After Avatar premiered on the big screen I noticed it having a strange effect in some of those around me.  Then the headlines pointing out how there was a rise in depression from some who watched the movie.  This cause was pinned on the movie being “a little too real” CNN with that being followed up by pinning it on the intense visuals.

This left me curious, there is a real effect being caused but the explanation of visuals for the cause did not make sense.  After watching Avatar Eric and I talked about the experience and the feelings left behind and he pointed out the cause.

The Cause

Experiencing Avatar gives one a religious experience stimulating metaphysical urges.  If lacking in one’s life this will leave a longing, drawing attention to the emptiness that already exists in their life.  Due to our secular society this whole event is felt but probably not realized on a conscious level.

It’s Human nature

It’s human nature to feel the need for a connection.  This need is what drives us as a species to be social creatures.  This is not only one sought between each other but also between our environment around us and to a greater universe.

This is the deeper purpose that mythology and religion serve as they help us to get connected to one another, our environment and the greater universe.

Without it one is left with a restless longing.  This longing can be ignored or temporally filled but it still persists if those connections are not made.  Our secular society has become quite adept at even distracting ourselves so much that the longing is numbed.

How Avatar stimulates it

Avatar does something amazing by giving the viewer an experience of a beautiful setting in which the characters have a deep connection to each other, the environment around them and to a greater universe giving immediate validation of that connection.

This starts with the viewer being able to relate to Jake who through a dreaming state gets a direct neural transmitted connection to a Na’vi.  Through the Na’vi we are connected to the rest of the world around.

A Na’vi does not just climb on a mount and ride around or fly around on it.  They make a neural connection to the mount, a bond that is very deep and reciprocal.  It is a connection that has immediate reward and shown true through the creatures response.

They connect with those that came before them through the Tree of Voices.  This connects the Na’vi to their ancestors and validates this afterlife with immediate feedback.  Connecting to the Tree of Voices they can hear the voices of their ancestors.

The connection to a greater universe is shown through Eywa and the Tree of Souls.  Through this experience we see the validation of a person’s soul and it’s ability to transfer from one back into nature and even it’s ability to reincarnate transferring from one body to a new one.

The validation goes so far that even Eywa validates the prayers of the people.

The result

While experiencing the movie we also experience the deep connection and the validation of that experience.  Once the movie ends so does the experience.  The audience member returns to their life and if they have a longing it is made apparent and thus the feelings of depression and a strong desire to return to the Na’vi.

The sad thing is because we live in such a secular society many will not realize on a conscious level those metaphysical urges were stimulated.  Then the distractions set in and attempts to ignore the feelings.  Pushing the longing back down into the unconsciousness and Missing the opportunity to take edifying action.

Exploring Avatar’s Religious Elements

Eywa

Eywa is the great spirit of Pandora revered by the Na’vi and represented through the interconnectedness amongst all of the flora, fauna and indigenous peoples.  The Eywa is most represented through the Tree of Souls, Tree of Voices and the Atokirina which are little floating airborne jellyfish like creatures.

Emissaries of Eywa

The Atokirina’ are seeds from the Tree of souls that float around on the air of Pandora.  They are viewed and revered by the Na’vi as spirits sent from Eywa.  Their presence is viewed as a sign to the people to help them and guide them.

Tree of Voices

The Utral Aymokriyä is a tree kind of like a weeping willow but the branches hanging down are full of neural connections.  These trees are viewed as a sacred space.  The Na’vi can connect to the branches and hear the voices of their ancestors, kind of like a prayer space.  They also partake of the more sacred rights under the branches of the tree like marriage rights.

Tree of Souls

The Ayvitrayä Ramunong is a tree similar in appearance to the Tree of Voices except it has a massive root structure that is close to the surface.  The Tree of Souls can make neural connections to the Na’vi and other creatures around it by sending out many small tendrils.  Through that connection one can get a direct experience of Eywa.  They can even transfer souls from one body through Eywa and back into another body.

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How can dollhouse make me my best?  The other day was a particular difficult day.  My head was swarming with thoughts on work, family and life.  As thoughts go they were negative, pessimistic and petty.  It was a situation best defined as frustrated: to make ineffectual: bring to nothing.  That is when Dollhouse stepped in.

Suddenly I found my self sitting at a table with Echo.  Still tortured by my dark and debilitating thoughts she looked at me with child like innocence and asked:  Are you the best you can be?  She just sat studying me, waiting patiently for my answer.

What could I say?  The answer came to me within the blink of an eye.  The first and true answer was no.  Then my mind raced for a better answer to give.

A slew of excuses and nonsequiturs followed but none would placate nor be acceptable to Echo and I knew it. Anything other than a simple answer, that a Doll would understand, would result in more clarifying questions and confusion.  There I was, trapped, defeated in debate by a doll and her simple view to life.

I said “No, Echo, I was not being the best I could be.”  Something magical and amazing occurred next. She looked at me, smiled and told me “Then be your best.”

That’s it just be my best.  No complicated plan involving 12 improvement steps or some mystical path of personal social growth.  Just be my best.  Suddenly all of the possible options and worries over.  All of the thoughts over the should have could have would have that were making me ineffectual did not matter any more.  I was able to just be in the moment.

Next time when you are down, stressed, frustrated and don’t know where to go.  Pause for a moment close your eyes and imagine yourself sitting at a table in the tranquil Dollhouse with Echo sitting across you and have the conversation.  “Are you your best?”

