Simpson's Annotation

As a fan of the show in question, I would say that the author was humorously accurate. Although I have watched the Simpsons since about age 14, I feel somewhat naive in not thinking about the show the way the author did. The author took into account many issues in modern American society that were joked about in the show. "Hypocrisy within the educational system, religious beliefs, American political structures, and even capitalism are revealed with a constant sense of humor." (Paragraph 1, page 1) I did get most of the jokes displayed in the show as a kid, but I never thought to take the events into perspective. I watched it purely for entertainment purposes. I might have gotten where the author came from when he talked about the political aliens episode before reading this paper, but outside of that, I never thought about how much the show makes fun of everything. Even though this is a cartoon we're talking about, there is some truth to the events being portrayed about American society.

Vogler...

In this week's reading of Vogler, we read the sections of "Crossing the 1st threshold," and "Tests, enemies, allies." Our hero is now past accepting the the challenge, and is crossing the 1st threshold. It can be a physically natural barrier with considerably difficult terrain, or a passage guarded by a being, into the new world. But be the challenge either of the two, they truly test the hero's worth of being fit to be on the journey in the first place.
In the tests, they can be of how well the hero judges the beings in the new world or of how he conducts himself for survival in the new, strange world. Allies can be made to lighten the burden of a task, especially if they survive long enough to "defeat the final boss," as us gamers would describe it. Upon acquiring training to defeat the "final boss," heroes often run into characters that are standoffish towards them. Not everyone will like the hero. And some of these standoffish people may become the "final boss" over time, or at least become his/her henchmen.
Personally, the second part of this section is my favorite part of the story. I like seeing the hero develop as he trains himself in whatever way to defeat the evilest of evil creatures. Every story has a different sort of training, it seems, too.
1.) Who's the worst "final boss" and why?
2.) What's the most difficult threshold, and why?
3.) What's the weirdest training you've ever witnessed a hero do, and describe.

5th Vogler Reading

So for this week's Vogler Readings, he discusses meeting with the mentor and refusal of the call. In refusal of the call, there are actually several ways that heroes can react by not answering the call to adventure. The hero can either "Avoid" the call, and simply answer it later after something even more tragic happens to compel the hero to answer the call. The hero can make "Excuses" as to why they cannot possibly answer the call because of "a pressing series of engagements." On page 108, Vogler states "These are temporary roadblocks, usually overcome by the urgency of the quest." But the hero can react so fearfully as "persistent refusal leads to tragedy." (page 109) Vogler also stater that there may be more than one call and that the calls can be "conflicting calls." There are even "positive refusals," in which Vogler describes some calls as being are summoned by the villains and the hero refusing these calls is "a wise and positive move on the part of the hero." There are also artistic heroes that "are refusing the Call of the world in order to follow the wider call of artistic expression." (page 110)Also discussed are the "willing hero," the "threshold guardians," and "the secret door." The secret door deals with human curiosity, where it is almost human instinct to find out the secret's that life has to offer.
The other section described in this reading is "meeting with the mentor." I meeting with the mentor, the hero usually trusts them. But Vogler states that "sometimes the mentor turns villain or betrays the hero." (page 121) He say that by questioning the mentor's motives, "it's one way to distinguish good from bad advice." (page 122)
I particularly enjoyed this section because we have finally moved forward in the readings. We've moved past the different character descriptions and into more of the bulk of the story, not just the beginning. This section really made me think of all the stories I've ever read or been told.
1.)Who would you consider questionable mentors in stories you heard of or read in the past?
2.) In which stories did you think the hero or mentor did a good job?
3.) Who would you consider to be the worst heroes?

This Week's Vogler Reading...

In this week’s reading of Vogler, he discusses the ordinary world and the call to adventure. In the ordinary world, he describes the world in which the hero is used to being in before he is called to adventure and how to describe a great beginning to a story. I particularly enjoyed the point he made on page 84, “The mythological approach to story boils down to using metaphors or comparisons to get across your feelings about life.” This particular point opened my eyes about my own writing, specifically my first draft. I plan on developing my first draft into a better piece by following this point.
In the call to adventure portion, Vogler discusses the many ways a hero may be called. The call doesn’t even need to be human, and I think that a call usually isn’t. I particularly agree with the point in the paragraph titled, “No More Options” on page 103. Not all heroes in stories have the option of to take or not to take the call of adventure, some heroes are just thrown into adventure for better or for worse. If a hero rises to meet the challenge successfully, then he is indeed heroic. But if a hero doesn’t meet the challenge or doesn’t meet it successfully, is he a failure or was he supposed to fail it? There are so many interesting plot twists available.
1.) What was your favorite story that fit these themes and why?
2.) Are these themes described in our past readings? Describe.
3.) Who was your favorite hero, and how did they receive their call to action?

Strengths and Weaknesses

According to my partner, Alex Ostrowski, my weaknesses were (1) being hard to follow my story, mentally, and (2) a lack of depth or background details. My strengths, according to him were (1) good grammar and punctuation throughout, and (2) there was a good order in the running of ideas and thoughts.
I plan to put more detail into my true story, so it can make more sense to my reader. I will admit, my thoughts were rushed and running rampant throughout my writing. I was thinking of so many things at the time I was writing this story. At the time the event happened, my mind was also racing with so many random thoughts along with feeling sad. I will write a bit more clearly and give more background information, so my story can make sense to my reader.

3rd Vogler Reading summary...

In this reading, the rest of the possible characters and their roles were described. It was a little confusing sometimes, because characters were allowed to play multiple roles. It makes sense but for the examples, it was a little confusing to follow if you didn't already know about the roles beforehand. There was the trickster, herald, ally, shapeshifter, shadow and the threshold guardian in addition to the previous hero and mentor roles. I think I liked the trickster best out of all of the roles because I really like comedy. The one I liked the least was the shapeshifter because that role always confused me in stories. I rarely ever found out whether the shapeshifter was a good or bad guy in stories and movies. Maybe I'm just dumb like that, I don't know. I agree with the fact that the herald doesn't need to be human, and that it can simply be a call to adventure for the hero. The ally was a pretty obvious character role, and sometimes my favorite. I sometimes liked the allies better than the heroes in movies and stories. Shadows are the most complex character roles, in my opinion. Even more than shapeshifters, because you have a general idea about the shapeshifter. But sometimes, the shadow has ulterior motives that you don't even find out about until the end of the story. It is this character role that fascinates me the most.
1.) What was your favorite character role, and why?
2.) What was your least favorite character role, and why?
3.) How might you identify the roles of characters in the stories we've read in class?

Summary & Reflection of 2nd Vogler reading...

In this portion of our readings, Vogler discusses the many different character aspects of the hero's journey. But Vogler particularly discusses those aspects related to the hero and the mentor characters. Vogler states what quality makes a hero, "...sacrifice- the true mark of a hero." (pg. 31)
This is the quality that distinguishes the hero from all the other characters. There can also be many types of heros, as well. Vogler discusses mentors as well, stating that they often give the hero a gift after he/she has earned it. (pg.41) Mentors can be a variety of different people, or the hero's conscience itself. (pg. 42)
I was interested in reading all the different types of heros and mentors. Particularly the "loner hero," and the "comic mentor," as they both pertain to my life in general. I never had more than 5 friends in my lifetime so far. I was always sort of quiet, especially when I was in middle school. I wasn't always that way, but I became that sort of hero in my own life's story as I grew older. I gained a few more friends along the way that sort of brought out different sides to my personality more, I noticed.
1.) What type of hero most likely portrays your life story and why?
2.) What type of mentor was most likely in your life's story and why?
3.) Who was your favorite mentor and hero while growing up, and why?