Class Ideas from Week Three

We watched a short clip from the original Star Wars film, A New Hope (1977). You can watch the clip here: 

We also discused some of the tropes and themes in this clip: The Unlikely Hero, the Chosen One, The Mentor/Wizard, the Sidekick, the Evil Empire. His father wanted him to have the lightsaber, to become a Jedi; but he can’t get involved, it’s “such a long way away.” A simple farm kid who finds himself in the middle of a galactic struggle.

Here are some other themes and ideas that come out of our conversation and out of Chapters 3 & 4 in general:

MYTHIC HEROES

• Page 53: Why do some heroes become Myths—who undergoes an “apotheosis”? (54). What makes Luke or Harry Potter immortal?
• Page 55: Not whether he lived, or lived well, but that he was LARGER THAN LIFE
• Page 55: ZEITGEIST (The spirit of the age): myths represent the fantasies of the people, their importance to the present--not just an image of the past. 

 HEROES AS PROMETHEUS

• Page 44: HUBRIS—transgressing the Immortal Order, also, the fatal flaw that all heroes have. 
• Page 45: Is Myth a way to keep people in line? Did they really believe in it as scripture?
• Page 40: Gods were not moral, they were humans writ large...so not really a religion; more a way to interpret the past/present--which leads naturally to allegory (see below)
• Page 43: The Gods’ favor was enjoyed in this life, not the next: life after was pretty much assured...so why might this life matter more?

MYTH OR ALLEGORY?

• Page 56: Mythoi and Logoi: often, that which is logoi (factual) doesn’t inspire us—we want logoi that sounds like mythoi (stories, tales, lies); movies “based on a true story”
• Page 57: The myth of myth being “savage”: that myth was a primitive way of thinking that led to logic and philosophy 
• Page 62: Allegory saved myth—but the danger of allegory? Can it explain too much away? 
• Page 66: Important passage--allegory gives the reader control of the material; we are not beholden to the path or to an author. We get to choose how to read and how to adapt it to our own lives.