Sci-Fi Midterm
Malique Daniels
Fantasy and Science Fiction
Midterm
Professor Friedman
October 2, 2016
Question #1
The Hero’s Journey describes a archetype known as the hero. The person who goes out and achieves great accomplishments on behalf of the community or group. There are stages described in Campbell’s reading The Ordinary World, The Call to Adventure, refusal of the call, accepting the call, entering the unknown, supernatural aid, tests, allies and enemies, the reward, the elixir. In the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer we see the heroine go through these stages. In the beginning the main character Buffy comes to Sunnydale because she got kicked out of her old school which is the stage of the ordinary world. She is the only slayer of Sunnydale and Giles tells her that she is the new slayer. When she meets her Mentor Giles, Buffy arrives at the school and sees Giles as he tells her she is the new vampire slayer because the other slayer died. Giles is her mentor and in Hero’s Journey the supernatural helper can take a wide variety of forms, such as a dwarf, fairy godmother, wizard, and weapon. Also Buffy has a cross which could be another supernatural helper. Crossing the threshold, the hero must go through ordeal to pass through everyday world into adventure world. Once Buffy accepts that she is the vampire slayer she crosses the threshold. Some test that Buffy goes through is when she tries out for the cheerleading team and tries to find out who is injuring the cheerleaders. The elixir is the knowledge the hero acquires during the adventure. In the Television Series Buffy has learned how to slay vampires and has learned to live on top of the Hellmouth.
In the film The Wizard of Oz the ordinary world character is represented by Dorothy of Kansas because she possesses some ability that makes her feel out of place. Dorothy lives and simple ordinary life. Dorothy’s call to adventure is when the tornado takes place in the film. Dorothy is moved from her typical environment and taken to the land of Oz. Campbell describes the new world as a “fateful region of both treasure and danger…” Dorothy is sent with a a task to find the Wizard of Oz so she can go home. In the film Dorothy accepts the call and continues her hero’s journey which is how she enters the unknown. She will experience meeting all the other character and learn the rules of Oz. Her supernatural aid will be the red slippers that will help at the end of her journey that she realizes was the key to get back home. Dorothy would not have been able to find The Wizard of Oz if it was not for the other characters that help her along the way, such the The Tin man, Scarecrow, and Lion. Dorothy also goes through the test of defeating the Wicked Witch. Dorothy reward is being able to go back to Kansas. Dorothy’s elixir is that she gets rids Oz of the Wicked Witch.
Question #2
In Schatz article he discusses the difference between genre film and ad film genre. Film genres discusses the plot, characters, settings, thematic, and style while as Genre films is an actual event that honors the contract. In the Television Series Games of Thrones, the audience already can distinguish the genre of this television series. Games of Thrones is fantasy genre. Games of Thrones is placed in an imaginary world and genres places it in fantasy because of the plot, characters, and settings. FreakAngels Comic book series however is an Apocalyptic a Post-apocalyptic fiction genre. The plot focuses on twelve psychics living in Whitechapel six years after being destroyed in Great Britain. Schatz also uses the film-language analogy to clarify how the audience and filmmakers come to recognize this system of certain genres. This shared knowledge can be understood as a sort of formalized sign system, or knowledge of the rules of grammar in our formal system of language. Game of Thrones is more historical than other fantasy series not only is the setting and props set the image for the world but there the show also shows how people were dying from diseases and how there was really no laws in place. FreakAngels comic book through drawings show how the world is run down and empty and people are killing people. For example, in the episode 0002 of the comic we see blonde hair girl trying to kill one of the other characters in broad day light.
Schatz also talks about the stages of genres. The experimental stage, classical stage, refined stage, baroque stage. “Experimental stage, during which its conventions are isolated and established, a classic stage, in which the conventions reach there “equilibrium” and are mutually understood by artist and audience, an age of refinement, during which certain formal and stylistic details embellish the form, and final a baroque ( or “mannerist” or “self-reflexive”) stage, when the form and its embellishments are accented to the point where they themselves become the “substance” or “content” of the work.” (Schatz p 38) In Games of Thrones the series is primarily white and European because it is trying to say something about the way fantasy treats white, European cultures and also the way they treat woman. Game of Thrones depicts incest, murder, rape, and betrayal. It uses these four stages to keep audiences engaged. In the first episode we see Daenery’s forced into a marriage and it is implied that she raped by her new husband. Games of Thrones grows more complicated as the series continues and it is progresses classical stage to a refinement stage where now the audience wants to look into the deeper meaning of the television series and not just look at Games of Thrones for just a leisure show to watch. Which is how a show like Games of Thrones goes from transparency to opacity. In the FreakAngel comic the first character that the audience meets is KK who is a wild card and she sets the tone of the comic. Throughout the comic the story progresses through the classical stage the refinement stage because slowly the character in the community roles expand. For the most part willingly they have created a small community of almost three hundred people with watch towers, fresh water, and home – grown vegetables and a medical clinic. The transparency to opacity is shown because the society is threatened, however, outwardly from refugee attacks and within from personal conflicts and crime.