Post by raz on Jun 30, 2006 14:50:47 GMT -5
This is kind of a follow-up to my post from a few months back in the Inspirations forum. I mentioned there that the Origins website has inspired me to open a class about the Star-Wars films at the school I'm teaching. Well, the class indeed open, had a very successful run through both semesters, will have another go next year, and I thought I'd share some of the experiences I've had teaching the class based on the info in the site.
I started with Joseph Campbell, first explaining what psychology is, the difference between Freud and Jung, than moving on to the mythic structure (taking Ragan as an example) finally presenting Campbell's model. The next lesson I let the kids try to examine how this model works on their favorite films/books, and they've had lots of fun doing that. Then we watched "A New Hope". I was really delighted to see how they recognize the different elements from Campbell while watching the film.
Next came Flash Gordon. Other than serving as an inspiration for Star Wars, I have also used the Flash Gordon comics (I bought one of the reprint editions of the original strips) to demonstrate how storytelling concepts develop, in this case - how the line that started with the John Carter books inspired Buck Rogers, followed by Flash Gordon leading to Superman and the comic-book superheroes as we know them (Carter, Rogers, Gordon and Superman all have pretty much identical back stories - only Sigel and Shuster, who created Superman, have turned the formula upside-down when they made their hero a person from another planet coming to Earth, rather than the other way around). I moved on to discussing film serials and space opera - again from the origins of the genre in the works of Smith to the more sophisticated and complex creations of today (such as books by Lois McMaster Bujold, David Brin and others). I concluded by showing them another movie - "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" - which I personally consider a wonderful, underrated film.
Then came Kurosawa. Before even starting to talk about him or the Samurai, I wanted to approach the inspiration for Jedi Knights from a more general perspective. I checked a few books about the entire historical angle, and we have had an interesting discussion in class. In the process, I discovered another possible source of inspiration for the Jedi Knights concept – the Knights Templar (who were also an order of warriors with strong religious bent, tight discipline, rumored to be involved in occult and mysticism, and who were eventually betrayed by their political/religious superiors). Than I moved to the Samurai and Kurasawa, and the mix between western stories and oriental style, in particular elements taken from Japanese traditional theatre (I majored in East-Asian studies during my BA, so I had some useful knowledge here). Then we watched "The Hidden Fortress" - although this particular screening left the kids somewhat impatient.
After doing a discussion devoted to "what is a knight" I decided to discuss the issue of "what is an empire", using both "Dune" and "The Foundation" books and their influence on Lucas as an example, spiced up with some historical anecdotes. It was followed by a screening of "The Empire Strikes Back". I pretty much repeated the same pattern with a discussion of "Lord of the Rings" and its literary ancestors, and wanted to show one of Peter Jackson's films, but there was no time.
Then there were two short lessons devoted to special effects and music. I had lots of help in the music lesson from both the Origins website and the Wagner/Star Wars website. Then we watched "Return of the Jedi" and concluded a wonderful year - not before I wrote the address of the Origins website on the board and urged the kids to check it (though I suspect some will have problems with the English…).
If there was a point to this overlong post, it was to thank you again, Kristen, for all the hard work you've put into this wonderful website. I truly hope that you still have plans to turn it all into a book, because I would sure be one of the first in line to buy it.
I started with Joseph Campbell, first explaining what psychology is, the difference between Freud and Jung, than moving on to the mythic structure (taking Ragan as an example) finally presenting Campbell's model. The next lesson I let the kids try to examine how this model works on their favorite films/books, and they've had lots of fun doing that. Then we watched "A New Hope". I was really delighted to see how they recognize the different elements from Campbell while watching the film.
Next came Flash Gordon. Other than serving as an inspiration for Star Wars, I have also used the Flash Gordon comics (I bought one of the reprint editions of the original strips) to demonstrate how storytelling concepts develop, in this case - how the line that started with the John Carter books inspired Buck Rogers, followed by Flash Gordon leading to Superman and the comic-book superheroes as we know them (Carter, Rogers, Gordon and Superman all have pretty much identical back stories - only Sigel and Shuster, who created Superman, have turned the formula upside-down when they made their hero a person from another planet coming to Earth, rather than the other way around). I moved on to discussing film serials and space opera - again from the origins of the genre in the works of Smith to the more sophisticated and complex creations of today (such as books by Lois McMaster Bujold, David Brin and others). I concluded by showing them another movie - "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" - which I personally consider a wonderful, underrated film.
Then came Kurosawa. Before even starting to talk about him or the Samurai, I wanted to approach the inspiration for Jedi Knights from a more general perspective. I checked a few books about the entire historical angle, and we have had an interesting discussion in class. In the process, I discovered another possible source of inspiration for the Jedi Knights concept – the Knights Templar (who were also an order of warriors with strong religious bent, tight discipline, rumored to be involved in occult and mysticism, and who were eventually betrayed by their political/religious superiors). Than I moved to the Samurai and Kurasawa, and the mix between western stories and oriental style, in particular elements taken from Japanese traditional theatre (I majored in East-Asian studies during my BA, so I had some useful knowledge here). Then we watched "The Hidden Fortress" - although this particular screening left the kids somewhat impatient.
After doing a discussion devoted to "what is a knight" I decided to discuss the issue of "what is an empire", using both "Dune" and "The Foundation" books and their influence on Lucas as an example, spiced up with some historical anecdotes. It was followed by a screening of "The Empire Strikes Back". I pretty much repeated the same pattern with a discussion of "Lord of the Rings" and its literary ancestors, and wanted to show one of Peter Jackson's films, but there was no time.
Then there were two short lessons devoted to special effects and music. I had lots of help in the music lesson from both the Origins website and the Wagner/Star Wars website. Then we watched "Return of the Jedi" and concluded a wonderful year - not before I wrote the address of the Origins website on the board and urged the kids to check it (though I suspect some will have problems with the English…).
If there was a point to this overlong post, it was to thank you again, Kristen, for all the hard work you've put into this wonderful website. I truly hope that you still have plans to turn it all into a book, because I would sure be one of the first in line to buy it.
