Wow one hundred and twenty bucks to go to Christopher Vogler's seminar in Miramar, Wellington. Although I would love to go, being the poor, struggling writer that I am, I cannot possibly afford that much money unless I sacrifice eating for a week and I love the privilege of eating far to much to do that, especially since Wellington on a plate is on at the moment and going to a restaurant for great food in the next couple of weeks is significantly cheaper than going to Christopher Vogler's seminar.
I am also going to put a big kick arse DemiGod in the works of developing a novel or book based around the archetypal idea of Myth explained by both Vogler and Campbell.
I think we all must question how the archetypal Myth has developed recently. When we do ponder this question I think we will find that since Jesus Christ we haven't seemed to have had much imagination and the Myth(s) of Western Culture hasn't really been developed for over 2000 years. Before this time myths were constantly morphing and developing as our inner psyches morphed and developed.
At the end of Carl Jung's autobiography he expresses his worry for a society that has stopped revolutionising their idea of Myth. So yea Christopher Vogler and Joseph Campbell's structures work that's been proven but I want to know how and where we can develop these structures to create new revitalised myths that reflect who we are inwardly and outwardly as people struggling in our own time. I don't know just a thought and being purposely perverse. Apologies.
As the deadline for the first draft of my memoir looms, I seem to be using all the energy I have to finish so have not been able to blog. It is also difficult to blog when I don't have the Internet, the reason I don't have the Internet being that I find it distracts me from my writing.
At the moment I am reading a book called 'Seeing through the invisible world - Jung, Gnosis and Chaos' written by June Singer and this book weirdly enough has also been an invaluable asset to myself as a writer especially because writing memoir delves into self in a way similar to a depth psychologist that delves into their patient.
The following is a lovely story from the gnostic tradition that deals with the issue of facing or not facing the darker elements in the world and in the psyche.
'In this tradition, Sophia, the feminine aspect of God, was also the first Eve, fashioned before the visible world came into being. She was a sort of archetypal heavenly Eve. She descended to the lower world to ease some of the pain she had observed as she looked down from heaven on the people below. But the worldly powers, called the archons, engulfed her in their density and rendered her blind. The narrative goes on to explain that it was not really her, but their likeness, that was blinded, for the essential Sophia had left her body and gone up into the Tree of Knowledge (that is, of gnosis) leaving only her visible likeness below where it could be defiled.'
This little fable is relevant as very soon my first draft will be finished and this is when I think the real work will begin. At this stage of the writing process I must be brave and begin to go beyond the memories into the dark shadow of my own psyche to draw conclusions about my egoic and inner worlds. This will no doubt be a fascinating process however also very scary because I have no idea what I will find.
Finishing on a lighter note, I work at a Hotel in the weekends and some very charming Transvestites stayed this weekend because the were performing at a club in town to fund raise for an up and coming event.
They checked in as men and walked out as Goddesses, tall, muscly and creatively put together by their own hand. They reminded me of modern day super hero's. Their weak persona the half of them that is man, their alta ego, big, artistically poignant women and they surely could fly if given half the chance, maybe a myth in the making?
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Christopher Vogler: The Heroes Journey. Workshop
His arms tightened. 'God, I love you,' he said, and kissed her, pressing her back into the pillow.
And what started with restraint ended in wildfire intensity, in untamed, exquisite fulfilment.
The above extract is from The Paternity Affair, a Mills and Boon bestseller, by New Zealand author Robyn Donald. What is it doing here? Well, the New Zealand Romance Writers Association hosted a one-day workshop in Auckland on Friday August 20th, with Christopher Vogler, Hollywood script guru and author of The Heroe's Journey.
Christopher developed his theories of components of story from the earlier work of Joseph Campbell. His theories state that all good stories - from mythology through Victorian novels to contemporary screenplays - contain the same elements. He expresses these in terms of narrative arc and archetypal characters.
Narrative arc (or circle, in Vogler's theory) has a hero go through stages. He or she starts in the ordinary world, hears a call to adventure, refuses the call, meets a mentor then crosses the threshold into the special world. There are tests and an approach, followed by ordeal, death/rebirth. Then the hero gets rewarded and takes the road back to the ordinary world, where there is a resurrection and a return with the elixir(or whatever it was the hero was searching for).
