Projects for the Fall

Fall is upon us, the air is crisp and invigorating, and I'm working on some new things.

Campbell Group: We haven't had a meeting since July, mostly because I was feeling a bit burnt out. Now, with a few months break, I'm ready to start holding meetings again. We're having a planning meeting soon, and new meetings should be with us again in October. Shirley is suggesting themed meetings, and I think that's a great idea. I've been (dare I say it?) a little sick of Campbell, and I want to move in a different direction going forward.

Fiction Writing: I've set aside regular work on my novel for the moment. I've had to acknowledge that, with such small children in the house, I can't string a coherent thought together long enough to sustain writing a novel right now. So, it's on the back burner for now. However, I have a mythic fiction writer named Delia Sherman looking at a short story I wrote a few years ago called "Anya and the Bear", and I'm hoping to have it ready for possible publication soon. Keep your fingers crossed on that.

Blogging: With progress on the novel intentionally stopped for now, I've decided to focus on blogging again, just to keep my hand in. Look for more posts from this blog.

Trickster Links and Info

We'll be talking about tricksters this month at our JCF Round Table meeting. Here are a list of some trickster-related books and films for your perusal ahead of time:


Books:
1. Trickster Makes this World, by Lewis Hyde: One of the classic texts on trickster lore. A must read.
2. Mythical Trickster Figures, edited by William Hynes and William Doty: Essays on tricksters.
3. The Trickster in West Africa, by Robert Pelton
4. American Indian Myths and Legends, edited by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz: Check out Part Seven: Trickster Tales

Films:
1. Waking Ned Devine: Story of an Irish village trying to collect the lottery winnings of one of it's inhabitants who recently died.
2. Looney Tunes: Anything featuring Bugs Bunny.
3. Beverly Hills Cop: Eddie Murphy has a trickster role in this film.
4. Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Wikipedia link to tricksters

Coyote stories http://members.cox.net/academia/coyote.html#fire including many links at end of section, including Raven, Eshu, Loki and the Archetype of the Magician, a Jungian perspective.

Lewis Hyde: http://www.gracecathedral.org/enrichment/forum/for_20010325.shtml audio interview

http://southerncrossreview.org/18/trickster.htm

Can you think of any others? If so, let me know and I'll add them to this list.

What I'm working on these days

The days go by so quickly. I can't believe Easter is already behind us. We had a lovely one. My dear friend Liz, a classmate from Pacifica, came over and we made cod with Sauce Americaine together, which involved killing and cooking two live lobsters. I had planned on watching her kill the first one, then doing the second myself, but I chickened out at the last minute. I hang my head in shame. They were delicious, though.
Alex and Ben are growing up beautifully. Alex is a few weeks from the end of his first year of preschool. Ben turned one last month, and is walking well, trying to do everything his brother does and getting frustrated when he can't. Both are such good, happy boys. We're very blessed in our children.
I'm in the last quarter of my writing class at UW, and I'm enjoying it so much. I'll be sad when it's over! In addition to the slow, steady work on "The Mythologist", I'm planning a workshop on Myth and Writing for the PNWA, at the request of it's president, who also happens to be my writing teacher. I'm hoping to also submit a proposal for a similar workshop at Esalen sometime in the next few months.

Family visiting, working out

My dad is coming in for a visit today, which we're all really excited about. Things have gotten easier for us over the past couple of years-it feels like he's really making an effort to avoid conflict, which I appreciate so much. We've had our share of head-butting over the years! We're going to Seatac to see my step-sister Julie and her husband and new baby Saturday, which will give us a chance to get a photo of all five grandchildren for my Dad and Valerie. I even got color-coordinated outfits for them all, which Valerie will LOVE. ;)

In other news, I got a package in the mail yesterday; the P90X series of workout DVD's that I had ordered. It's from an informercial (I know!) which is apparently ubiquitous on cable, but since we don't have cable, I hadn't seen it until we went to Cannon Beach last weekend. I watched it three times. It made me able to imagine that I might be able to get into as great shape as some of the people they showed. One woman who was 46 had had seven children, and she looked amazing! We'll see how it goes; I start Sunday. I'm still doing the monthly 5ks, my next one is the Valentine's Day Dash, on the 13th of this month.

