is, admit it, the curriculum of Jesus is all over, retracing the path of the hero ideal second-Campbell Vogler almost literally, with eleven out of twelve points. First round well played. And now we go to school Lord Raglan.
Major FitzRoy Richard Somerset, 4th Baron Raglan - or simply Lord Raglan, as we like to think it was written on his intercom - spent most of his life studying myths and legends, as Joseph Campbell would have done then. His work differed slightly from that of other authors in search of a spiritual and psychological journey of the archetype hero. Lord Raglan was more interested in a list of the recurring themes, not necessarily develop into some sort of moral issue. In his book The Hero: A Study of Tradition, Myth and Drama (1936), Lord Raglan distilled 22 features among the most common myths of the Indo-European heroes. [2]
Here is the famous list, with examples of other heroes of myth and reality (including historical figures whose life has been - so to speak - novel), and a dry YES or NO, depending on whether the life Jesus told in the Gospels presence or absence of the element in question.
1 - The hero's mother is a virgin of royal blood (eg Perseus): YES
2 - Her father is a king (eg, Heracles): YES
3 - Often his father is also a close relative of the mother (eg Mithridates VI of Pontus): YES
4 - Circumstances of his conception are unusual (eg, Watu Gunung): YES
5 - He is also reputed son of a deity (ie Krishna): YES
6 - At birth you try to kill him (eg Oedipus): YES
7 - The hero is moved away from danger by a supernatural (ie Jason): YES
8 - is raised by adoptive parents in a distant country (eg Romulus): NO
9 - Nothing is known of his childhood (eg Samson): NO
10 - reached adulthood, the hero comes back or for the first time in his future kingdom (eg Ulysses): YES
11 - Defeat the King and / or a giant, a dragon or a wild beast (ie Theseus): NO
12 - The hero marries a princess, often the daughter of his predecessor (eg Nyikng): NO
13 - Become the king (eg Beowulf): YES
14 - For a time he reigns without anything special to happen (ie Buddha): NO
15 - promulgates laws (eg Moses): YES
16 - After losing the favor the gods and / or its subjects (ie Krishna): YES
17 - is driven from the throne and the city (eg Oedipus): NO
18 - died in a mysterious or unusual (ie the Prophet Elijah): YES
19 - often die on top of a hill (ie Moses): YES
20 - His sons, he has not succeeded on the throne (eg, Tsar Nicholas II): YES
21 - Her body remains unburied (eg, Enoch): YES
22 - However, there are one or more places where his tomb is venerated (eg, King Arthur): YES
and the late author Alan Dundes, ex docente di folklore alla University of California, Berkley, a darci il punteggio di Gesù secondo la scala Raglan nel video The God Who Wasn't There [3]: con 19 punti, il Maestro si piazza a un rispettabile terzo posto, battuto solo da Edipo (22 punti) e da Teseo (20 punti), sgominando i vari Romolo ed Ercole (17 punti), Perseo (16 punti), Zeus e Giasone (15 punti), Robin Hood (13 punti) e Apollo (11 punti). Esiste anche uno studio pubblicato dal Monmouth College, Illinois [4], dove il punteggio assegnato a Gesù è di 18 punti. Personalmente, la mia scaletta qui sopra arriva appena a 16: siete invitati naturalmente a essere in disaccordo con me, ogni critica è accettata. Ciò che conta è che il punteggio resta comunque piuttosto altino, al punto da risultare alquanto sospetto.
Quando, più di un secolo fa, si cominciavano a condurre studi nella direzione del mito visto con occhi per la prima volta razionali – con Otto Rank fra gli antesignani – Gesù era deliberatamente lasciato fuori da queste classifiche, in quanto si preferiva fischiettare disinvoltamente e dare per scontato che quanto riportato nei Vangeli era da considerarsi letteralmente vero – parola per parola, contraddizioni e tutto. I tempi sono leggermente cambiati e, tolta anche al cristianesimo questa esenzione, le implausibilità si fanno immediatamente evidenti.
