[UA] Sacrafice your friends for food

[George Guy]

On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 2:21 PM, Russell Rayburn <rusrayburn at gmail.com>wrote:

> On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 3:04 PM, Andrew Winnenberg <awinnenb at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 1:07 PM, Russell Rayburn <rusrayburn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >> Our heros and villains are creations of media now.  Maybe it's been
> >> that way for a while; perhaps since someone talked about Zeus.
> >>
> >> So, why wouldn't someone try to ascend as The Joker?  Or as Dexter
> >> Morgan, for that matter?
> >
> > I thought people did do that. That's why archetypes have different
> > faces, isn't it? You might be using Dexter, or Elvis, as a model, but
> > you're aiming for an archetypal idea that was a part of their
> > personality or public persona.
>
> Perhaps that's one way to look at it.  On the other hand, the various
> masks tend to redefine the archetype to the point that it's almost
> completely new.
>
> Take Dexter.  A serial killer who kills serial killers, has a wife,
> stepkids, steady job... a far cry from Buffalo Bill ( for instance ).
> Are they really both channeling the Dark Stalker?


I could comment if I knew what the Dark Stalker's taboo was (what book is
the DS in, again?), but the archetypes are designed to have room for less
conventional followers. Keep in mind that it's ONLY an archetype's taboo
that defines it, not its symbols.

>
>
> Even comparing the Jack Nicholson / Heath Legder Jokers is
> interesting... are they both masks of the same archetype?  Really?
> Slapstick and game theory fit in the same archetype?
>
> Ok... that last one I threw in because I just love the image of the
> older Joker-Avatars running around with acid-filled squirting flowers
> and smoke bombs while the newer Jokers hunt them down as heretics with
> knives, grenades and firearms.


Yep, both are masks of the Trickster, which also encompasses Odysseus and
Bugs Bunny. The interesting thing, though, is that Ledger's Joker talks like
a Fool (albeit a very articulate one), even though his intelligence is too
great and his plans too elaborate for him to channel it. He could be trying
to usurp both archetypes (while, as a recent posting on
unknown-armies.comsuggests, Batman is part of an attempt to replace
both the Dark Stalker and
the Masterless Man).

>
>
>
>
> --
> I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate.
> And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect
> it.
>  - Jack Handey
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