The archetypes, or characters in successful stories, according to Vogler, are the hero, his/her shadows, mentors and heralds. There are threshold guardians who guard the entrance to the special world, shapeshifters, tricksters and allies.
During the workshop, Vogler expounded at amusing length about all these stages in the heroe's journey and each of these archetypal characters. At each stage he explained how the roots came from ancient mythology and the collective story-telling conscience of humankind. He illustrated each aspect with examples from mythology and also from current and classical cinema. Interestingly he explained how his theories were closely allied to those of psychologist Carl Jung, and used a lot of Jungian theoretical concepts.
Many writers are familiar with these theories, but it was instructive and reinforcing to hear them in greater detail from the author himself. Vogler's professional background has been as a "script doctor" and he explained how when a story wasn't working, it missed out on an important stage or an important archetype. Conversely, he analysed some popular and successful scripts in terms of his theories and demonstrated effectively how they were incorporated. Vogler will be repeating this workshop in Wellington next week and it is a recommended day for aspiring writers. Or you could just take the book out of the library.
And what started with restraint ended in wildfire intensity, in untamed, exquisite fulfilment.
The above extract is from The Paternity Affair, a Mills and Boon bestseller, by New Zealand author Robyn Donald. What is it doing here? Well, the New Zealand Romance Writers Association hosted a one-day workshop in Auckland on Friday August 20th, with Christopher Vogler, Hollywood script guru and author of The Heroe's Journey.
Christopher developed his theories of components of story from the earlier work of Joseph Campbell. His theories state that all good stories - from mythology through Victorian novels to contemporary screenplays - contain the same elements. He expresses these in terms of narrative arc and archetypal characters.
Narrative arc (or circle, in Vogler's theory) has a hero go through stages. He or she starts in the ordinary world, hears a call to adventure, refuses the call, meets a mentor then crosses the threshold into the special world. There are tests and an approach, followed by ordeal, death/rebirth. Then the hero gets rewarded and takes the road back to the ordinary world, where there is a resurrection and a return with the elixir(or whatever it was the hero was searching for).
The archetypes, or characters in successful stories, according to Vogler, are the hero, his/her shadows, mentors and heralds. There are threshold guardians who guard the entrance to the special world, shapeshifters, tricksters and allies.
During the workshop, Vogler expounded at amusing length about all these stages in the heroe's journey and each of these archetypal characters. At each stage he explained how the roots came from ancient mythology and the collective story-telling conscience of humankind. He illustrated each aspect with examples from mythology and also from current and classical cinema. Interestingly he explained how his theories were closely allied to those of psychologist Carl Jung, and used a lot of Jungian theoretical concepts.
Many writers are familiar with these theories, but it was instructive and reinforcing to hear them in greater detail from the author himself. Vogler's professional background has been as a "script doctor" and he explained how when a story wasn't working, it missed out on an important stage or an important archetype. Conversely, he analysed some popular and successful scripts in terms of his theories and demonstrated effectively how they were incorporated. Vogler will be repeating this workshop in Wellington next week and it is a recommended day for aspiring writers. Or you could just take the book out of the library.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
The Mixing Room
A current exhibition at Te Papa is called The Mixing Room. The word exhibition is a total misnomer for this project: it is as far away from a traditional museum exhibition as you are likely to get. The Mixing Room uses new technologies to tell the stories of young refugees coming to Aotearoa in the last few years.
Clearly the people who are the subject of the project have been intimately and intensively involved in its creation. They are, after all, the material around which the project is based. In psychiatric treatment circles, there is a term: "the therapeutic use of self". This term seems apt for the process by which the new New Zealanders were involved in the project. They used their own stories and often harrowing lives, to contribute to a project to show New Zealand who they are, and in the process defined their own identities more and claimed their rights to a peaceful, free existence here. Big Ups to the kids involved.
It is widely acknowledged that this country punches way above its weight in terms of humanitarian contribution and acceptance of refugees. The deplorable Tampa incident of 2001 is an example. Our big brother Australia, under the regime of the detestable John Howard, could not accept a boatload of Afghani refugees and would have rather seen them drown at sea than offer them safe haven. The New Zealand Government, under the sterling leadership of the much-missed Helen Clarke, simply said: "Oh, well. We'll take them then." Simple as that.
