The Archetypes of Hauntings

The more I read about hauntings and discuss hauntings the more I have come to believe that hauntings fall into very similar categories and types.  I am open to disagreement on this subject, but it seems  to me that no matter where you are in the world most hauntings fall into one of several categories.  In psychology I am not much of a Jungian.  I tend to be a cognitive behaviorist, but when I read about folklore and even when I hear ghost stories that are true ghost stories, I hear patterns in them that correspond a little with Jung's archetypes.  Carl Jung was an early psychologist who believed  in something called a collective unconscious.  He believed all people drew their thoughts from a similar source and this accounted for why people from every different culture had myths and stories that were very similar without ever having known each other.  For example; most cultures have a dragon myth and a Cinderella story. He also believed we all had universal symbols that we use to interpret the world.  Jung's main archetypes included the Great Mother, the wise old man, the child, the beautiful woman, the devil, the trickster, the scarecrow, and the shadow. These archetypes symbolize core desires within us. I think many of the hauntings I've explored fall into similar archetypes as these and I'm going to break down and explain some of these hauntings.

The White Lady Ghost Story:  These are some of the most common ghost stories.  There are also green lady and grey lady ghost stories that follow the similar pattern of a beautiful young woman, often betrayed or hurt in love, who somehow dies and leaves a tragic ghost behind.  This would fit into Jung's beautiful woman archetype.

Poltergeists:  Poltergeist literally means noisy ghost.   It is a haunting that causes much commotion.  Objects move and break and are thrown about.  Many people now believe that poltergeist hauntings are somehow connected to one person.  This person is usually an adolescent going through great turmoil.  Some believe it is the adolescent themselves who is causing the haunting.   This type of haunting conforms to Jung's trickster archetype.  The haunting is caused by one person who is causing a lot of commotion.  Loki would love it.

The Crying Child:  I've seen a lot of this type of haunting around bridges.  Almost every town in Alabama has a cry baby hollow ghost story.  I've also seen weeping children in houses and buildings.  Usually, the child has a sad story and their crying ghost is the lingering remnant of their tragedy.  This conforms to Jung's child archetype.

Demons:   I don't hear these ghost stories often but when I do they are the most horrifying and terrifying ghost stories.  I've had several people tell me stories about being tormented by a hostile spirit of some kind who is clearly malevolent and will often work to cause bodily harm against the person they are tormenting.  This conforms to Jung's devil archetype.

The Guardian Ghost:  I've heard many stories about helpful ghosts.  These ghosts usually begin as a classic haunting but when trouble arises they are quick to help.  These ghosts would fit the great mother archetype.

The Classic Haunting:  The classic haunting is the most typical ghost story.  Someone has died in a house or building a piece of them remains.  They are usually attached to the building itself and have some connection to the location for some reason or another.  These hauntings would fit into Jung's shadow archetype.  They are the opposite of the rational self.  They are the unexplainable things that connect us to the other side and chaos.

I'm not entirely sure why haunting types seem to fit so neatly into the Jungian archetypes.  Jung himself would argue that this is just more proof of his theoretical collective unconscious and his belief that ghosts represent some part of our core desires.  I'm not to sure about that.  Maybe  there is something that connects us all in life and in death and draws us to similar stories and places, but I think it more the part of what makes us human than some outside consciousness.  I would tend to believe his theories on core desires would come closer to the truth in this matter.   Whatever the cause,  it is fun to look at ghost stories like this.  I may not agree with Jung much but his way of looking at the world certainly hits home in many instances.

The painting above is by an artist named Renee Gandy.  This paintings name is Shadow Archetype.  You can find her work at http://fauvestudio.blogspot.com/2009/07/shadow-archetype.html.  Her work is also available on Etsy.

Characters Who Have Killed

I've got an idea for a little study, but I need your help. Yes, just like Meatloaf at the Special Olympics, I am asking for the mighty comics bloggers to lend a hand to this poor boy. Now that I've run that into the ground, here's what I'm talking about.

