20:01:38 From Vinay : Good evening Dr. Eiland 20:04:38 From Vinay : I wanted to check if my application of deconstruction criticism regarding "The Force" in star wars is applicable 20:05:04 From Vinay : as well as if a Psychoanalytical criticism can be of Anakin's fear of losing connection with the world through his actions of podracing, building human interface droids, and ability to sense his surroundings but feeling "cold" 20:11:37 From thomas eiland : hey now vinay 20:11:43 From thomas eiland : sorry. I was wandering around 20:11:45 From Vinay : hello, no problem 20:11:48 From thomas eiland : okay to answer your question 20:12:00 From thomas eiland : let’s talk about deconstruction NY for the most part nobodies can be using it for this course 20:12:26 From thomas eiland : deconstruction is a critical analysis based on a philosophical theory created by a guy who lived in a world in which there were two cultures intermingling who use the same words but did not understand each other because they translated things differently. T 20:12:41 From thomas eiland : To that end, what you have to do is take a relatively short work that has in it a series of words that have MULTIPLE definitions t 20:12:56 From thomas eiland : and then find a way to create a brand-new logical translation of the work that is clearly not the same as the standard formalist obvious translation of that work 20:13:18 From thomas eiland : in the deconstruction analysis that I gave you on my website, I talk about very common short phrases that have multiple widely varying translations based on your understanding of definitions of English words 20:13:23 From thomas eiland : even a simple word like fly 20:13:30 From thomas eiland : does it mean the act of going through the air under propulsion 20:13:39 From thomas eiland : does it mean a hit baseball that is in the air 20:13:45 From thomas eiland : does it mean simply to get away from something 20:13:49 From thomas eiland : does refer to an actual animal 20:13:58 From thomas eiland : does it refer to your zipper 20:14:06 From thomas eiland : does refer to a fishing lure 20:14:09 From thomas eiland : and the answer of course is 20:14:11 From thomas eiland : yes 20:14:17 From thomas eiland : depending on the context of the rest of the words. T 20:14:41 From Vinay : got it 20:14:48 From thomas eiland : Do not apply deconstruction to your movie. There is no way you would be able to cover that amount of material in the limited amount of space that I give you for this assignment 20:14:52 From thomas eiland : See what I did there 20:14:56 From thomas eiland : your stories about space 20:15:00 From thomas eiland : and I use space in a different way 20:15:02 From thomas eiland : any who 20:15:08 From Vinay : :) 20:15:23 From thomas eiland : psychoanalytical criticism of the character essentially says that a character ends up where they wanted to be 20:15:29 From thomas eiland : what is and he can speak by the end of the story? 20:15:41 From Vinay : a jedi in training 20:15:41 From thomas eiland : What is Anakin’s fate by the end of the story that YOU are analyzing 20:15:49 From thomas eiland : then that’s what he wanted 20:15:51 From thomas eiland : psychoanalytical 20:15:51 From Vinay : ooo 20:15:54 From thomas eiland : that’s it 20:16:00 From thomas eiland : if he says he wanted that 20:16:05 From thomas eiland : then you have no psychoanalytical translation 20:16:16 From thomas eiland : if you get to the end of episode three 20:16:35 From thomas eiland : psychoanalytical criticism says, despite his claims to the contrary that he wanted to be the antithesis of the Jedi anyone to be Darth Vader 20:16:38 From thomas eiland : by the end of episode six 20:16:45 From thomas eiland : we realize that the true nature of the character who has now died 20:16:49 From thomas eiland : was to be that Jedi 20:17:04 From thomas eiland : and we know that because the last thing he does well actually after he allows his son to kill him and he’s dying 20:17:12 From thomas eiland : is to get his son to remove the Darth Vader mask so he dies Anakin not Darth Vader 20:17:21 From Vinay : i see 20:17:22 From thomas eiland : but you are limited to the one episode that you’re doing 20:17:36 From thomas eiland : if you have no claim to the contrary of where the character ends up you have no psychoanalytical criticism for that character 20:17:46 From Vinay : epsiode 1 20:18:11 From thomas eiland : find a character that seems to stumble into something or seems to be dragged into something unwillingly 20:18:18 From thomas eiland : and you will have a psychoanalytical criticism for that character 20:18:50 From thomas eiland : basically psychoanalytical criticism on the character requires