New Zealand accepts far more than its share, proportionally, of refugees from repressive regimes and war-torn international hot-spots. It is good to see how well we assimilate these folk and what happens to them once they get here.
The Mixing Room is clearly aimed at younger people, with its bright, splashy visual aesthetic and its interactivity. You sit around a perspex cafe-style table and press on the image of a young refugee. A digital video is then looped through, with quality sound, telling that person's story. They have been encouraged to use poetry, rap, acting, straight narrative, sports: whatever mediums they chose, to tell the often-tragic tale of how they were successfully selected for immigration, what dangers they escaped, what the journey here was like, what their reception was like and how they and their families settled in.
Large illuminated high-quality digital photographs line the walls and the front consists of a large screen rendition of a photo mosaic, made up of the faces of thousands of refugees. it is the type of installation that is user-friendly and non-intimidating. You can start in the middle and finish up at either end, moving about freely.
A great project, well-conceived, well-executed and well-displayed.
Clearly the people who are the subject of the project have been intimately and intensively involved in its creation. They are, after all, the material around which the project is based. In psychiatric treatment circles, there is a term: "the therapeutic use of self". This term seems apt for the process by which the new New Zealanders were involved in the project. They used their own stories and often harrowing lives, to contribute to a project to show New Zealand who they are, and in the process defined their own identities more and claimed their rights to a peaceful, free existence here. Big Ups to the kids involved.
It is widely acknowledged that this country punches way above its weight in terms of humanitarian contribution and acceptance of refugees. The deplorable Tampa incident of 2001 is an example. Our big brother Australia, under the regime of the detestable John Howard, could not accept a boatload of Afghani refugees and would have rather seen them drown at sea than offer them safe haven. The New Zealand Government, under the sterling leadership of the much-missed Helen Clarke, simply said: "Oh, well. We'll take them then." Simple as that.
New Zealand accepts far more than its share, proportionally, of refugees from repressive regimes and war-torn international hot-spots. It is good to see how well we assimilate these folk and what happens to them once they get here.
The Mixing Room is clearly aimed at younger people, with its bright, splashy visual aesthetic and its interactivity. You sit around a perspex cafe-style table and press on the image of a young refugee. A digital video is then looped through, with quality sound, telling that person's story. They have been encouraged to use poetry, rap, acting, straight narrative, sports: whatever mediums they chose, to tell the often-tragic tale of how they were successfully selected for immigration, what dangers they escaped, what the journey here was like, what their reception was like and how they and their families settled in.
Large illuminated high-quality digital photographs line the walls and the front consists of a large screen rendition of a photo mosaic, made up of the faces of thousands of refugees. it is the type of installation that is user-friendly and non-intimidating. You can start in the middle and finish up at either end, moving about freely.
A great project, well-conceived, well-executed and well-displayed.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Music and sausage balloons support major sports event
Last Saturday my daughter and I went to see New Zealand's Silver Ferns play Samoa at Te Rauparaha Arena, Porirua. It was exciting going to a national netball game. I realised that I'd seen the All Blacks several times, but I'd never seen the Silver Ferns play live until now. The stadium was packed with mainly women and children, enthusiatic to see their netball heroes represent New Zealand, and for many represent their country of origin Samoa. The crowd was hyped, waiting in anticipation with snacks, drinks and coffees. They blew up the plastic New World sausage balloons handed out in the foyer, ready to applaude the teams.
The Diamond Divas were awesome at warming up the mixed aged crowd with funky rendations of rock/pop classics like: 'Mustang Sally', 'Carwash,' 'We are Family,' and 'You're simply the best'. The Maori/Pacific divas had loud husky voices suited to the songs. They were in sync with the largely Polynesian audience representative of Porirua and it's sporting population. The Divas had the whole crowd singing and clapping, which added to the atmosphere in the stadium. Frankie Stevens was aptly suited to the role of MC, with his big personality and unique bass voice. He joined the duo in a couple of songs, his tone the perfect compliment to the divas. Soon Frankie announced the Samoan team who were mainly solid in stature and shorter in height compared with the athletic, tall Silver Ferns. The Samoan team jogged on to the court dressed in royal blue and the crowd gave them a grand welcome. Then came the statuesque Silver Ferns who looked stunning in fitted black netball dresses accentuated with silver stripes. The teams of women were pumped and strong. They gave a short display of fantastic netball manouveurs to warm up with a deafening applause from their fans.
