Essays
1
Popular Culture
- The Great Debate: Myth Versus Fairy Tale in Joseph Campbell’s Flight of the Wild Gander - This is one of my favorite debates. January 2008
- Commercial Mythology: Aesthetics, Pornography and Andy Warhol - Just because it’s pop, doesn’t mean it isn’t art. April 2008
- The Tri-Wizard Cup: Alchemy and Transformation in Harry Potter - Although this paper was initially written for a class at Pacifica, it was edited and tweaked for publication in Pacifica’s Mythological Studies online journal. The link takes you to the journal article. April 2008
- Why We Need Harry: Harry Potter and the Process of Individuation - This was written when I was seriously contemplating a Harry Potter dissertation, and will probably appear in the future Scottish Potter Book. July 2008
- Re-Visioning the Mother and Father with the Help of Harry Potter - As a series so full of archetypes, Harry Potter fits nicely with archetypal psychology. August 2008
- Harry Potter and the Alchemy of Love - This was also written when I was seriously contemplating a Harry Potter dissertation, and will probably appear in the future Scottish Potter Book. December 2008
- Persephone Versus Anti-Persephone in MirrorMask - This was a presentation I gave for an Archetypes in Film class. February 2009
- Disneyland: The Imagination’s Playground - This was one of my Pacifica comprehensive exam essays, and one of the first times I started exploring Disneyland as mythic space. July 2009
- Psyche, Nature, and the Magic Kingdom - Written alongside the above essay, this is where the concept for the structure of my dissertation starts to take shape. July 2009
- Reshaping “Cupid and Psyche” into Twilight: Mythopoesis and the Demon Lover - Another Pacifica comprehensive exam essay in which I consider the link between “Cupid and Psyche” and the recent vampire romance phenomenon using Twilight as exemplar. July 2009
- Prefabricated Mythologies: Dungeons & Dragons and Myth-Making - A short exploration of the famous RPG and how it puts myth-making into the hands of the players by giving them a set formula from which to work. July 2009
- Towards a New Mythology - Another essay about Disneyland and American myth. This one was written as my dissertation concept paper was being materialized. June 2010
Mythology
- Persephone: Queen of Individuation - I’ve never really accepted that the story of Demeter and Persephone had to be read only as a story of abduction and rape. This is my modern read and how it can be used today as a myth for young women as they transition into adulthood. December 2007
- Re-Visioning Dionysus: A Modern Spin on an Ancient Deity - Dionysus is such a fascinating character that many different essays and books can be written about him. This is just my lowly contribution to the conversation. December 2008
- Unbreakable Chains and Immoveable Beds: Marriage in Homer’sThe Odyssey - A short reaction paper from reading The Odyssey. April 2009
Literature
- The Literary Alchemy of “The Knight of the Cart” - A look at the psychology of Grail legend, using Lancelot as an exemplar. July 2008
- The Genres of the Monomyth: Beloved, Moby-Dick and the American Epics of Transformation - An exploration of Epic Genre and two great American novels. August 2009
World Religion
- Some Thoughts on the Mahabharata - Just a short response essay inspired by my reading of the Mahabharata, the Hindu epic as retold by William Buck. December 2007
- Duryodhana: The Antithesis of Morality, A Character Study - Duryodhana fascinated me the most during my reading of The Mahabharata, seconded only by my fascination in The Mahabharata as the myth that ushers in the Kali Yuga. December 2007
- “The Dude Abides”: The Big Lebowski and America’s Path to Enlightenment - The Dude as Zen Master. Caution, contains “F-bombs.” April 2009
- Celluloid Images of Jesus - This essay explores the way cinema reflects the changing faces of Jesus, which change to meet the needs of the times. December 2009
- A Reading of the Secret Messages in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel - Though technically this should be filed under fine art, it was written for a Judaism class and contemplates religious messages in the ceiling’s central panels. December 2009
Theory and Methodology
- Primitive Myth vs. Modern Science - A short reaction essay contemplating the differences between how myth is defined among the social sciences. May 2008
- Feminism, Ethnography and Religious Studies: Problems of Method - A short reaction essay contemplating problems in ethnographic research methodology. December 2009
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