[UA] Stereotypes and archetypes

[Royal Minister of Stuff]

--- Matthew Rowan Norwood <matt at intermute.com> wrote:
> > Greg Stolze makes a distinction between the two
> –types:
> > 
> > Stereotypes are found in literature and movies and
> popular culture in general.
> > 
> > Archetypes are found in history.
> 
> Do you still stand by that distinction, Greg? The UA
> archetypes (e.g.
> Masterless Man, Flying Woman, Pilgrim, Fool) seem
> much more fiction-
> than fact-inspired. Surely you'll agree that REAL
> people in history
> never fit into neat little categories like this, and
> that they can only
> do so insofar as they allow their lives to be
> fictionalized and
> mythologized.
> 
> -Matt Norwood

I agree with Norwood.  For instance, Attenborough,
fictionalized Ghandi into a kind of saint, but the
great Indian nationalist was a lot more interesting
than that.  Indira Ghandi said he was an interesting
father, anyway.

The Masterless Man certainly seems to rely pretty
heavily on fictional characters -John Wayne's movie
personas, Dirty Hairy, Lone Wolf and Cub, etc.- rather
than historical examples (disenfranchized cowboys and
1800s drifters, Serpico, ronin who would kill you for
a chicken, etc.)

=====
-- Rp Bowman, Royal Minister of Stuff
The Electronic Nation of Yokeltania:
http://www.geocities.com/yokeltania/

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