Per citare Jordan Maxwell (autore che peraltro non sempre vedo di buon occhio): "We do not want to hurt or offend anyone, the only thing we are interested in are the facts."
Pace, Francesca Rinaldo
[1] For a more detailed explanation:
http://www.rudolfsteiner.it/articolo/16/sono-i-film-di-hollywood-le-nuove- tales
see
http://www.apocprod.com/Pages/Hero/Hero_Main_Page.htm
[2] See:
http://www.in-psicoterapia.com/naranjo2.htm
[3] See:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=696492648668420724 #
[4] See:
http://department.monm.edu/classics/courses/ Clas230/MythDocuments/HeroPattern/default.htm
, interviewed by the Guardian, 3 November 2010, has given us a peek - so to speak - to his thoughts and reflections on what she believes are the elements that make a long-lived myth, keeping it handed down from century in the century.
"The myth makes explicit - in narrative form - those types of permanent fixations that belong to humans" says Salley Vickers in the video (see below) and you could say that this is more or less true over time, culture, history [that is] that there is a sort of recurrence of certain issues. Birth, of course, sex, relationships with parents or with their children, death: these are themes that continue to reappear continually in Mito. [Myth] has a kind of evolutionary survival: what I mean is that if certain myths work, is because they continue to have a fascination, continue to be taken over by artists of any kind. "
In other words, a myth has good chances of continuing Darwinian through the ages as long as it contains a number of elements fixed, if one can call, rooted in the collective psyche of mankind; and so far, nothing particularly shocking.
Then, having in mind that the longevity of a myth has nothing to do with whether or not based on fact, and - always in the mood to do more, shocking discoveries of warm water - a myth may continued for two millennia, while telling the "facts" never happened and simply made up (let's see who guesses where you want to end up) ...
Why not have X-ray Master Jesus the Good? So, just to see if the longevity of this legend is no longer due to his match all'identikit of a Legend "made-to-last", compared all'immarcescibile interpretation that constantly feel out of the mouth of the apologists of various kinds - part -time, full-time professionals and amateurs - and that is that "in short, if continues today, after two thousand years, means that there must be something true, no?"
Now, where do we start when we begin to identikit chasing this phantom? In fact, the difficulty here lies not in lack of material, and in its abundance: that it is dusty academics interested essence of the myth itself (Károly Kerényi springs to mind), or psychologists in search of a distillate to classify human emotions and behaviors (archetypes of Otto Rank, or Carl Jung), who have been, over the centuries, scholars have attempted to sift through the mythological fabric of the five continents, in search of common denominators?
In particular, addressing the plots of myths, it is remarkable that the impulse was given to this research in the synthesis of essential elements which, with appropriate changes, are found in all the plots of success, they are tragedies , comedy, films, novels, etc, this is usually done under the pressure of wanting to set up courses in creative writing (How to Become a successful novelist in 36 Practical Lessons), or create software algorithms that allow a computer to write the entire plot of a film from scratch. Usually, to tighten as much as possible the list of possible combinations - and with a wink at psychologists such as Robert Plutchik and Paul Ekman, samples of "eight primordial emotions" - the most common interpretation is that there are essentially eight basic plots, and that every story ever conceived by mankind will adapt, more or less, with contamination and "migration" of certain items from one plot to another.
who attended one of these courses for screenwriters will tell you that probably these 8 basic patterns are: 1
- Cinderella: virtue is rewarded not recognized at the beginning to the end
2 - Achilles: a weakness of character leads to tragic consequences
3 - Orpheus: what happens when an asset is removed from the hero
4 - Romeo and Juliet love story with obstacles (not necessarily end in tragedy)
5 - The hero: the hero must overcome trials and obstacles , triumphing at the end of the story
6 - Circe: the hero is attracted to his knowledge in a trap set by the "bad"
7 - Tristan: a ménage à trois
8 - Faust: a contract with an evil entity - that sooner or later will be honored
Well, I think I can say without fear of contradiction that in the case of Jesus, while admitting elements drawn from seven other plots, the number five is that focus should now.
