From: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org (chakram-refugees-digest) To: chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Subject: chakram-refugees-digest V1 #11 Reply-To: chakram-refugees@smoe.org Sender: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk chakram-refugees-digest Tuesday, October 16 2001 Volume 01 : Number 011 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [chakram-refugees] Re: Mythological Implications ["Josh Harrison" Subject: [chakram-refugees] Re: Mythological Implications - ----- Original Message ----- I guess what I was trying to say is the from a mythological sense the young hero can not take up the mantle of her own heroism until her mentor is dead or no longer in the picture. - ----- As somebody who has tied his passion for Xena to his passion for Joseph Campbell's mythological patterns, I feel like I need to chime in here (I was planning my first post to be a retrospective of the past few months, but what the hey.) (Oh, BTW, hello again to everybody out there. It feels good to be back into this swing of things.) You're on target with your interpretation of this scenario -- the traditional hero's journey follows a pseudo-linear path; call to adventure, seapration, and return. The mentor is a prominent feature in the first stage, and generally isn't in the latter two. But there's more to it than that. Looking at the development of Gabrielle over the course of the series, it isn't difficult to cast it in terms of the classic hero's journey, with Xena as the mentor. While that is a valid tack, it isn't the only one. Xena is going through a hero's journey of her own, with Gabrielle as mentor. From my POV, the series tells the tale of two simultaneous journeys that support each other -- making a pattern that is very familiar to fans; the yin-yang. Intentional or not, this intertwined/parallel storyline is why I love the series. BTW, if you want to read a little bit more in-depth analysis of the classic Hero's Journey and how it relates to X:WP, take a surf over to my (currently on hiatus) Suite101 website and read the articles I wrote about it. http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/hercules_and_xena (If anybody wants to know the specific URLs for the articles, let me know.) - -- Josh Harrison mataxes@mint.net ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ End of chakram-refugees-digest V1 #11 *************************************