The Six Main Archetypes of Literature

Published by Cloudydays, October 31, 2010

A list of the six main literary archetypes, explanations of them and examples.

An archetype is a pattern; a way of seeing; a recurring theme in literature and even in culture. Carl Jung contends that all humans, regardless of time or place, recognize these archetypal patterns. Archetypes are types of literature that most people are familiar with and are taught about during their lifetimes. These 6 archetypes are:

1. Golden Age

This archetype is generally about a time when everything was beautiful, peaceful, no sin existed, plentiful food, no conflicts, no need for shelter (because you did not need to protect yourself), and no need for work (you didn’t have to). Usually when coming across this archetype, the story tells about how things were much better back then and now humanity has basically screwed everything up and we want to go back to the good ole’ days.

2. God/Teacher

The God/Teacher archetype describes a role model who provides lessons on how to act, what’s important, survival, knowledge, love, etc. This archetype is generally used in stories where you have someone quite experienced in some field teaching, helping, or instructing someone younger than them and inexperienced. Examples of this archetype include the story of Prometheus and how he gave fire to humans or perhaps you could speak a bit more religiously and say that the Bible is also an example of the God/Teacher archetype due to the Bible teaching people lessons of life.

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3. Loss of Innocence

While the definition of this archetype is broad, it’s effects are more narrow. The loss of innocence literary archetype generally describes learning something knew or experiencing something new that completely changes you forever. A prime example of this archetype is the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, for which an archetype study can be found here. Another one would be the book The Count of Monte Cristo. There are 2 types of Loss of innocence. The first one is Personal which is recognizing the harshness of the world and the recognition of one’s limitations. The second kind is Society loss of innocence. This is when evil is introduced into society.

4. Flood

The Flood archetype is one archetype that is very common nowadays considering the multiple apocalyptic movies and books and songs that are being made with each coming year. The Flood archetype is simple to understand – it’s the end of the world. Examples of this archetype include the movie I am Legend, and the song How far we’ve come by Matchbox Twenty.

5. Metamorphosis

Also another simple and easy to understand archetype, the Metamorphosis archetype is about changing from one thing to another and with a reason. Either it’s a change that happens and occurs from within or it’s being changed by something outside – something external or something internal. Examples would include The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer.

6. Cycles

Fancy word there, Cycles, but this is still an easy concept to remember. Anything like being a baby to being an adult to becoming an old person and then repeating with the next generation is a cycle. Another easy one is the phases of the moon.

(essay)

by Demeter

Thu Nov 11 2010 at 22:19:53

Recently, the theatrical group I belong to decided to devise a play, with its foundations in Shakespeare, in which a Puck-like character rebels against his master. This project, with the working title "Oberon Must Die", arose from a suggestion by one member of the group, who wanted to conflate certain Shakespearean characters together to create new ones. However, as the project proceeded, it became clear that some of the suggested conflations weren't working and that other characters seemed to form natural clumps. Eventually, we identified fourteen key archetypes (though there are, of course, numerous other incidental characters that "serve to swell a progress or two") which we named rather whimsically. Although it is rare in Shakespeare for all of them to be present in any one play every play will have at least six or seven of them present - our own, obviously, ended up incorporating all fourteen.

These archetypes are:

