[...] Joseph Campbell quotes — Day 3 | Go Into The Story [...]

> But in most stories, they are not leading a truly authentic life, there are aspects of who they are — deep inside them — that must emerge into the daylight of consciousness. That lies at the core of emotional journey of most metamorphosis stories. If the Protagonist refuses the call to adventure or goes on their quest, but refuses to change, they die, either physically or symbolically. In some stories, a great way to highlight the significance of a Protagonist's change is to have a foil character who gets stuck and doesn't go through the same transformation. We've been watching The Wire, and Bubbles and Johnny are a good example: Bubbles is open to change and to a world beyond the corners, and Johnny is stuck in being a junkie and a scrambler to the extent that he can't keep up with Bubbles when Bubbles (tries to) make changes. Because the audience gets to see Johnny get stuck and fail, we have a greater appreciation for Bubbles' successes, no matter how small they may be without context to give them significance.

I just came across a quote from poet & philosopher Mark Nepo that feels like the flip side of the Campbell quote above: "Transformation always involves the falling away of things we have relied on, and we are left with a feeling that the world as we know it is coming to an end, because it is." - Mark Nepo No wonder our characters fight so hard against their character arcs. No wonder they resist embarking on their heroic journeys until an inciting incident turns their lives upside down. No wonder they get stuck and fix on the old. Transformation is radical and terrifying stuff.

That is exactly right, Shaula. Change is hard -- just look at how people strain to get and stay on diets. Transformation or metamorphosis, which represents significant change, is a major struggle. One reason why metamorphosis has always been at the thematic heart of stories is because readers, moviegoers, listeners, etc have a powerful need to believe they can change, and stories in which a Protagonist does change reinforce that belief. Especially so in movies in which we generally see a major change in 2 hours time or less, really driving home the point. Of course Nepo's line -- "we are left with a feeling that the world as we know it is coming to an end" -- brings to mind the idea Joseph Campbell articulated about how the Hero starts in their Ordinary / Old World, but the journey compels them out in to an Extraordinary / New World. Per my language system, the whole Deconstruction-Reconstruction experience in Act Two is about the Protagonist shedding their Old World patterns of behavior and beliefs [their Old Self] in order to allow the 'stuff' of their Authentic Self [which is always Inside a character] to emerge, then combine all of that into a New Self which receives a big test in the Final Struggle. We see that dynamic over and over in movies, and again it is about metamorphosis. Circling back while change is scary in real life, and for a Protagonist in a story as well, that very fact makes stories interesting. We WANT to see the P challenged, we WANT to see them stretched to the limit, we WANT to see them fight because that's entertaining, and makes the experience of succeeding that much more meaningful.