the following elements 20:19:01 From thomas eiland : the first is that the character is going to either claim or deny something that ultimately turns out to be the opposite by the end of the story 20:19:14 From thomas eiland : we are looking for you to establish that CLAIM by evidence from the story where the character says “I am not a thief” 20:19:26 From thomas eiland : then you’re looking for the REVEALED by the end of the story in which the character is found out to be a master thief 20:19:44 From thomas eiland : and then you’re looking for the EVIDENCE throughout the story where the character slipped up and either through action or words revealed that they were indeed or wanted to be a master thief 20:20:01 From thomas eiland : even with off handed remarks like “let me steal a minute of your time” 20:20:06 From thomas eiland : and phrases like that from the character 20:20:23 From thomas eiland : if you know the story well you may be a will to find somebody on the good side or the bad side who ends up flipping over to the other side and in doing so reveals their true nature 20:20:25 From thomas eiland : their true destiny 20:20:27 From thomas eiland : their true desire 20:20:38 From thomas eiland : which is what psychoanalytical criticism is all about when it is applied to the character 20:20:41 From Vinay : ok 20:20:47 From Vinay : would jar-jar binks be a weak example? 20:20:47 From thomas eiland : can you think of something offhand right now 20:20:57 From Vinay : like he is not ambitious 20:21:00 From thomas eiland : is banks a willing participant or does he seem to be being dragged into these situations 20:21:10 From thomas eiland : in fact, he keeps “accidentally” winning the war 20:21:16 From thomas eiland : that is psychoanalytical criticism applicable 20:21:18 From thomas eiland : because 20:21:22 From thomas eiland : he claims he is not a warrior 20:21:25 From thomas eiland : he claims he does not want to fight 20:21:30 From thomas eiland : even in his attempts to run away 20:21:37 From thomas eiland : we begin to get the REVEAL 20:21:41 From thomas eiland : that he cannot help himself but to dominate 20:21:45 From thomas eiland : to destroy the opposition 20:21:51 From thomas eiland : to create situations in which he will be the ultimate warrior 20:21:55 From thomas eiland : a conqueror of sorts 20:22:00 From thomas eiland : that is his destiny 20:22:02 From Vinay : wow 20:22:09 From thomas eiland : and of course this would also explain psychoanalytically why those above him do not like him 20:22:13 From thomas eiland : it’s not because he’s a screwup 20:22:17 From thomas eiland : it’s because he will replace them 20:22:21 From thomas eiland : because they see in him 20:22:32 From thomas eiland : his potential and destiny as a superior to them anyway 20:22:45 From thomas eiland : their attempts to deride him, to punish him etc. are all designed to keep him in his place and to keep him from becoming ultimately what he will be 20:23:00 From thomas eiland : so you have a little bit of Oedipus and some “see what happens by the of the story” type of psychoanalytical criticism 20:23:24 From Vinay : so would the jedi council's stance on anakin being too old to be trained yet in the end allowing it be a criticism of the jedi council or order? 20:23:43 From Vinay : or it would only be applied specifically to a person 20:24:13 From thomas eiland : what was the result for the Council by allowing Anakin in. Did it destroy the Council or did it help them? 20:24:23 From Vinay : neither as far as episode 1 ends 20:24:31 From thomas eiland : Then there’s nothing to be discussed 20:24:35 From Vinay : except the loss of qui-gon 20:24:35 From thomas eiland : so far 20:24:41 From thomas eiland : how do they lose him 20:25:05 From Vinay : through the engagement with the dark side in protecting naboo 20:25:08 From Vinay : but not anakin 20:25:09 From Vinay : ah 20:25:19 From thomas eiland : psychoanalyze him 20:25:36 From thomas eiland : what does he claim or appear to be trying to do and what ultimately happens to him. What ultimately happens to him was what he subconsciously was trying to do 20:26:06 From Vinay : he was trying to traing obi-wan and anakin by showing them the way, but instead passes away? 20:26:34 From thomas eiland : did t he complete the training 20:26:54 From Vinay : for obi-wan yes 20:27:10 From thomas eiland : did he say he intended to complete the training 20:27:24 From Vinay : yes? im a little fuzzy on it 20:27:39 From thomas eiland : what was QG’s position 20:27:43 From thomas eiland : high or low 20:27:50 From Vinay : high 20:28:01 From thomas eiland : what happens if he completely train somebody who is fundamentally superior to him? 20:28:21 