The velvet voice of Bella Kalolo rang through the stadium. Bella has sung with many well known New Zealand bands such as Fat Freddy's Drop. She started with Samoa's national anthem followed by the Maori version of New Zealand's and 'God of Nations'. You couldn't help but be moved as the crowd stood in respect for the national anthems.
The Samoan side were no match for the quick gliding moves of the Silver Fern amazons. As they shot the ball in the hoop again the crowd banged their sausage balloons looking like seals clapping their flippers. The crowd was wired! and the poor icecream guy paced up and down in front of the grandstand, his glum face showing his discomfort doing the job, while he looked up at the faces looking on in the stands, wishing someone would give him an order.
It was an excellent afternoon of top level netball combined with great entertainment. Final score: New Zealand Silver Ferns 92, Samoa 28. My daughter's words at the end of the game summed up the day. She is 14, herself a competitive netball player who was spell bound throughout the match as she named her favourite players. 'I want to be a Silver Fern' she said.
It was a good vibe as we left the stadium, proud of our netballers, proud to be a girl and a woman. But I wondered what would happen to the trail of discarded plastic New World sausage balloons. 'Arrgh more horrible plastic in our landfills, in the world' I thought.
The Diamond Divas were awesome at warming up the mixed aged crowd with funky rendations of rock/pop classics like: 'Mustang Sally', 'Carwash,' 'We are Family,' and 'You're simply the best'. The Maori/Pacific divas had loud husky voices suited to the songs. They were in sync with the largely Polynesian audience representative of Porirua and it's sporting population. The Divas had the whole crowd singing and clapping, which added to the atmosphere in the stadium. Frankie Stevens was aptly suited to the role of MC, with his big personality and unique bass voice. He joined the duo in a couple of songs, his tone the perfect compliment to the divas. Soon Frankie announced the Samoan team who were mainly solid in stature and shorter in height compared with the athletic, tall Silver Ferns. The Samoan team jogged on to the court dressed in royal blue and the crowd gave them a grand welcome. Then came the statuesque Silver Ferns who looked stunning in fitted black netball dresses accentuated with silver stripes. The teams of women were pumped and strong. They gave a short display of fantastic netball manouveurs to warm up with a deafening applause from their fans.
The velvet voice of Bella Kalolo rang through the stadium. Bella has sung with many well known New Zealand bands such as Fat Freddy's Drop. She started with Samoa's national anthem followed by the Maori version of New Zealand's and 'God of Nations'. You couldn't help but be moved as the crowd stood in respect for the national anthems.
The Samoan side were no match for the quick gliding moves of the Silver Fern amazons. As they shot the ball in the hoop again the crowd banged their sausage balloons looking like seals clapping their flippers. The crowd was wired! and the poor icecream guy paced up and down in front of the grandstand, his glum face showing his discomfort doing the job, while he looked up at the faces looking on in the stands, wishing someone would give him an order.
It was an excellent afternoon of top level netball combined with great entertainment. Final score: New Zealand Silver Ferns 92, Samoa 28. My daughter's words at the end of the game summed up the day. She is 14, herself a competitive netball player who was spell bound throughout the match as she named her favourite players. 'I want to be a Silver Fern' she said.
It was a good vibe as we left the stadium, proud of our netballers, proud to be a girl and a woman. But I wondered what would happen to the trail of discarded plastic New World sausage balloons. 'Arrgh more horrible plastic in our landfills, in the world' I thought.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Poetry Readings at The Marae, Te Papa, Mon Aug 2nd, 2010.
The lunchtime Writers on Mondays series at The Marae at Te Papa, organized by IIML, is always well-attended with interesting readings and presenters. Last Monday's programme featured four poets with the thematic link of "The difficult second book." All four had published a volume some years earlier and several years had elapsed before their currently published books. Most are involved in some degree with academic life and teaching.
