As one more way to fill the hours of lockdown I have been watching Jordon Petersons 2017 "Maps of Meaning" lecture series based upon his book of the same name. Very interesting stuff, at least to me. He delves into arch types and the basis of stories throughout history (story and meta-story). He goes through it all from numerous perspectives - evolutionary, biologically, anthropologically, sociologically and, of course, psychologically, as he is a clinical psychologist with a doctorate. He delves into mythological stories, the Bible (I plan to watching his Bible series next), films/theatre, propaganda (most especially the Soviet Union and the Third Reich) and art, as well as many other topics. Each lecture is between 2 and 2.5 hours long, but it takes me a lot longer as I am having to expand my knowledge of the concepts he presents, as well as sourcing many of the things he says. He most definitely diverges into many other associated topics - he'll sometimes sidetrack for half of an hour to provide additional information pertaining to the immediate sub-topic at hand - so his dissection of the Disney film "Pinocchio" takes up two of his 2+ hour lectures. (He points out much of the mythological/religious iconography in both the visuals and the story. The opening shot looks very much like a Christian Nativity scene, and Pinocchio & his father being swallowed by Monstro the Whale is a derivation of the story of Jonah in the Old Testament, for example.)
Just as an extremely simplified example of how he ties evolution, biology, anthropology, etc. together...
As pre-human primates we were prey as well as predators. The predators were birds, which come from above, four legged ground predators with teeth and claws, and snakes which hide in the grass and suddenly strike from below. So the concept of the dragon, which appears in many disassociated early civilizations, comes from our most basic instincts as prey animals. A dragon is a toothed flying snake with four legs/claws, a combination of all of our most primordial fears. He ties dragon stories (the heroes quest?) to the defeat of fear (growing from a child into a self-aware adult) and the quest for knowledge (represented as the dragons gold). As I said, extremely simplified, it is much, much deeper than that. Just for fun, in one of his diversions points out that there were/are specific primate calls to notify the primate family/troop as to which type of predator was approaching. When a human swears it comes from that same neurological space in the brain as our primate ancestors used as predator alarms.
He points out that many of the greatest stories from all cultures throughout human history derive from these basic primordial and sociological places. Horror films are based upon our instinctual prey animal fear of being eaten, for instance, and that participating in a group scare, so to say, is a way of overcoming those fears. Again, far more complex than that, but you get the gist.
Anyway, as someone who is thinking of writing I was wondering if any of the screenwriters here actually think like that, or if it is just instinctual with you, or......…
Here is a short section of one of the lectures that references "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets." It's what convinced me to watch the series.
Just as an extremely simplified example of how he ties evolution, biology, anthropology, etc. together...
As pre-human primates we were prey as well as predators. The predators were birds, which come from above, four legged ground predators with teeth and claws, and snakes which hide in the grass and suddenly strike from below. So the concept of the dragon, which appears in many disassociated early civilizations, comes from our most basic instincts as prey animals. A dragon is a toothed flying snake with four legs/claws, a combination of all of our most primordial fears. He ties dragon stories (the heroes quest?) to the defeat of fear (growing from a child into a self-aware adult) and the quest for knowledge (represented as the dragons gold). As I said, extremely simplified, it is much, much deeper than that. Just for fun, in one of his diversions points out that there were/are specific primate calls to notify the primate family/troop as to which type of predator was approaching. When a human swears it comes from that same neurological space in the brain as our primate ancestors used as predator alarms.
He points out that many of the greatest stories from all cultures throughout human history derive from these basic primordial and sociological places. Horror films are based upon our instinctual prey animal fear of being eaten, for instance, and that participating in a group scare, so to say, is a way of overcoming those fears. Again, far more complex than that, but you get the gist.
Anyway, as someone who is thinking of writing I was wondering if any of the screenwriters here actually think like that, or if it is just instinctual with you, or......…
Here is a short section of one of the lectures that references "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets." It's what convinced me to watch the series.
and I feel like it didn’t resonate with you at all so we are just on totally opposite pages here
) “He [Jordan Peterson] ties dragon stories (the heroes quest?) to the defeat of fear (growing from a child into a self-aware adult) and the quest for knowledge (represented as the dragons gold).” Claiming that dragon gold represents the quest for knowledge -- to me, that seems just wrong. I think of dragon's gold as plunder acquired through theft and violence.