Vogler Annotated Bibliography 10/28/08

Vogler, Christopher. The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure For Writers. 3rd ed.
Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese, 1998. 175-194.

Summary
In the next chapter Vogler discusses the Reward stage of the hero's journey. In this stage, which often occurs after the hero has faced death and survived, it is very common for there to be a celebration often reminiscent of recounting the adventure with their friends and allies around the campfire. The next situation presented in this stage is the chance at a love affair or sacred marriage. The last and most importance purpose of this stage is the " seizing of the sword" where the hero gets his reward after surviving the ordeal. Although the reward is usually achieved through death or the willingness of the hero to risk his own life, sometimes the hero will steal the elixir Surviving the ordeal also raises the hero to a new status and initiates the hero to a new elite group that can be shown by knighting or battlefield promotions.Heroes may find that surviving death grants them new powers or better perceptions and these may prove to be the elixir that the hero gained from defying death. There are several different names given for becoming demystified and seeing clearly, however Vogler also warns of the danger of the hero traveling to the dark side of whatever he has faced in the ordeal and the danger of an inflated ego or the hero's arrogance. Next Vogler moves into a chapter on the Road Back stage of the journey which serves the purpose of rededicating the hero to his journey and restoring the energy of the story after the story was slowed down and recapped following the survival of the ordeal. This section should inflame the pace of the story and keep arousing the audience until the finish. One important aspect of this stage is the popular chase scene often involving a retaliatory villain and Vogler finishes the chapter by by describing the different variances in the chase scene from some movies and literature.

Reaction
In these chapter Vogler returns to using a wide array of films as examples that were very effective in keeping me involved in the reading. He focused mainly on action films and a few references to old romances that wouldn't be very effective with today's audience, but I think it would be more effective if he used examples from a variety of genres. Although the wizard of oz is still a good example of every stage of the story it is becoming tedious through the repetition.

Questions.
1. What are some examples of the hero chasing instead of being chased during the Reward stage of the story
2. Are there times where to survive the journey the hero must give up his physical reward while gaining him a new moral reward.
3. What are some ways besides the chase scene that you can speed the story up during the road back stage.