John Newton and Hinemoana Baker were mentioned in the last despatch, so will not be discussed here. The other two poets who read were Anna Livesy and Ingrid Horrocks.
Ingrid read works from her current volume. A whole cycle was devoted to her and her husband's battles with fertility and the IVF programme. These poems were highly personal and highly lyrical. The whole human reproductive machinery made a fruitful pallette for Ingrid's work and she read a few sparse and moving poems about her hopes, aspirations and disappointments around these issues in her life. The harvesting of human eggs, and the attempt to fertilise them in laboratory conditions was exquisitely expressed in her work and well-contrasted with the software of the human body and soul.
Anna read an extremely moving piece about her mother who is living with some form of dementia/ Alzheimer's process. The themes here were also economically and effectively expressed through the medium of poetry. The ideas of memory and loss thereof, the shifting roles of mother and daughter identity through the aging process and the change in identity attendant to such illnesses were all discussed in this poem. One haunting line stayed with me for days, and it was:
"I want another mother,
this one is broken."
These two poets used their own lives as material for personal and gorgeous work that illuminates what it means to be a human being. I love this kind of poetry: tough, honest, real.
John Newton and Hinemoana Baker were mentioned in the last despatch, so will not be discussed here. The other two poets who read were Anna Livesy and Ingrid Horrocks.
Ingrid read works from her current volume. A whole cycle was devoted to her and her husband's battles with fertility and the IVF programme. These poems were highly personal and highly lyrical. The whole human reproductive machinery made a fruitful pallette for Ingrid's work and she read a few sparse and moving poems about her hopes, aspirations and disappointments around these issues in her life. The harvesting of human eggs, and the attempt to fertilise them in laboratory conditions was exquisitely expressed in her work and well-contrasted with the software of the human body and soul.
Anna read an extremely moving piece about her mother who is living with some form of dementia/ Alzheimer's process. The themes here were also economically and effectively expressed through the medium of poetry. The ideas of memory and loss thereof, the shifting roles of mother and daughter identity through the aging process and the change in identity attendant to such illnesses were all discussed in this poem. One haunting line stayed with me for days, and it was:
"I want another mother,
this one is broken."
These two poets used their own lives as material for personal and gorgeous work that illuminates what it means to be a human being. I love this kind of poetry: tough, honest, real.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
About Women...
Why are women attracted to egotistical penis brains? Well I have just made some interesting revelations thanks to C.G.Jung.
The Anima and Animus that Carl Jung coined is the personification of the feminine nature of a man's unconscious and masculine nature of a women's.
'In its primary unconscious form the animus is a compound of spontaneous unpremeditated opinions which exercise a powerful influence on the woman's emotional life, while the anima is similarly compounded of feelings which thereafter influence or distort the man's understanding. Consequently the animus likes to project itself upon intellectuals and all kinds of 'heroes' including tenors, artists, sporting celebrities etc.. The anima has a predilection for everything that is unconscious, dark, equivocal and purposeless in woman, and also for her vanity, frigidity, helplessness and so forth.'
This whole concept has really helped me to come to some interesting conclusions. Women at an unconscious level desire to become heroes in their individual lives but most often repress this masculine characteristic of their inner psyche. Instead of searching for their own hero inwardly within themselves they manifest the hero externally by looking for a male that holds the archetypal qualities of 'hero.' A modern day hero almost always an egotistical womaniser,(sorry but it's the truth.)
Men are attracted to younger women because they are the archetypal projection of the unconscious anima in men. A younger woman is usually less aware and is almost always more helpless than an experienced, wise, older woman both emotionally and materially.
A man desires younger women because his 'inner woman' is supressed. This secret unconscious part of himself outwardly manifests an attraction to younger woman who are usually still 'finding themselves' so often reflect the qualities of the anima: the dark, equivocal and purposeless in woman and also vanity, frigidity, helplessness and so forth...
Men say they are more attracted to younger women because they are more aesthetically pleasing to look at, touch and that they have more spirit than an older woman. This is yet another excuse to hide from their own benevolent female psyche that simmers in the dark shadows of a man's soul.
It amuses me that a women's animus is a positive projection of certain characteristics in a male archetype while the man's anima is a negative projection of certain characteristics in a women's archetype. This makes me think that women repress their masculine psyche because of patriarchal societal restrictions while men repress their feminine psyche because they are afraid or ashamed of it.