What then are the elements that suggest how far-sighted was the marketing team behind the Gospels?
proceed: to narrow the scope of the aspects of the typical "hero who overcomes obstacles and tests" (the one made to last through the ages), I propose to confine ourselves to two schools of thought: the Campbell and Vogler Lord Raglan.
Joseph Campbell [1] is certainly a good starting point, as George Lucas would agree.
was the mythologist Campbell to devise, in 1949, the idea of \u200b\u200bnineteen necessary steps in the evolution of an archetypal hero, releasing the now classic The Hero with a Thousand Faces result of a comparative study of the grueling Western mythological heritage and hundreds of tribal legends and stories taken from various cultures and historical periods more different.
liked Campbell's book on George Lucas, to the point where he decided to adopt practices to the letter to his Star Wars (1977), as we shall see later.
Subsequently, lo sceneggiatore disneyano Christopher Vogler, costantemente alla ricerca della “ricetta segreta” per la sceneggiatura di successo, fece la conoscenza de L'Eroe dai Mille Volti e non riuscì più a scrollarselo di dosso: amore a prima vista.
Dopo aver ridotto questi diciannove punti a dodici, per amore di semplificazione, Vogler concepì nel 1985 la struttura definitiva su cui d'ora in poi si sarebbe basato ogni sceneggiatore alle dipendenze della Walt Disney; è appunto questa struttura in dodici punti che andiamo adesso a esaminare.
Allora, tenendo a mente che questi dodici punti non devono necessariamente seguire un ordine cronologico prestabilito, siamo pronti a vedere come se la caverebbe Gesù nei Become a hero in Walt Disney style? Keep popcorn on hand.
1 - Ordinary World
Here the hero is seen in its initial element, the adventure has yet to begin (preferably the hero is still a kid). And yet ... yet we can already see now that our hero is different: some kind of tension is clearly visible. In
Matrix, Neo is like a fish out of water in the life he leads during the day, clock in at a computer company, and so spends his nights trying to contact the cyber-criminal Morpheus. In
Star Wars Luke hates his life on desert planet Tatooine, and would like to join the academy to go as far as possible.
Jesus too, for its part, does not lose time, scribes and priests teaching their craft from the age of twelve, not to mention the impressive magic tricks such as transforming water into wine at weddings.
2 - The Call to adventure
That is the confirmation that the hero is much more than previously believed, or that there is an obstacle course that awaits him, or a defined goal (a reward, a kingdom , a treasure, etc) at the end of this "mission".
Thus, in the case of King Arthur, the Lady Lake over the hero's sword Excalibur, informing him that the time has come to embrace his destiny. Or maybe Rubeus Hagrid in the first Harry Potter book, the hero comes home and announces that his new life as a witch awaits.
In the Gospels, symbolically, this first step is the baptism that John manages to Jesus (see also paragraph 5). Does anyone remember that it is at this point that the voice of God tells Jesus in front of everyone present: "You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Luke 3:22).
3 - Refusal Appeal
Yes, sometimes anche se non è sempre obbligatorio, questo appello è rifiutato dall'eroe (inevitabilmente mi càpita di pensare a Bilbo Baggins, ne Lo Hobbit di JRR Tolkien, e al suo impanicato rifiuto di seguire Gandalf nella sua missione, così come a Ulisse nell'Iliade, che si finge pazzo per non andare in guerra); oppure un tentativo viene fatto da agenti esterni di sbarrare la strada all'eroe (come, in Guerre Stellari , nel caso dello zio Owen, che trattiene Luke Skywalker con sé nella fattoria dove si coltivano ortaggi blu).
Con un po' d'immaginazione si possono vedere le tre tentazioni di Gesù da parte del diavolo (nei Vangeli secondo Matteo, Marco e Luca) come un impedimento a seguire l'appello. Sono tuttavia più propenso a inserire le tentazioni al punto 7. Per il momento, accontentiamoci della celeberrima e controversa citazione “Padre mio, se è possibile, trapassi da me questo calice” (Matteo, 26:39).
