Crazy

We don't like crazy people. As a culture mental illness makes us very uncomfortable.

I'm watching Fringe, because I'm on the cutting edge of cult shows from the late 00s, and there's a point where the main character starts to think she's going crazy. (If the spoiler angers you then just never talk to me again.) She fights against and is profoundly offended by the idea that she needs a psych eval. Her offense stems from the thought that she will no longer be trustworthy to those around her.

The mere idea that you are talking to somebody about your psychology will so shake the foundations of people's faith in you.

And this is from a show from 2008.

When somebody kills themselves or kills somebody else, it's the first thing we go to look at. "Yes they did a horrible thing... But where they crazy cause that would explain it?" Now, I do not mean to say that we shouldn't look at mental illness in these cases, because well it does explain a lot. However fixating on it. Stigmatizing it. Demonizing it... These things make it so much more difficult to fight.

We are, as a culture, looking at mental illness as a monster are however unintentionally telling the mentally ill are monsters. And when you tell someone they're a monster, you give them permission to be monstrous.

I work with the kids that have the real potential to be monsters. Like a B-movie priest or a Fairy Tale Paladin my job is to help them fight demons. Using compassion, understanding, and structure I battle their madness and hopefully let them become something more than the monsters they think they are.

I can only do this because I know how to fight it. And I only know that because I've had to fight it my entire life. I know what NOT to say. I know when to say the right thing, because I've been on their side.

I know what it is like to feel like a monster. To think that it doesn't matter what it is that you do. That you aren't strong enough to fight that part of you. Though I've never attempted it and never will, I know what it's like to contemplate suicide. I've kept my parents up with worry about me harming myself. I know these pains.

And there are moments when I've looked at the story of my life, added up the equation of what I am, intuit the effects of my life, and come to the clear rational conclusion that the world would be better without me in it.

Now I need to state again that I'd never go through with it. There are too many variables to accommodate for when I'm in that mindset. And for me it's never a strong enough impulse that a simple hiccup won't kill the desire. That and I'm never sure if I've earned my place in Valhalla yet. Can only die in glorious battle if you survive long enough to see that battle. I can't leave until I've slain many more demons.

But that's just me. It's not the same for us all. Some have harder fights. My personal demon is so very small compared to some I have known or heard of. Like the sad clown who so recently passed. I loved his work, and I see his passing as I would that of a comrade in the war I fight.

I did not know him, so I cannot truly mourn him. But I can feel for a moment that we fought the same fight. He was a casualty in a holy war. The war I fight everyday. And with any luck, will continue to fight for a very long time.

Sleep well Mr. Williams.

The Hero's Journey

Over this weekend I say a film. A film that I absolutely feel in love with. It's a Gonzo Space Opera called "Guardians of the Galaxy". I know you know what that is. It's the one with the Tree dude and the Raccoon with a machinegun.

After watching it twice and planning my third and fourth watchings (SPOILER ALERT: I liked it) I read a series of articles talking about the show. Like you do. And one really stood out to me. In an "Art and Entertainment" article in the LA Times Steven Zeitchik states that Guardians is an example "Post-plot cinema". He asserts that there is no plot. Just a bunch of confusing stuff that happens. There's so much going on that you could not explain it to somebody else.

Now, I don't agree. But I think he does have a point. If you're looking for a clear Aristotelian plot structure or to be beaten over the head with the Hero's Journey he's dead on. There isn't a clear hero who's journey the story revolves around. Because it's not about any one character.

It's about the group.

This is a story about a group of head strong individuals who collide and become more than they could singularly be. There's isn't one character who the story is about. It's about all of them. And that's not generally something that this format handles well. Multiple heroes aren't well handled when you're trying to follow this structure.

Which for me highlights one of the issues with the thought that "All stories are the Hero's Journey". What I took from my study of it was that most of the great stories fell into this same structure. However, I have never believed that just because you can ramrod and hamfist every story into the structure that they are all "Hero's Journeys".

Now, I realize that many of my writerly friends will disagree. There is a worship of the Journey in many writer's circles that I think misses the entire point and at its very worst creates some truly soulless stories. The movie "Pleasantville" was a movie I truly loved, but the insistence at the end that he return from the "Special world" in the TV back to his mother felt pointless, disingenuous, and like the writer was actively catering to the Journey. It sincerely ruined for me a film that I otherwise truly loved.

When these plots come up as a natural extension of a well crafted story it's amazing and really does work well. However... many times a "well-crafted" story is overworked for the artform it relies in. We think of all movies as Hero's Journey's and so they all are. And we say things like "Love is the Special Realm" to make it all happily fit into the preconceptions.

I think that it's a powerful tool that everybody should learn. But, by the same token we need to write our stories and then look for the themes and Monomythic elements.

And sometimes just sit back and enjoy the story.

In summation:

I am Groot.