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Through
the respective teachings and psychology of Jung and
Freud and many others, author Kim Hudson creates
a rather astonishing look at the breakdown and
dissection of the virgin role in popular fiction and how
the role applies to the order of storytelling and
screenplays. For those interested, this is strictly a
book for the writers, primarily the screenwriter, who
would want a second glance and exploration in to the
virginal figure of lore and myth that involves the
female virgin that forms a quest of exploration through
hardships, while the male virgin is more based around
realistic hardships that also lead to a similar quest of
exploration.
The way
author Hudson masterfully breaks down the elements of
the character and the models of archetypes and molds,
she manages to explain just about every popular tale in
pop culture where our virginal hero is one who is guided
on a quest and led through a journey of awakening aided
by the coward i.e. "Star Wars" while also laying out the
story of the god seeking a form of testing their own
boundaries in the mortal world while leaving the comfort
of their parental element i.e. "Superman."
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| While these stories
and perspectives can be adjusted towards and fixed
to just about any story in the world, Hudson instead
keeps the thesis and brilliant analyses confined to
the film world where she challenges even her own
theories an assessments by breaking down a beat by
beat evaluation of the virgin's tale in films like "Shrek"
and even in anti-virgin tales like "Mamma Mia!" and
"The 40 Year Old Virgin," two films that seem very
disconnected and in a world of their own. But once
Hudson completely draws upon their own beat by beat
map of their arcs, they suddenly begin to look
incredibly similar. Startlingly so. Hudson has a
sheer knack for expressing the deeper meaning behind
the virginal tale and tackles a facet of cinema and
storytelling that isn't as explored as often as many
would think. She takes the classic symbol of the
pure innocent virgin and applies it to just about
every story in the world from Theseus and the
Minotaur to "Pretty Woman" and does so to allow the
reader or writer to form their own molds or perhaps
rely on said molds to form their own epic stories of
coming of age in a world that will eventually
destroy their womb and force them to abandon the
virginal shell that, for some stories, is used as a
form of protection against a cruel world filled with
hardships and obstacles. While also explaining the
task of the virginal hero or victim, she also
expresses the roles of the supporting characters in
the world of the virgin including the mentor, the
femme fatale, the coward, et al. and shows us how
every single element in a story is crucial to the
formation of what arc we want to display for the
audience if we are to hope to write a remotely
successful screenplay. This dissection can of course
be regarded to any genre from drama to action
adventure and through anecdotes and fragments of
classic psychological studies involving the
complexes and consciousness that play their own
roles in the quest of the virgin to not only gain a
form of sexual rebirth but or spiritual and physical
rebirth. It's an utterly engrossing read for any
writer interested in sinking deep in to their
characters. |
| 5/10/10 |
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