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Post by martina on Jun 11, 2005 13:14:55 GMT -5
hey. sorry to bother with this but i cannot seem to find 2 or so little paragraphs that you wrote about student-teacher relationship, which i really loved and such.
so, where in origins are they?
cheers
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Post by Kristen B on Jun 11, 2005 13:36:53 GMT -5
Studying Lucas, Tolkien, and Frank Herbert revealed a curious little rule-of-thumb: if there's a story which you really love but there's some little piece of it which just doesn't feel right to you, include that piece in your own story as a reversal. Why? If you're a writer, your mentors are the people who wrote your favorite stories, and myth teaches us that the student's heroic cycle doesn't end with merely absorbing the mentor's wisdom; to fully honor your teacher, you must transcend him by taking his teachings further than he could. This doesn't mean that you become superior to your teacher: there are plenty of things which you couldn't have seen without his help. The hierarchy between student and mentor is an illusion; it's more like a partnership between two people with different strengths and imperfections, both working towards a common goal. Obi-Wan couldn't have defeated Darth Vader, but neither could Luke have defeated Darth Vader without Obi-Wan's guidance. Your teacher gives you the gift of his teaching, and you give your teacher the gift of bringing his teaching forward.
For instance, in The Lord of the Rings there were nine kings who didn't understand that acquiring power for it's own sake leads to evil, so their lust for power ultimately transformed them into the Ringwraiths. I suspect that they were a reversal of the Twelve Kings from Le Morte D'Arthur (who also ride horses, carry swords and hide their crowns under dark cloaks). I get the impression that Tolkien considered King Arthur's story extremely powerful, but felt uneasy about how unhesitatingly Arthur and his friends would kill anyone who got in the way of their acquisition of power. These kings felt their acts were justified because they were absolutely certain that they were right (cuz they were Christians and the other guys were pagans). Tolkien consistently makes the point that everyone thinks they're the good guy, and all evil comes from the moment when we're so sure we're right that we're willing to limit, hurt or kill other people.
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