What makes me highly angry at the moment is the marginalisation of older women in our society. In this youth obsessed society it seems to me that women are being treated like objects more than any other time in our history.
Young Women are disposable and replaceable and older women are obsolete. The Man's psyche has created this dis-respectful destructive reality towards women because it is afraid of its own inner anima.
This universal consciousness towards the feminine also creates a rift between women. Older women secretly despise and feel threatened by the younger women and the younger women are consumed by their own sexual power, which is only a materialist kind of power anyway and gives them no understanding and respect for their true inner selves and only lasts until like everyone else they age.
This chasm between women stops younger women respecting and learning from their older sisters and stops older women respecting the rebellious, fearless, spirit of their younger sisters. These younger women will be responsible for creating our future world so should be given all the nurturing and knowledge possible.
The problem is that often the younger woman has illusions of grandeur because of the attention she receives from society on a superficial level and often disrespects the older, wiser woman.
The conclusions I have drawn from my research have really helped me to understand myself as a woman and a human being and will be invaluable when writing my memoirs.
I am not ashamed to say I have often been viewed and treated as 'object' by men and often wondered why I allowed this to happen as I am an intelligent, insightful, intuitive woman.
It must be asked whether transgender people are more evolutionized than other gender orientated people because they have released into reality there repressed other half but then one must ask is this at the detriment of the half they were born into?
The Anima and Animus that Carl Jung coined is the personification of the feminine nature of a man's unconscious and masculine nature of a women's.
'In its primary unconscious form the animus is a compound of spontaneous unpremeditated opinions which exercise a powerful influence on the woman's emotional life, while the anima is similarly compounded of feelings which thereafter influence or distort the man's understanding. Consequently the animus likes to project itself upon intellectuals and all kinds of 'heroes' including tenors, artists, sporting celebrities etc.. The anima has a predilection for everything that is unconscious, dark, equivocal and purposeless in woman, and also for her vanity, frigidity, helplessness and so forth.'
This whole concept has really helped me to come to some interesting conclusions. Women at an unconscious level desire to become heroes in their individual lives but most often repress this masculine characteristic of their inner psyche. Instead of searching for their own hero inwardly within themselves they manifest the hero externally by looking for a male that holds the archetypal qualities of 'hero.' A modern day hero almost always an egotistical womaniser,(sorry but it's the truth.)
Men are attracted to younger women because they are the archetypal projection of the unconscious anima in men. A younger woman is usually less aware and is almost always more helpless than an experienced, wise, older woman both emotionally and materially.
A man desires younger women because his 'inner woman' is supressed. This secret unconscious part of himself outwardly manifests an attraction to younger woman who are usually still 'finding themselves' so often reflect the qualities of the anima: the dark, equivocal and purposeless in woman and also vanity, frigidity, helplessness and so forth...
Men say they are more attracted to younger women because they are more aesthetically pleasing to look at, touch and that they have more spirit than an older woman. This is yet another excuse to hide from their own benevolent female psyche that simmers in the dark shadows of a man's soul.
It amuses me that a women's animus is a positive projection of certain characteristics in a male archetype while the man's anima is a negative projection of certain characteristics in a women's archetype. This makes me think that women repress their masculine psyche because of patriarchal societal restrictions while men repress their feminine psyche because they are afraid or ashamed of it.
What makes me highly angry at the moment is the marginalisation of older women in our society. In this youth obsessed society it seems to me that women are being treated like objects more than any other time in our history.
Young Women are disposable and replaceable and older women are obsolete. The Man's psyche has created this dis-respectful destructive reality towards women because it is afraid of its own inner anima.
This universal consciousness towards the feminine also creates a rift between women. Older women secretly despise and feel threatened by the younger women and the younger women are consumed by their own sexual power, which is only a materialist kind of power anyway and gives them no understanding and respect for their true inner selves and only lasts until like everyone else they age.
This chasm between women stops younger women respecting and learning from their older sisters and stops older women respecting the rebellious, fearless, spirit of their younger sisters. These younger women will be responsible for creating our future world so should be given all the nurturing and knowledge possible.
