Meeting with Vogler

Vogler, Christopher. “Refusal of the Call- Meeting with the Mentor.” The Writer's
Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. Third. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese
Productions, 2007.
Summary
Vogler discusses the refusal of the call to adventure in depth. The refusal is important because it shows the importance and the danger of the adventure to the audience. This is a “threshold of fear”. There are a few ways of refusing the initial adventure. The first is avoidance in which the hero simply tries to find excuses not to take on the adventure. Then there are excuses which are commonly offered as “temporary roadblocks” to refuse adventure. Sometimes consistent refusals can lead to tragedy because the hero is looking backwards and is denying reality. Other times the calls could conflict causing the hero to make choices of which to accept and which to refuse. Positive refusals happen when the hero is smart enough to realize that he or she should refuse the call to adventure because it could be disastrous. The artist as hero refers to heroes who refuse the call to adventure in order to take on the call of artistic expression. Willing heroes are the exception that eagerly seek the adventure and accept the call. Vogler also discusses the threshold guardian here, but we have already covered that character. The secret door implies the natural curiosity of humans to know secrets and the power they hold. Vogler continues to talk about the hero’s journey, moving onto the meeting with the mentor who is there to aid and provide help to the hero. The mentor is seen as a source of wisdom that the hero needs and in myths they are often wizards, doctors or gods. A good prototype to use when thinking about mentors is Chiron. Chiron is a centaur who trained many Greek heroes and gives us the idea of how a mentor should be. The mentor gives the hero confidence and gets the story rolling. There are several clichés that can trap the archetypes so it is important that the story bring something new to the table. Misdirection is clearly when the mentor misleads the hero which can be interesting to the audience. It is possible that the mentor and hero conflict if one is too ungrateful or one turns to the villain. The mentor is very important and sometimes stories are mentor driven. Another interesting idea from Vogler is that the mentor is an evolved hero who has learned from his own adventures and becomes able to teach.
Reaction
I like that in Vogler’s text he accounts for the uniqueness of stories today, as we are trying to come up with original ideas in our post screwed world. I think that each step is important no matter how it is manipulated. I like that the refusal of the call shows the audience the threat that the hero is facing because their final acceptance makes them all the more heroic for overcoming the threshold of fear. I am also glad he included willing heroes because some heroes, like ones seeking revenge, would seek the danger and nnot bother to refuse it. The meeting with the mentor is so important and with the abundance of mentor types its nearly impossible to think of a story that does not somehow include this aspect. It’s an important moment for the hero and for the audience to realize that the hero is imperfect and needs some sort of assistance, no matter what form it comes in or what might change by the end of the journey.
Questions
Can you explain the artist as hero?
What are some film examples of willing heroes?
Besides the discussion of Chiron, what are examples of influential mentors?