Independance Day

I watch the lights flash in the sky. I see the lights of a thousand American souls reconsiling the times gone and the times to be. I watch the fireworks of a country that has long forgot its name. I see the reason for the remembrance in the sky. I thank all those who died so that I can live and see this independance day.

Dream Journal Entry 2

Setting: landmark middle school, the freeway, a falling bridge, my grandads california house and an unknown carribean beach.
Characters: a lost girl named Amber Kaily, a traveling adventurer named Ryan who looks kinda like Ryan Reynolds, grandad, a fat sweedish maid named Inga and myself.
Action: First I was driving to Landmark to pick up my brother Brandon when I come accross this lost girl with black hair named Amber Kaily who asks for help getting home. I aggree and after I get her in the car and earthquake strikes, throwing us north farther away from her home. Then a guy named Ryan shows up as we are going around a labrynth of concrete freeways trying to get back home who says he knows the way and joins us. After that, we come accross either the Golden Gate or Brooklyn Bridge when it begins to collapse over the water. Ryan gets Amber out of the car and I jump out grabbing a swinging cable and shout "George of the Jungle, bitches!", and swing away from the bridge floating next to my companions and a Swiss maid named Inga who agrees to come along. We all float down till we get to my grandads old house and all hang out for dinner. Inga cooks and gives some old guy a sponge bath, and I tell Amber she'll be home soon. The dream ends with the house becoming another labrynth maze and Amber and I making our way out into the light of a carribean looking beach and she runs off.

Dream Journal Entry 1

Setting: The Las Vegas Strip, in front of the MGM lion, my friends old house in CA
Characters: Mike, Jessica, Dad, Grandad, Nick and his sister
Action: walking north on the strip, smoking a huge blunt with Mike when Jessica starts follwing a leopard up a dark ally and I chase aftr her. Some bad guys kidnap her and I try to run to save her but my legs are weighed down. I finally get her back and chastise her for going off on her own in Las Vegas. Now I am in front of the MGM main entrance dodging zombies or monsters of some kind in the midst of a fog coming off the lion statue, then I'm at the Rigel office talking to grandad about the weather. Finally I am at home in CA when I get a call from Nick from Vista Del Lago, just saying whats up. I go over to his house but drive just past Nick's place by one house before backing up and Nick laughs to his sister and family that "he missed the house again!" Dream ends with me talking to Nick about life in Las Vegas vs life in California.

Othello

The works of Shakespeare have always run the emotional gamitt on heroes and villians. Hamlet embodied the tragic hero on a vengence quest, King Lear the flawed but learned leader and even Juliet represented passion and love. In Othello the hero is very noble in presence but can also be viewed as sympathetic because his actions are not entrirely of his own fault but have been cohersed by another. For a character to posses both virtue and empathy is an important part of a flawed hero type, but if they can be manipulated by a villian into evil deeds, how sympathetic can they be? Yes Othello's past suffering and endeavors makes him virtuous and helps win Desmedona's heart, but perhaps Othello is more flawed than most heroes if he can be lured into blind jealousy by the villian Iago. This flaw makes Othello more human and thus more relatable, especially to today's audience, but it also makes him less of a true hero because the hero must not be seduced so easily, which is why heroes are looked up to and praised. The snake in the grass Iago has all the qualities of an opposing manipulator like The Joker from Batman or The Emperor from Star Wars, and his overall success makes Othello less of a true hero and more of a tragic good guy. The overall reason Shakespeare allows such flawed characters to be called heroes is to make them relatable and sympathetic, but I view Othello as the lesser of all heroes previously discussed and would say he fell too easily.

The Cave / Matrix

People have always lived thier lives based on thier perception of reality. In both the Allegory of the Cave and The Matrix there are two realities, but which is the more real? For heroes like Neo of the Matrix or Simba from the Lion King, what is real is not of thier choice but rather thier chosen destiny (or thier Dharma). For the Villian however, reality is what makes them happy or content so morally speaking, who is more genuine, the hero or villian? In the Matrix the character Siefer argues that the artificial world of the matrix can be more real than reality, and he chooses to betray everyone to embrace that reality. If "ignorance is bliss", than what is the truth according to the teachers Morpheus and Socrates? Suffering? I believe that the value in truth and knowledge is always subjective and is always filtered through a force of some kind. The bad truth is that Neo and the enlightened prisoner from the cave now know thier reality is not what they thought, but the good truth is that now they have the chance to spread enlightenment or "Moksa" (Neo experienced this when he stopped the barrage of bullits after returning to life in the film). This supports what Plato argued that people must open thier minds to the world beyond what they know to have true wisdom and what Morpheus tried to teach Neo in the Matrix about what is real and what is not. Given that free will can always inhibit enlightenment (the people plugged into the matrix that will fight to defend the artificial world, or the still trapped prisoners in the cave), reality and fantasy are not black and white concepts for the hero or villian. Rather it is the idea that there is something beyond our control or understanding, and that reality is always relative to each person.

Dao De Jing

The practices and teachings of many eastern religions are exotic and foriegn to most western traditions. In Zhungzi's writings, he argues that words are meaningless but are also the way, a core value in the Dao De Jing. Somewhat obscure to read the first time, eventually the idea of the "enlightened hero" makes more sense through the Tao lense. Fighters fight, and leaders lead because that is who they are, not just what they do and the aknowledgment of "the way" is a core trait of a hero. This trait is like the methods of Odysseus at the start of the Odyssey, even though he has a change of heart towards the end, and explains more one dimensional heroes like Beowulf and Buliwyf. This circular flow of actions is contary to other heroes like Gilgamesh because they have a moment of "Moksa" or enlightenment that changes thier point of view. "By defending others, you save yourself", goes the mantra of Kambei in the film "Seven Samurai" (Kurosawa, 1954), which is one way of altruism taken up by the ancient Japanese heroes, the Samurai. The spiritual teachings of the Dao De Jing help us understand the flow of events in all hero tales, but not define it.

The 13th Warrior

            The idea of the "Hero's Code" is one that has been a part of most great heroes of ancient legend and lore. In the film "The 13th Warrior" a group of northmen, accompanied by an Arab scribe named Ahmed, wage war against a group of beast people for control of their land. One of the greatest of the north warriors is Buliwyf, a strong but silent stoic through the journey. Paralleling the Scandinavian hero Beowulf, this warrior is fearless, self-reliant and indifferent to danger, but one contrast is their belief in a higher code or honor system. Like all great Norse warriors, Buliwyf believes in Valhalla, the Viking afterlife, and his duty to earn his way into paradise through battle and glory against all enemies. Beowulf also believes in honor and glory but lacks the social faith system that Buliwyf shows at the film's end in prayer before stepping onto the battle field an inch from death and ready to die fighting. "Lo, I see my father and I see the way.." is the chant of Buliwyf and his men as they fight the beast hoard down. Other ancient cultures like the Spartans believed in a glorious death for the state, as did the Greeks and Trojans in the Odyssey, personified by characters like Aeneas and Odysseus, who believed in "Ananke" or fate and social duty. The idea of immortality is held by Buliwyf, but rejected by the Greek hero Achilles in the Iliad, which is another distinction that the characters in the film hold above others. I believe that the need to prove oneself to a greater cause is paramount to a code of conduct and the hero Buliwyf is a good demonstration of this sacrifice.