The problem is that often the younger woman has illusions of grandeur because of the attention she receives from society on a superficial level and often disrespects the older, wiser woman.
The conclusions I have drawn from my research have really helped me to understand myself as a woman and a human being and will be invaluable when writing my memoirs.
I am not ashamed to say I have often been viewed and treated as 'object' by men and often wondered why I allowed this to happen as I am an intelligent, insightful, intuitive woman.
It must be asked whether transgender people are more evolutionized than other gender orientated people because they have released into reality there repressed other half but then one must ask is this at the detriment of the half they were born into?
Friday, August 6, 2010
Writing and...
Hi Everyone
Thought I'd jabber on about the writing process since we all have the end in sight.
I am finding the last little quarter of writing the first draft the most difficult. I have a clear defined ending but now that I am so close to the end, I am finding the last part of the climb treacherous and steep.
I presumed that when I saw the end in sight that the last part of the book would flow towards its natural conclusion but this hasn't seemed to be the case actually the reverse is true it feels like I've got big heavy weights attached to my feet.
I am just going to get stuck in there and do it though.
The writing process for me is such an interesting conundrum yet a series of strange coincidences.
At the moment I am reading Carl Jung's Autobiography - 'Memories, Dreams and Reflections' and the insights have been invaluable. I have also just watched a DVD called 'Quantum Activist' which strangely enough has direct correlation to Carl Jung's musings. Both book and DVD have been incredibly helpful in helping me to work out what I want to achieve in my writing.
I agree with Carl Jung when he says 'There is something unpredictable about the process of writing, and I cannot prescribe for myself any predetermined course,' however I have found when writing my book that although at the beginning I only had a sketch of what I wanted to achieve as the book has progressed the sketch has become more detailed and self fulfilling. Now nearing the end of the first draft I know exactly what I need to achieve, the question is how to write a book to achieve this?
I also found this comment by Carl Jung interesting, 'I know too many autobiographies, with their self-deceptions and downright lies, and I know too much about the impossibility of self-portrayal, to want to venture on any such attempt.' I agree with this comment, an autobiographical piece does seem self indulgent in essence and it's hard for me not to see it this way when I am writing it. The only way I can rid this feeling from myself is to become fully absorbed in the writing process. It also helps that I reflect on ideas regarding memory and dream time so the subject is not just primarily about myself.
I really like the way that Carl Jung describes the inner workings of his mind as a young boy and a young adult and it has helped me to look at my memories and there inward significance or insignificance. These reflections have often flung me towards some liberating yet surprising conclusions.
I don't agree with all Carl Jung's philosophies. For instance I believe that every memory is a doorway to the unconscious and one must just find the doorway. I believe that all memories are somehow interconnected whereas Carl Jung regards memories that don't jolt some kind of reflective insight within often meaningless. I think you need to see the whole pattern of memory before one can decide whether a memory has no relevance or not but then the question still remains why did we remember it in the first place? Which I think, unlike Jung, is an important question to ponder.
I think this is the only main point that him and I agree to disagree on though.
Jung says 'The way I am and the way I write are a unity. All my ideas and all my endeavours are myself. Thus the 'autobiography' is merely the dot on the i.'
I can relate to Jung's development as he wrote his autobiography. During the years in which the book was taking shape a process of transformation and objectification was taking place in Jung.
With each succeeding chapter he moved, as it were, farther away from himself, until at last he was able to see himself as well as the significance of his life from a distance. He states 'My life is a story of self realisation of the unconscious. Everything in the unconscious seeks outward manifestation and the personality too desires to evolve out of its unconscious conditions and to experience itself as a whole.'
'Myth is more individual and expresses life more precisely than does science. Science works with concepts of averages which are far too general to do justice to the subjective variety of an individual life. Thus it is that I have now undertaken, in my eighty-third year, to tell my personal myth. I can only make direct statements only 'tell stories.' Whether or not the stories are 'true' is not the problem. The only question is whether what I tell is my fable my truth.'
I found Carl Jung reflections on autobiography very valid and his ideas will help me to consolidate my own fable of truth with more self belief and conviction. Reading his autobiography has been a great help as the way he has written it is similar to the structure of my autobiography.
