Shadowmagick

Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey as applied to The A-Men trilogy

Though I did not exactly model Jack’s journey in The A-Men trilogy on Campbell’s seminal work, The Hero With A Thousand Faces, I was acutely aware that this neopunk scifi would disguise an epic-style journey of self-discovery through the eyes of a broken man and his connection with the fantastical. For example: it is not coincidence that Jack’s real world father is named Seth Campbell Malorian. Now that the trilogy is completed, I wanted to plot this classic story arc to the books to illustrate the path that The Nowhereman tarvels through the course of the three novels.

STAGE #1: Call to Adventure
Novel: The A-Men
Jack wakes with no memory (the first of several awakenings) into an alien world – and finds that he is part of a military group in a strange ship. Immediately he sets on the quest of discovering who he is.

STAGE #2: Supernatural aid
Novel: The A-Men
Behind Jack’s journey is the voice of Nathaniel Glass (D’Alessandro) who guides our protagonist by way of three almost magical devices: the faerie tale book of Forevermore, his voice over jack’s internal communication equipment (Amtech Headman) and by interacting with the electronic and virtual worlds through which Jack travels.

STAGE #3: Threshold Guardian (s)
Novel: The A-Men
The Threshold Guardian's job is to ensure the protagonist is worthy of passing the threshold, and thus they act as part of the tests the protagonist must face in the journey. Here Jack encounters Esther who acts as his conduit back into the real world and connects him with his mission. She also is the one who aids him in piecing together his life, both here and later in the book by providing the means to access his personal files and date from the Stream.

STAGE #4: Threshold (beginning of transformation)
Novel: End of The A-Men
By the end of the first novel, Jack is presented with Esther’s speech about his ability to be god and how the job of any messiah is to show that the only person able to save oneself *is* one’s self.

STAGE #5: Challenges and Temptations
Novel: The A-Men Return
The second novel is a hotbed of challenges and temptations for Jack. Being a lone resident in Dead City he is exposed to the need to survive at all costs. He is in a constant state of risk, and with the appearance in his life of Esther and Susie, is emotionally forced to change and grow.

STAGE #6: Revelation
Novel: The A-Men Return
Jack’s vulnerability on the subject of the faerie tale world of Forevermore and his quest to find the island where Death never treads, leads him to discover that it has been D’Alessandro’s desire to control the world he set out to create. Far too late, Jack discovers that, simplistically put, his focus should have been the people and not the place.

STAGE #7: Abyss: death and rebirth
Novel: End of The A-Men Return and start of Forever A-Men
The eventual descent into the darkness of the freezing ocean is a stark image of falling into life’s abyss, yet after this, Jack awakens in the land of Forevermore as the godking of Nowhereland. Now he can begin his atonement and redemption.

STAGE #8: Transformation
Novel: Forever A-Men
After this moment of death and rebirth, Jack is retrained in the new laws and lores of the faerie tale world made real. This is his travel in the Otherworld, a time when he begins to question the reality of Dead City and the earlier adventures.

STAGE #9: Atonement
Novel: Forever A-Men
Jack’s battle with the forces of both the Amen (God) and the fayking Maleore (Devil) are played out to conclusion. Jack becomes hero of his own world.

STAGE #10: Return (Gift of the Goddess)
Novel: Forever A-Men
Jack returns to the known world, while Nathaniel’s deposition, allows Esther to become the goddess of Forevermore, and the maternal replacing the paternal and all-masculine completes the balancing cycle.

Discovering the faerie tale symbology of The A-Men (II)

The fairy tale represents extremely well the inner workings of the human psyche. Erikson, in his model of the human life-cycle, suggests that the ideal human being develops through what he calls “phase-specific psychosocial crises” if he achieves the ideal goals of each phase in succession. These crises in their sequence are:

• First, basic trust

• Second, autonomy

• Third, initiative

• Fourth, industry

• Fifth, identity

Having solved these, one becomes ready for true intimacy with the other. In The A-Men, I wanted to have at the back of the story the hero's journey --- or monomyth.This term first came into use in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (first published in 1949) Joseph Campbell's seminal work of comparative mythology. In this publication, Campbell discusses his theory of the journey of the archetypal hero found in world mythologies. While speculative fiction is packed chock full with hero's journey's (especially seen in fantasy epics), I felt that in a fractured scifi future the need for identity would be even more acutely needed than now.