For More Dollhouse click here

Get you copy from:

Listen to “Playing In The Dollhouse” a Dollhouse podcast here.

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Last time, we talked about Myth Makers, and I have say, this is a hard post for me to write.  I have talked about the hero’s cycle before, most notably when I defended it from the cretins at io9 in my Why the Hero’s Cycle Simply is.  The main reason I am having a hard time with this post is time.  There are books about it, and not one come close to describing it in the depth it deserves.  I will try my best to keep this short and to the point.

Monomyth

Joseph Campbell had an insight about the architectural underpining of every great story ever written.  He called this story the Monomyth or Hero’s Cycle.  Any time you have a story about good verses evil ,or struggle, or the search to get or destroy something, the monomyth is there.  I have yet to find a story that doesn’t follow the monomyth.

He presented it in his wonderful book Hero with a Thousand Faces.  While many writers have used it to inspire their fiction, Campbell’s purpose was to teach people how to read a story and discover its meaning.

The Lens of Mythology

Stories look very different when you read them through the monomyth.

Most stories start at the Call to Adventure, but that is always the case.  Any part of the cycle may contain an entire cycle within it, or they may be skipped in their entirety.

How to see the Monomyth

The cycle helps you isolate where you are in the story and dig into it a little deeper.

The call to adventure is the event that leads the hero to embark on the adventure.  The hero is ignorant about the true nature of the world and something causes them to seek a remedy for this ignorance.

Along the way they encounter a helper who is a part of the world they do not understand.  This helper could be good or evil.  Their motives are not important.  Their function is to give the hero the courage they need to cross the threshold of adventure.

A crisis befalls the hero and they find themselves somehow lost in unfamiliar ground.  They have no idea where they are or how they can ever get back.  It is too late.  They are committed to the adventure now.

The hero is tested to their limits, and constantly tempted to give up.  Along the way, the encounter more helpers.  Some may be the same as before, but his real challenge to is realize that there is something about them he has to incorporate into himself.  Unless he grows, taking on their positive characteristics and rejecting their negative ones, he will not be able to complete his task.

Next, he is face to face with the solution to the problem.  He has this last chance to decide if he really wants it or not, and how he is going to acquire it.

After he has gained the solution, he has to go back or get out.  If he was meant to have the solution, he will be aided in his flight.  If not, he will be pursued in his flight, the negative forces trying to destroy him.

The final challenge is to cross the return threshold and survive.  All of the negative powers are allied against him to make their last stand.

On the other side of the threshold, the hero must get the elixer to those who need it, completing his quest.

Every story follows this basic pattern.

How to use the Monomyth

Once you have isolated the individual parts, you can see the underlying core of the story.  The trick is to understand that this entire adventure has been a journey to mature and develop the mind of the hero.  Every element presented a psychological or archetypal piece of the puzzle that would make the hero into a hero.

After a while, it becomes second nature to see a story in this way, and to glean from it meaning that the writer might not have even realized was there.  It is a valuable tool to both the writer and the reader/viewer.

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Back in December, I took on Meg Guroff in my post, Fandom is not Obsessive Weirdoism! for saying:

One distinctly modern form of obsessive weirdoism is fandom: becoming so devoted to a work of art that you want to augment or even inhabit it. Out of this impulse was born the Klingon Language Institute (www.kli.org), the phenomenon of “fan fiction” (unauthorized stories by civilians advancing new plotlines of beloved films and TV series) (The Urbanite Magazine),

She responded by saying:

Hey, thanks for the shout-out, but anyone who reads the essay—or even just the rest of the sentence you truncated—would know that your outrage is misplaced. This passage is not an attack on fandom, it’s a defense of it. I’d invite the curious to read the essay for themselves or visit my (built, obsessive, weird) site at powermobydick.com. Best wishes.

Originally posted as a comment by Meg Guroff on dashPunk using Disqus.

The rest of the sentence I truncated simply said: “and also, one might argue, my ever-growing Moby-Dick website, which now includes not only a full annotation but also links to artwork, poems, movies, and even cartoons based on the book (The Urbanite Magazine).”  I am glad she enjoys working on a fan site, and I am sorry if I offended her by intimating she had attacked fandom, but the fact remains that characterization of fandom as obsessive and weird obfuscates the fact that what we are seeing is the birth of a new culture, not merely a niche cultural phenominon.

History of Fandom

Hugo Gernsback forged the modern Science Fiction genre in 1926 when he founded Amazing Stories magazine.  In the letters section, he published the addresses of the fans who wrote in.  Readers began to organize themselves into local clubs.  In 1934, Hugo founded the Science Fiction League, a correspondence club where local clubs could apply for membership.

Chicago’s Science Correspondence Club published the first known science fiction fanzine, The Comet, in 1930.  The first convention was held nine years later when at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, when the World Science Fiction Society held the first WorldCon.

Fred Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth, members of a New York fan club called The Futurians, wrote the oldest known filks in the 1950’s by taking the music from folk protest songs and changing the lyrics.

It wasn’t until the  1970 that the conventions grew in popularity as a result of Speculative Fiction taking on the role of mythology.  More people found Speculative Fiction gave them a set of values, goals, and practices. Through our conventions, filksings, fanfic, and fanfilm, we have developed a culture that is uniquely ours.