4 – L'Incontro con il Maestro
Sì, naturalmente un mentore ci vuole, non può mancare. Il Maestro, è bene sapere da sùbito, onde evitare di affezionarsi, è in genere sacrificabile: diciamo che non deve a tutti i costi morire, ma insomma, se muore è meglio.
È inoltre obbligatorio il cliché dell'allievo che supera il maestro, come è consigliabile ritrarre il Maestro come una persona che ha passato la vita a preparare la strada per l'avvento dell'Eroe.
Inutile dire che, nel caso di Guerre Stellari , Obi-Wan Kenobi è il Maestro per eccellenza (muore), come nel caso dei Vangeli questo ruolo di preparatore/precursore è affidato a Giovanni Battista (che muore).
Se si vuole parlare dei miti classici, si può menzionare Chirone il centauro, che alleva Giasone. Personalmente memore di certe pacchianate hollywoodiane di fine Ottanta, vorrei però aggiungere per la cronaca che i miei mentori cinematografici preferiti restano sempre Brian Brown in Cocktail , con Tom Cruise, uscito nel 1988 (un altro mentore che muore), e la sua controparte Sam Elliot in quel film con Patrick Swayze, uscito un anno dopo (essenzialmente bouncer for a Cocktail ), the "masterpiece" Roadhouse (yes: dies Sam Elliot).
5 - 'Crossing the First Threshold
This "is the act of will by which the hero is dedicated body and soul to the company, dealing with the problem and begin to act. This step requires great courage on the part of the hero. It 's a passage from which no going back, the jump is done with faith, trusting that somehow it will fall to his feet. "Writes Stephen Roberts [1]. Think of Jonathan Harker, and take the first train from London, in his long train journey that takes him to the Castle Dracula, or Perseus, in his quest to kill Medusa, arrives in the cave of Graie as a detective in search of information. For Jesus, the equivalent is certainly represented by the forty days spent in the desert to fast and meditate in preparation for the mission (Matthew and Luke, chapter 4, Mark, Chapter 1) in Star Wars, this place is Mos Eisley, The room where we serve drinks and a greenish band plays the same song.
6 - Tests, Allies and Enemies
mandatory, we are here at the moment in which the hero is on the way the various characters are alive, some of which will prove to friends and other enemies. The first test of the hero in fact potrebbe essere proprio questa: saper distinguere da sùbito gli uni dagli altri (ma questa è una variante). Nelle leggende tradizionali, questa è la fase in cui si costituisce una squadra, che si tratti degli Argonauti di Giasone, dei Merry Men di Robin Hood, degli apostoli di Gesù, o di Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbacca e Obi-Wan in Guerre Stellari .
7 – L'Avvicinamento alla Caverna Più Segreta
Joseph Campbell chiamava questa fase “Il Ventre della Balena”, con riferimento metaforico al personaggio che viene inghiottito da qualcosa di molto più grande di lui – oltre a quello letterale di Giona, da Il Libro di Giona nella Bibbia e, ovviamente, Pinocchio . Sia come sia, questo è il momento in cui il protagonista si trova intrappolato da qualche parte e impossibilitato ad agire o, in varianti molto gettonate, a dover affrontare la cosa che teme di più, una sua nemesi, una prova finale che lo temprerà e preparerà per la sua missione. Di solito questa “cosa più temuta al mondo” è interpretata come una proiezione dell'inconscio o una manipolazione ad opera di un personaggio che sembra conoscere troppo bene il protagonista (La stanza 101 per Winston Smith in 1984 ; Luke Skywalker che combatte sé stesso in una caverna ne L'Impero Colpisce Ancora - una scena poi riproposta in modo simile da Terry Gilliam in Brazil ). In molti casi invece si tratta di un evento molto più prosaico, come il semplice arresto dell'eroe. Gesù, non per niente lo chiamano il Maestro, passa attraverso entrambe le versioni di questa dura prova: l'affronto dei demoni dell'inconscio (letteralmente, con le tentazioni nel deserto) e l'arresto.
