I saw Guardians last night. I have to say that I enjoyed myself and, more than that, there were a few scenes I thought were very beautiful. It's rare that this happens with computerized special effects for me.
The epic quality of the film also lends itself very well to a psychoanalytic study of ontology and psychic bisexuality.
The main character Peter Quill or Star Lord is easily identifiable as an object altruist. He's not the straightforward tough or intelligent subject egoist who competes with the villain. He's definitely talented but his character emphasizes causing delight and he is charmingly roguish. He isn't seeking to be admired or get into positions of power and neither is his life based upon exercising his will. He impulsively makes decisions and part of the films humor is that he is a a philanderer, not going after real conquests but, instead, has slept with some strange space aliens.
He's also definitely phallic-deutero or phallic echoisitic. This is seen in his relationship to Yondu who is his father-substitute. Yondu is a criminal and in Peter's bellerophon complex he tries to be a better criminal than Yondu and betrays him by cutting him out of the heist. However, Yondu is shown to be fond of Peter and isn't a distant fully idealized parental imago. Just as Peter's mother made him mix tapes and had a close relationship to him, this is transcribed over to the father-substitute who similarly sees him as special. This bellerophon complex is also seen in the movie Candyman where the main character is seeking to find a urban legend that will make her more famous than her husband who is a professor who also studies them.
As with Star Wars, all the different levels of Being have some shared elements. So, Yondu has a magical knife that can fly on its own, just as Darth Vader has use of 'the force'. The key element at the phallic stage is the father, as procreator, who one's name is attached to and who one owes one's life to. This was actually experienced with the phallic mother, but, as mentioned, is transcribed over to the father.
There doesn't seem to be an anal nuclear complex. At least in terms of seeking to rule or be the most powerful in relation to social hierarchy. Instead the Galaxy is ruled by a collective. No one is in competition to rule the galaxy but instead it is threatened by annihilation. This means that the anal trito or urethral stage has been reached. John C Reily's character appears as the anal trito imago. He's seen as a peer, again, instead of a ruler above one, and he's able to help bring the military to help stop Ronan from destroying the planet.
Rocket is a good example of a fixation at the urethral father complex. He is very testy and after being referred to as small, a pet, a rodent, etc. by his peers he gets so angry he wants to kill them. Because it is from peers I think it refers to the father complex, and like the myth of prometheus, Rocket is also a skilled inventor.
Drax the destroyer is defined by having a vendetta against Ronan, the central villain, for killing his family. This is definitely phallic level stuff and Drax is definitely a subject egoist who is defined mainly by his potency, skill, and will. However, in his fight with Ronan, the latter seems so much more powerful and impervious to his strength that it appears like an anal castration complex of the proto form. Drax is thrown to the ground many times and it reminded me of Circe turning Odysseus' men to pigs or animals forced to be on the ground, and Hephaestus being thrown from Olympus. As I mentioned in that post, it's a normal trope to have the strong villain toss the heros around like rag dolls initially, or have supernatural powers that blast them or send a shockwave that knocks them down.
Ronan, the central villain, wants to destroy a planet which, as an act, points to the auto-erotic castration complex, just as the death star does in Star Wars. Both are set in space and the castration complex here also relates to a rivalry with the world as it is or was. Space and rivaling our world for whole new worlds that the artist creates are the important content here. However, Ronan outside of this act, which is really the work of the 'infinity stone' that he got his hands on, is established in a volar ontology. He has minions but, again, his interest isn't to rule. He is a power outside of social hierarchy that is a bad aspect of the father. Additionally, he is immortal and outside of time along with other supernatural powers.
In the symptom reading both Ronan and Thanos are doubles of the relationship between Peter and Yondu. Ronan double crosses Thanos just as Peter does so to Yondu. This helps establish an important volar aspect to Peter's character. One of the touching parts of the movie is that everyone is a loner and doesn't have friends (save for Rocket and Groot) and this loner aspect is established in the Volar deutero when the first connection with the object as a whole object is diminished (a low ego ideal) and need for connection with others (whether competitive or restorative) is diminished or all the following stages. Also the 'primary narcissism' of the volar castration complex means a grandiosity that isn't attached to social hierarchy. While the anal and phallic castration complexes mean that the person strives to become or be regarded as superior to father-substitutes in positions of prestige, at the volar stage the person doesn't strive in relation to social hierarchy. Although, there is a sense of wanting to make an impression on every other that one encounters.
There also seems to be a volar trito anxiety situation referenced by Yondu when he says that he stopped his crew from eating Peter. Again, because its being eaten by peers and not someone of more power it references the trito stage and I mentioned it in a post on the Odyssey. I'd have to go back and look at the plot to establish what that would correspond to with certainty, but for the moment I think that the characters of Groot and Rocket corresponds to the volar trito level very well (at the castration complex level, Peter's complete lack of fear and rashness that also references the rivalrly with time, and the many magical powers that appear in the movie). The general appearance of animals, trees, and alien creatures who interact like humans seems to be part of the volar trito. In the post on the Odyssey I mentioned that "shape-shifting" is referenced and I believe it points to a strong mimetic sense with both things and other people. Great actors can sometimes change their whole sensibility in a movie and often animals, trees, and things in general can convey a sensibility which no doubt is based upon us projecting our human sensibilities on to them. At the same time, the volar trito for the egoist relates to transitional objects. The ring in The Lord of the Rings, the piano in The Piano, and the mix-tape and the infinity stone in this movie.
I don't have time to finish this off but, I'll return to this and mention more of the psychic bisexuality of the other main characters.
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