Pattern of Behavior

Fans don’t just watch the shows they love, or read the books, they devour them.  We take in these stories, critique them, and rush to share and discus them with our friends.  We often watch the shows or read the books multiple times to see if we missed something.

We flock to conventions to meet the stars, creators, and authors of the works we love, and to spend time reveling in the series we love.  We roleplay, craft fan works, and some even engage in cosplay and LARPing (Live Action Role Playing).

Characteristic Features

It is not hard to spot a fan.  The t-shirts we were, the calendars on our walls, the tchotchkes on our desks, and the phrases we like to use.  Many of us use fanspeak around mundanes and not realizing it until we see that confused look on their face, and realize we need to translate into English.

Shared attitudes, values, and goals

The one thing I have always found most intriguing about fans is how a true fan is not hard on new fans, and wants to make sure everyone is having a good time.

Most of us grew up with Star Trek, and took to heart the idea of IDIC (Infinite Diverity in Infinite Combination) to heart.  Where ever we are, we try to bring IDIC, foresight, and community with us.  Life is to be enjoyed, and nothing cuts off the fun quicker than bigotry, ignorance, or that one guy who is looking to have a good time at the expense of everyone there if necessary.

Fan culture is always developing.

Dear Meg

I wish you the best of luck with your Moby Dick site, and I hope I didn’t upset you further.  My complaint with your article was merely that you used the phrase “Obsessive Weirdoism.”

Any culture is “Obsessive Weirdoism” when viewed from the outside.  You have a fannish heart, and I think it is time you stopped talking in a way that excuses your fannish tendencies to the mundanes.  You are a fan.  Be out and proud about it.

At any rate, I am a little jealous, I can see the merit in Moby Dick, and I can understand from where your passion derives, but I don’t think I will ever share it.  You see something most of us don’t.  That is a gift.  Relish it.

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To mark the 10 year anniversary of the Project: Shadow Manifesto, we thought it was time to overhaul it again, but this time to open up the project to all of the like-minded fans out there who are tired of the status quo, and who are hungry for something new.

Brian and I drafted the original Project: Shadow Manifesto in 1999 as an outline we saw in professional publishing.  The original draft was heavy on problems, light on vision, and even lighter on solutions.  We took years investigating the limited options available at the time, built the original Project: Shadow, and I started writing.

In 2004, we revised the manifesto, and re-launched Project: Shadow.  The new draft focused on the solutions possible through new technologies.  The world/culture presented us with newer challenges.

We are fans.

We love our music, stories, characters, and settings.
We know about what we love.
We participate in what we love.
We support what we love.
What we love supports us.

At heart, a fan is not someone who enjoys a movie, a song, a band, a book, or a show.  A fan feels an intense connection with the object of their love.  Fans decorate their homes, offices, and desktops with items that announce their allegiance with their favorite bands, movies, shows, and books.

The problem with our popular culture is that it doesn’t blink at a sports fan wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with their favorite team, or even a replica jersey, but wear a Star Wars shirt or dress like a goth and they think they have the right to mock you.

What is the difference between a fan wearing a jersey to a game or fan bringing a light saber to a movie?  Or for that matter, what is the difference between a sports fan painting themselves up to go tailgating or a fan dressing as their favorite character at a convention?

Perception.  Pop Culture has classified sports fans as acceptable and speculative fiction fans as geeky.  I have to say, it is just as geeky to now all of the stats for everyone who has ever played for a particular sports franchise as it is to know the stats for every creature in the Monster Manual.  The only real difference is one fan accepts they are a geek, and the other pretends their geekiness is proof they are a jock.

The disapproval is the least of the problems facing today’s fan.

From Storytellers to Copyright

Problem: People are natural storytellers.  We hear a story, embellish it, and pass it on.

Solution: We tell each other stories, sing songs, write books, make videos, and create art to share these stories with each other.

Every story we tell is not original.  We like to tell the same stories over and over.  We borrow stories from any where and retell them in our own vernacular.  It is intrinsic to who and what we are to share stories with each other.

Problem: The only constant in the world is change.

Solution: We ask ourselves the question, “What if,” and share the answer with each other.

Problem: Artists and Writers need to make a living singing their songs, writing their books, making their videos, and creating their art.

Solution: We establish systems of Copyright.

The Cultural Cycle

Before the era of Copyright, stories, heroes, melodies, and lyrics belonged to the people.  Stories were told, and retold.  Numerous visions of each story competed against each other.  The best were remembered, collected, retold, embellished, and built upon.  The rest were forgotten.

Who told the first story about Hercules? Or Jason? or Troy?  Who started the legends of King Arthur? or Beowulf?  The first tales and their countless reiterations have been lost, but the best, most iconic stories survived.

Of all of Shakespeare’s plays, only a few comedies have no obvious sources, and even they rely upon well established patterns and archetypes.

This is the Cultural Cycle that keeps important stories alive.  Each generation must retell the tales of the preceding generations in their own context to keep them relevant.  This cycle has been broken.

• Problem: Companies lobby to prevent Intellectual Property from reentering the commons of the culture.
• Problem: Companies control the instruments of culture, making it harder to engage culture creatively.
• Solution: Fans retell these stories as not for profit tales, films, and  songs.
• Solution: Fans organize themselves into clubs and conventions.