Readers are starting to comment about the references (some more obvious than others) of the fairy tale elements in the trilogy, and with Forever A-Men catapulting us into the pages of Jack's storybook, Forevermore, in March 2012 I thought it was good time to revisit some of these.

The Big Sleep

Many faerie tale heroes at some point fall into sleep  or are reborn. Each waking is seen as attaining a new level of awareness, maturity and understanding. In the first book, Jack literally wakes to a new life, and there are several mentions of his passing between the two worlds --- of the real and the simulation --- through the conduit of sleep.

The Sleeping Beauty is the classic link here. In original tale there were twelve good faeries and one evil one, making the 13 months into which the lunar cycle was divided. In The A-Men the number thirteen also plays a part; the thirteen kingdoms of Forevermore mirroring the thirteen macrocorporations of near-space (twelve and one controlling force, XEs – the evil queen of the storyline).

The Power of Three

In The A-Men every aspect is triple-layered. Words are repeated three times, hero's fail twice to succeed a third time, or succeed twice and then fail.... and this is a very old storytelling device. Take for example Snow White. In the sotry, the maiden goes through the escaping of three deaths:

• First death her laces are bound too tight

• Second death is the poisoned comb

• Third death is the poisoned apple.

Then, during her time in the glass coffin she is visited by three birds:

• First bird is the owl (symbolising wisdom)

• Second bird is the raven (symbolising mature consciousness)

• Third bird is the dove (symbolising love)

In this way is she reborn. But the underlying story here is that before the ‘happy’ life can begin, the evil and destructive aspects of our personality must be brought under control. This is, of course, supremely true of Jack who must learn that just by cutting out his past he cannot also cut out the bad part of himself; he must overcome it.

Who Wants To Live Forever?

Fairy tales, unlike every other form of literature, direct the child to discover his identity and calling, and also suggest what experiences are needed to develop his character further. Fairy tales intimate that a rewarding, good life is within one’s reach despite adversity – but only if one does not shy away from the hazardous struggles without which one can never achieve true identity. They also state that if one finds true adult love, the fairy story tells us, one doesn’t wish for eternal life.

At the start of the Jack is obviously a man without love --- either for himself or from those around him --- and so his dream and the dream of his character in the fairy tale book is for immortality. Only by discovering Pure and her love (instead of hankering after the 'motherly' role Esther plays for him in the first two books) can he realise that nothing is forever and that is what makes life rich.

From what these particular tales imply about man’s despair, hopes and methods of overcoming tribulations, he can discover not only a way out of his distress but also a way to find himself, as the hero of the story did. The unrealistic nature of these tales is an important device, because it makes obvious that fairy tales concern is not useful information about the external world, but the inner processes taking place in an individual. It is unfortunate, therefore, that the name emphasises the role of fairies in them, because in most no faeries appear.

Surviving Dead City: the five basic skills

While researching survival in the urban collapse of Dead City for my first novel, The A-Men, I researched a lot about the five basic survival skills, being:

Fire | Shelter | Signaling | Food & Water | First Aid

FIRE can purify water, cook food, signal rescuers, provide warmth, light and comfort, help keep predators at a distance, and can be a most welcome friend and companion. Each and every person who ventures into the Outdoors should have a minimum of two ways to start a fire with them, one on their person at all times and the other with their gear. A few small fires provides more heat than one large fire.

SHELTER is the means by which you protect your body from excess exposure from the sun, cold, wind, rain or snow. Anything that takes away or adds to your overall body temperature can be your enemy. Clothing is the first line of shelter protection, have the right clothes for the right environment. Always have a hat.

SIGNALING is having available the means and ability to alert any and all potential rescuers that you are in need of help. Fire, flashing light, bright color markers, flags, mirrors, whistles all will help you be found. Three fires in a triangular form are a recognized distress signal.

FOOD/WATER are vital towards your survival. You can live up to three days without water. If possible boil all water 10 minutes plus one minute for every 1000 feet above sea level. Strain water through your handkerchief to remove large particles. Try to drink only in the cool of the evening. Never wait until you are without water to collect it.

FIRST AID is not just the basic medical needs, it is the primary way in which you act to survive. STOP means Sit, Think, Observe, and Plan. It is the most intelligent thing you can do when you realise you are lost or stranded. The most important element is to keep your brain functioning rationally, this is basic first aid for survival.