i think i'm just going to plonk down a few ideas in somewhat random order ...
a pilot decides (as it looks like) to destroy. or the destructive impulse takes over and makes that decision. or, "the shadow erupts." i doubt that a person like that "is" "evil" - but something happened that flipped a switch, and freud's thin veneer of civiization evaporated.
when i was listening to the recording of the first session (i couldn't make it that time because i was traveling), someone was talking about their interest in cognitive distortions. incidents like this invite cognitive distortions. the one that interests me the most is the one that immediately "otherizes" someone who commits an (admitedly horrendous!) act like that, and denies the destructive instinct that lies in all of us. the destructive instinct is completely driven into movies, video games and books and is - supposedly - safely under lock and key there.
are movies, video games and books good substitutes for mythology? there are lots and lots of overlaps but i doubt it's enough. i think we need to know and live the idea that wotan, the god of destruction (or perses or dr. moriarty or whoever) lives among, with and inside us - otherwise, as lesson, craig says in the lesson, these gods/shadows can take over, or erupt. movies and video games and most books don't make that point at all.
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thank you for your reply! can you explain how looking for mythic figures in terms of attributes has proven problematic?
Isabella,
Thank you for your thoughts. I don't believe that movies, video games, books, and etc. are good substitutes for mythology. A good movie can inspire mythology, such as Star Wars utilizing myth, rewriting it, and then people take this and creating a new mythology out of it. But these are so rare in this hectic, consumer driven, cafeteria style Western mindset. And, one of the reasons for Star Wars success in utilizing myth and mythic language that is already part of the psyche.
One of the things I believe is problematic with video games, movies, and etc., which is really about modern humans, is that the storytelling aspect of myth becomes concrete, the one way, which then makes the myth stagnant, unmoving, dead. Especially in regard to visual forms. For me, myth needs to be alive and with each new telling it changes, wraps itself around the new teller and becomes slightly different. There are 100's of Native American creation stories with some being very similar and others differing greatly. But they all are creation stories; living, breathing, changing, adapting.
Just my thoughts in this moment.
i agree. another layer is that of oral storytelling, which is so closely connected with myth. oral storytelling (even if it is "just" reading from a text) automatically comes with living, breathing, changing, adapting. and language - the instrument we use most often to propagate myth - is, in the end, meant to be spoken in a space directly shared by speaker and listener.
Hi,
I'm wondering what makes you focus on Wotan. Is there Wotanic imagery in the crash incident?
I think the video games etc. draw attention because we have no real storytelling available to satisfy the urge for myth. So Disney et al co-opt it for their own purposes.
i was thinking of the destructive elements we find in wotan. maybe this connection comes easier in german - the word "wuetend" (raging) comes directly from "wotan." the pilot was bent on destruction, was wotan riding him?
Quite a few gods are involved in destruction. Anthropologists and some of the early Jungians have tended to look for mythic figures in terms of attributes, and this has proven very problematic. Both Thor and Odin are lightning gods, for instance, but the two are not otherwise very much like each other. I would suggest instead that we look for details of style and image: personality traits and characteristics, for instance. Which gods are involved with wings, sudden surprises, and steep descents? etc.
oh, and i forgot - the other interesting thing here is that supposedly, the pilot loved the alps. i have this image of him plunging into the arms of his beloved/mother, his desire so overpowering that it is utterly heedless of the lives of others. do a lot of pilots do this? no. do others do this? yes, all the time. people in the thrall of addiction destroy whole families. ISIS people, mesmerized by the siren call of extremism, do it every day. corporate bosses, unable to stop their hunger for more money and more power, do it almost without interruption.
and i - me, isabella - have it in me commit atrocities, too. god willing, and with open eyes, i won't.