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Friday, May 21, 2010

Tests, Enemies, & Alies

Since Thus Spoke Zarathustra isn't very good for archetypes, I have decided to resort to a book I read at home. Earlier in the year I had an interest in Dante Alingheri's Divine Comedy. I gave up after finding it increadibly irritating, but finished most of the first part, Inferno.
In Inferno, every new canto brings new tests or enemies, all of which are a different form of trial, and all of which teach Dante something. As they pass through the inferno, Dante's allie Virgil will coerce many demons to permit them passage, and take them closer to their destination. These minute conflicts must be the tests, enemies, & allies because they are to common, and too easy to resolve to be anything else, and Dante has already left his ordinary world.

Mentor

In response to the mentor question, I must say that my novel has none. Zarathustra serves as his own mentor, with no help from others. He is the mentor, to himself and others. His teachings come from excessivley long monologues through which he occasionaly gets an answer to what he was looking for, most of the time he becomes off topic and shrowded in metaphore, but he does teach himself plenty. He fits the mentor roll completley, except he is mostly teaching himself.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Refusing the Call

In my novel, with the lack of a specific call, it is hard to find a refusal. However, I can think of an event that seems to be a refusal. After some time with his followers, Zarathustra decides he can't handle them, he then runs away. His followers become very depressed and woried after he dissapears. After some time, Zarathustra returns accepting the call, and continues to pass knowledge to his followers.