From Vinay : he lowers himself 20:28:27 From thomas eiland : Well he gets removed or replaced 20:28:27 From Vinay : oh ok 20:28:32 From thomas eiland : he was not threatened by Obi-Wan 20:28:36 From thomas eiland : he was threatened by Anakin 20:28:39 From thomas eiland : this is standard Oedipus 20:28:50 From thomas eiland : a man in a position of power sees a younger person is a threat so he tries to sabotage him 20:29:12 From thomas eiland : he never, subconsciously, intended to complete the training of Anakin 20:29:17 From thomas eiland : because he saw him as a threat 20:29:27 From thomas eiland : what’s the best way to avoid an unpleasant task? T 20:29:38 From Vinay : oh i didnt understand that before the explanation 20:29:42 From thomas eiland : What is the most effective way to avoid an unpleasant task? 20:29:49 From Vinay : by not doing it 20:29:54 From thomas eiland : You could be forced to 20:29:56 From thomas eiland : unless of course 20:30:08 From thomas eiland : what happens to QG at the end of the story or by the end of the story 20:30:14 From Vinay : he dies 20:30:22 From thomas eiland : you can’t make you do it now 20:30:23 From thomas eiland : hahhaha 20:30:25 From Vinay : haha 20:30:37 From thomas eiland : based on what you’re telling me, I think that would be something you can work with 20:30:56 From thomas eiland : your looking for elements that say that QG is resistant to Anikan 20:31:05 From thomas eiland : by the way was Q G for or against allowing him in 20:31:07 From Vinay : he was for allowing him in 20:31:17 From thomas eiland : so on the surface 20:31:23 From thomas eiland : he’s like “hey this is going go great” 20:31:29 From thomas eiland : but he actually did not finish the training 20:31:35 From thomas eiland : because subconsciously he didn’t want to 20:31:38 From thomas eiland : he never intended to 20:31:39 From Vinay : oh! 20:31:41 From thomas eiland : something along those lines 20:31:44 From Vinay : i see it better now 20:31:53 From thomas eiland : you need to have those contrasting elements for psychoanalytical criticism 20:32:10 From thomas eiland : if he was against Anakin in every way the whole time there is no psychoanalytical reveal that he doesn’t want to finish training Anakin 20:32:23 From thomas eiland : but he appears to be for this guy but everything he does seems to undermine that then you have psychoanalytical reveal 20:33:18 From Vinay : is the audience intended to understand it without a criticism? 20:33:47 From thomas eiland : the whole purpose of this analysis is that every audience member has the potential to translate the work in a different way, often at odds with the author’s intended meaning 20:33:57 From thomas eiland : that’s why Marxist criticism is important because it establishes what the author meant, even if the audience didn’t get it 20:34:33 From thomas eiland : and of course we have all these different critical perspectives because they say “this group translated this way because they believe in X, Y, and Z” and “this other group translated a different way because they do not believe in XY or Z” 20:34:47 From Vinay : ok 20:36:45 From thomas eiland : after a while, it doesn’t matter if the audience got it because we are not tied to any particular translation. The purpose of your paper is to show how the work can be translated DIFFERENTLY, rather than finding how different groups would all agree it means the same thing 20:36:56 From Vinay : in marxis terms that is the reason for it's appeal? 20:37:06 From thomas eiland : the more complicated the translation, the more obscure it is and the less likely a number of people are going to translate it that eway 20:37:29 From thomas eiland : Know the reason for its appeal is because it is understandable at the most basic level. A child can watch this movie and they get especially the first movie that was released 20:37:41 From thomas eiland : older people or more sophisticated people understand some of the nuances and so they get the subtext is that the child misses 20:37:42 From Vinay : ok 20:38:30 From thomas eiland : different cultures understand the story because the author is using mythological constructs. He is a fan and a friend of Joseph Campbell. He is using standard mythological archetypes which makes the story much more universal. Every culture understands the isolated loner who has to go out in the world to find his way. Everyone understands the damsel in distress story. Everyone understands what it’s like to be governed by an oppressive regime, even if it was only their parents or teacher 20:39:11 From thomas eiland : which of course lends itself to mythological criticism for this particular work more than anything else that I offer you to do. That’s because when Lucas is talking over the film explaining why he did this whole Star Wars thing to begin with, he is also going to be explaining to you that he is creating mythological archetypes that you’re supposed to be following or that at least he was hoping you would. The original title for this movie was the “the tragedy of Anakin Skywalker” 20:39:26 From thomas eiland : it was supposed to be that when we saw Darth Vader we were supposed to see him as a tragic empathetic character not a horrible person. 