Capstone Weekly Reflection 5-15/10/2018

There was a lot going on this week so I will do my best to be as cohesive as possible.

I started this week thinking through bell hooks’ first chapter in ‘The Will to Change,’ in which she discusses the role of violence and aggression for the socialization of boys into men. Hooks describes how boys under the system of patriarchy are systematically taught to reject all ability to empathize, connect or express emotion, save for one: anger. Anger for hooks is instrumental in thinking about what men are taught to become under patriarchy and how it becomes the primary means through which they are able to determine their worth and value as males. Violence then becomes a natural extension of this anger, an inevitable consequence of male aggression and a central way to understand and view patriarchal masculinity.

My thinking began shifting from this question of violence to the role it plays in the mythos of the superhero. Within most pop cultural representations of superheroes, be they comic books, video games or films, violence, especially male violence, from superheroes is not only central to the understanding of what it means to be a superhero but as an action, it is to be celebrated and heralded. In keeping with this consideration of violence, I decided to revisit James Mangold’s film ‘Logan,’ which has been lauded as a major shift in the myth of the superhero in popular culture. The film, centered on Marvel’s character ‘Wolverine,’ and adapted from Mark Millar’s ‘Old Man Logan,’ comic arc, presents a future in which the hero’s regenerative abilities are in a state of decline and he is contending with his history of violence, against himself and others, the loss of his family and how to contend with intimate relations when his whole life has been defined by his ability to received and inflict violence upon others for the sake of some moral code.

During my meeting with Professor Tsunoda, we discussed Mangold’s film and began working through my investment with the superhero character and how power is used to define masculinity. Professor raised the question of the kind of story I am interested in telling and how it is intervening into the kind of patriarchal masculinity I believe is represented by the myth of the superhero. Professor Tsunoda helped me to articulate whether this is a story of a hero whose powers thwart their ability to create meaningful connection; if this is a story of a hero whose declining powers reveal an ability to connect intimately with others or if this is a story about a hero whose power is their ability to connect to others. In thinking of these questions, it was useful to consider what kinds of scenes I would like to produce in Professor Majumdar’s course and how I am intervening in the discussion of the superhero and masculinity more intentionally. Professor Tsunoda also raised the question of my investment of the Anansi figure in this project and urged me to consider where I wish to situate this character specifically.

These activities all preceded my screening of the movie ‘Logan’ and informed the discussion which followed. Much of our conversation centered on how violence for the superhero is a marker that validates an inherent goodness of men even as the psychological effects of that violence is not considered. Rage in ‘Logan’ is weaponized against the hero and tears apart their intimate relationships, in a similar way to which rage is used by Mr. Nancy in Neil Gaiman’s ‘American Gods.’ The first scene Mr. Nancy (Anansi) appears, is to a group of Ghanaian men being transported as slave labour to North America. Rather than simply freeing the slaves, Mr. Nancy instead incites the men towards violence and suicide by violence against their captors. Furthermore, Mr. Nancy speaks with the language of English, wears an elaborate silk suit and distances himself from the effects of that violence. In thinking of the ways in which the trickster can intervene against the representations of violence by the superhero, I found myself considering whether the trickster themself as an agent of change and destabilization might also act as an agent of patriarchy in pursuing their own self interest. The discussion of ‘Logan’ and Mr. Nancy sparked a more intentional desire to intervene in these cultural myths and stories, rather than simply responding or reproducing these stories in my scenes and this project. The current scene I am working on for Professor Majumdar’s class is incorporating the use of masks to portray power and I am currently working through how identity is understood in relation to others, particularly when working within a framework and culture that seeks to weaponize rage and anger of men towards violence that results in a self- alienation and hinders any ability to create connection or establish intimacy.

My main plan for the remainder of this semester is to work towards creating a solid final draft for the text of this piece. This will mean thinking specifically in terms of what the dramaturgical structure will be for this project, the specific scenes and characters I would like to develop and the ways in which they are intervening and commenting on portrayals of masculinity and the superhero and thinking consciously of my own investment in to the Anansi folklore and character as well as his role within the project as a narrator or framer for the theatrical event. The first half of the semester has largely been framed from a standpoint of contextual research in order to better understand tricksterism, the Anansi tradition, superheroism and masculinity, and experimenting with these ideas practically in writing. For the remainder of the semester, my goal is to flip this intention and work towards the particulars of this project and allow my creative process to inform the research I am conducting for this project rather than conducting research to then play around with creatively. In thinking of the characters I am developing, my goal is also to begin working out how these characters will be portrayed through physicality and movement, in the hopes of these choices being shared and transferred to the remaining performers I would need to perform this project. I also intend to continue working with my lighting designer to begin to establish a more concrete set of choices for staging comic book concepts and storytelling devices in performance, as well as establish a relationship with a costume designer to understand and begin making choices about the role costumes will play in this performance in terms of portraying power and superheroism to work towards drafting some costume ideas by the end of the semester.