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the shadow self : page 2......
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To create convincing antagonists, you've got to believe in the reality of evil. If you think evil isn't a real force in the world, if you think everyone could be reformed with enough psychiatric analysis and compassion, you don't understand the darker side of human nature, and your villains won't ring true.
Dean Koontz [quoted in The Written Word list
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I was really afraid of horror movies when I was little. I remember being so scared watching Children of the Corn. When the first scen came on, they showed the corn and a creepy diner, and that was it. I had to stop watching. ... My biggest fear would be life... or definitely, myself. I think that's at the core of most horror movies or even movies like The Wizard of Oz.
You think you have to go through this thing, but you end up having to face yourself. I think, to me, that's the scariest thing. Not living up to my potential is the only thing I really have to fear.
Erica Leerhsen... [Ingenue, Oct 2003]
photo at center: as 'Pepper' in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
related page: fear
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Carol Clover has been one of the most articulate academics that supports horror films. Interviewed in "Nightmare," she says that going to see a movie shouldn't be about being safe or feeling good.
Instead, it's an opportunity for us to explore the darker side that we normally can't or don't explore in real life, and hence horror movies perfectly serve that purpose.
from indierag.com review of film American Nightmare
*related books:
Men, Women, and Chain Saws by Carol J. Clover
The Dread of Difference : Gender and the Horror Film by Barry Keith Grant
The Naked and the Undead : Evil and the Appeal of Horror by Cynthia A. Freeland
".. seeks to counter both aesthetic disdain and moral condemnation toward horror by focusing on
a select body of important and revealing films, demonstrating how the genre is capable of deep
philosophical reflection about the existence and the nature of evil -- both human and cosmic....
the book examines a wide array of films including The Silence of the Lambs, Repulsion, Frankenstein,
The Fly, Dead Ringers, Alien, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Interview with the Vampire, Psycho, Frenzy,
Blue Velvet, Eraserhead, Hellraiser, and many others." [Amazon.com review]The Return of the Repressed : Gothic Horror from the Castle of Otranto to Alien by Valdine Clemens
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Another first, according to Dakota Fanning, nine, was getting to 'flip the bird'
in [her movie] Uptown Girls."It was something I had to do for a movie, for a movie!" she exclaims
while grinning ear to ear.Venice mag interview by Jose Martinez, Aug 2003
Was it good therapy playing a character like Ginger? Oh yeah, Ginger is an exaggeration of my bad side. I even have a pony called Ginger, and she's a total cow. You don't get the chance to rage like that very often.
Katharine Isabelle .. [bbc.co.uk interview]
Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle, far right, in "Ginger Snaps" [2000] [dvd] [photo from ginger-snaps.com]
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Rollo May introduces and defines the classic Greek conception of the "daimonic" or darker side of our being, noting that "the daimonic (unlike the demonic, which is merely destructive) is as much concerned with creativity as with negative reactions. ... constructiveness and destructiveness have the same source in human personality. The source is simply human potential." from interview with Stephen A. Diamond, PhD: The Psychology of Creativity
| Daemons
came into my head suddenly and unexpectedly, but they do have a sort of
provenance. One clear origin is Socrates' daimon. Another is the old idea
of the guardian angel.
****author
Philip
Pullman***[from
interview on achuka.co.uk/ppint.htm]
In the ancient world the term 'genius' essentially meant the tutelary spirit, the daimon, of every person. The philosophic conviction that each human being is guarded by his or her own spiritual genius was strongly held in Roman times.**[ from a page of the Theosophy Library Online: theosophy.org/tlodocs/Daimon.htm ] |
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| Lyra,
the [young girl] protagonist of Northern Lights, has a Daemon called Pantalaimon.
He is her always present friend and also her counsellor and adviser.
It is he who admonishes her when she is not doing the proper thing and it is he who spies for her to make sure "the coast is clear". Lyra's Daemon can also be her courage ... When the humans are still young, the Daemons are able to change into other shapes, other animals. When Pantalaimon needs to hide he is transformed into a moth and when he wants to show politeness he becomes an ermine. from article Northern Lights and the Significance of Daemons painting, Lady With The Ermine, Leonardo da Vinci (c. 1482-1483) - from site |
 |
 **books
by Philip Pullman :
His
Dark Materials Trilogy:
front cover of The Subtle Knife - image from darkmaterials.com > |
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Dr. Hannibal 'The Cannibal' Lecter [Anthony Hopkins] The Silence Of The Lambs***dvd****book
< left image from book: Movies of the 90s by Jurgen Muller
We admire [Lecter] in a secret, perverse way. He represents the unspeakable part of ourselves, the fantasy, desires and dark areas of our lives that are slightly unacceptable to us, but actually healthy, if we only acknowledge them. Perhaps, we'd like to be as certain of things and as dare-devil as him. But admiring him doesn't mean we're deeply disturbed, sick people. It just means that we're human. We're all flawed, deeply damaged, imperfect beings. We're corruptible, shabby, grubby, great, magnificent and all the rest of it.
That's why we like watching Hitchcock's "Psycho", "Jaws" and going on rollercoasters. We like to be thrilled, entertained, surprised and frightened. We like to see the bad guy get his just desserts, see Dirty Harry say: "Make my day."