I need to know about heroes who have killed, but have since sworn not to do so again. The death doesn't have to have occurred during their career as a costumed hero, it can have happened during an earlier part of their life (soldier, cop, mugging victim, etc.,). Cassandra Cain would be an example, even though she ended up killing again. In fact, if you could include whether they've kept that vow up until now, I'd appreciate that.

One thing, it needs to have at least been something referenced by the character at some point. What I mean is, Batman and Superman both used to kill criminals, but now they don't (Mostly? Is that time Supes killed 3 Kryptonians in continuity?). What I'm not clear on is the specifics of that change. Was there a point in their books, where each said "I'm not going to kill anymore", or did the writers just change the character at some point with no real explanation provided as to why the character's beliefs about killing had changed. If it's the former, by all means include them. If it's the latter, you can mention them, but I'm not sure that I'll count them.

The vague impression I've got right now is that in American comics, it's pretty much all-or-nothing. Either you don't kill, and never have (Spider-Man), or you killed before you were a "hero", and you continue to do that (Wolverine). In Japanese comics, I've noticed at least a few characters who for various have killed quite a lot at an earlier time in their life, and have since sworn, either to themselves or someone else, not to do so again (Kenshin and Ryoko come to mind quickly).

I may be over-generalizing here, but in manga, characters seem to become somewhat less bloodthirsty, or at least, killing is truly a last resort, only when they can't stop the person otherwise. In comics characters either remain the same, at least within the same version. There seems to be a difference between original (Earth-2?) Batman, and the current one. Barring that, they become more violent. They kill, and that causes a descent into greater darkness. I'd probably put Green Arrow and Colossus into this category. It just doesn't seem that characters go the route of getting less dark.

So any information you have on characters, cultural differences, your opinions based on what I've thrown out here, let's hear it.

I Sit Here Typing, My Throat Cells Are Lysing. . . Character Archetypes #2

Sometimes, I really hate Blogger. I had this entire post typed out. But I couldn't post it, because Blogger's messed up so I can't add the images. So I save it, I even see it saved. Then I come back, and it's fucking gone! Damn it! Fine!

The first archetype was the person I think I'd be if I had superheroes. More likely, it's who I wish I could be. I doubt I could keep saving the day while putting up with all the crap Parker does. This time around, it's the characters I'm rooting for, the ones I want to get that happy ending. For my prime example I present Ryoko, from Tenchi Muyo.

A quick origin. Ryoko is either 5000 or 2000 years old, depending on what website I check. She's a combination of her mother, Washu's, egg cell, and an organism called Masu, which has unusual energy properties. A student of Washu's named Kagato abducts Ryoko, and uses her as a weapon of mass destruction for at least a 1000 years (more if she's older). To do this he controlled her. It's kind of suggested that Ryoko's mind isn't like most, that it's more of a computer, and like Washu, Kagato could hack into it and assert control. Anyway, under his orders, she attacks the Imperial Planet of Jurai, gets chased by the Crown Prince Yosho, shot down over Earth, defeated by said prince and imprisoned inside a stasis chamber hidden within a cave for 700 years. Yosho's grandson Tenchi inadvertently frees her, and now you're caught up.

Ryoko is a character looking for redemption, even if she rarely shows it outwardly. Though both Jurai's and the Galaxy Police's statute of limitations have run out on her crimes, she's still feared throughout the galaxy. Still most people don't know she was controlled. If they do know, they may not believe it, or may not care. Those people have never seen this "Kagato", but they certainly remember Ryoko. To them, she's at best "Space Pirate Ryoko", and others regard her as an outright demon. And though she wasn't in control of herself, she feels guilt for all the people she hurt or killed. It was shown in one comic that she expects that if Tenchi or the others knew everything that she had done, they'd send her away, want nothing to do with her. But she mostly conceals this behind her loud, wild, somewhat crazy personality that caught my interest initially.