These solutions are are not enough.  Fanfiction and film relies on the good will of the copyright holders and the fact that the fans do not make money from their works to slip through the thinnest of loop hole in copyright.  As a result, pop culture is unaware of the cultural developments and retelling of these new stories.  The subculture may be enriched by them, but the culture as a whole is not.

The Creative Commons and the Cult of the Dollar

Problem: Publishers and producers focus more on the commercial and popular value of a work, and the creative energy of the work suffers.  Readers/viewers will not become fans, and fans will not continue to accept passionless works of Speculative Fiction.

Solution: Placing honesty over consumerism, we fans must stake out our own home to create and share the works we love.  We must stand between the darkness and the light:  This is the purpose of Project: Shadow.

Problem: The Companies and Rights holders lashed out against the fair use of their properties.

Problem: Some Rights Holders have lulled fandom into a false sense of security by not suing and even encouraging those who produce fanworks

Creative Commons is one of many proposed solutions to this problem.  Others have lobbied for copyright reform.  Neither of these is a solution to the problems.

Copyright reform is a doomed enterprise while corporate lobbyists have the power they do over the congress.  While it is a goal to work for, it is just not realistic in the short term.

Creative Commons is closer to a solution, but the adoption rate has not been sufficient to even start chipping away at the problem.

The reason Creative Commons is an uphill battle is that it is a major evolution in the way rights holders handle permissions to use their work, and exists without an intermediary form.  Existing rights holders have not adopted it because they are unwilling to give up all the rights entailed under Creative Commons.

I approached the Creative Commons Foundation with a proposal for a Fan Works License:

Some of the rights holders I have talked to are reluctant to use the CC because they are concerned they are giving up too many rights to their works.  A Fan Works License would allow rights holders to clearly state what they will allow others to do with their characters, content, and settings.

It would be a bit more complicated than a standard CC, stating whether others may make original text, video, music, or art projects based on their works.  It would also allow them to set the content rating they would allow fan works to have.  This could be aligned with the MPAA ratings or the ESRB ratings system or an original system.  The reason for this is so a young adult novelist could set a max rating of PG-13, allowing others to know what standards they would apply to determine whether a fan work is legitimate or not.

The other terms would be the same as in the standard CC.

You may not think something like this is necessary, but the current state of fan works is hazy.  While few have been sued in the last couple years, at any time, rights holders could decide to start suing again.  By creating a license that covers works with the same characters and settings rather than a particular book or movie, I believe we could get more rights holders to use the license to allow for the creation of fan works, which is a step on the road to open up works to the commons.

They responded with a simple, “CC probably isn’t going to be expanding the license offerings, and in fact, over the past few years CC has been reducing the number of licenses.”

I do not believe that a fanwork or Creative Commons license is the ultimate solution, but as a possible stepping stone toward an open culture.

Progressive Speculative Fiction

• Problem: Modern and Post-modern fiction is antithetical to hope, imagination, and community
• Problem: Success is easier through snark, hate, and discrimination.
• Solution: We will promote, support and create Progressive Speculative Fiction.

What is Progressive Speculative Fiction?

Progressive Speculative Fiction is a story told in any medium which has a “What if” at its core and is filled with hope for the future and promotes a sense of community.

How can disaster fiction be progressive?

Watch a Godzilla movie or either The Day the Earth Stood Stills.  If there is nothing worth saving, then there is no tragedy.  The heroes must at least try to save someone or something worth saving.

How can horror be progressive?

Watch nearly any horror film made prior to 1990 or for the best example read The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker or anything by Anne Rice.  If life is not worth living or there is nothing worth defending, where is the horror.  If life is worthless, then death is merely a release from a nightmare.  There is nothing scary about it.  If there is no free will, nothing is lost by imprisonment or possession.  If sanity is not worth preserving, why bother.

What works are Progressive Speculative Fiction?

There are too many to mention all of them, but to offer a spectrum:

• The Matrix/ The Matrix Reloaded/ The Matrix Revolutions/ The Animatrix
• The Dark Knight
  
• Final Fantasy – The Spirits Within
  
• The Lord of the Rings
• Dune
  
• Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, and The Tale of the body Thief
• Godzilla

Just to name a few.

Mythos

• Problem: The word “Myth” has become a marketing term.

Homogenized works are released more often by the industry every year.  Focus groups and market analysis have replaced quality work, but since the cultural cycle is broken, industry has no alternative.  It is safer to release works like the ones that sold last year than it is to seek out new talent/ideas that would be more of a risk.

They know what the fans want.  We want myths, stories that speak to us on a deep level while entertaining us.  Myths are hard to make.  It is easy to add in a wizard or a starship and call it mythology.  Fans see through it, but the masses are looking for little more than sex, violence, and humor.  Speculative Fiction has been watered down to little more than:

• imitation space opera
• knock-off cyberpunk
• repackaging of the rings
• martial arts boom-boom
• torture porn

They, then, wrap it in a shiny box, slap the word myth, saga, legend, or reboot on it, and wait for the masses to spend their money on it… and they usually do.

We do not need another company driven by profit margins, or another author whose self-important propaganda obscures the art.

We need writers and artists that love what they are doing.

We need fans who are not afraid to speak their minds.

We need places in our towns/cities and online where we can meet and share the few gems that we find from the industry and from the independent artist, writers, and filmmakers who are still following their bliss rather than the dollar.

