been a while, eh?
I've done some work it's true - but mostly i've been on second life . . .
gotta start practicin what i preach man, but it's hard - especially when I'm in school doing neccisary things and not creative things. ( some creative things )
I had to take out my lip ring. there's a narly bump there
and I'm just over it. The monroe's doing fine though, the doth too. Yiesh - need to photo my newly tattooed back too to show y'all. Where does the time go . . .
new deep thought:
last week we were studying coming of age rituals in africa in one class, and the Myth of the Frintier in my political philosophy class.
I made a creepy connection between the two.
So the frontier myth is supposedly america's cultural myth (story that we keep telling over and over and the lense through wich we interpret out place in the world) it's also the basic plot structure found in all western movies.
It goes like this: young man is stifled by society, weighed down by material posessions, etc. Then he goes into the frontier and is accompanied by an older charecter. The frontier can be the "wild west" or some other place that isn't civilized or maped out. There they confront the savage. The savage started out as the native american but now it can be any peoples or things that need to be eradicated in order to preserve "civilization". In order to become an adult the younger charecter has to kill the savage basically - this is called regeneration through violence. Then they return to society and the boy is a man, the day is saved, etc.
(there are a lot more detail to this. If you're interested this is all from the intro and first chapter of the book Gunfighter Nation by Richard Slotkin 1993)
switch geras!
All over traditional africa there are coming of age cerimonies that have a similar basic structure. The initiate is taken out of the vilage by the elders - they "die" as adolescents and spend some amount of time secluded in the "underworld". This can mean that they are confined to a hutt or are confined to the wilderness. certan elders are allowed to see them and assist in the ritual. There is usually some form of meditation or experiance in the underworld - physical or mental transformation - usually both. then they are "born" as adults and are brought back into society, there is a dance and celibration - they are now adults.
so in discussion I had the epiphany that the frontier myth retold through movies is our american coming of age ritual - but we don't know this culturally and are doing a shitty job of it. I think it's a coming of age ritual because of the regeneration through violence and the overtones of coming to maturity, finding manhood etc. that prevail in movies with this plot structure ( not all movies have this styructure but a hell of a lot do). The interesting difference is that we regenerate through violence against an "other" whereas in pre-western cultures the regeneration is done through violence against the self - death and rebirth. Also we personify the savage, whereas they confront the savage in the underwold - land of the dead - but recognize that savagery is in everything and cannot be eradicated, rather, should be dealt with and acknowlaged.
this American tendancy to point the finger as others when we are the ones with internal problems is pissing me off right now. We are never able to admit that we have faults and so are never able to deal with them - we can't see them/ are told to ignore them. Villians are villans, we are blind to the progression of events that led them to make those atrocious choices, or make shit up.
this is part of linear thinking too - it must always go foreward, reach outside itself instead of come back to itself and find sustainability internally. ugh
we have streyed so far . . .
I miss my magic but I have no time or energy - or am I just saying that, pointing the finger at something elce . . .
I've done some work it's true - but mostly i've been on second life . . .
gotta start practicin what i preach man, but it's hard - especially when I'm in school doing neccisary things and not creative things. ( some creative things )
I had to take out my lip ring. there's a narly bump there
and I'm just over it. The monroe's doing fine though, the doth too. Yiesh - need to photo my newly tattooed back too to show y'all. Where does the time go . . .
new deep thought:
last week we were studying coming of age rituals in africa in one class, and the Myth of the Frintier in my political philosophy class.
I made a creepy connection between the two.
So the frontier myth is supposedly america's cultural myth (story that we keep telling over and over and the lense through wich we interpret out place in the world) it's also the basic plot structure found in all western movies.
It goes like this: young man is stifled by society, weighed down by material posessions, etc. Then he goes into the frontier and is accompanied by an older charecter. The frontier can be the "wild west" or some other place that isn't civilized or maped out. There they confront the savage. The savage started out as the native american but now it can be any peoples or things that need to be eradicated in order to preserve "civilization". In order to become an adult the younger charecter has to kill the savage basically - this is called regeneration through violence. Then they return to society and the boy is a man, the day is saved, etc.
(there are a lot more detail to this. If you're interested this is all from the intro and first chapter of the book Gunfighter Nation by Richard Slotkin 1993)
switch geras!
All over traditional africa there are coming of age cerimonies that have a similar basic structure. The initiate is taken out of the vilage by the elders - they "die" as adolescents and spend some amount of time secluded in the "underworld". This can mean that they are confined to a hutt or are confined to the wilderness. certan elders are allowed to see them and assist in the ritual. There is usually some form of meditation or experiance in the underworld - physical or mental transformation - usually both. then they are "born" as adults and are brought back into society, there is a dance and celibration - they are now adults.
so in discussion I had the epiphany that the frontier myth retold through movies is our american coming of age ritual - but we don't know this culturally and are doing a shitty job of it. I think it's a coming of age ritual because of the regeneration through violence and the overtones of coming to maturity, finding manhood etc. that prevail in movies with this plot structure ( not all movies have this styructure but a hell of a lot do). The interesting difference is that we regenerate through violence against an "other" whereas in pre-western cultures the regeneration is done through violence against the self - death and rebirth. Also we personify the savage, whereas they confront the savage in the underwold - land of the dead - but recognize that savagery is in everything and cannot be eradicated, rather, should be dealt with and acknowlaged.
this American tendancy to point the finger as others when we are the ones with internal problems is pissing me off right now. We are never able to admit that we have faults and so are never able to deal with them - we can't see them/ are told to ignore them. Villians are villans, we are blind to the progression of events that led them to make those atrocious choices, or make shit up.
this is part of linear thinking too - it must always go foreward, reach outside itself instead of come back to itself and find sustainability internally. ugh
we have streyed so far . . .
I miss my magic but I have no time or energy - or am I just saying that, pointing the finger at something elce . . .
VIEW 13 of 13 COMMENTS
In fact, I probably spend as much time imagining as some people do playing games. I try to do as much translation of those imaginings into reality as possible.
I deleted most of this because I was being just too literary and intellectual
Your journal entry was interesting though, keep on writing and thinking
[Edited on Mar 03, 2006 6:00AM]