Along those lines, she has to figure out a whole new way to do things. Kagato seems to have lived by the philosophy "want, take, have", or more precisely "want, make Ryoko take, have". Wuss. And that being the only way Ryoko remembers, she often acts that way. Except that it can't help with what she really wants (Tenchi's love and acceptance). In fact, showing off her powers, her fighting ability, scares the crap out of tenchi, or at least makes him nervous for quite awhile. Likewise, she can't simply blow off her rival Ayeka's face, because Ayeka and Ryoko share friends. If she did that, Tenchi, Sasami, and plenty of other people would be saddened. So the ways that seem most natural to her, are the exact things she can't do. It's an uphill battle, and I can't help rooting for her.

Other examples:

Raven - I think this is a result of that season of Teen Titans, but I really cheer for Raven. She seemed to completely believe that she was destined to destroy the earth, that there was nothing she could do to defy her father. It was nice to see her friends, especially Robin, working to convince her that nothing was set in stone.

At the same time, it's Raven's abilties that make it hard to relate to people. She can absorb their emotions, enter their dreams, sometimes without even meaning to. That tends to make people keep their distance, because when you're feeling really happy, you might not want to talk to
the girl who can suddenly drain all that happiness. It's why I thought the "Raven goes to high school" was an awesome idea. Hopefully that'll happen after One Year Later starts.

Batgirl - Like my previous two entries, Cassandra Cain has been screwed over by her father/male figure. Like Ryoko, she had no influence from a mother to counteract that. I do think Cain cared for his daughter more than the others. She was more than just a weapon. True that 'more' was mostly as a testament to his greatness, but it feels like there was something more, not compassion necessarily, but something. Either way, he left her mostly unable to interact with the real world. Speaking is difficult, and if Oracle is to be believed, reading and writing will be damn near impossible. Still, she's trying, and early in Gabrych's work, she was expanding her life. Meeting boys, talking to the coffee shop lady. There was progress.

Stacy X - I've said it all before (repeatedly), but I believe given time she would have felt comfortable enough to drop the tough facade she puts up, and once that's accomplished, she could start to develop a bit. Become someone who doesn't define the majority of her life by sex.

Faith - Faith had a harder life than any of the "Scoobies" could guess. Buffy thought that having to set up everything for Parent-Teacher Night was difficult. Try having a mom who beats you, "B". She made mistakes, got saddled with a crap Watcher like Wesley, made more mistakes. Then she owned up to them, accepted the punishment, and went to prison. When she was needed, she escaped, and all she did after that was try to make amends. Try to be the Good Slayer, and show that she could be counted. And still, most everyone regarded her with mistrust and suspicion, while Willow, who did just as much evil crap, had been welcomed back with open arms. I'm just gonna move on, before I get pissed.

I look over this list, and it's entirely women, after my first list was entirely guys. I don't know whether that's a reflection of me and my being a guy, or whether it represents the stories that writers more often assign to specific genders. I did, however, come up with one guy for this list.

Spike - Probably the hardest road to redemption of all. Even with a soul, the demon is still there, reminding him that humans are supposed to be food. That eating and killing them is what vampires do, not saving them. Even when he gave his big speech about how much he likes this world, one of the reasons was the abundance of people, or "Happy Meals with legs". Still, he's fighting against that instinct. Even when he had the chip that wouldn't let him kill, that didn't mean he had to do good. When Buffy was dead, he didn't have to patrol with the Scoobies. There were other places he could go for a brawl, and probably have more fun without the humans getting in the way.

The thing is, soul or not, he'll never be accepted. The humans will never trust him because his demonic nature is always there, it's just of matter of whether he goes along with it or not. And he's had setbacks. He fell in love with a girl who wound up crushing him like a bug, verbally, emotionally, sexually, and physically abusing him, frequently. And then he snapped, and hurt her back. But he went out, and got the one thing he thought would make him a better person. And still, they didn't trust him. How can I not root for the quintessential "get knocked down, but get up again" character? Frankly, I always thought he and Faith would have gotten along well together, if Buffy weren't in the picture. But that's another subject.

