myth & story : page 1...........Talent Development Resources -..home page...site map
![[Image]](bluline2.gif){kind=small}
myth & story : page 1..........
The soul has an absolute, unforgiving need for regular excursions into enchantment. It requires them like the body needs food and the mind needs thought. ... We have yet to learn that we can't survive without enchantment and that the loss of it is killing us. Thomas Moore - author of Re-enchantment of Everyday Life
~ ~ ~ ~
...Goddesses and Monsters: Women, Myth, Power and Popular Culture
- by Jane CaputiThe feminist essays in Goddesses and Monsters, including new, previously published and revised pieces, focus upon popular culture as it is informed by ancient and current mythic images, narratives, personalities, icons and archetypes.
Topics include: the cult status of the serial sex killer; sexual murder as a contemporary form of religious sacrifice; pornography as an everyday narrative underlying not only sexism, but also racism, homophobia, and militarism; the relation of incest to nuclearism; pornography and the sacred; cyborg myth; and subtextual presence of ancient goddess figures in contemporary narratives, including that of Princess Diana.
Essays also are devoted to specific works, including Pretty Woman, Jaws, Natural Born Killers, and the Parable novels of Octavia Butler. Goddesses and Monsters can be a useful text for classes on gender and popular culture.
author Jane Caputi - in Women's Studies list WMST-L 8/6/04
~ ~ ~ ~
 .. .. These are all still the concerns of the fairy tales -- and hence the way we tell the tales -- changes over time. ... Besides understanding the importance of myths, it's also really important to keep an eye on the economic and social power dynamics that shape them. It's very hard to reclaim and recreate a false myth. That is, one that doesn't reflect, at least on some level, a social or cultural truth. You can retell a story, but if it doesn't ring true, it won't stick, it won't resonate, it won't spread. That said, fairy tales are constantly being reclaimed. There are examples of positive, progressive forward-thinking reinventions of fairy tales and myths all the time -- subject to interpretation, of course. In my book I cite a lot of examples, including the movie Freeway, a modern adaptation of "Little Red Riding Hood." I really loved it. I think it's Reese Witherspoon's best movie. There's also a commercial that ran that I found very interesting -- a 30-second spot for Pepsi -- that is based on the “Little Red Riding Hood” plot and starred Kim Cattrall from Sex and the City. |
 .. .. Cattrall's in a sexy red dress walking down the street; at the end of the commercial, she spots a man that she likes, and she howls and her eyes flash, like a wolf. Not that sexual empowerment is the only focus of empowerment, but I liked that there was a role reversal where they recognized female sexuality. It was a 30-second spot that aired during the so-called College Pigskin Classic, so it was aimed at men. And I thought, how great. These college guys are being urged not just to ogle at Cattrall, but to identify with Cattrall. Catherine
Orenstein - from interview
with Christine photo of Catherine Orenstein by Mara Catalan ; Kim Cattrall in Pepsi ad
Feminist Fairy Tales - by Barbara G. Walker |
~ ~ ~ ~
 .. .. They see how hard it is, how often they fail, and how they get up and keep trying. That, to me, is the most important message I'm ever going to tell. Joss Whedon ...[The Vancouver Sun, Feb 3, 2004] ~ ~ ~ It's fascinating to me, the shows that I've always loved the best -- "Hill Street Blues," "Wiseguy," "Twin Peaks" -- have always been shows that did have accumulative knowledge. One of the reasons why The X-Files started to leave me cold was that after five years, I just started yelling at Scully, "You're an idiot. It's a monster," and I couldn't take it anymore. I need people to grow, I need them to change, I need them to learn and explore, you know, and die and do all of the things that people do in real life. |
 .. .. Because, ultimately -- and this is one of the things that I did find out after we had aired -- the soap opera, the characters, the interaction between them is really what people respond to more than anything else. And although we came out of it as a sort of monster-of-the-week format, it was clear that the interaction was the thing that people were latching onto. Joss Whedon [NPR Fresh Air, 8 November 2002] [quotes from his imdb bio] more material on "Buffy.." on the shadow self : page 3 image
from book |
~ ~ ~ ~
 .. .. In "The Simpsons and Society," Keslowitz fixes a serious eye on America's favorite dysfunctional cartoon crew, looking for deeper meaning.... "I've been watching the show for years," said Keslowitz... "In college, I realized the show had academic issues that merited serious attention." |
Others
agree. Tufts University said the book already has turned up on the
reading
list for its class on the Simpsons. ... the book takes on the big
topics,
with a tone that's alternately serious and slapstick:
-- Is Homer a good father? Keslowitz invokes philosopher Immanuel Kant's categorical imperative before quoting Mr. Simpson himself: "I'd rather drink a beer than be father of the year." -- C. Montgomery Burns and the pursuit of true happiness: "Burns' insatiability is psychological, rather than physiological," Keslowitz writes. Exxx-cellent diagnosis. -- The medical community of Springfield. Dr. Julius Hibbert, the Simpson family doctor, is best known for his inappropriate chuckle -- his remedy for stress. ("I'm afraid your husband is dead. CHUCKLE. Just kidding.") "It was very interesting how many issues were addressed in there," said Josh Belkin, who teaches the Tufts class on the Simpsons. "It's a quick, fun read." from
article: College student takes on 'The Simpsons' -
|
~ ~ ~ ~
 .. .. |
But
I have a completely different way of telling the stories.