1. The Big Lunk: A romantic hero type, but lacking something, so not entirely heroic - for instance he can be indecisive, unintelligent or easily misled. He is always a young man. In Shakespeare, he is represented in characters such as Romeo, Hamlet, Troilus, Claudio (Much Ado About Nothing), Orsino (Twelfth Night), Orlando (As You Like It) Lysander, Demetrius (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Ferdinand (The Tempest) and Leonatus (Cymbeline).
2. The Innocent Babe: The babe is often a tragic character , a victim of malignancy, whether this causes - or, in comedy, seems to cause - death. She is young - often very young and is personified in Shakespeare in Ophelia (Hamlet), Desdemona (Othello), Imogen (Cymbeline), Hero (Much Ado About Nothing), Cordelia (King Lear).
3. The Flawed Ruler: Generally found in tragedy, this powerful man with a flaw which causes -or nearly causes, in comedy - his downfall. He is usually an older character. Examples: Oberon (A Midsummer Night's Dream) Prospero (The Tempest), Macbeth, King Lear, Othello, Cymbeline, Anthony, Brutus (Julius Caesar).
4. The Bright Young Thing: This is a girl who takes matters into her own hands to get what she wants - BYTs are generally those who bring about the resolution of comedies. They are (obviously) young, though often older than the babes. BYTs include: Helena (All's Well That Ends Well), Portia (The Merchant of Venice), Viola & Olivia (Twelfth Night), Rosalind (As You Like It), Kate (Taming of the Shrew), Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing), Miranda (The Tempest).
5. The Malign Influence: A character who causes trouble out of hatred, jealousy or temper. He actively wishes others ill and works toward that. He can be any age. Some Malign Influences are Iago (Othello), Don John (Much Ado About Nothing), Cloten (Cymbeline), Claudius (Hamlet), Tybalt (Romeo and Juliet), Cassius (Julius Caesar). Hecate (Macbeth).
6. The Sidekick/The Clever Servant. The friend or servant of either the Big Lunk, the Innocent Babe or the Bright Young thing who helps them sort out their problems. They are often older, but are not necessarily so. Where they are friend rather than servant they often share the fate of the hero/heroine, either dying or marrying depending on the genre of the play. Examples include Benvolio (Romeo and Juliet), Maria (Twelfth Night), Benedick (Much Ado About Nothing) Diana Capilet (All's Well That Ends Well), Celia (As You Like It), Odysseus (Troilus and Cressida).
7. The Imp of Mischief: A misleading character, often supernatural, who misleads and deceives people, makes fun of them, sets cats among pigeons for amusement's sake, but is not actively malign. Their age is irrelevant, and they may be male or female. Examples: Puck (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Ariel(The Tempest), Parolles (All's Well That Ends Well), Sir Toby Belch(Twelfth Night), Mercutio (Romeo and Juliet), The Witches (Macbeth).
8. The Mistreated Villain: A character who does things which the audience perceives as wicked, but only because he has been driven to them by the way he has been treated. The age of this character is irrelevant, but they are often older and long-suffering. Examples: Caliban (The Tempest), Shylock (The Merchant of Venice).
9. The Powerful Woman: Often seen as malign, this is a woman who has real power over the fate of other people as well as herself, and is therefore someone to fear. In tragedies, she always dies, and in comedies she will usually come under the influence of a male character in some way. She is generally mature. Some powerful women from Shakespeare are: Lady Macbeth, Goneril and Regan (King Lear), Cleopatra, Titania (Midsummer Night's Dream) Cymbeline's Queen.
10. The Figure of Fun: This character is pretty much present purely to be laughed at. He (and it is generally a man) often pretends to more intelligence than he has, and generally gets his pomposity punctured. The age of this character doesn't matter. Some examples are: Dogberry (Much Ado About Nothing), Malvolio (Twelfth Night), Polonius (Hamlet), Nick Bottom (A Midsummer Night's Dream).
11. The Wise Fool: The word "fool" in this context is a positional denotation, rather than an intellectual one. Often quite sharp and shrewd, the wise fool is character who is allowed to tell unpalatable truths to rulers without being punished, by virtue of their position. Examples: Lear's Fool, Jaques (As You Like It), Lavatch (All's Well That Ends Well).
12. The Comic Relief: A Servant/Friend who helps the lead(s) but is generally not too intelligent. They generally have no particular pretentions to intelligenceand while they are often made gentle fun of they don't suffer for it. Some examples include Nurse (Romeo and Juliet), Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Twefth Night), Verges (Much Ado About Nothing), The Mechanicals (Midsummer Night's Dream).
13. Tragedy's Minion: This is a character who is manipulated by the Malign Influence into acting in his favor and against one of the leads, though they are generally innocent in themselves of any malign intent. For instance: Margaret (Much Ado About Nothing), Emelia (Othello).
14. The Narrator/Chorus: This is a character who fills in the story, and may influence it significantly, but more in passing than by intent. Example: Prince in Romeo and Juliet

The mixture of these archetypes within a play will determine the tone of it, as much as the genre will determine the final outcome: tragedies liberally laced with the lighter characters (The Imp, The Figure of Fun, The Comic Relief) such as Romeo and Juliet will be more shocking in their tragic elements than a because of the contrast with the lighter-hearted elements, where a tragedy which lacks these figures, like Macbeth will be more tense and brooding.

