Appearing at The Jaundiced Eye, the Independent Bloggers’ Alliance, and My Left Wing.
This is the opening sequence from what I believe is one of the most under appreciated movies of all time, “Joe Versus the Volcano.” Protagonist Joe Banks undertakes a Joseph Campbellesque “hero’s journey,” which frees him from the illusory demands of wage slavery. Anyone who has seen the movie will recognize the elements of Campbell’s “monomyth.”
This fundamental structure contains a number of stages, which include (1) a call to adventure, which the hero has to accept or decline, (2) a road of trials, regarding which the hero succeeds or fails, (3) achieving the goal or “boon,” which often results in important self-knowledge, (4) a return to the ordinary world, again as to which the hero can succeed or fail, and finally, (5) application of the boon in which what the hero has gained can be used to improve the world.
The story-line also incorporates many elements which would be familiar to shamanic practitioners; most notably the symbolic death/rebirth experience which frees the man from the limitations of the ego.
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Nice Labor Day diary – thanks Curmudgette.
Hmm….A WASP 50 year old suburban American born Boy Scout so disgusted by his government’s affairs as to bill himself as the guy who wants to have the final horse ride before the Apocalypse and then God himself can smite them all? I give up.
Then again since I knew the field was clear of ground hog holes I got my first full out run on him. He put his head down, the first signs of him starting to buck but I yanked his head up. All in all his lead was correct and I was gaining the capacity to feel it, I even stayed on during some sharp turns, we are both kind of just greenbroke but I thought it was a glorious day.