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.. .. In the first "Spider-Man," our hero saves the day when Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin attacks the World Unity Day festival, and he goes swinging through the streets whooping.  That's not unlike the feeling at the end of the film's sequel. Does Sam Raimi feel that one occasion when the sin of pride is justified is when one has helped society? "Don't you? I do. I do, and I think everybody does. We all want to do good for each other, and stories of heroes -- I think that's their worth -- remind us that's right.  That 'I too want to risk something to help others, to have this wonderful feeling about myself just like I do for this character I identify with when he does the right thing.' That's why we like these stories. They show us the way."

.. .. from article Spider's man - 'Spider-Man 2' director Sam Raimi is the antithesis of the Hollywood player -- a man whose essential decency is reflected, he hopes, in the character of Peter Parker. By Fred Schruers, LA Times June 27, 2004 photo from Spider-Man 2 (2004) copyright 2004 Columbia Pictures ....Best of Spider-Man by J. Michael Straczynski

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.. .. According to Carl Jung, "a typical infantile motif is the dream of growing infinitely small or infinitely big, or being transformed from one to the other - as you find, for instance, in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland." (in Man and His Symbols, 1964).

Modern physicist have often compared the world of Lewis Carroll with the incredible phenomena of quantum reality - such as cats that are both alive and dead at the same time ('Schrödinger's cat') or with particles that change their identities for no apparent reason.  They are against Alice's common sense: 'I can't believe that!' said Alice. '... one can't believe impossible things.  But the White Queen has her own principles: "Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.' (from Through the Looking Glass). quotes from a Lewis Carroll profile

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.. .. But in taking on the sequel to the original hit, Julie Andrews was also a fan of the original.  "It's got a wonderful edge and I think this one is even better than the first," she enthuses.  Shrek and its sequel were influenced by some classic fairytales, and Andrews herself takes time to recall those stories that influenced her own childhood.

"There was a beautiful children's story called The Little Grey Men, the closest thing to which would be something like Watership Down.  "It was a pastoral piece, I loved it as a child and it influenced me a great deal." /// If her acting isn't keeping her busy enough, Andrews is continuing her writing, with a new novel just about to be released, and her writing is as important a role than in any film.  "I am proud to say that I have a children's publishing imprint called the Julie Andrews collection, which has been running for 3 years now and I have a new book coming out.. for young adults called Dragon." Dark Horizons interview, May 17th, 2004

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.. .. Creativity is a gift, but if you don't know how to use it you might not even know it's there. There's a lot of creativity in the air, but it's meaningless if you're not open to receiving it. ...  In a way, artists are shamans, facilitators who take what's there, channel it through themselves, then put it out there for people to appreciate. ...

An artist is an entertainer, number one - a storyteller who takes people someplace, who gives them what they didn't know they wanted.   Julie Taymor**** [quotes and photo from O, the Oprah Mag., Nov. 2001] interview by Douglas Eby with Julie Taymor ....Julie Taymor: Playing with Fire**** video: Behind the Scenes With Julie Taymor

 

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.. .. Since September 11, 2001, the real world has become too scary for a lot of people to be with -- all the time.  The only way to present social commentary or a cathartic scare is through a slightly ludicrous story -- the way Ira Levin explored a woman's right to control her body in 'Rosemary's Baby' or the male backlash against feminism in 'Stepford Wives.'  An over-the-top story allows us to vent our fear and then move on to deal with the actual problem. It's like a little vaccination to prevent death from a later disease. ...

In 'Diary,' the motto really is: Where Do You Get Your Inspiration? It coaches us to be aware of our motives and not just be a reaction to the circumstances around us.  And then -- if we screw up, which we will, again and again -- to forgive ourselves and try to be more aware and make better choices the next time around.  Your life isn't about doing one perfect 'thing' and then falling down dead. It's more like going to church or writing a book. You do it over and over, always trying to be a little bit better. Then you die. Chuck Palahniuk.. [CNN.com Aug 27, 2003]   ....Diary: A Novel

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Taken.. [miniseries - 2002] Alien abduction has always been something that's interested me. I've been interested in all the wonders of extraterrestrial life over my entire life. I made Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.  And of course, in Close Encounters there're many alien abductions. ... I've always been really interested in the whole genre of possibilities, of further exploration of alien abduction stories. ... The thing that always grabs me about science fiction is it frees the imagination to journey anywhere it can imagine itself... It doesn't have boundaries. It doesn't fence you in. Steven Spielberg- from scifi.com page crop circle image from BBC "Taken" site photo of Allie Keys [Dakota Fanning] --  who possesses alien "superpowers" -- from scifi.com site Steven Spielberg Presents Taken (2002) [DVD]

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The alien encounter experience seems almost like an outreach program from the cosmos to the spiritually impaired. ... I think of these experiences as a crossing over between the material world and what in Eastern philosophy is called the subtle realm. Like a reified "mystic's journey," experiencers describe being brought into another dimension of reality from which a new perspective on life on Earth is possible.   John E. Mack, M.D.