Why You Need a Media Plan

Sunday November 7, 2010

A media plan is not an option, it's a necessity. It doesn't matter whether you do all of the public relations yourself or you are just part of a big organization. The biggest mistake when it comes to a media plan is that we tend to focus on internal aspects, processes and technical details. While these things are important, it's not the core of a successful media plan.

A media plan can help you in not only identifying who you are trying to reach, but also what you want your audience to do when they hear your message.

Take some time to learn why a media plan is important to your organization. Once you've done that learn how to develop a specific media plan for earned media as well as a media plan for social media and understand why they are different. You'll be glad you did.

Facebook 與Plurk介紹

http://newsletter.ascc.sinica.edu.tw/news/read_news.php?nid=1701


　以前看到別人介紹自己，會列出email、電話，前一陣子又增加列出自己的部落格、無名，現在留的是Twitter、Facebook、Plurk。人與人之間的互動透過這些網站更加密切，更快速，卻也爆發出更多個人資料保密的問題。

　在此先介紹目前在國內快速增加使用者的Plurk與Facebook。不論是升斗小民、影視明星或是政府高官，真的是全民運動，也是目前最夯的話題。

什麼是Plurk？

　Plurk中文叫「噗浪」，在Plurk上面活動的人又叫「噗浪客」，瀏覽其他朋友的訊息叫「追浪」，Plurk上的網友叫「噗友」。因為所有訊息都展示在網站中間的那條「河流」或「河道」（官方說法是時間軸），所以關機不玩了又叫「上岸」。最特別的是它有個「Karma」卡碼值，會依照你發文的次數、上站次數與交友情形變大或變小；而Plurk網站中的各項進階功能都需要「Karma」數值到達一定程度才可開放修改，所以很容易把聊天當作玩RPG遊戲那樣一直追求Karma分數、一直玩。

　Plurk是個類似「時間流」網站，也就是大家一整天都泡在上面，想到什麼講什麼、聽到什麼回什麼，是個相當自由、有彈性卻又有點隱密（稍有資訊流通門檻）的八卦流竄區。它的彈性在於除非你訂閱了某個人的噗浪，你才看得到他在鬼扯什麼，不訂閱的話就不會被吵到。而「有點隱密」也在於你必須訂閱或者有人轉貼他的噗浪文網址給你，你才知道他說了什麼；如果你不想讓沒經過授權的人看到你的訊息，也可以把訊息「鎖起來」，不讓其他人看。

　雖然Plurk是個外國網站，不過他的中文化倒是很在地，完全沒有「微軟中文」或非「台式」中文的問題；而且他中文化的時間很早，比國外各網站都還早就推出多國語系。重點是，它比twitter系統穩一些，每當twitter掛點，大家就會馬上轉向Plurk問問是啥狀況，有點像是多年前PCDVD掛掉跑去問PCZONE、PCZONE掛掉跑去問PCDVD那樣。

　此外，Plurk支援CSS修改網站樣貌的功能，也可直接整站套用其他人設計好的精美佈景主題。此外，還可以透過一些方法加掛各式好玩的小工具在網站中，方便我們貼圖、玩表情符號等等。

什麼是Facebook？

　Facebook是在2004年由哈佛大學的本科生成立，主要的目的是要借用網路模式去替代傳統的通訊錄。自這個網站開通之後，在美國各大院校非常流行。起初，只限於學校校園網路參與，所以每位使用者都要有個『edu.』的電郵地址才可以註冊；後來由於此網路大受歡迎，最終才開放到接受任何電郵地址都可以註冊。此一改變不得了！像是筆者自從用了兩星期之後，現在已經習慣上去看看到底有什麼朋友流言或放東西上網。此一網路使用的黏性，可能是Facebook能快速擴張的最大原因。