8 – La Prova Suprema
Nella 'Prova Suprema' l'eroe deve morire, o sembrerà morire, per poter rinascere e ritornare cambiato, trasformato. Sì, tutta la via crucis di Gesù è una Prova Suprema, questo va da sé. Però, a ben guardare, anche Sansone nella sua fase di declino, accecato e tenuto prigioniero dai filistei, can be considered a dead hero - which of course will rise again, then died "with all the Philistines." The apparent death makes good cinema, with numerous examples, from ET to Conan the Barbarian . However, it is the resurrection that conquered the public (see paragraph 11).
9 - Award
do not die - or you deal with a passage like death - so much for sport: there must be a reward at the end of suffering. Evidently, this happens in the Gospels when Jesus is reunited with God the Father ("Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" - Luke 23:46) and, going in heaven, gets his reward for having saved the world - better than any game can offer the X Box! The Golden Fleece, the Holy Grail, the archaeological treasures chased by Indiana Jones, these are all examples of rewards.
10 - The Path of Return
This is the return of the hero to his ordinary world - that somehow was saved, while often ungrateful or ignorant of its own choice and its sacrifices. Needless to say, "the return" is merely a fake order to fool the reader / viewer lulled into a false sense of tranquility. Those who have doubts about it has only to reread the 'Odyssey !
Unfortunately, the canonical Gospels do not document the return journey of the hero Jesus on earth, which, admittedly, is a wonderful opportunity not: imagine how much more exciting would be the Gospels with a beautiful supersonic travel - like Rocketman - through the seven heavens , the firmament - perhaps even breaking up the notorious "French windows of heaven," those that according to Genesis (7:11) and the Psalms (78:23) you open up whenever you want to rain on the earth? Perhaps ending with a good joke to Schwarzenegger, the kind that make audiences roar with laughter throughout the film, like "I'm back, sorry for the delay? But no.
11 – La Resurrezione
Aah, ecco finalmente il momento che tutti aspettavamo! La resurrezione: questa è fondamentale. Non è difficile capire da dove provenga il mito della resurrezione – pur senza andare a scomodare i vari dei pagani dell'antichità che morirono e risorsero, come Osiride, Dioniso, Ishtar, Dumuzi, Dalmoxis, etc: dopotutto assistiamo a una resurrezione ogni giorno, con il sole che tramonta puntualmente dopo essere tramontato la sera prima, per non parlare del continuo rinnovarsi del ciclo delle stagioni, e così via. Orbene, anche Gesù, per non essere da meno, risorge e appare ai suoi discepoli, consolandoli del lutto.
12 – The Return with The Elixir
As Vogler says: "It is up to each of us determine what is the Elixir - wisdom, experience, money, love, fame, or the exciting adventure of a lifetime. But good story, and a good journey, leaving us with an elixir that transforms us, makes us more aware, more alive, more human, more integrated, more in fact part of a package. The circle of the hero's journey is complete " .
Because in the end, what is the return to the ordinary world if you are not able to cure him from his bad start? So Jesus comes back and gives the world its Elixir - salvation, forgiveness, immunity, or whatever it was that for which he suffered all 'I'm ordeal.
To tell the truth, I plead ignorance on this point: the only explanation I was given some time ago reference was made to pass a clean slate of original sin - you know, that Adam and Eve contract by accepting the offer of the Snake to embrace the knowledge and realize that they were naked, thus enriching the stylists, who had prepared the solution.
Since then a sieve of Scripture, in search of some passage that explains why all the generations that were born before the advent of Jesus were not deemed worthy of such a clean slate. For now nothing, but when I find, Have faith, be the first to be informed.
Whatever it is, admit it, the curriculum of Jesus is all over, retracing the path of the hero ideal second-Campbell Vogler almost literally, with eleven out of twelve points. First round well played. And now we go to school Lord Raglan.
Major FitzRoy Richard Somerset, 4th Baron Raglan - or simply Lord Raglan, as we like to think it was written on his intercom - spent most of his life studying myths and legends, as Joseph Campbell would have done then. His work differed slightly from that of other authors in search of a spiritual and psychological journey of the archetype hero. Lord Raglan was more interested in a list of the recurring themes, not necessarily develop into some sort of moral issue. In his book The Hero: A Study of Tradition, Myth and Drama (1936), Lord Raglan distilled 22 features among the most common myths of the Indo-European heroes. [2]
Here is the famous list, with examples of other heroes of myth and reality (including historical figures whose life has been - so to speak - novel), and a dry YES or NO, depending on whether the life Jesus told in the Gospels presence or absence of the element in question.