That is why we are here.  Project:  Shadow and dashPunk will provide a platform for writers, artists, filmmakers and fans to “follow their bliss.”  We are dedicated to finding and promoting the best Speculative Fiction out there: the little/well known writers, filmmakers, artists and works, fostering their talents, and helping them to not only follow their hearts, but to share that vision with others.

But we cannot do it alone!

Fandom Strikes Back

• Solution:  We must seek out and support the writers, artists, and producers that encourage and support fan works.
• Solution:  We must get writers, artists, and producers on the record about their position regarding fan works.
• Solution: We must live according to our values of hope, imagination, and community.
• Solution: We must build a community around hope, imagination, and community, and reject the rote cynicism that defines the faux-fandom that loves to tear things down rather than build things up.
• Solution: We must spread the stories, videos, songs, and art that speak to us.

Together, We can make dashPunk and Project: Shadow more than an idea or a website, but a vibrant community of fans who share the things we love with each other.

Together, we can make it easier to find and share the things we love and find new things to love.

Together, we can build a community of fans who support and engage one another for our mutual benefit.

Alone, none of us can stand up to the corporate powers who control the music, video, text, and art that we love, but together, our voice will be heard.

Fandom is a vibrant culture with its own music (filk), events (conventions), games, and myths.  Until now, we have gathered periodically, or in disparate groups. 

Now is the time to bring the great multitude of fan bases together.

Now is your time!  Copy this Manifesto.  Print it, post it, email it, share it!  Tell a friend, and most importantly Make your voice heard.

Download

• Project: Shadow Manifesto (PDF) (62.12 KB)
• Project: Shadow Manifesto (DOC) (47.5 KB)
• Project: Shadow Manifesto (RTF) (22.32 KB)
• Project: Shadow Manifesto (TXT) (13.1 KB)

Project: Shadow Manifesto by Project: Shadow is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at dashpunk.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://dashpunk.com/about/.

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Margaret Guroff  is health editor of AARP The Magazine. In her first story for Urbanite, she takes out her inability to build an annotated Moby Dick website out on all fans who are not so swift to give up.

One distinctly modern form of obsessive weirdoism is fandom: becoming so devoted to a work of art that you want to augment or even inhabit it. Out of this impulse was born the Klingon Language Institute (www.kli.org), the phenomenon of “fan fiction” (unauthorized stories by civilians advancing new plotlines of beloved films and TV series) (The Urbanite Magazine),

Merriam-Webster defines Obsession as:

a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling ; broadly : compelling motivation (M-W)

What she fails to see is that fandom is a nascent culture:

a: the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations b: the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group; also: the characteristic features of everyday existence (as diversions or a way of life} shared by people in a place or time <popular culture><southern culture> c: the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization <a corporate culture focused on the bottom line> d: the set of values, conventions, or social practices associated with a particular field, activity, or societal characteristic (M-W)

Fandom began to form in 1960’s and 70’s, as Speculative Fiction began taking on the role of mythology.  It gave a set of values, goals, and practices that have developed and grown over time.

Through our conventions, filksings, fanfic, and fanfilm, we have developed a culture that is uniquely ours.  Like all subcultures, it is misunderstood and mocked by the dominate culture.  The very idea that we are merely obsessing over favorite stories is an insult not only to us, but to every culture.  These characters are our heroes, and these stories are our folktales.

The problem we are having is that all of the foundations of culture now ( not just those of fandom) are copyrighted and sold by corporations that neither understand nor care that they wield so much power.  Just because our mythology is copyrighted does not change the power these stories have over our lives.  In fact, it only increases our outrage when our stories are treated with the same disdain that corporate media has for the mythology of the Greeks, Romans, or even the beloved stories of the Christian Bible.  The Corporation cares only for its own profits, not the effect it has on culture.

While our interest in these stories may seem obsessive to some, I wonder how they feel about those who share other folktales, or folk songs.  I wonder if she shares this same disdain for others who do not subscribe to her culture.  People mock what they don’t understand, and it is clear she just doesn’t understand.

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My favorite overly religious anti-religion crusaders who loves to appeal to emotion while pretending to appeal to emotion Richard Dawkins has set his mighty intellect against our children’s imaginations.

Prof Hawkins (sic) said: “The book I write next year will be a children’s book on how to think about the world, science thinking contrasted with mythical thinking.

“I haven’t read Harry Potter, I have read Pullman who is the other leading children’s author that one might mention and I love his books. I don’t know what to think about magic and fairy tales.”

Prof Dawkins said he wanted to look at the effects of “bringing children up to believe in spells and wizards”.

“I think it is anti-scientific – whether that has a pernicious effect, I don’t know,” he told More4 News (Telegraph)

Never mind that it is nearly impossible to solve problems without an imagination, or that mythic thinking is the way humans set themselves to a context that helps them make sense out of their lives, maybe we would be better off if we had more kids who are incapable of thinking in ways that are unconstrained the limits imposed upon them.

What am I saying?  This is what happens when the religion of science is confused with science itself.

It is not anti-scientific to have kids, or for that matter adults, read stories about wizards and magic.  In fact, mythic fiction is vitally important for people of all ages to read, watch, and assimilate into their minds and character.

