FINAL BLOG entry: Semester Summary!

This semester with Doc. Jason Smith was more of a journey than a regular class, or should i say a supernatural journey.

My first steps into this journey were taken with Asmodeus one of the seven deadly sins demons, more precisely the demon of Lust. With Asmodeus I learned about one of the origins of supernatural on an evil kind of level. I learned that being envious and jealous will most definitely bring the worst out of a person and create something a lot like our friend Asmodeus, so i had to leave him along the road and move on.
Then came along Emily Dickinson. Through a very dark poem of my choice, Emily took me on a carriage for a short and quiet trip with death, immortality and herself. With the guidelines from Jason Smith and what we had learned as a group about taking apart a poem to understand it better, It took me a while to discover Emily's poem and see between the lines, see the actual picture, the movie of what Emily went trough with this poem using the symbols and other clues finally discover where death and immortality were really taking her. I don't know about Emily Dickinson but I wasn't ready for Eternity just yet, so i took a different road and ended up in a very creepy garden of Eden.
As a matter of fact that what Goblins market was. Christina Georgina Rossetti takes us through a very dark and creepy long, long poem changing the garden of Eden from a beautiful and cute place to this very disturbing full of sexual symbols and other violent visual description. I ran away from the goblins with Laura and laughed in joy with both sisters when everyone ended up safe, but the symbolism in this story was so strong, each sentence gave me so much to think about, each action meant so much more after taring it apart. Christina Rossetti also made me discover the Hero's journey and it's scheme. I realized at that point that every single story i had heard, read or seen before was based on this simple circle. I still don't know if this scheme broke the hero's stories for me or made it even better, but what i know is that, from now on, I will always use these kind of structure to follow a hero.
After studying heros in there stories it was time to be a little self-centered and analyze my own hero's archetypes. This is when i learned i was an Altruist and Warrior kind of hero. Trying to make sense of to completely opposite archetypes (from my point of view), it came to me that each of these archetypes represented two important sides of myself, almost equally balanced at the moment. The altruist is the side in me that used to get me in trouble by making me focus more on others problems and forget mine, making me loose all interest in my own plans. The warrior is this other side who decided to take over when i thought it was enough. Time wise I would see this happening as when i moved here (in NY) and decided to take control of my life.
But enough talking about myself. The next step to our journey was MacBeth. I had already had an accounter with our disturbed hero, back in high school and i really enjoyed comparing our way to study this coward looking hero in France and here in New York. Of course the result of this time spent with the Macbeth couple was the same. Full of archetypes and mental breakdowns, our two murderers were a great practice for symbolism and archetypes. But once lady Macbeth ended her own life and her husband was rightfully killed, it was clearly time to move on and find other heros, maybe good heros.
It was time for our final test, each of us had to find our own story, our own heros, good or evil and make them come to life.
My choice was The Beast of the Gevaudan, my evil hero but also a myth walking on the line between fiction and reality. After a lot of research, many different version of the same story, many description of this same beast, i came up with my own version and my own beliefs. Using my arguable skills in cartoon and a few of my friend's voices i put together a 5 minutes video.

My conclusion for this blog series could and should be a whole blog series itself, but to keep it short and rap this one up, through this semester i have followed a lot of interesting, disturbing, scary, lovely, evil, weird, impressive hero's that have taught me how to really look at a story, its details, its characters and there personalities, but also to use this for any literature i will come across in the future. As a fine Arts student it has given a lot of inspiration and will give me new tools to illustrate and create from anything.

Thank you

Blog entry FINAL PROJECT - LA BETE DU GEVAUDAN (The beast of the Gevaudan)

L’HISTOIRE DE LA BETE DU GEVAUDAN

             In Haute Loire, a mysterious beast, the Bête du Gevaudan, appeared in 1764. Its origins are not known and the reality of this story has been built up through years by the witnesses of many French people passing on the details of how this beast attacked 210 victims, killing 113 of them, leaving 89 of them partly eaten and ignoring 49 people so they could live to pass on their traumatic experience. Somehow, the beast seemed to only target humans over farm animals, many times witnesses reported attacks on humans while cattle were on the same field, which is why this beast took on the name of a “man eating wolf”.