　在使用Facebook的過程中，筆者發現Facebook有個很大的特點是其他的軟體做不到的！這特點是當您使用Facebook時，可以在Facebook的『找朋友—Find Friends』去找朋友。如何找朋友？很容易！首先，Facebook會要求你輸入電郵地址及密碼，之後，Facebook便會透過你電郵的通訊錄去找出您所有的聯絡人，然後發電郵給您的朋友，請他們去確認『您』的邀請；當您的朋友回覆確認後，您們就可以在Facebook上進行交流。此時，你會發覺，一下子久違的朋友很快地都在身邊出現了，有點像在跟老朋友敘舊的感覺。

　Facebook另一特點是分享平台。當進入了Facebook之後，不單單只能看到自己朋友的情況，也可以去朋友的Facebook處加入朋友的『朋友』，而最終成為自己的朋友。此舉是一個真正的賣點，因為無論是認識與不認識的朋友，都可以透過Facebook而認識。從前玩網路Messenger的人，約有100個人在名單內便已經是了不起的事，如今Facebook的出現，隨時有100人在Facebook內都不是難事。筆者個人認為，最大的好處是可以在自己的朋友既Facebook裡面遇見自己好久沒有聯絡的朋友。

Plurk與Facebook已發現資安漏洞

　Plurk與Facebook雖然都能促進人與人的互動，但若涉及到個人隱私的洩漏，那可不得不特別小心注意了！Plurk主要的漏洞是Cross-Site Scripting，Cross-Site Scripting中文譯為「跨站腳本攻擊」，簡稱XSS。此乃是駭客利用網站上允許使用者輸入字元或字串的欄位插入HTML與Script語言，造成其他正常使用者在觀看網頁的同時，瀏覽器會主動下載並執行部份惡意的程式碼，或被暗地裡導入到惡意的網站，而受到某種型態的影響。如今大部份的網站都強調所謂與使用者互動的功能，加入許多允許使用者輸入字串的欄位，如：留言板、討論區、查詢欄位等；有些互動的功能甚至能將使用者輸入的字串存入後端資料庫，如果駭客輸入某些含有攻擊式的語言，一旦使用者進入此頁面時，因執行未預期的動作，那麼將可能遭受到某種程度的威脅。

　例如，在6月23日，一個名叫FBHive的網站聲稱發現Facebook的一個安全漏洞。任何人通過該漏洞都可以瀏覽Facebook上的用戶私人信息，即使這些數據已被設置為隱私。Facebook聲稱已經確認並修復了這個漏洞。

　FBHive在網頁上展示了Facebook首席執行官Mark Zuckerberg（馬克·紮克伯格）的個人訊息，而後該網站將這些訊息替換成帶有『應Facebook要求已移除』字樣的圖片。該網站對Digg聯合創始人Kevin Rose（凱文·羅斯）和Boing Boing編輯Cory Doctorow（科利·多克托羅）的個人訊息也做了同樣的操作。

　TechCrunch部落格網站的作者Robin Wauters（羅賓·沃特斯）表示，她曾對FBHive提出質疑，後來FBHive給出了她的個人訊息，包括出生年月、家鄉地址、未婚夫姓名和其他數據。沃特斯寫道，只有她的朋友和家人才有權觀看這些訊息；而且她的Facebook主頁是不對公眾開放的。

　FBHive表示：早在2007年科技新聞網站The Register就曾披露過類似的漏洞。Symantec Security Respons（賽門鐵克安全響應中心）集團產品經理John Harrison（約翰·哈裡森）表示，如果這個漏洞被大範圍利用，那麼後果將是災難性的。他建議人們限制發佈在社交網站以及其他任何網站上的個人訊息。

小結

　在網路發達的今日，做任何事情都十分便利，但就因為這個便利性，讓人忘了有許多隱私需要被好好地保護，不應隨意地放在網站上。在此提醒大家，在享受網路便捷的時候，別忘了個人隱私保密的重要性，並且不要在任何網站放上您隱私的東西！

參考資料

•Plurk：www.plurk.com
•Facebook：www.facebook.com

I am born agin!

Feiling called me last night, saying she dreamed about me ill to death. What a coincident! I had 3 conseccutive nights with 3 different nightmares. At the last night, Nov. 10, 2008 3-4am in fact, I cried out and waked up HP. After sharing 3 nightmares with him, he said I had been under too much pressure in 3 aspects, professional development, job and family.