Greetings one and all,
In my last post on the incomparable Slavoj Zizek (hit the link for a delightful video on him speaking about Capitalism, which is essentially what his entire body of work revolves around [also watch the related videos because he's great]), I mentioned that his work can be characterized as an intersection between Christian theology, Political theory, Film theory, Psychoanalytic theory, and Philosophy. What interests me in this grab bag of ideology are the points where his Film theory intersect with his Psychoanalytic theory because I feel that the point of intersection speak to the art of magic in more ways than one.
Throughout my work in magic, as I dive deeper, for reasons I?ve stated in my previous post, I find myself drawn more and more towards the art of cinema. But there?s more to it. For those that know me or who have been following along, you know that I was trained in the theatre. The theatre is what first taught me that the art of magic can be so much more. I realized that there were certain things that I could talk about in theatre that, for one reason or another, I just couldn?t within the framework of the art of magic. Something was always being lost in the shuffle, as it were. At any rate, the long story short is that my passion for theatre has dwindled over the years. I have become less and less inclined to go to it as my medium of choice when wishing to discuss a particular subject. And I suppose that that is my way of saying that the art of theatre just doesn?t speak to me anymore. When I think about all of the hours, days, weeks, and months I would need to put on a solid theatrical production from page to the stage I just don?t find it worth it anymore. Because it doesn?t speak to me, I don?t feel the desire, the impulse to speak through it. That said, I know that the art form itself still speaks. I know there are others out there who would see in my work and the works of others within the framework of theatre something meaningful and powerful. But I just don?t feel the urge to give that to people through theatre anymore.
Cinema, on the other hand, has captivated me. It has been slowly, but steadily filling the void that theatre has left in me. There?s something profound about it that I have yet to understand and I?m fine with that right now. As I was telling a colleague of mine last night (another magician) when he wanted to tell me how he did this really powerful Effect in this show: ?Don?t tell me. There?s so little mystery in my life as a magician. Just let me cling to it as long as I can.? I?m fine with cinema working its magic on me. There will come a time when I will probe it further seeking the what exactly makes the form evoke such strong reactions in me.
I can tell you this though: the reason that cinema of all mediums has taken the place of theatre in my life is because I strongly believe that change doesn?t happen in a theatre anymore. Gone are the days when theatre will cause riots and incite profound social change. It has become something of an antiquated art form, something that preaches to the choir, so to speak. The ones that go to the theatre are everyday people, sure, but they are also avid theatre goers. Theatre is no longer the medium of the masses that it once was. Those that go are those that would have gone anyway. It certainly isn?t converting the masses. Cinema, on the other hand, with its power to reach people on the far corners of the earth, can. And the reason is this: I firmly believe that change, real change, the kind of change that affects the course of a person?s life, no longer happens (or rarely does) in the public sphere; it happens in front of the bathroom mirror. We?ve become a much more solitary society with the advent of the technology that was designed to connect us: we hold our phones more than our loved ones (it?s true, look it up), we speak through screens, we wear our iPods in the public transports, we create specific lanes for carpooling because (seriously, try this) if you look at all of the cars on the road very very few have more than one person inside of them at any given time. All of this technology meant to get us to each other, to bring us closer, has actually shielded us from one another. And so we are a more contemplative beast than we once were.
Cinema has the power to be with you when you?re living your faux-solitary confinement. When I think back to some of the most powerful pieces of cinema I?ve seen, what made them so powerful wasn?t a shared experience (which is what theatre thrives on), it was the fact that I was free to be myself in front of it, to react as I?d react, to scream at the television (?NO, NO?NO!..NO!? during Unthinkable), to be in absolute awe (at the majesty of the entire Planet Earth series), to cry my goddamn eyes out (at The Notebook ? don?t judge me). And that?s it right there. Don?t judge me. With cinema I am free from judgement. I am free to be in my own comfortable sphere and let the film wash over me and to react to it in any way that feels natural to me. There are no social constraints. It?s just me and my thoughts and the film.
In one of my attempts to dive deeper into the art of cinema, to expunge the mystery of the art form, there is a book that was recommended to me by a colleague of mine: The Writer?s Journey?by Christopher Vogler. This is a book that every writer should read if they are serious about the art of screenwriting. It explains that all (nearly all) screenplays can be charted in terms of the mythical Hero?s journey, namely, that the Hero of the story begins in an Ordinary World and is faced with a problem that must be overcome (a threat, if you will), which thrusts him or her into the Special World. It is within this Special World that the Hero seeks the solution to the problem and, as is always the case, the solution he or she thought would be adequate isn?t enough and so something more must be done. The point as which this realization dawns on the Hero is known as the Crisis Point of the screenplay.
Magic, too, has reached a Crisis Point. I firmly believe that we magicians, as heroes in our own little journey towards inclusion within the artistic and social spheres have reached a point in our timeline when everything that we?ve tried simply hasn?t been enough. We?ve beat our heads against the wall for decades claiming to hold the answer, the key, the catalyst that will spark the revolution that will change the face of magic for years to come and yet, here we are, the same as we always were, just a little deeper into the quicksand of obscurity. My answer to this is that you can?t escape the cage using the cage itself. Indeed, everything we?ve done up to this point has not been enough and, just as the Hero in the mythic structure, something more must be done, something else.
This is at the heart of the metamagic project: the acknowledgement that we?ve come this far, but it hasn?t been enough. We?re not done yet.
Cheers,
- Shawnathan
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Tags: christopher, journey, vogler, writers, zizek
Source: http://shawnathanmagic.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/the-writers-journey/
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