The price of dissent and mythology

I’ve been thinking a lot about Prometheus. I went to see the movie, but I won’t write too much about it today (although it’s a fun movie) to watch, but I won’t go into much detail, because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone reading this (if there’s anyone reading this). I’m just going to say that I don’t like that they called the movie Prometheus. I think this myth can be used as a metaphor for something much more powerful than what they did in the movie: Prometheus’ myth is about the dangers of challenging power, not just technology, or creating a new race of beings. So, if the movie had centered more on this part of the myth, it would’ve been a more fitting title. Or if they’d called it something else. Either way, it was fun (although in my personal opinion, it would’ve been a much better movie if they had allowed it to stand on its own, instead of in Alien’s shadow).

Now, about the Greek myth: Prometheus was a Titan, the race of divine beings responsible for the creation of the world and some say humans, too. In fact, according to some myths, Prometheus was the creator of the first human being. But that’s not what makes his tale interesting. Prometheus’ story is a tale not about the creation of a new race, but about the fight for power, and the price those who dare challenge the status quo have to pay.

Titans ruled the earth before the Olympian Gods. They are said to have created the first humans, a “golden race” that never grew old or got sick, but who died inexplicably in a sort of “death sleep.” Now, the Titans’ rule ended thanks to Zeus, Cronos’ son, who decided he’d had enough of daddy’s reign and decided to make a grab for power. So, he started a war and exiled the Titans to Tartarus, the deepest level of hell. Prometheus didn’t side with the Titans against Zeus, though, so that was probably why he wasn’t exiled, too. But, he didn’t like the changes Zeus made to the world order, either. Specifically the ones regarding humans. You see, the thing with Zeus (and Greek gods, in general) is that he didn’t like human’s pride, so he decided to “put them in their place,” by withholding fire and condemning them to live in the dark and without heat. Prometheus decided to intervene and stole fire from Hephaistos, the god of sun and volcanoes, and delivered it to the humans. Well, let’s just say Zeus wasn’t very happy about this when he found out. In fact, he was so not happy that he tied Prometheus to a tree (some sources say a rock, but you get the idea) and had an eagle devour his liver, which would regenerate every night, so the torture could start fresh each day. 

Prometheus’ story is not just a myth of creation and how humans acquired technology (fire). Prometheus’ story is a cautionary tale to anyone (even those who think they’re stronger than the ones in power) who is thinking about challenging an established power structure. Think about it this way: Prometheus was challenging the one person in power by literally fighting for human rights. He wanted people to have the power to keep warm and see in the dark, so he acted. His actions were a direct challenge to those in power, because he took from Zeus the one thing that made him superior to the ones he wanted to rule. In other words, if Prometheus had his way, Zeus’ position as a leader would’ve been jeopardized; can you imagine what Prometheus could’ve taught humans if he hadn’t been tied to the tree?

The reason I’ve been thinking so much about this story is not so much the movie as the news. Every time I see a story about Syria, Bahrain (yes, they’re still protesting and arresting protestors), Egypt and even my own country, Venezuela, I think about those who are trying to upset the balance of power. It takes courage to become an agent of change, to challenge those who can crush you. Power is dangerous, because it often believes its own lies: that it is invincible, that it can get away with anything or that no one will dare to challenge it again, once they make an example of the first guy who dared say anything. But I think there’s reason for hope, after all, even Prometheus’ agony ended, when Herakles freed him. So, the people of Syria, Egypt, Bahrain, Venezuela and every other country trying to free themselves of tyrannical power, might see the end of it (hopefully in less than a thousand years).

About the shadows living in the mirror

Well, I did it. I went to see Snow White and the Huntsman (warning: there may be a couple of spoilers ahead). The movie in general wasn’t as good as it could’ve been, but not as bad either, I’d say 5 out of 10. I have to admit, though, that the visual effects were gorgeous, and they did make one of the cutest Troll I’ve seen lately (yes, very cute). They did change the story quite a bit, and they had to, otherwise, this would’ve lasted no more than thirty minutes; it is a fairy tale, after all. But in the remake they managed to do something all the other versions (in my opinion) failed to do: They humanized the “Evil Queen,” and part of this achievement, of course, is thanks to Charlize Theron, but he writers did a very good job with her character, too. So, I’d like to take a closer look at what the writers and Charlize did with Ravenna.