I'm working on a blog post about transitional/liminal spaces in myth and story; stay tuned.

Just because I haven't posted one since he was born...

Here's Ben, age 10 months.

Excited about teaching a new workshop for PNWA

Been busy these last few months. Taking care of my boys (Alex is 3, Ben 10 months), trying to write every day, get some exercise, and squeezing in reading a book and a few rows of knitting here and there. I'm mid-way through the Popular Fiction certificate program at the University of Washington, which has been enormously helpful with my writing. Last night I talked to my instructor (Pam Binder, who is also the president of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association) about doing a workshop for the PNWA on Myth and Writing, both as a part of their monthly series of talks and for the PNWA conference in 2011. I'm so excited about this! Pam has been using Chris Vogler's book "The Writer's Journey" as part of our course, and last night at class she was talking about the stage of the threshold guardian. As always, when she talks about the hero's journey, I sit there with my hands over my mouth so I won't interrupt her lecture, which is tempting because I have so much I can add. So, we talked about a class for writers who are familiar with the hero's journey, but taking it to the next level. Yay! I'd even get paid. ;) What a concept, getting paid for my work.

Mythic Journeys Documentary

Over this past weekend, I had the opportunity to go up to Whidbey Island for a visit to Whidbey Institute, which was hosting a screening of a new documentary film called Mythic Journeys. Footage for Mythic Journeys was filmed at the 2006 Mythic Journeys conference in Atlanta (which I was unfortunately unable to attend due to being both too pregnant and too poor as a Pacifica student). The film is a combination of snippets from some of the sessions by Deepak Chopra, Ellen Kushner, and others, as well as interviews with people like Steve Aizenstat, Bob Walter, and other luminaries of the field. In addition to the "talking heads" sections, there was also a myth told in segments throughout the film, interspersed with the interviews. The myth was "The King and the Corpse", and the dolls for the animation section were designed by Brian and Wendy Froud (designers of films like Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal). Ron and the boys came with me, and we spent the night at Whidbey Institute, which was a lot of fun for all of us.
Last night, at our October meeting the round table hosted Whitney Boe, one of the filmmakers of "Mythic Journeys". She showed us an extended version of one of the sessions at the conference, on how to change the world for the better, and we had a discussion on the film and it's themes.
So, what did I think of the film? I think it's terrific. The intent of the filmmakers is to introduce the themes of mythology to a wider audience in America and worldwide. This is what I've been attempting to do in my own small way through my work with the Campbell Foundation and the round table for the past few years. They are having another showing of the film on Bainbridge Island the first weekend in November, which I look forward to attending as well. Here's hoping the film is a huge success! I know the filmmakers are hoping for a grassroots movement of the type that made "What the bleep do we know" and "The Secret" such successes. The film definitely connects with people; I hope everyone who might be interested gets an opportunity to see it.

Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming

Wow. I've really neglected this blog lately. Doesn't mean that nothing is going on here in Stiegerland, rather so much is spinning along; the days are flying by so fast that I barely get a glimpse of them before they're behind me.
Ben is getting bigger and is doing beautifully; he'll be 7 months old tomorrow. Starting to crawl, gobbling down anything we're willing to feed him.
Alex started preschool a few weeks ago, and he completely loves it. He's attending Kirkland Coop Preschool, twice weekly in the mornings. I'm there with him one day a week. We're getting closer to the finish line with the potty training issue, and (drumroll please) he's starting to learn to read! So proud of my boy-not even 3 years old yet! Of course, Ron and I were both reading by 3, so I guess it runs in the family. :)
I've been working out a lot lately, pretty much as often as I can fit it in. Swimming, weight training, and workouts with my trainer, Kellie, twice a month. Getting healthier-it feels good.
I've also recommitted to finishing my novel. I began it in early 2005, and ran into a roadblock in the story right about the time I got pregnant with Alex, and unfortunately the poor thing languished for quite a long time. However, earlier this year I decided that it was time to either finish it or give up the idea of writing a novel, and stop toying with it. So, I created a project schedule for myself (just like I used to do for software projects back in the day), and so far I've done a pretty good job of keeping the schedule. I also signed up for a Popular Fiction writing certificate at the UW, in an effort to help with the process. It started last week, and I'm really excited about it.

