The loss of mythic consciousness is a severe epidemic with our culture today. But myth isn't going down without a fight. There has been a massive resurgence in mythic stories being told and retold - and we are paying $15 a pop to hear the story told over and over - in mesmerizing 3D, no less. Some may call this exploitation of myth - that Hollywood is just using myth for its own purposes.I am divided with the notion that myth is exploited to make money. On the one hand, there are serious abuses to the formulaic use of myth as narrative. Watch any popular archetypal film and you see a standard 3-act arc or outline driving the story along:
- Act 1: Theme and problem is introduced/The set-up and catalyst for action
- Act 2: The hero choses action/Action sequences (where much of the clips for the trailer are taken from)/Bad guys close in/All is lost –dark night of the soul for the hero
- Act 3: Hero takes action/Transformation of the hero/Success/Credits roll
It's a cliché formula that inhabits most blockbuster (or successful) films, particularly those with archetypal themes. They, of course, fall into specific genres of films – again, very cliché. But sometimes this goes too far. Introducing too much, or making storylines too complex is like shooting myth in the foot. The Matrix franchise is a prime example. The first film was mind-blowing and steeped in myth. But installments 2 and 3 (Reload and Revolutions) left its audiences lost and confused. Too many story lines, too much symbolism, and too many archetypal characters, that resulted in bloated, greedy attempts to pilfer the audience out of $12. It amounts to cinematographic masturbation and does a disservice to myth.
On the other hand, regardless of how well or poorly executed, you're constantly keeping the public in the realm of myth. The archetypes never change; they just take different forms. It's multiple perspectives of the same myth(s). This is what makes it work, and allows the audience to access it. The basic archetypal themes are still there, even if obscured by too many big-budget explosions and CGI. Putting these archetypes and themes in the public's eye keeps myth alive, regardless of budgets and motives.
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The Matrix is a good example of the exploitation of myth you mention. The producers wanted to tell a Gnostic fable, but the archons of finance rushed in and took it over.
I agree about myth being alive and well. The real issue is how consciously it operates, personally and collectively. Anyone who thinks myth is dead has only to reflect on the names of the days of the week or go see an Avengers movie. : )
Hi Drew,
Nice to meet you this way.
I have a friend, a recent graduate of Pacifica, who follows television as a container of archetypal weather, in a sense. I was raised in a family that was snotty about TV so I have never owned one or watched much. It does leave me out of one arena of social currency. People at parties talk about GAME OF THRONES and I don't know what it is, etc. This friend assures me that I am missing the boat. That there is no better way of feeling which archetypes are dominant at a particular time than watching the themes across a variety of popular television shows. So perhaps the archetypes don't care whether the industry is commercializing them or not. They still are archetypes. It kind of reminds me of Robert Moss's observation in dreamwork: we say we had a dream, but the aborigines say a dream had you.
I would agree that commercialism steals the soul of the story or myth in all expressions of media.