All my life, I have been confronted by people who love to tell me the limits of what is possible.  Authorities love to set limits and criticize anyone who pushes on the boundaries of what is known or acceptable.  The most Important thing I have learned from Speculative Fiction is that limits could be illusions, and the only way to know for sure is to try to cross the line and see what happens.

Mythic Thinking is a skill.  It is the ability to taken in the world around you with all of the stories you have heard about what it is and why it is that way, and processing that into a cohesive worldview.  If we do not learn how to think in these grand mythic dimensions, we fell rudderless and adrift in a vast world that has no future and purpose.

Dawkins, like many of his ilk, confuses myth with religion.  Myths are the threads we weave around ourselves to better understand our place in the universe, society, and life.  Any story we believe in or that helps us understand how to live is a myth.

Please, Professor Dawkins, leave our kids alone.  Let them dream, hope, and if it is not too much to ask, poke at the limits you grew up with in hopes they might move forward in their understanding of life, the universe, and society.  Then, maybe, just maybe, they will expand that horizon for all of us.

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Before we can make any in depth study of Mythology, we have to understand what we are dealing with.

First, it must be understood that mythology is more than just the tales we have inherited from Homer, or the brilliant Sagas of the Norsemen.  It is even something more than “other people’s religion,” as Joseph Campbell used to jokingly say.

“A whole mythology is an organization of symbolic images and narratives, metaphorical of the possibilities of human experience and the fulfillment of a given culture at a given time (Joseph Campbell, Thou Art That, pp1-2).”

Myths are found in literature as well as in religion.  They speak to somewhere deep in our unconscious mind, and if we are lucky, they will instinctively guide our development.  Even though many of these myths change us through a process not unlike osmosis, it is important for us to learn how to recognize a myth, so we can choose whether or not we want to assimilate it into our lives.

Now I do not have the time or space in this essay to detail everything that needs to be said on the subject.  That is the purpose of the Foundation section of the website.  For now, I will focus on what I see that the most important aspect of mythology: how it functions in our individual and collective lives.

Where do Myths Come From?

“First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God (2 Peter 1:20-21, NRSV).”

This is perhaps the most misunderstood passage from the western tradition.  Many have used it to try to show the superiority of their particular theology over their rivals.  Others have disregarded it altogether, but it does answer the question of where myths come from.

Let’s take a look at Joseph Campbell’s explanation of the origin of myth, and pay close attention to how these two answers overlap:

“Mythology is composed by poets out of their insights and realizations.  Mythologies are not invented; they are found.  You can no more tell us what your dream is going to be tonight than we can invent a myth.  Myths come from the mystical region of essential experience (Joseph Campbell, Myths of Light, p xix).”

No one can invent a myth, but I would also contend that there is nothing spooky going on here either.  What is the difference between a myth and a good story?  The myth speaks to something deep down within our souls.  They tell us that their is more to the story than we caught at first glance.  Great stories don’t.

This is not because some spook is whispering arcane secrets into the poet’s ear, it is (more often than not) because the story took on a life of its own and carried the poet along with it.  It is only when the unconscious mind is active in the creative process that a myth can be born.  We all carry these forms within us.  It is for the artist to step aside long enough to let them show through.

A good example of this is George Lucas.  He set out to write a new myth, but found that it would not cooperate with him.  He had writer’s block.  Eventually, he put aside everything that he wanted to write about, and just wrote.  Star Wars is undoubtedly a triumph of the muse over the artist.

Once a myth is found by the poet, and they share it with society, it will take on a life of its own.  All myths operate in society in four ways.  In this, they help to shape culture, and are in turn shaped by it.

Mystical Function

“The first must be to open the mind of everybody in the society to that mystery dimension that cannot be analyzed, cannot be talked about but can only be experienced as out there and in here at once (Joseph Campbell, Myths of Light, p 5).”

This is where most western religions break down, and it is the aspect of modern myth that is most often overlooked.  The Mystical Function of a myth is to help the participant to realize that the outer forms that are portrayed are emblematic of the forces at work within the psyche.

Out there is really in here.  This is the first secret.  In the Matrix Trilogy, the mythic dimensions open to us when we see that the Matrix itself is symbolic of our mind, but the flood gates open when we can see that Zion is as well.  All of these outer images speak of internal conflict.  We all have our own Agents in our heads trying to fight against us.

Why do these aspects of our psyche come into view through these stories?  Because they are beyond naming, beyond analysis.  I will view the agent in completely different terms than you will, since he takes on aspects of our own inner struggle.  If I used something other than this mythic image, I could only explain my own inner demons, and you may or may not be able to relate.  Once it is concretized, it can only speak to my condition.  As a symbol it can speak to our condition.

The Architect and the Oracle are the best examples of what I’m talking about.  Many people I’ve talked to have compared them to God and the Devil, but few agreed on which was which.  Even when they did, they couldn’t agree to why.

We can also see these images as symbolic of the collective psyche of our culture or world.  As you can see, they still reveal the hidden indefinable aspects of our culture in terms that are useful to our minds, while leaving them open to interpretation.

That is the first function of myth: It speaks to the individual and the culture simultaneously, and helps them to see what is going on within them.

Cosmological Function

“The second function of a mythology is to present an image of the universe that connects the transcendent to the world of everyday experience (Joseph Campbell, Myths of Light, p 5).”