The way he thinks is clearly from a masculine perspective however and that is where our instinctive ideas differ greatly.
The next autobiography I would like to read would be Marianne Faithfull's book of the same name 'Memories, Dreams and Reflections' as I think that some of her journey fragments mirror possibilities that could have occurred in my life and I am intrigued about what she thinks and feels about what life has thrown her.
Thought I'd jabber on about the writing process since we all have the end in sight.
I am finding the last little quarter of writing the first draft the most difficult. I have a clear defined ending but now that I am so close to the end, I am finding the last part of the climb treacherous and steep.
I presumed that when I saw the end in sight that the last part of the book would flow towards its natural conclusion but this hasn't seemed to be the case actually the reverse is true it feels like I've got big heavy weights attached to my feet.
I am just going to get stuck in there and do it though.
The writing process for me is such an interesting conundrum yet a series of strange coincidences.
At the moment I am reading Carl Jung's Autobiography - 'Memories, Dreams and Reflections' and the insights have been invaluable. I have also just watched a DVD called 'Quantum Activist' which strangely enough has direct correlation to Carl Jung's musings. Both book and DVD have been incredibly helpful in helping me to work out what I want to achieve in my writing.
I agree with Carl Jung when he says 'There is something unpredictable about the process of writing, and I cannot prescribe for myself any predetermined course,' however I have found when writing my book that although at the beginning I only had a sketch of what I wanted to achieve as the book has progressed the sketch has become more detailed and self fulfilling. Now nearing the end of the first draft I know exactly what I need to achieve, the question is how to write a book to achieve this?
I also found this comment by Carl Jung interesting, 'I know too many autobiographies, with their self-deceptions and downright lies, and I know too much about the impossibility of self-portrayal, to want to venture on any such attempt.' I agree with this comment, an autobiographical piece does seem self indulgent in essence and it's hard for me not to see it this way when I am writing it. The only way I can rid this feeling from myself is to become fully absorbed in the writing process. It also helps that I reflect on ideas regarding memory and dream time so the subject is not just primarily about myself.
I really like the way that Carl Jung describes the inner workings of his mind as a young boy and a young adult and it has helped me to look at my memories and there inward significance or insignificance. These reflections have often flung me towards some liberating yet surprising conclusions.
I don't agree with all Carl Jung's philosophies. For instance I believe that every memory is a doorway to the unconscious and one must just find the doorway. I believe that all memories are somehow interconnected whereas Carl Jung regards memories that don't jolt some kind of reflective insight within often meaningless. I think you need to see the whole pattern of memory before one can decide whether a memory has no relevance or not but then the question still remains why did we remember it in the first place? Which I think, unlike Jung, is an important question to ponder.
I think this is the only main point that him and I agree to disagree on though.
Jung says 'The way I am and the way I write are a unity. All my ideas and all my endeavours are myself. Thus the 'autobiography' is merely the dot on the i.'
I can relate to Jung's development as he wrote his autobiography. During the years in which the book was taking shape a process of transformation and objectification was taking place in Jung.
With each succeeding chapter he moved, as it were, farther away from himself, until at last he was able to see himself as well as the significance of his life from a distance. He states 'My life is a story of self realisation of the unconscious. Everything in the unconscious seeks outward manifestation and the personality too desires to evolve out of its unconscious conditions and to experience itself as a whole.'
'Myth is more individual and expresses life more precisely than does science. Science works with concepts of averages which are far too general to do justice to the subjective variety of an individual life. Thus it is that I have now undertaken, in my eighty-third year, to tell my personal myth. I can only make direct statements only 'tell stories.' Whether or not the stories are 'true' is not the problem. The only question is whether what I tell is my fable my truth.'
I found Carl Jung reflections on autobiography very valid and his ideas will help me to consolidate my own fable of truth with more self belief and conviction. Reading his autobiography has been a great help as the way he has written it is similar to the structure of my autobiography.
The way he thinks is clearly from a masculine perspective however and that is where our instinctive ideas differ greatly.
The next autobiography I would like to read would be Marianne Faithfull's book of the same name 'Memories, Dreams and Reflections' as I think that some of her journey fragments mirror possibilities that could have occurred in my life and I am intrigued about what she thinks and feels about what life has thrown her.
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