Evan Shively-Class Reading Journey Symbol

In this essay on the journey symbol the writer states seven common traits of these journeys. He states;

Spiritual journey narratives typically involve commonplace and sometimes overlapping episodes, characters, objects, and qualities, including: (1) challenge or reproof by a young woman, frequently with an aura of supernatural prophecy to her words; (2) guidance from a wise old man or woman, often a hermit or a monk; (3) instances of wandering seen as sin and a diversion from the quest or pilgrimage; (4) the necessity of a test or tests of one's spiritual powers and/or resolve to continue the journey to its conclu-sion; (5) a precious object and/or person to be found and/or pos-sesscd; (6) guardians of the object or person who must be overcome; and (7) helpers who assist the hero/pilgrim!

Liminality and Communitas 

I never saw this model before but it certainly makes sense. For example the star wars films. Young Luke Skywalker is the chosen hero of the force, a young boy who has a prophecy surrounding him. He is given guidance by the wise hermit Obi Wan. In return of the Jedi and the in-between section he is tempted to wander into the dark side of the force. He has spiritual powers in the force that he must use to resolve the plot. He uses the lightsaber of his father. He must defeat the evil side of the force and he does this with the assistance of friends and helpers. It is interesting to see multiple films through this journey common model. 

Evan Shively- Class Readings C.S Lewis

In this essay by C.S Lewis from his Space trilogy he describes the goddess sister of eros. The character who sees tis Goddess is not overtaken by flowers and popular descriptors of love. Instead it is something so beautiful that he seems to taunt her. The room becomes overwhelmed by burning fire. Everything the goddess touches lights up in flames. This depiction of desire reminds me of the movie "Like water for Chocolate", in which the girl becomes aflame with sexual desire. Flames although not the first thing people think of, is a very potent metaphor for desire. The second part of the essay that stood out to me was the quote at the end; 

"On the contrary," said Ransom, "decent, in the old sense, decens, fitting, is just what it is. Venus herself is over St. Anne's"

"She comes more near the Earth than she was wont," quoted Dimble, "to make men mad."

This great desire represented by the goddess is one present on earth in an imperfect. It is unable to be fully grasped but exist in small experiences. This is very Platonic in thought. The perfection exists in the abstract world but cannot be fully experienced on earth in the material. 

Evan Shively-Class Reading Symposium Plato

This short exert from Plato's symposium exams love from the viewpoint of Socrates. Socrates asks an oracle to describe for him love in order to draw out the idea of what love really is.  This quote in particular stood out to me;

"To what you have asked," I replied, "I have no answer ready." "Then," she said, "Let me put the word 'good' in the place of the beautiful, and repeat the question once more: If he who loves good, what is it then that he loves? "The possession of the good," I said. "And what does he gain who possesses the good?" "Happiness," I replied; "there is less difficulty in answering that question." "Yes," she said, "the happy are made happy by the acquisition of good things. Nor is there any need to ask why a man desires happiness; the answer is already final."

It was quite funny for me when I read this part. It reads exactly like the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas basically states many of the same points. That all men seek happiness and that it is through love that man seeks this good and happiness. Aquinas goes one step further and states that the perfect good which is described as love in the essay is God. Many people equate God with love which gives a different meaning to many of the movies we see. 

Evan Shively- Class Film

What stood out to me in the movie was the scene you played for us earlier in the year. The scene contains a church with the backdrop missing as it is beginning to be tore down. The preacher stands in front of a backdrop of nature and mountains. This to me reminds me of the naturalistic roots of christianity. If God is creator then earth is his creation. The man made structures that we invest so much into, are merely that man made. Nature however, is created through a divine hand. It is weird to me that churches often times separate people from nature instead of worshiping in nature. For me nature brings me closer to God, churches should not shut that out. 

Evan Shively- Class Film Oz

Oz is a remaining of the classic Wizard of Oz. Taking place in the same colorful universe, Oz the great banker metaphor comes to the world for the first time and engages with many of the iconic characters. The film centers around the relationship between Oz and the three witches as he tries to determine which witch as evil motives. Mila's character becomes transformed into the wicked witch of the west after having her heart broken. The movie if anything just made me feel sorry for her character who eventually gets melted in the original classic. What stood out to me about the film was the use of CGI. I read a review on the film comparing it to the new star wars movies. The critic states that Oz is like the new star wars series in the way it uses CGI to explore an older universe. Like the new star wars movies this is not done nearly as successfully despite the added technology. It brings to question the role of technology. Despite how beautifully the environment might look there is a slight distachment between the actors and the environment. What makes the original star wars so effective was how real the sets seemed. They were lifelike which allowed the audience to supplant themselves into the fantasy environment. 

Evan Shively- Class Film Short Films

In today's class we watched numerous short films in order to explore film techniques and way in which the director communicates with his audience. While I liked a lot of the scenes I was unable to take a lot of meaning from them due to the shortness of the clips. However, I did appreciate some of the subject matter even if it wasn't overtly religious. The use of color in the film about the lost man really stood out to me. It reminded me of the film American Beauty which uses a red rose as a major symbol in the film. It was cool to see it used in a different way in this film to draw connections between the characters. 

Class Film-Donnie Darko Evan Shively

Donnie Darko is one of those films that in my psych is completed tied to a period of my life and the people I shared it with. In high school me and a group of friends would watch films, usually while a little inebriated. Donnie Darko was one of my friends favorite films and he even had a copy of the time traveling book which came with the special edition of the film. The book and the explanation that comes with it places a entirely different meaning to the film and makes it all the more interesting. The notion of destiny and parallel time line swear something that kind of obsessed him and we would have numerous argument about it. In many ways my friend emulated Donnie in real life. He had a lot of social anxiety and was on multiple medications for it. They often times made him feel like his emotions were suppressed and often made him question the purpose of his life. Darko is given purpose and is the chosen one to realign the time paradox that threatens to just destroy the world and the people in it. It is a fantasy tale like all other fantasy stories yet with a hero that can be related too. Most films have a hero with some fault or make the hero a simply farmer, Donnie Darko however, creates a hero who is depressed and apathetic towards life. He is anti-social and in incredibly pain because of it. No one even knows that he saves the world in the end.