  The first attack was a woman attacked by a massive and dark creature but saved by the bulls present in the same field, which charged at the creature. The first victim was on June 30, 1764. A young 14 year old girl was killed near Les Hubacs (Langogne). After a group of seven friends were attacked by this same beast and managed to fight it off by staying close together, King Louis XV heard of the situation and sent professional wolf hunters to take care of this beast. Jean-Charles-Marc-Antoine Vaumesle d'Enneval, his son, and eight Bloodhounds were sent, they group arrived on February 17, 1765. After a few months without any result and still more victims, the king replaced them by François Antoine, harquebus (a rifle) bearer and Lieutenant for this hunt. Our hero ends up finding and killing a 2 foot 7 inch high and 5.6 foot long grey wolf weighting 130 pounds. Once declared as being the feared creature, the beast was stuffed and sent to Versailles where François Antoine was received as a hero. However, another creature quickly appeared and more victims were added to this massacre (12 more deaths to be precise). Jean Chastel was the one who took care of it, becoming the local hero.

  This is the very boring story told by Wikipedia. Very accurate, very detailed, lots of names, precise dates, precise geographical keys, details on all parts of the attacks, almost giving colors of the clothing worn by each character in this story. The interesting version with my work crossed into a movie was made very short by the available sources. The most serious sources I found made this beast and mysterious story into a very random and logical boring one. What my sources seem to have tried to make invisible is the story that interests me (and you I am sure).

             Jean Chastel, the hunter who killed the second beast in Wikipedia's story, is the one that made me want to go further into crossing stories. After his success in killing the creature, more details appeared about the way things happened. Jean would have been traditionally reading the Bible and praying before starting his hunt, when the beast came into his sight. Jean apparently had time to finish reading and praying before taking his rifle and shooting the beast with one of his home made silver bullets. Wikipedia gives us two arguments to show this situation would have been impossible. First, Jean could not have had time to finish reading since the beast usually attacked on sight... What if Jean Castel wasn't only a great shot but also a fast reader? What if the beast had actually not seen him right away? What if the beast had a poor vision and took a while realizing his next lunch was sitting there reading? Wikipedia’s second argument is that Jean Castel was often seen walking with a large red colored mastiff by his side and this could have been the feared monster trained by Jean himself, then killed to appear as a hero. This would also explain the resistance to bullets by the fact that the beast would be wearing a bullet proof jacket; Wikipedia calls this the “armored hide of a young boar”. Although, scientifically the “silver” bullets that were supposedly used would not have the accuracy nor the appropriate strength to even penetrate human skin.

In the movie “La Bête du Gevaudan” the beast is a dangerous, ugly, humongous, man eating, man trained killing machine. A secret society made this beast to keep the Gevaudan's population under control. Crossing these two versions, Jean Castel could have been the beast's keeper. However we want to see this story, this beast did exist, the victims did die, and the blood was spilled. The History Channel's professionals proved by going to Gevaudan that the beast could not have been just a huge wolf since they don't possess enough biting force to cut through human flesh, but rather that the descriptions available better suit an Asian hyena. The beast is not a large wolf; all the descriptions agree on one thing, the beast was a WOLF-LIKE creature. Wikipedia’s description portrays him with formidable teeth and an immense tails, reddish fur, and an unbearable odor (not sketchable).

THE MOVIE MAKING PROCESS

I have to admit, I did not think making this movie would be my ticket to hell. First I wrote a short story line, then decided it would be a “speed drawing”, story telling movie, then I grabbed a few friends and made them get out every single drop of stupid sounds and voices possible. I shot the videos, lots of them, of me sketching, ripped my hair out, then finally had my friends watch the footage and choose what they would give me. After hours of editing and struggling on Imovie (Mac), the movie is finally done. This movie is my way to see the Beast of Gevaudan story mixed with a little bit of stupidity... Well lots of it, but we had a great time making it and I hope you enjoy it.

4.1 Special Surprise UPDATE ON FINAL PROJECT

Here is my last update for my final project.
After thinking about how boring a morph of my Bête du Gevaudan sketches might be, i decided to use one of the most popular and fun ways to tell a story: SPEED DRAWING.

Details:
- Since i will be telling you guys a french story, i will use my strongest fRRRRench accent to narrate this mysterious and OH so scary story.
- The use of Speed Drawing will enable me to NOT spend more than 10 minutes on my sketches (which seems impossible for me so far)
- Also if I (an you) end up being lucky MARKERS should help this come to life and actually scare you (if my fRRRench accent doesn't kill the scary part).