In the myth space, I'm still leading weekly meetings for the Seattle Mythological Round Table of the Joseph Campbell Foundation. I've also (just recently) gotten more involved with the leadership of the Foundation, which has me really excited. :)

Review of Daniel X: Watch the Skies, by James Patterson and Ned Rust

James Patterson seems to have made it his mission in life to provide fun reading experiences for kids, particularly boys. As a mom of two young boys myself, I couldn't be more grateful for his efforts. Daniel X: Watch the Skies is his latest effort, a story of a young alien hunter whose latest mission is to bring down the Number 5 worst alien in the galaxy. Number 5 is the director of a galactic reality show, and is destroying the town of Holliswood as part of his show.
Reading the book (a very quick read indeed), it occurred to me that this book would be appealing to most preteen and teenage boys, but particularly to boys who don't do a lot of reading. The style of the book reminded me of an MTV video, with lots of short chapters, which felt like quick cuts. The action never let up, and the humor was nonstop.
I tried to read the book as a nine year old boy would, and I can't imagine any boy of that age who wouldn't love the book, and devour it as quickly as possible. Daniel's adventures should prove popular for a very long time to come.

To Muse or Not to Muse

I've been meaning to write about this for a while, but things have gotten away from me, as they tend to do now that Thing 2 has shown up.

I've been reading Catherynne Valente's blog for a few months now (see here for my comments upon discovering her work about a year and a half ago). About 2 weeks ago, she wrote an extended post about a lecture Elizabeth Gilbert (of Eat, Pray, Love fame) did on the topic of creativity and inspiration, particularly in writing. Ms. Valente had quite a rant about it (it was wonderful, actually, very witty). I found the lecture on YouTube, and watched it a couple of times, as this topic is very near and dear to my heart, and is the subject of my someday doctoral dissertation at Pacifica.
Watching Elizabeth Gilbert's lecture, I understood her to be saying that, essentially, writers as a group have a reputation for mental illness, substance abuse, and suicide (true). She lays the blame for this reputation on the Renaissance-era switch from attributing the creation of new work to a daimon or muse, to the author owing the creation of the work for him or herself. Ms. Gilbert seems to be in quite a state of anxiety about her own work, understanding as she does how difficult it is to follow a huge success like Eat, Pray, Love, and, for the protection of her own psyche, she prefers to lay the responsibility for her work's creation at the feet of a daimon or muse. It appears to be her way of externalizing the pressure of publishing a new work, after the worldwide acceptance of her last. I suppose I can understand the temptation in her own situation to do this, but I must say I was more in agreement with Ms. Valente, who was calling bullshit on this argument (to put it mildly).
Ms. Valente's point is that writing, like anything else, is extremely hard work, and although sometimes when the work is going well it can seem to feel like the work is flowing through the writer from another source, this is actually a function of the artist's psyche, and the whole muse business is a metaphor for this process.
I was, of course, very interested in this whole discussion, in both sides, but I would take Ms. Valente's argument a step farther. I believe that a great deal is required of the artist in the creation of meaningful work, and that true sacrifice must be made in the journey to the unconscious and back. I use the imagery of Inanna. She descends, is killed, and hangs from a meathook. Her life essence drips from her, into the ground at the lowest point of the descent, and it is only after she has given of herself that she is able to make the ascent back to the light.

Babies Babies Babies

So, I had a baby. Another boy, this time named Ben Landis Stieger. Landis is a name from my husband's family. He's a beaut. I think we'll keep him, even if he is keeping us up at night. Here's a picture of him:

The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony

When we were down in Portland for Thanksgiving, we visited Powell's Book Store, which is a dangerous thing to do for someone like me. We emerged relatively unscathed, with a mere 9 books. :) I had a good time trolling the mythology section. I found this great book called "The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony", by Roberto Calasso. I've been reading it, and it's terrific! Check out my favorite quote from the first 50 pages or so:

"Mythical figures live many lives, die many deaths, and in this they differ from the characters we find in novels, who can never go beyond the single gesture. But in each of these lives and deaths all the others are present, and we can hear their echo. Only when we become aware of a sudden consistency between incompatibles can we say we have crossed the threshold of myth." (Calasso page 22)

Inanna and the Hero's Journey Part 2

It's snowing here today, big white puffy flakes. Alex is playing with his toys, Ron is working from home, and it seems like a good day to follow up on my earlier post about Inanna. I can't find my copy of the Inanna myth, so I'll be retelling her story from memory. Any errors are solely mine.