The Lion King is a high-tech, low-tech production. Geysers spout, the dead Mufasa's face appears from a heaving mass of clouds and rocks, and drought is signaled simply by a blue cloth slowly disappearing into a hole. The images that have moved people, and shocked them, are from Asia; from shamanistic practices I learned from reading; from what I experienced living in Japan and Indonesia; and from the Africans with whom I'm working. These images are as old as the theater. Julie
Taymor-
from article
Julie Taymor Continues also
see interview by Douglas
Eby |
~ ~ ~ ~
 |
My
parents brought me this huge book of Grimm's
Fairy Tales when I was growing up, so
I used to stay up late reading them to myself - because they are really
violent, they're kind of fabulous.
Anne Hathaway .. [DarkHorizons.com interview April 5 2004] photo from her movie based on the book Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine |
 |
..Angels
and Archetypes: An Evolutionary Map of Feminine Consciousness - by
Carmen Boulter
[reader reviewer: Dianne Timberlake, Georgia] If you read Jackie Woods' "Journey to Ultimate Spirituality," works by Eckhart Tolle, Carolyn Myss, James Redfield or Christiane Northrup's "Womens' Bodies, Women's Wisdom," you will find lots to keep you engrossed in this book. It is a compelling chronicle of the evolution of our planet from primarily a matriarchal society to its current patriarchal position. Carmen Boulter does an outstanding job of weaving together her research on the beliefs of ancient civilizations, mythology and modern day dyanmics to describe the ways in which we can reclaim our whole selves. Her treatment of the Archetypes revealed the source of many present day religious and cultural beliefs related to women and the expression of aspects of our feminitiy.... |
~ ~ ~ ~
....
This movie ["21 Grams"] is about people being lonely and finding ways to connect, and that's why I go to see movies. So you don't feel alone. You see these stories play out in front of you, and they bring up your own truths.
Naomi Watts ... [Variety Jan 4 2004]
~ ~ ~ ~........
Stories that instruct, renew, and heal provide a vital nourishment to the psyche that cannot be obtained in any other way. Stories reveal over and over again the precious and peculiar knack that humans have for triumph over travail. They provide all the vital instructions we need to live a useful, necessary and unbounded life -- a life of meaning, a life worth remembering.
Clarissa Pinkola Estes - in her book The Gift of Story
other books include Women Who Run with the Wolves; Warming the Stone Child: Myths & Stories About Abandonment and the Unmothered Child; The Creative Fire: Myths and Stories About the Cycles of Creativity
~ ~ ~ ~........
Peter Pan A new surge of interest in the real "Peter Pan" marks the centennial [of the J.M. Barrie play].
This month sees the debut of "Lost Girls," a novel by highly regarded author Laurie Fox that is narrated by Wendy's great-great granddaughter.
In October, Miramax will release "J.M. Barrie's Neverland." ....
Most significant, though, is the bold new film.. "Peter Pan".. [which] not only features a real, live boy (Jeremy Sumpter, right) in the title role for only the second or third time in a century, it returns Wendy (Rachel Hurd-Wood, left) to her place as the central character and narrator.
This crucial shift brings forward the romance and pathos of the story... and infuses the movie with the folkloric quality of the original play. ....
Gentle Wendy is actually the protagonist of the play. She's the one who imagines Neverland, learns to fly, is kidnapped by pirates and confronts truths about herself. ....
..
..The first thing Wendy does is conjure Peter, a character rooted in our cultural mythology.
"He's the young dying reborn god -- the Narcissus, the Hyacinth, Dionysius," says Ann Yeoman, author of "Now or Neverland, Peter Pan and the Myth of Eternal Youth: A Psychological Perspective on a Cultural Icon."
"He's the Hermes character who can move from one world to the other. And of course he's associated with Pan, who has a very ambiguous nature, being goaty and lascivious but also a life force."
from article Wendy is the hook, really -
By Susan LaTempa, LA Times Jan 4 2004~ ~ ~ ~.......
Well there are many layers to her character, I think, because [Wendy] is a girl just on the edge of being.. you know, she's still a child, but then she's suddenly been introduced to this grown-up way of thinking. But she doesn't want to be a grown-up, she doesn't want to grow-up herself. So, there are many layers. She's very adventurous and outgoing, but then she can be quite feminine, quite girly at times as well. So she's quite a deep character, I think.
Rachel Hurd-Wood - about her character Wendy Darling
in "Peter Pan" [filmforce.ign.com interview Dec 2003]
...Peter Pan - by J.M. Barrie
~ ~ ~ ~
The Charities, or Graces, are the personifications of charm and beauty in nature and in human life. They love all things beautiful and bestow talent upon mortals. Together with the Muses they serve as sources of inspiration in poetry and the arts.
Originally, they were goddesses of fertility and nature, closely associated with the underworld and the Eleusinian mysteries.
[from description at pantheon.org]
~ ~The Three Graces- by George Frederick Watts (1817 - 1904) >
[image from Art Renewal Center] ---~ ~ ~ ~
.....
more :..........myth & story : page 2..........myth & story : page 3 articles sites books.........--related pages:............dreamwork.........intuition / instinct..........depth psychology...........the shadow self.................spirituality...........Wicca...........psychic ability...........
**
**home page :: Talent Development Resources**-**site contents****books etc
---******** *--- Women & Talent ------Teen / Young Adult talent