I really don’t want to get into the issue of whether or not there is a god, that is a topic for another set of articles.  What I am talking about now is simply “The Transcendent.”  Whatever that might mean to you: God, energy, higher dimensions, or the driving force of history itself.  There is something that transcends our ordinary experience.  Maybe it is something as simple as love, or cosmic order; but the question is, how does that relate to me?

In Babylon 5,  the question is approached from many angles.  Basically, a scientific answer is elevated to a level of cosmological significance: we are the universe trying to understand itself.  Here, the universe, the very unadorned ground of being is presented to us as the transcendent mystery, and we are fragments of that universe trying to comprehend itself in the only way it can: from the inside.

If this presentation of the mystery has any resonance within us, it provides a metaphor to understand our relationship to the transcendent.  Now, we have a window into our own everyday lives that we can use to understand why we are here, and what is the purpose of everything.

Sociological Function

“The third function is to present a social order by which people will be coordinated to the mystery (Joseph Campbell, Myths of Light, p 5).”

This is perhaps the most dangerous and controversial aspect of mythology.  The social order depicted is always tied directly to the same era as that the myth was composed in.  Very few myths are truly timeless.  Most are filled with archaic views that must be refuted for the myth to have any relevance in the modern world.  We do this all the time, often without even noticing.

Should we blindly accept these outdated concepts, we become a danger to ourselves and to civilization itself.  The news is full of examples of what I’m talking about.  We only have to look at the pro-lifer who shoots a doctor to “save lives,” or the events of 9/11.

That is why it is important to regularly question everything, even our most basic assumptions and beliefs.  It is not enough to just question, we have to be prepared to give up any belief we find to be false.

The Sociological Function of mythology does have a positive side.  It builds communities and fills them with a sense of common purpose.  The American Dream is one such myth.

Star Trek is a great example of this.  After being on television for only three years, it spawned a large community that grew, and even thrived in absence of any real input from those who created it.  Star Trek embodied the ideals of honor, courage, and IDIC.  IDIC is a concept indigenous to the Star Trek Universe: Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination.  The diehard fans of the series have taken these ideals to heart and actually try to live by them.  For all of the scorn heaped on the phenomenon, I think a lot of good has come out of it.  What better ideals for people to base their lives on?

This new social order arose from the myth of its own accord, and led many people to a better understanding of their place in the universe.

Vital Function

“Finally the fourth function of the mythology is to carry the individual through the course of life (Joseph Campbell, Myths of Light, p 5).”

From birth to adulthood to marriage to children to death, myths provide a pattern to help people understand their lives and give meaning to them.

For me the music of the band Queensryche has served this function quite well.  Not alone, I do have other influences, but they have developed with me.  From their albums Rage for Order and Operation: Mindcrime that helped me in my confused teen years, to Empire that opened my eyes to the real world around me, their music has been a companion sharing insight with me when I needed it most.  When I went out on my own and found out just how evil the world can be, Promise Land came out and helped me to realize that I was not alone, and their was a better future to work for.  Ever since 9/11, I had found myself in a haze.  Nothing seemed to make sense anymore.  Then came Tribe.  They gave words to my pain, a cure to my nightmares, and renewed hope for the future.

In every stage of my life so far, they have told a tale to illuminate the way.  That is the Fourth Function of myth.

Unconventional Myths

I have used many different mythologies to explain the four functions of myth.  I could have used just one for all of them, but I wanted to illustrate a point.  We don’t have to choose one mythology to the exclusion of everything else.  Each of these myths have something different to say, and each one speaks to the soul in a different way.  Together with many others, they have helped me to be the best me I can be, and that is what all myths are meant to be.

Some people may object to me calling some of these myth:  “They are just entertainment.  Aren’t you taking them too seriously?”

The answer is no.  Myths are discovered, not made (remember?).  Science Fiction, Fantasy, horror, and non-classical music are usually relegated to a second class status to more “realistic” genres.  They are no less capable of delivering insight than Joyce or Hemmingway.  Much ink has been spilled on them, it is time to open the closet and let the other genres out to have their moment in the sun.

Footnotes

The scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, Copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.

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I went out to write at the San Francisco Bread Company today. The longer I write, the more I realize how important it is to get out of the house, even if it is only to sequester myself at a small table in a cafe with my headphones on listening to music, surfing the web, struggling with new concepts and editing a book I wrote that I actual enjoy reading.

It is odd how something as simple as a change of venue from my office to a cafe can change my mood and energy level, but I have read enough from other writers to know that I am not alone.

I have a theory about why something as simple as a change of venue can so profoundly effect a writer’s mood.

I started writing as a defense mechanism. As a child, I grew up on a farm miles from the closet kid my age. I spent most of my time either on the phone, outside with my dog Red, or in my room inventing new stories with my Voltron and He-man action figures. When this wasn’t enough, I started drawing crude comics and playing out a sort of paper theater with playing cards and my imagination. Through all this, my imagination was fueled by He-man, She-ra, Transformers, the books of Edgar Allen Poe and Mark Twain, and the fantasy world of Dungeons & Dragons. I didn’t have anyone to play with, so I spent my time making up stories about these fantastical creatures, demigods, and demons. The music of Kiss and Dolly Pardon filled my nights in my room watching “Too Close for Comfort” dreaming of the day I would write my own “Cosmic Cow” strip.

