The Kilted Writer

Stargate SG-1 ran for 10 seasons and over 200 episodes, which gave the writers a lot of different mind, body, and spirit opportunities. In addition to the main characters and the " uber races " of aliens, SG-1 has one other another prominent mind, body, and spirit set. In the war with their primary enemy, the Goa'uld, the humans of earth ally themselves with the Jaffa and the Tok'ra. The Body Race: Jaffa The Jaffa are the enslaved warriors of the Goa'uld, who pretend to be gods in order to exert their power. They are the measure of any particular Goa'uld's military strength. In the pilot episode, Teal'c, a Jaffa serving as the "First Prime" (top ranking Jaffa) of the Goa'uld Apophis, rebels against his false god and starts a movement within the Jaffa to create a free nation. These free Jaffa fight against the Goa'uld to help their brothers and sisters gain the same freedom they enjoy. The Jaffa are imbued with lon...

A while back, I introduced the concept of mind, body, and spirit societies . I illustrated the concept in my discussion of the book, Divergent , by Veronica Roth, and in the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. The TV series, Stargate SG-1 , contains three separate "uber-races" of aliens the team from Earth encounter at various times throughout the series. These three races make up a complete mind, body, and spirit set. The Mind Race: The Nox The Nox appear to be a very primitive race when the team first meets them. They even seem to have difficulty with basic communication. Within the span of a brief conversation, however, the Nox pick up the language and patterns of communication the team is using and are able to communicate quite easily. The Nox use the power of the mind for everything from healing their sick to escaping detection by unwanted intruders. They can even resurrect someone who has died under the right  conditions. To the Nox, humans are a...

Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is the protagonist in Jim Butcher's 'Dresden Files' series. Mind, body, and spirit abound in this series. First, there are three societies - The Never Never (faerie world), The Down Below (demon world), and The Mundane (human world). I have not read enough of the series to place these concretely, but my initial impression is they are the spirit, mind, and body societies, respectively. Harry Dresden is a wizard, and his magic is deeply rooted in mind, body, and spirit concepts. His potions for example contain eight parts. The first is a liquid that acts to bind all the other components together. Five ingredients represent the five senses (the body). One ingredient represents the mind, and the final ingredient represents the spirit. Spells also have a mind, body and spirit component. And, as usual, there are three primary characters. I have only read the first two books in the series, and as I've shown before, things c...

Spoiler Alert: I will be analyzing Veronica Roth’s Divergent in this post, and I may include spoiler information. If you have not read the book, please read it first – it’s worth the time. Tris, the protagonist in Divergent , grew up in Abnegation , chose Dauntless as her new faction, but she also tested high in Erudite, one of the two 'mind' factions in her society. The Mind Society (I): The Erudite Faction Erudite emphasizes logic and knowledge. Their founders believed ignorance caused their former society's downfall. They are the teachers and researchers in the grand society. They develop all the testing used to help people decide which factions to join. Unfortunately, their reliance on logic leads to a predictable conclusion. (SPOILER) As in movies like ' I, Robot ,' the only 'logical' means to save mankind is to subjugate them under the oppressive rule of the mind society. They develop a new method of mind control to use Dauntless as ...

Spoiler Alert: I will be analyzing Veronica Roth’s Divergent in this post, and I may include spoiler information. If you have not read the book, please read it first – it’s worth the time. Tris, the protagonist in the story, chooses Dauntless , one of the body factions, but she is born into Abnegation, a spirit faction. One of the themes is Tris's discovery that being dauntless and being selfless are nearly one in the same, and that Dauntless was the correct choice for her because of her Abnegation origin.  The Spirit Society (I): The Abnegation Faction The founders of Abnegation believed selfishness and self-gratification led to the downfall of their society, so they dedicated their lives to self-denial. Abnegation was considered incorruptible at its founding, so its members were chosen as the leaders for the entire society. No one in Abnegation would ever be susceptible to bribery or influence. They place themselves below all others - even the Factionless. S...

Spoiler Alert: I will be analyzing Veronica Roth’s ‘Divergent’ in this post, and I may include spoiler information. If you have not read the book, please read it first – it’s worth the time. Divergent is the first book in a YA trilogy by Veronica Roth that is a masterful work of mind, body, and spirit layering. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic Chicago, where the society is divided into six population groups. Any time there are a multiple of three of anything, I get curious. People in this society choose which of five factions the wish to join when they turn sixteen years old, based on their personalities. If they ‘flunk out’ of their chosen faction, they end up in the sixth population group – the ‘Factionless.’ The main character in the book is special because her personality is not isolated to one faction or another. She is called ‘divergent’ because she tests high in three personality traits related to three different factions: the Dauntless (body), the Erud...

(Note: This post was originally written in January 2013) I am back from the holidays and will try to get back onto my regular Tuesday/Friday posting schedule. I have a three-part post I will be doing covering Veronica Roth's Divergent , but before I get into it, I want to introduce the idea of mind, body, and spirit societies. I will use J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth as my example, here. The Hobbit is a well-known story, so I have no qualms including 'spoiler' information here. In a mind-body-spirit society, one race or class of individuals is defined by its overall characteristic traits. One race or class is known to all as the keepers of knowledge, for example. They bring reason to the corporate discussion and their input is often the source of conflict in a story. In SF or Fantasy, they are usually long-lived and maybe even immortal. In Middle Earth, the mind race is the race of elves, and in The Hobbit , it is the elves who advise against retaking the...