1 - The hero's mother is a virgin of royal blood (eg Perseus): YES
2 - Her father is a king (eg, Heracles): YES
3 - Often his father is also a close relative of the mother (eg Mithridates VI of Pontus): YES
4 - Circumstances of his conception are unusual (eg, Watu Gunung): YES
5 - He is also reputed son of a deity (ie Krishna): YES
6 - At birth you try to kill him (eg Oedipus): YES
7 - The hero is moved away from danger by a supernatural (ie Jason): YES
8 - is raised by adoptive parents in a distant country (eg Romulus): NO
9 - Nothing is known of his childhood (eg Samson): NO
10 - reached adulthood, the hero comes back or for the first time in his future kingdom (eg Ulysses): YES
11 - Defeat the King and / or a giant, a dragon or a wild beast (ie Theseus): NO
12 - The hero marries a princess, often the daughter of his predecessor (eg Nyikng): NO
13 - Become the king (eg Beowulf): YES
14 - For a time he reigns without anything special to happen (ie Buddha): NO
15 - promulgates laws (eg Moses): YES
16 - After losing the favor the gods and / or its subjects (ie Krishna): YES
17 - is driven from the throne and the city (eg Oedipus): NO
18 - died in a mysterious or unusual (ie the Prophet Elijah): YES
19 - often die on top of a hill (ie Moses): YES
20 - His sons, he has not succeeded on the throne (eg, Tsar Nicholas II): YES
21 - Her body remains unburied (eg, Enoch): YES
22 - However, there are one or more places where his tomb is venerated (eg, King Arthur): YES
and the late author Alan Dundes, ex docente di folklore alla University of California, Berkley, a darci il punteggio di Gesù secondo la scala Raglan nel video The God Who Wasn't There [3]: con 19 punti, il Maestro si piazza a un rispettabile terzo posto, battuto solo da Edipo (22 punti) e da Teseo (20 punti), sgominando i vari Romolo ed Ercole (17 punti), Perseo (16 punti), Zeus e Giasone (15 punti), Robin Hood (13 punti) e Apollo (11 punti). Esiste anche uno studio pubblicato dal Monmouth College, Illinois [4], dove il punteggio assegnato a Gesù è di 18 punti. Personalmente, la mia scaletta qui sopra arriva appena a 16: siete invitati naturalmente a essere in disaccordo con me, ogni critica è accettata. Ciò che conta è che il punteggio resta comunque piuttosto altino, al punto da risultare alquanto sospetto.
Quando, più di un secolo fa, si cominciavano a condurre studi nella direzione del mito visto con occhi per la prima volta razionali – con Otto Rank fra gli antesignani – Gesù era deliberatamente lasciato fuori da queste classifiche, in quanto si preferiva fischiettare disinvoltamente e dare per scontato che quanto riportato nei Vangeli era da considerarsi letteralmente vero – parola per parola, contraddizioni e tutto. I tempi sono leggermente cambiati e, tolta anche al cristianesimo questa esenzione, le implausibilità si fanno immediatamente evidenti.
Per citare Jordan Maxwell (autore che peraltro non sempre vedo di buon occhio): "We do not want to hurt or offend anyone, the only thing we are interested in are the facts."
Pace, Francesca Rinaldo
[1] For a more detailed explanation:
http://www.rudolfsteiner.it/articolo/16/sono-i-film-di-hollywood-le-nuove- tales
see
http://www.apocprod.com/Pages/Hero/Hero_Main_Page.htm
[2] See:
http://www.in-psicoterapia.com/naranjo2.htm
[3] See:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=696492648668420724 #
[4] See:
http://department.monm.edu/classics/courses/ Clas230/MythDocuments/HeroPattern/default.htm
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