IMPORTANT NOTE TO YOU READERS:
- I have no idea how this Speed Drawing is going to work for me and in no way expect wonders from myself (even being a Fine Art Major).

4.0 UPDATE ON FINAL PROJECT

So far wikipiad had given lots of information, too much too my test and became too precise and down to earth. I have decided to take the detailed information about this story on wikipedia and make sure to argue against there very logical researches.
I have the material and information i need along with plenty of numbers
My next steps will be to get more sketching as i now have more descriptions, then make the maps, and finalize my written part (deciding weither or not to completely go against wikipedia or not and if allowed actually make this a satire of their "bete du gevaudan page".
Finally i will put everything together as a new long blog entry.

Blog Entry 3.5 Coraline in the Hero's Quest

After reading Coraline and having studied the Monomyth structure it seemed to me that every story is made based on this Hero’s quest structure. Why is this structure so efficient and why do we all love adventures stories so much. The question asked for this essay summarizes my thought: Why do we care? In Coraline this circle of the Hero’s quest is perfectly followed, the different elements are made clear and easy to find. From the “call to adventure” to the “known and unknown” and finally “the return of the hero”, Neil Gaiman makes this kid’s book a perfect example of the Hero’s quest. To help me detail this structure better I will set my essay on the Hero’s Quest scheme found on wikipedia.com (see last page).
    First off, Neil Gaiman gives us the starting point by setting up Coraline and her parents in a very odd and old house. Coraline is the “bored to death” main character about to become our Hero. She just moved with her parents and is desperately looking for something exciting and always goes “exploring”. Without knowing it, Coraline is about to throw herself into the adventures she asked for but with a bit more danger than she expected. The “call to adventure” in this story happens after she goes through the small door into the other home. She makes it back without a problem, but when she realizes her parents are missing, she has no choice but to go back looking for them. The door she has to cross to access her other mother’s house represent the frontier between Know and Unknown (on our scheme), a very clear line between a world Coraline knows way too well and the other world full of surprises and danger. Very quickly the “supernatural aid” comes in the form of the talking cat giving her information about the other world. Also we realize that the “Transformation” from the Hero’s Quest starts right away even before Coraline goes back through the door to start her adventure, when she reminds herself by telling the story to her friend the talking cat of how her father saved her from the bees that one time by  standing and getting stung while he told her to run away, at this very moment Coraline starts realizing she cannot be afraid anymore and has to be brave (which she repeats to herself throughout the whole adventure). Then comes the Challenges and Temptation, everything in her other mother’s house is a temptation: Coraline is being given everything she wishes for (food, clothes, toys, games...), she has to decide between this perfect world with everything given to her and her real parents and the things she wouldn’t have. The second time she meets the other old man with the mouse in the flat above her, the other Mr. Bobo tries to convince Coraline she should stay and enjoy all these wonderful things she could have. The “Abyss, Death and rebirth” is made clear and something very interesting happens: Our little hero who started off being always frustrated by her mother who doesn’t give her what she wants, for example during “back to school shopping” with the gloves and the hat. Now that her mother is not there to control her desires Coraline could very well just succumb to the temptation and stay with the other family, instead, the balance between Coraline’s Id and Ego is established when she admits only wanting her real parents and what comes with it (or should I say what “doesn’t” come with it). Of course in a children’s book there could be no death or real violence, so instead, Neil Gaiman choose to have a symbolized death of Coraline as a child controlled by her Id and her rebirth as our new grown-up Hero being perfectly balanced by her Superego.
Coming back to the start of the Unknown part of our scheme, the Evil monster is here embodied by the Other Mother, who has created this house as a spider would have built her web to catch her prays. The other mother is the main challenge and also takes on the role of Threshold guardian when she steals the key from Coraline trapping her into her house. But after exploring the entire other house which ends pretty quickly since the other mother had created nothing further than the yard, Coraline takes action to save her parents and three other souls by challenging the other mother to a game. Comparing Neil Gaiman to our scheme we realize the author made a few twist in this structure, making the “Revelation and Abyss” occur in the middle of many challenges and not after them (temptations, the other father in the flat attacking her, the old man tempting her...).
Then after having accomplished all challenges, not succumbing to temptations and the final fight (using the cat) with the other mother, Coraline finally reaches the Return point of her adventure. But being back in her own house is not the final test she goes through. The author offers us one last twist, taking one part from the unknown part of the scheme and bringing it into Caroline’s known world: The other mother’s creepy hand desperately looking for the key. As if our little hero had to prove that what she had gone through and learnt in the other world had to be tested in the real world. Coraline passes the test using a “Picnic party trap” and is finally able to enjoy a good night of sleep.
    Now getting back to our main question: Why should we care? What could possibly be so important to us that we feel so close to this little character? How do we end up feeling so close to Coraline? How do we end up feeling like even though none of us has ever gone through a small door and had to fight an evil woman with button eyes, we still related to this story? And finally, how do this Hero’s Quest structure and its elements make this happen?
Whether this structure comes natural with telling such stories or the authors use this structure on purpose, the Hero’s quest structure is the key to having every heroic archetype into one single story, making each of us readers automatically connected to the story one way or another. Whatever main archetype we represent (see Carol Pearson’s Heroic Myth self-test), we can find our own archetype into this story and any story containing the Hero’s Quest structure.
For example, after taking the test my results were: mainly Altruist and also Warrior, probably the most obvious archetypes here (probably for me at least, since they are my archetypes). Coraline herself is the main character representing this archetype by going back for her parents even though she is only a kid and is very scared at first, this makes each reader who would have as a result the altruist feel closer to the hero and have interest in knowing how her quest ends. Coraline also represents the Warrior: having to fight her temptations, having to fight her other father, having to defend herself…etc. The point is here, that Coraline goes though most heroic archetypes and is surrounded by the rest of them, bringing us closer to her and the story. This gives us more interest in the development of the action. It appears we feel closer to what is similar to us and this is why having a structure enabling a story to have connection to each reader will make it interesting for readers of all ages.