Anthony Hopkins - about returning to play Hannibal Lecter in "Red Dragon"**[reddragonfm.co.uk interview]
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The only world I'm interested in showing you around is animated by beliefs and humanity. I'm as confused and self-centered and angry as anyone, but that's the world I can be the tour guide for. ... My parents had an awful marriage and stayed married for 28 years... [Intellectual discussions were encouraged, but shows of emotion weren't permitted.] Everything was about armor and appearance. My mission has been to get some of the armor off, and be more of a visible mess, and talk about it in a way that's funny so people can say, "Thank you. Me, too."***Anne Lamott
[from "Anne Lamott's work confronts real-life anger and pain" by Beverly Beyette, LATimes, Sept 16 2002]
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"Maybe our demons are our closest allies." Ben Kingsley - about facing deep rage and grief when acting
in "Schindler's List" [Charley Rose Show, 7.3.01]~ ~ ~ ~
There's so much of our psychological makeup which is impermissible for us to explore because it's inappropriate or perverse or scary. I'm interested in exploring that in myself.****Annette Bening
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| The more conflict, the more
rage, the more anxiety there is, the more the inner necessity to create.
Gifted individuals, those with a genius (incidentally, the Latin word for
daimon) feel this inner necessity even more than the rest of us, and in
some respects experience and give voice not only to their own demons
but the collective daimonic as well.
So they are kind of like little oracles of Delphi, or canaries in a coal mine, sensing the dangers, the conficts, the cultural shadow, and trying to give it some meaningful expression. ... Creativity is one of humankind's healthiest inclinations, one of our greatest attributes. Stephen A. Diamond, Ph.D. / book: Anger, Madness, and the Daimonic: The Psychological Genesis of Violence, Evil, and Creativity by Stephen A. Diamond, PhD interview: The Psychology of Creativity : redeeming our inner demons >> The Delphic Oracle by John William Godward (1899) [detail] [image from artrenewal.org] |
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Jung first gave us the term "shadow" to refer to those parts of our personality that have been rejected out of fear,
ignorance, shame, or lack of love. His basic notion of the shadow was simple: "the shadow is the person you would rather not be."You must go into the dark in order to bring forth your light. When we suppress any feeling or impulse, we are also suppressing
its polar opposite... Our full magnitude is more than most of us can ever imagine. ...Many of us have spent too much time chasing the light only to find more darkness. "One does not become enlightened
by imagining figures of light," said Jung, "but by making the darkness conscious."
related page: .....depth psychology
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One of the courses I took [at Northwestern] was on the works of Dostoyevsky. ... I was struck by the depth of his characters -- maybe because I had decided to become an actor. They are so unbelievably rich and complex -- you pity them, you loathe them, you feel for them. And the first line of "Notes.." is an absolute classic: "I am a sick man... I am a spiteful man." Such a great way to start an exploration of the dark side of the human condition.
Marg Helgenberger****[actress: "C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation" TV Series] [O, The Oprah Magazine, Feb. 2002]
**Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
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| Every
experience of our life has contributed a distinct and essential ingredient
to the recipe called "you." It's fairly easy to see how your positive attributes
contribute to your unique recipe. You can probably appreciate how your
talents, your natural abilities and your childhood dreams have added to
your life and to the person you've become.
But the traumatic events in your life - the experiences that left wounds within you - are an equally important part of the mix that will help you become all that you can be. Every insecurity, every fear, every tragedy, obsession, broken relationship and shameful incident, holds clues that are leading you toward your most magnificent self. from The Shadow Process Newsletter / November 2001 on Debbie Ford site: DebbieFord.com *book: The Secret of the Shadow : The Power of Owning Your Whole Story by Debbie Ford |
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| "I had
dealt with my childhood rape in therapy, through acting out sexually, through
self-medication, through spiritual work, by talking about it, by making
public confessions, by every means possible, but I was still in a dark
place," she recalls.
Somehow, by reliving her rape through creating a fictional version of it, she has now been able to move on, she says, putting the event behind her. about Allison Anders and her film "Things Behind the Sun" [womensenews.org Jan. 4, 2002] < related article: Cognitive Accommodations to Childhood Sexual Abuse by Douglas Eby |
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I liked the total surrender of emotional control [from being scared when I was young]. It was very important to me, and I would almost be willing to say, a life-saver. I'd been raised in a family where emotional control was a very important thing: you weren't supposed to show you were afraid... in pain, or frightened or sad. Happiness was permissible as long as it didn't go too far. One might almost be considered insane if one got too happy. Stephen King [from interview by Terry Gross, NY Times, May, 1994]
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| Really though, you can't psychoanalyze
genius. He certainly had his demons, demons I think the press fed. One
day he was America's greatest painter and the next, was passe. But all
that stuff, his work, that they said was turmoil, I find there is peace
in it.
It's work that just functions as a whole. I think that's why, while doing this, I really fell in love with both the work and the man. screenwriter Barbara Turner - about
Jackson Pollock, and writing the screenplay for the film Pollock*
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*
"We're all a mishmash of extremes. I know that I have demons. I don't know if I want to get rid of them altogether, but I would like to experience them in a different way. Maybe go face to face with them." Johnny Depp
from cover of book:
Holy Terrors : Gargoyles
on Medieval Buildings~ ~ ~ ~
Melanie Shatner thinks that roles for women that explore attitudes and behavior that are not socially acceptable, or are otherwise difficult, are valuable: "Getting in touch with the darker, shadow sides of my personality is amazing and exactly where I want to go with my acting. "I think it's the most fun and the most gratifying to do. The hardest and the most gratifying. You can find the most creative parts of yourself when you're willing to work with the stuff that terrifies you."
from article: Women and Violence On Screen
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