Inanna (queen of heaven and earth) gets word that her sister, Ereshkigal (queen of the underworld), is about to give birth. She begins the descent into the underworld, only to be stopped at 7 gates during the journey. At each gate, she is required to give up another symbol of her status, from her crown and scepter to, at the last gate, her robes. She arrives at Ereshkigal's domain stripped of everything that she was, completely naked. Once she appears before her sister, Eriskegal kills her, and hangs her body on a meat hook in a corner of her throne room.
Apparently, before she left the upper world, Inanna suspected something might happen, and she sent a message to her grandfather, the king of the gods, that if she did not return in three days, that something has happened. When she does not return, Enki creates two sexless creatures from the dirt underneath his fingernails, who descend to the underworld in search of Inanna. Arriving at Ereshkigal's throne room, they find her in the throes of labor. She says "oh, my back!" They say "oh, your back!" They show compassion for her pain, and she is moved by this. She offers them anything they desire, and they say "we want the corpse hanging from the meat hook in the corner". Ereshkigal is not pleased with being tricked out of her sister's corpse, but she honors her promise and gives them the body.
They sprinkle the food of life and the water of life on Inanna's body, and are able to revive her. She ascends to the upper world, regaining all the regalia of her position at each gate on her return.
This is a very abbreviated version of the story. Please refer to Diane Wolkstein's translation of the myth for more information.

So, why is this story relevant to what we've been talking about in our last post? How can the creative artist gain inspiration from this story? There are many stories in myth about descents into the underworld, but the thing that I find interesting about Inanna's story is her death, and being hung on a hook. The translation is very specific on this point. It got me thinking about the business about the hook. So, what is a meat hook used for? Well, in a slaughterhouse, the carcass of the animal is hung on a meat hook to drain the fluids out, right? Not only was Inanna divested of all of her regalia on her descent, even as far as her clothing, but she gives even more to the underworld on her journey. It is my belief that, in order to return with the boon of authentic work, the artist must leave something of herself behind. She must be willing to make that sacrifice. The journey is a dangerous one, and if we look at the lives of our great artists throughout history, it is full of drug and alcohol addiction, insanity, and suicide. If you give too much, and are given much in return, the price to pay is large. The trick is in finding the balance on the descent, the path is a razor's edge.

Inanna and the Hero's Journey

One of the primary focuses I had in my years of study at Pacifica was in deepening my understanding of the importance of story to humankind, and in adding meaning to the process of creating art, particularly the written word. The hero's journey, as laid out by Joseph Campbell in his seminal work "The Hero with a Thousand Faces", illustrates beautifully the process that any creative artist must go through in order to create art. Phil Cousineau talks about this quite eloquently in his new book "Stoking the Creative Fires", and I would encourage anyone interested in the relationship between the creative process and the hero's journey to check it out.
One of the primary issues that artists struggle with is, and should be, how to reach their audience in a meaningful way; how to be the book, or film, or performance that resonates, that touches the soul. It is the power of art to do this that sets the human race apart, and it is, in my opinion, the primary function of art. Carl Jung tells us that when the gods came down out of Mount Olympus, they moved into the body, at the level of the gut, the level of the third chakra. This is that place in the body that art that connects can be felt, that physiological reaction that the body has when art connects with soul. We've all had that experience of seeing a great film, a great performance, reading a great book where we feel the experience of it in our body, at that precise place that Jung describes.
So, the question is, how can an artist, in the process of creating her art, connect with that place? I believe the answer lies in the very descent that is described in the hero's journey. The hero makes a descent into the underworld, and returns with a boon that he brings back to his community. The artist makes that descent into the pool of the collective unconscious, that place where stories live, and returns with a boon as well. It is that descent that sets his work apart, his willingness to make the descent is the key, the thing that separates the great artist apart from those whose work is easily set aside and forgotten. How does this work? I believe this can be illuminated in the story of Inanna.

to be continued...