Blog Entry 3.4 Final Project "Bete du Gevaudan"

I finally got to my final decision, LA BETE DU GEVAUDAN, using every single entry i can find on the internet i will sketch a quick drawing of each different description i'll have found. Then using a morphing program i will make a short tranformation of all sketches put together.

The story of the Bete du Gevaudan (Beast of the Gevaudan) is set in France, Haute Loire (Lozere), starting in 1764 to 1767. According to Wipipedia, this beast attacked 210 people and killed 113, only injured 49 of them and 89 of the one that died were partly eaten. A movie was also made about this beast, really well done, this movie depicts the story and shows how two man team up to destroy the wolf, only difference to the real story, in the movie the beast is controled bya secret society that uses it to keep the population under control and rule the region. Some sources say there was only one beast, some others counted more than one. My job will be to recreate the REAL story (illustrated) of the Bete du Gevaudan.
Here is a first example of what my 10 minutes sketches should look like:

The description for this sketch was the one from Wipikidia.com: Long teetgh, really long tail, massive beast...

(Other sketches will not be shown until the final presentation)

- With this my project will be composed of two different parts:

- The short version of the story of the Beast of the Gevaudan

- A map to precisely locate this story. The map will go from a general view of France, to then more precisely the region of Loreze then the town of Gevaudan, the limits then and now.

- The morphing of all sketches (should have about 15 sketches by the presentation)

- The interesting facts and unfoundable facts from this story (if foundable)

Blog Entry 3.3 Final Project Ideas!

For this final project the things I possibly want to work on are the following:
Gargouilles/Gargoyles: This little (not so small though) at the top of cathedral and other high religious buildings. Mainly in Europe, more specifically in France, even more precisely Cathedral Notre de Dame! This Gargoyles were made for very specific reasons during the medieval period, not just for decoration. Their origins brought a lot of stories. My goal with this project would be to find as much information as possible about these strange statues and find the original story!
Demons: As a following to my very first blog entry, this final project could be on Asmodeus to allow me to take more time to study his history.
My favorite idea so far, LA BETE DU GEVAUDAN: a wolf/Monster who terrorized france for years around 1960's. Many drawing have been made of this creature but no one actually ever knew what he looked like! The idea for this research would be to get a very detailed story of what actually happened but also a very detailed portrait of the beast using every source possible to combine them and realize my own interpretation!