20:39:54 From thomas eiland : The first three of the nonology were designed to explain why Darth Vader is not a bad guy 20:39:57 From thomas eiland : he’s a tragic guy 20:40:01 From thomas eiland : not a bad guy 20:40:17 From thomas eiland : he redeems himself at the end of episode six by having his son removed the mask so he can die as anikin 20:40:44 From Vinay : ah 20:41:18 From thomas eiland : there are plenty of you to analyses involving Lucas in which he discusses the mythological intentions of this movie in which you would apply mythological criticism and simply identify the archetypes of character, plot and setting 20:41:32 From Vinay : got it 20:42:09 From Vinay : would the mythological response then reference all the 18 steps or the steps taken so far by anakin 20:42:14 From thomas eiland : don’t do deconstruction for this. 20:42:26 From thomas eiland : Well year not to get to all of the 18 steps. That’s Campbell’s expanded version. The most basic version is seven 20:42:30 From Vinay : ok 20:42:32 From thomas eiland : you have a guy in his original place 20:42:46 From thomas eiland : the call to adventure (you may or may not get a resistance or denial to the call to adventure) 20:42:49 From thomas eiland : the transition to the new world 20:42:54 From thomas eiland : the failure in the New World 20:43:02 From thomas eiland : the introduction to a mentor who usually has magical powers 20:43:07 From thomas eiland : the evolution of the skills 20:43:18 From thomas eiland : the ultimate showdown to demonstrate the mastery of the skills 20:43:28 From thomas eiland : and then the return to the old world as a conquering hero 20:43:36 From thomas eiland : those are the basic elements 20:43:51 From thomas eiland : the subtleties of the betrayal by the female and all that stuff a lot of that has to do with the fact the Joseph Campbell’s writing from a male perspective. 20:44:36 From thomas eiland : He’s writing from the idea that men go out in the world to find their way, something that he did not believe that women this early do and the construct works better and more effectively more realistically if you take out some of the gender specific aspects that he put in there and you strip it down to its basic elements in the same way that Jung’s mythological criticism itself is taking a story and stripping it down to its basic elements so that it becomes universal 20:44:43 From thomas eiland : that’s what Carl Jung was trying to do 20:44:56 From Vinay : oh 20:45:16 From thomas eiland : for your particular story it’s a story about a guy who becomes a Jedi 20:45:19 From thomas eiland : because that’s what you got 20:45:28 From Vinay : i see 20:45:29 From thomas eiland : ploywise 20:45:32 From thomas eiland : you have the best friend 20:45:36 From thomas eiland : the love interest 20:45:38 From thomas eiland : the training 20:45:42 From thomas eiland : the failures and then the successes 20:45:45 From thomas eiland : etc. 20:46:51 From thomas eiland : it is a very universal and easily understandable way to translate something. It makes a lot of sense in terms of both understanding the story being told as well as the choice for a critical perspective. 20:47:07 From thomas eiland : It is basically symbolism taken to a more world view level 20:47:25 From Vinay : ok 20:47:40 From thomas eiland : see what you can find 20:47:51 From thomas eiland : mythological criticism is going to be easily three or four pages which is a great way to make sure you get to that eight-page minimum. 20:48:10 From Vinay : will do 20:48:20 From thomas eiland : Anything else I can help you with? 20:48:31 From Vinay : no, thank you for the direction Dr. Eiland 20:49:03 From thomas eiland : you got it. Once you start working on one of these critical perspectives, send me an email if you have any questions about your application to a character or plot or setting for mythological or any of the other critical perspectives. Once you have a specific something in mind it’s a lot easier to have conversation about what works and what doesn’t 20:49:09 From Vinay : sure 20:49:28 From Vinay : will email 20:49:39 From Vinay : hope you have a good evening, bye 20:50:20 From thomas eiland : my pleasure