Well, let's see if Blogger holds on to this one. Looking at it, I think these characters are the next step of suffering from the first group. I mean, for all the crap that comes Peter Parker's way, he still has a pretty good life. That's part of why he can remain upbeat and keep doing the hero thing. At least, when he's being written well. These characters have had crappy incident, after crappy incident, after lousy childhood, piled on them. They have to climb out from under the proverbial mountain of stuff, just to start on their path.

Character Archetypes #1: Peter Parker

If you're like me, there are probably certain types of characters you gravitate towards. For whatever reason, their stories interest you, moreso than other characters'. I thought I'd do a few posts about the different types that appeal to me. In this case, I'm probably going to be combining American comics with anime/manga, as I've seen some carryover.

So it only seemed natural to start with my favorite character of all: Spider-Man. What you see here is the cover to the first Spider-Man book I ever read. I'll be honest, my original reason for liking Spider-Man was twofold. One, like Scipio alluded to in his post on Sunday, Spider-Man has an incredible variety of powers. He's not the fastest, strongest, smartest, but the combination of all his powers and skills means he has a chance against just about anybody. Second, that black costume just looked so damn cool. I thought it would be totally awesome, to be hiding in the shadows, up on the ceiling, then just drop down, scare somebody. Plus, Spidey was a bit of a smart aleck, which I readily identify with, being one myself.

This was actually a really good place to jump on because the next part of the story, the Beyonder pretty much lays it all out for you with regards to Peter Parker, the person. He worries, he ties himself up in knots over stuff that wasn't his fault, things he couldn't control, but at the end of the day, he thinks things are going to be alright, and if he can, he's going to help make things that way. That just seemed very unusual to me, as the only comics I'd read before that were my dad's Supermans and Batmans from the '60s. And I had never seen those people struggle with money, or have to repaint their home because some punks burned it up. And they almost never seemed to doubt themselves. On the rare occasions they did, it was something an enemy was doing to them, and it was over by the end of the issue, when they defeated the villain. So Peter, who often had real-life problems, seemed that much more approachable to a five-year old.

Yeah, he stopped the Beyonder from destroying everything, or the Puma from killing an innocent person, but he didn't get any pictures, which means his rent will be late, which means he's in trouble. Since then, I always seem to gravitate towards characters with those sorts of problems (it helps if they look cool or have cool powers).

Speedball was a goofy kid, one with seemingly academic talent, but no real desire to use it. Stuck in the middle of a couple of parents who seemed to constantly fight. Kyle Rayner was just a guy that got handed this awesome weapon, and was told to help save the universe. Plus the whole thing with his love life (well-documented elsewhere). Hey no pressure. Darkhawk (who looked Very cool) was stuck in a single parent household, with a father who had vanished under odd circumstances. Like Peter, he was trying to help the family, unlike Peter, he had the additional strain of younger siblings to watch out for. Tim Drake, who wasn't wearing the shorts, who had a cool staff, was dating, was trying to keep an eye on an injured father, and at the time his ongoing started, was working with an armored up lunatic that called himself Batman (I think it's kind of funny that Batman seems to have moved a lot closer to what Jean Paul was doing, which was part of why Bruce took the title back). The Ray (who looked VERY damn cool), who had been trapped inside his whole life, then finds out he has powers, then his dad pops up as a 'ghost', and tells him he has to be a hero. And now Ray has to adjust to trying to have a real life outdoors, with jobs and bills, and the fact he hasn't ever really known anything about his life.

Ultimately, I guess the common denominator is they're all close to my age (or closer than the Tony Starks and Bruce Waynes), and they all had problems that I could easily envision both interfering with attempts to be a hero, and that wouldn't be easily resolved because of the superhero aspect.

I don't suppose that's anything all that surprising or unique, seeing as that was the whole idea that Kirby, Lee, Ditko, etc., were going for with Spider-Man, make him accessible to young readers, but I did want to start with an easy one.