Alex playing in the snow at Poppa Tom's house in Alaska

It's been a long time

Here I am, checking in with this blog after an absence of about 5 months. As it turns out, I was about 3 days pregnant at the time of my last post, although I didn't know it yet. Now, of course, I'm at 24 weeks, expecting another boy on or around March 13th. This second pregnancy has been such a blessing, although it has left me fairly sick and drained much of the time. Alex is almost 2, doing beautifully, talking up a storm and learning new things so quickly I'm astonished. We had a wonderful trip to Japan in September, to visit Ron's sister Theresa, and we just got home from about a week in Alaska, visiting Alex's grandparents and my old friends Kenan and Jana. Things are good for us, and I'm looking forward to the upcoming holiday season. The month of December is especially rich for us, as Alex and I both have our birthdays approaching.
As far as my myth work is concerned, I haven't been doing much lately, I admit. Pregnancy has kept me pretty thoroughly in my body. Our round table group did have a special meeting last week, with children's book author and illustrator Gerald McDermott as a special guest. I hosted the event at my house, and it was a good time.
Now that I'm back on the blog, I'm recommitted to writing in it several times a week, so look forward to seeing more thoughts on mythmaking and creativity.

Funny Story

So I'm sitting here in our living room tonight, waiting for the house to cool down after a day of 95 degree heat, dorking around the 'net on my laptop. I decide to check out Neil Gaiman's blog, which I do semi-regularly. Blah blah blah bees, someone named Amanda Palmer, his daughter's eyebrows (don't ask). Finally he posts a letter he's received from someone about a calendar she's created with a bunch of friends, about girls who are geeks. He posts the link (www.calendargeeks.com), mostly (so he says) because he likes the picture of the knitting geek. I wonder what a knitting geek looks like, so I click over. Who does it turn out to be but Ms Lorinne Lampert, my soon-to-be ex sister-in-law, the very person who taught me how to knit myself!

How I'd like my house to feel

Years ago, when I visited Capri, I was browsing in a souvenir shop, and they had little plaques for sale that had a wonderful quote on them. I could never remember what it said, but I found the quote online today! Google is a wonderful thing:

"My home shall be open for the sun and the wind and the voices of the sea - like a Greek temple – and light, light, light everywhere!"

Hanuman chairman of Indian business school

Who says myth isn't relevant?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/06/07/India.god.ap/index.html

What I've been learning lately

I finally got out my copy of Clarissa Pinkola Estes' book from the early nineties, "Women Who Run with the Wolves". I've been meaning to read it for ages (it actually still has the receipt in it-I bought it at Esalen during my workscholar month), and now I'm finally getting around to it. It's really a wonderful read-very insightful. I'm only about a third of the way in, but there are already some real nuggets of wisdom there. She's had some interesting psychological insights from the stories of Bluebeard and Vasalisa the Wise which I've really enjoyed.
I've also been immersed in my studies for my French 2 class at Bellevue Community College. The material is starting to get more challenging, and the instructor is moving more quickly through it, which makes it more fun for me.

Writing and the Interstitial

Writing has not gone particularly well for me over the past several months, and I've been struggling to understand why that might be. I know the lack of reaction to my "Anya and the Bear" may have been a part of it, but not entirely the problem. In reading the Endicott Studio blog over the past few days, they had an entry that the Interstitial Arts Foundation will be publishing a second anthology of interstitial fiction, and they're having an open call for submissions. This seems like a good opportunity for me, and is far enough out that I have the summer to work on a story, versus the two weeks that I had before sending my story out a few months ago.
I've been thinking that I would rewrite "Anya and the Bear" as my submission. I think that Anya is, or could be, in an interstitial place, between the ordinary world and the spirit world, and in my rewrite she is pregnant, telling her story of the bear to her unborn child. Being an unborn child is about as betwixt and between a place as anyone ever is. So, I'm going to work on the rewrite, submit it to the IAF, and see what happens. It's a small enough project that it doesn't seem too overwhelming, and it's a rewrite of a story that I've already written.

My son is such a handsome devil

Daddy, I want to go with you on your business trip

As promised, a pic of Hank swimming