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Why is the Journey that denotes active individualism and physical maturity always coded male? Why is the one that connotes life’s wisdom cooperatively rooted within relational community invariably gendered as female? Why can’t we bring ourselves to say what they really are: steps in the progress of an ultimately human life? If the first steps…

I have a few other issues with this so-called Hero’s Journey, at least as laid out by Campbell. First of all, it stipulates a very rigidly segmented, gender-based world. Within the actual stories, there exists only the central character in the story, the useful but ultimately disposable sidekicks, and the monsters. Sadly, most people narrowly…

Conclusion In the process of writing this incredibly rambling Firestarter I was asked: why does this matter? Why have I spent all this time considering what a Heroine’s Journey might consist of? My answer lies in the beginning of this Firestarter. Remember the two books I found? One for boys that was exciting and fun…

I found at least one of these female villains curiously unsatisfying for a slightly different reason, oddly enough. She was depicted as a goddess of both life and death, and while it wasn’t an accurate reproduction of the actual Norse goddess, I found myself wondering: is the hero really surprised the goddess was working to…

I guess what I enjoyed most about the humor that worked for me was when it wasn’t strained, nor about humiliating and belittling others. Humor that made me sincerely laugh, that arose naturally from the situation, worked fantastically well. Mercy’s sly teasing, and Cassie’s unintentionally hilarious dialogue (especially while under fire), both were genuinely funny….

Mercy has two other elements in her story which I’m looking forward to seeing explored. First, she has at least one other person who is quite powerful, and who loves her romantically — but who knows she does not return his feelings. So far he seems fine with this, but it will be quite interesting…