The Evil Queen is usually portrayed as a very unidimensional character: A retelling of Narcissus’ myth. Who was Narcissus you want to know? Glad you asked. There are two stories about Narcissus; the first is about a beautiful flower Zeus (the boss of bosses in Olympus) created to help his brother, Hades, King of the underworld, kidnap, sorry I meant “sweep off her feet,” the woman he had fallen in love with, Persephone (another interesting story I might write about later). So, Zeus designs the cute, little, fragrant flower and poor Persephone has the terrible luck of seeing it by the river bed one day. She was so mesmerized by the flower, she had to have it. Unfortunately, before she could take it, the ground opened and a black carriage kidnapped, I mean brought, brought her to her lovely future and loving husband, King of the Underworld and hopeless romantic, Hades.The first time I read this I was left with this uneasy feeling of “beauty is dangerous and you can manipulate that danger to control other people’s lives” feeling, which is why Snow Withe’s Evil Queen reminds me of this; she, too manipulated her beauty to control people, and became very dangerous while doing it.

The second story about Narcissus is very different, but is probably the most popular one (or at least the one I’ve heard about the most in pop culture). Narcissus was a beautiful man who never considered any maiden or nymph good enough for him (there’s a beautiful and heartbreaking story of a nymph called Echo, but I’ll write about her later). He left scores of young scorned lovers dedicate to praying to the gods to punish him. This went on for years, until finally Nemesis (whose name means “righteous anger,” I love that) decided to take matters into her own hands, and give Narcissus a taste of what he was putting others through: She cursed him to see his reflection in a pool of water. What was Narcissus’ reaction? Here’s a hint: Where does the word “narcissist” come from? Exactly. The moment he saw his reflection, he fell in love with it and couldn’t bear to part from it. He lived out the rest of his days staring at his reflection in the water. It is said that where he died, grew a patch of a beautiful flower which the nymphs called “narcissus” in his honor. In this case, too, Narcissus fell victim to beauty (this time his own).

Both versions of Narcissus’ story are cautionary tales against the power of beauty, just like Snow White’s Evil Queen. Specially the second one, with the reflection in the water versus the Queen’s mirror. This is the classical, traditional take on the Evil Queen: A woman who uses beauty as a source of power, like Zeus and Hades did, and later a woman who succumbs because of her obsession with beauty, like Narcissus, the man, did. Now, the writers of the movie went beyond these ideas. They started exploring the price the Evil Queen paid for her obsession with beauty and even more, they made some very interesting social commentary when they addressed the origins of her obsession with youth and absolute beauty.

Ravenna, aka the Evil Queen, wasn’t always evil. She was once a little girl whose village was destroyed by invaders. Another woman (probably her mother), put a spell on her to grant her absolute beauty that became the source of her magical powers. Unfortunately for Ravenna, the spell could only be broken by beauty greater than hers. This is why she was obsessed with being the most beautiful woman of the kingdom: it was the only way she could hang on to life as she knew it. This last bit is what got me: For this woman, the only way to keep the life she has is to comply with society’s (represented by her mother, a figure of authority in charge of educating her) demand that she remain “beautiful,” regardless of what she needs to do to remain so. And the saddest part is that Ravenna feels she has to do whatever it takes to remain beautiful, lest the mirror tells her she’s not “the fairest of them all” anymore and life as she knows it ends.

The mirror is the tool that creates the expectations (it shows her the image she needs to pursue), and also what compels her to act, by reminding her that there’s someone out there who’s prettier and potentially more powerful. The mirror is telling her what she should become, and Ravenna, in turn, feels the need to comply. She becomes a slave to the mirror and the ideas it puts in her head. But this is all a fairy tale, right? Then, why am I thinking about, oh, I don’t know, teenagers and fashion magazines, celebrities and fashion designers, women obsessed with their body weight and plastic surgery, trying to hang on to eternal youth and beauty? Weird ... The thing I loved most about the way Ravenna was portrayed is that she was a woman subjected to very modern pressures.