"This [alien encounter] experience is a big experience, it is not a small experience. It is not soft, it is not gentle in very many moments.  "It makes you feel. It makes you move - sometimes violently - through things you don't want to move through in your psyche and your ego and any of the other words you choose to call yourself."  -- An experiencer from book Passport to the Cosmos by John E. Mack, M.D.  ~ ~ ~ above & John Mack quotes from site: Passport to the Cosmos - also includes  a number of articles by John Mack and others on the alien encounter experience ....John Mack, M.D. Passport to the Cosmos:  ................Human Transformation and Alien Encounters John Mack, M.D. Abduction: Human Encounters With Aliens related books: Talking to Extraterrestrials: Communicating With Enlightened Beings by Lisette Larkins Contact by Carl Sagan related articles:  Contact - on the making of the film - by Douglas Eby  Jodie Foster - on making her film "Contact"  ETs and Entertainment by Douglas Eby

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I've been reading a bunch of stuff lately - like Joseph Campbell - that has made me realize that people in our culture, especially in the liberal communtiy, often go in search of a foe.  It's like we always need a hill to climb up or something to push against, or we feel as if we're not working constructively in the world.   Philip Seymour Hoffman   [Interview mag. Feb.99]  ....book: Joseph Campbell. Hero with a Thousand Faces

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As founding curator of the Joseph Campbell Archives and Library in Carpinteria, Jonathan Young travels the world, echoing the ideas of his mentor, who believed cultural myths, such as fairy tales, reveal universal truths. That is why they endure, Young said. "We can come back to these stories all the time," Young said. "At each stage in our lives we will take something different from them."     from "Insight to Fairy Tales" - on articles page of The Center for Story and Symbol book: Jonathan Young.  Saga - Best New Writings on Mythology "An anthology which includes Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Thomas Moore,  Marion Woodman, Robert Bly, Jean Shinoda Bolen, James Hillman, Ursula LeGuin.. others."

from book cover: Rapunzel

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...out of the whole symbol-building achievement of the past, what survives today (hardly altered in efficiency or in function) is the tale of wonder. The tale survives, furthermore, not simply as a quaint relic of days childlike in belief. Its world of magic is symptomatic of fevers deeply burning in the psyche: permanent presences, desires, fears, ideals, potentialities that have glowed in the nerves, hummed in the blood, baffled the senses since the beginning. Joseph Campbell - in his book Flight of the Wild Gander - posted on Myth*ing Links site

 

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Gods in Everyman is a companion volume to Goddesses in Everywoman. Both are the archetypes in us, based on the gods and goddesses in Greek mythology. People are complex, there is a pantheon of these archetypes in each of us. They act from within us, and the more we know of them, the more conscious we can be about ourselves, the better. Every archetype is a predisposition each contributes to our personality, helping define our strengths, difficulties, and meaning. ... I hope that people who read both books, will come away with a respectable knowledge of Greek mythology, a working understanding of Jungian archetypal psychology, and on a personal level, with insights into themselves and the significant people in their lives. ..... Jean Shinoda Bolen  - quotes and photo from jeanshinodabolen.com --Gods in Everyman: A New Psychology of Men's Lives and Loves by Jean Shinoda Bolen

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Feathers represent thoughts or fantasies; they replace, pars pro toto, birds, and the wind is a well-known symbol for the inspiring spiritual quality of the unconscious.  So this motif [in Grimms' fairy tale "The Three Feathers"] would mean that one lets one's imagination or thoughts wander, following the inspirations which well up from the unconscious. ... Instead of deciding out of ego considerations, you wait for a hunch from the unconscious and let it have a say in the matter. Marie-Louise von Franz - in her book The Interpretation of Fairy Tales artwork: The Snow Maiden; The Firebird - Russian Lacquer Boxes at Lacquerbox.com

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In my time I have been called many things: sister, lover, priestess, wise-woman, queen. Now in truth I have come to be wise-woman, and a time may come when these things may need to be known.  But in sober truth, I think it is the Christians who will tell the last tale. Forever the world of Fairy drifts further from the world in which the Christ holds away. I have no quarrel with the Christ, only with his priests, who call the Great Goddess a demon and deny that she ever held power in this world.  ...The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Hidden behind the eldritch mists of magical Avalon, Eilan grows into early womanhood as a priestess of the Old Religion. But then she becomes attracted to Constantius, a Roman officer with ambitions to greatness.  Defying the orders of her aunt Ganeda, the Lady of Avalon, Eilan takes the place of another priestess and partners with Constantius in a sexual rite destined to create a child who will restore Brittannia to its former greatness. ..[from review by Nalo Hopkinson] ...Priestess of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Diana L. Paxson

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Autumn Fairy by Mackey [painting]

Lady Cottington's Fairy Album book by Brian Froud

Good Faeries Bad Faeries Brian Froud

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Fairy tales are the simplest and purest expressions of the collective unconscious and thus offer the clearest understanding of the basic patterns of the human psyche. Marie-Louise von Franz - in her book The Interpretation of Fairytales

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In 1917, two teenage girls in Yorkshire produced photographs they had taken of fairies in their garden.  Elsie Wright (age 16) and her cousin Frances Griffiths (age 10) used a simple camera.... The girls said they could not photograph the fairies when anyone else was watching. No one else could photograph the fairies.  There was only one independent witness, Geoffrey L. Hodson, a Theosophist writer, who claimed to see the fairies, and confirmed the girls' observations in all details. .... Arthur Conon Doyle not only accepted these photos as genuine, he even wrote two pamphlets and a book attesting the genuineness of these photos... In 1982 the girls admitted.. they had faked the first four of the photos.  from page : Arthur Conan Doyle,  Spiritualism, and Fairies  ~ ~ ~

.. .. Four of the five pictures, for certain, are hoaxes. Both Elsie and Frances, however, insist that the fairies themselves were real. Frances saw them particularly often... And in the summer of 1918, Frances saw fairies as well as elves... Finally, she says, "I became so used to them that unless they did something unusual I just ignored them." ... from page: The case of the Cottingley fairies

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