When we moved to Maryland, things got worse. I had a strong accent, which got me beaten up in school a lot, and I had not people skills so the few friends I did make really had to work hard to get past my clumsy social interactions. I didn’t know how to relate with these “people.” They were so different from me, and they expected me to know how to act with them. I just didn’t.

My salvation came through The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, and my knowledge of Dungeons & Dragons. I played these games with them as a means of interacting. They gave a structure to our together time and gave me a common language to speak. In time, we added Marvel Superheroes, Robotech, Earthdawn, and the many classic White Wolf storyteller games- Vampire: The Masquerade, Were-wolf, Mage: The Ascension, Changeling: The Dreaming. In fact, I became friends with Brian through a Vampire Chronicle.

Through this role as the storyteller, Star Trek Fandom, and my near obsessive interest in music, I found my medium to talk to others.

Storytelling is who I am. It is how I comprehend the world and explains why I am so deeply involved with the works of Joseph Campbell. This is who I am for better or worse. From the many biographies about other writers I have read, I think we have all taken up the life of a storyteller as some sort of defense mechanism or way to make sense of the world. It is easier to lock yourself away from the world than to jump in and struggle within it.

When I force myself out of my cave, even if only to isolate myself from the settings I find myself in through headphones and work, it reminds me that the outside world is still there. It lets me see how people actually interact with each other, for better or worse, and on those rarest of occasions, allows me to have incredible conversations with people face to face.

It is hard to explain how isolating is can be at times to be a storyteller. The hours, days and weeks spent locked away from the world crafting a reality that I hope others will experience and enjoy with the same fervor that I do. The simple act of seeing other people and hearing other voices enlivens me.

Like other writers, I am an observer of life much more than I am a participant in it. These little glimpses of the world outside my friends and family and the characters I write about (feels more like with sometimes), grounds me and helps connect me with the bigger world that is so easy to let slip away.

I wish more people shared this experience. Looking out at this world of strangers that I may or may not ever see again, and watching the plots they have entwined themselves in. We all tell our own stories. That is the art of conversation, to weave an entertaining tale about ourselves and others. As these plot lines co-mingle and intertwine, the story of our family, friends, city, state and nation are told. These stories often matter more than the facts. (whether or not that should be true or not is a whole other discussion).

I recommend that you give this a try. Next time you are out with friends, watch the stories that you are telling each other closely and follow them out as if they are plot lines in a novel, movie, or television show. It is startling how often you can predict other peoples actions by listening to their backstory, current plot, and projecting that out as it would play out in the genre appropriate to the person. I am not saying that this is always the case, but more often than not you will be able to see what will happen before it does. This is also the best way to choose your course of action. How will your action effect the other all story. Try it out, I think you might be pleasantly surprised.

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When I was first getting into Speculative Fiction, it had a spirit of activism, adventure, and dream to it that so much modern fiction simply lacks. Pioneers in this field, Frank Herbert, Gene Roddenberry, Harlan Ellison, David Gerrold, et al, believed that SF could challenge peoples preconceptions and inspire them to transcend the limits imposed upon them by their upbringing and culture. They wrote and produced SF that attacked our sacred cows, presenting the world as it could/should be with all of the ambiguity and possibility that this world offers us.

This is the SF I fell in love with and endeavor produce and support. The trite cynicism that has again become en vogue is antithetical to this spirit of transformative fiction that inspired so many to fall in love with science and hope for a better world. It does not have to go this way. We must reclaim the spirit and art that made SF great.

The root of the problem is the basic existential quandary we each experience in our time. We hope for a meaning and purpose for our lives and when we find that nature does not provide us with an easy answer we can slavishly follow after, we assume life is devoid of meaning and purpose all together. Nihilism is an easy trap to fall into, but is also an easy one to escape.

Sure, life has no grand overriding purpose… or does it? Life seems to exist to survive, thrive, and evolve. With the exception of evolution, these are not very inspiring goals, but the urge to better ourselves and grow throughout our life is a fundamental function, if not purpose of existence.

This is no reason to despair. The fact that life does not impose a purpose on us allows us to find or invent one for ourselves. What a liberating gift from the universe! We are free to choose our purpose and to find meaning for ourselves.

Now, I won’t lie to you. This is a burden to bare, there is no doubt about that, but it is a burden that is easy for us to take up, if we choose to live boldly.

For too long, I have lived my life under the constraints and limitations placed upon me by society. I allowed myself to fall under this nihilistic stupor, but I have had enough.

This is why I am not a fan of Battlestar Galactica or Heroes. They have followed this cynical path into a nihilism I find neither sophisticated nor mature. It is solipsistic and puerile. Yes, life can be dark, but no one benefits from wallowing in that darkness.

When I was growing up, I became an avid fan of Goth Rock, Deathrock, Punk, and Metal. At their bests, these genres are about rising up and railing against these cynical worldview foisted upon us. “Only Theatre of Pain” (Christian Death) is the music of defiance, not acquiescence. Black Sabbath sang in anger at the darkness of life. At their best, these are songs about standing up and not about being trodden under foot.

We have to rise up, stand up, speak out, and most of all dream. If we do not, then the future is indeed lost, but not because of destiny, but because we have let it follow that path.

Dream again, and dream big. Find something to be for, not something to be against. We are strong and imaginative enough to rise above any darkness that comes upon us. Rise up! Let’s take our future back!

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