For centuries, women have been expected to live up to the whole archetype of beauty. This is why we wrote fairy tales and princesses are always pretty and find a handsome prince, and live happily ever after, because we’ve come to believe that beauty is good, beauty is wise, beauty is fame, beauty is success, beauty is power. But we fail to remember the dangers of beauty: The kind of beauty that can lead us to hell if we pursue it blindly, like Persephone did, and the kind of beauty we become so obsessed with, that our lives become an endless chase for it, like Narcissus’. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to look good, and feeling attractive, but it becomes a problem when we begin to feel it is our obligation to comply with a certain cannon of beauty or our life will not be what we want to. When we do that, we give control to the shadows that live inside the mirror, like Ravenna did, and we all know how that ends.

The ending of the movie, though, is somewhat different form the traditional fairy tale, and it has a lot o do with the way they portrayed Snow White but I think I’ve rambled long enough today, so, I’ll save it for the next time, but I will leave you with this: 

Eyes Wide Open

“We walk the night with eyes wide open.” I love this song, and I love this video. Besides the very obvious (and if I may add very accurate) environmental commentary, this is a great example of building a world out of the things we ignore around us. And that is what I like most about this video. They are taking about an idea, doing social commentary in a way that no one feels attacked, and how? By intentionally creating a new reality based on our greed (the little robots trying to squeeze every last ounce of water form the planet until all they can get is sand, for example) and more importantly, showing us the final result of that kind of behavior (try explaining that in words to a politician).These things happen around us everyday, but we respond to them very differently, why? Because of the way they’re being said. I think this is why I usually gravitate towards fantasy, symbolism and magical realism. because you can tell many truths about the real world by creating an alternate one. But how to do this? Easy: Open your senses, not just your eyes. Dare to utter the magic words: What if?

The moment we ask, what if things were different? What if we could only see the things that aren’t happening around us? What if we woke up one day to find time running backwards? What if your dog is really an ancient god sent o protect you from some terrible monster? What if the world we see is just a curtain hiding the truth?

What if (add your own impossibility here)? The moment we dare to ask these questions is the moment we stop being slaves to convention (what we consider “real” or “normal” or whatever), the moment we can really start creating something that is truly ours. In this case it was a music video, but think further. Think stories, books, poems, movies. There are so many impossibilities out there, why not explore as many as you can? And why, you may ask. Why go through all the trouble of imagining, creating, thinking about worlds that we know don’t exist? Well, first of all, because it’s fun (seriously). But more important, because by exploring the improbable, we usually find the answers we don’t dare to look for in the real world. And in my opinion, that alone is worth the expedition.

Intentional Worlds

Intentional world is the name given to a world created by human beings. It includes ideas, customs, beliefs, and dreams, in one word: Life. Perhaps the idea of naming   blog about writing after this idea (more commonly used in psychology) seems a bit strange the first time, but when you think about it, creating worlds is exactly what we writers do. We dream, we imagine, we dare to ask: What if? Why not? And without caring too much about how much sense the answers make (because that’s what revision is for), we plant the seed of a new world in our heads. And very slowly, the seed germinates, and something (we’re not sure what yet) begins to grow inside us. And one day we realize, with a little horror and a lot of anticipation, that what’s growing inside is a story that will eventually contain a whole new world we created. And before we know what happened, we’ve become a writer. Well, at least, that’s how it was for me.

I’ve been a compulsive reader and story teller since I can remember. The funny thing is, I never thought of myself as a writer until a few years ago. I’d write stories and poems and keep them to myself. I’d come up with ideas, and questions, and characters that would get stuck in my head, until I had to put them in paper to get them out of my mind just to be able to go to sleep. But even then, I didn’t consider myself a writer. Why? because it’s hard. Because the moment you say it, it becomes real, and you have to come to terms with the idea that people will look at you funny and ask, “yes, but what do you do?” And well, coming up with that answer took me a few years and some courage (and a lot of interesting experiences I refuse to call mistakes). So now here’s my answer: I build worlds inside my head.