The Kilted Writer

In a way, Joan of Arcadia is similar to The Mentalist when it comes to mind, body, and spirit.  In The Mentalist , you have a mind character, a spirit character, and then a team that collectively makes up the body character. When you examine the team members individually, though, you see another layer of mind, body, and spirit. In Joan of Arcadia , Will Girardi (Joe Mantegna) is a mind character, Helen Girardi (Mary Steenburgen) is a spirit character, and their three kids collectively make up a body character. When the three kids are examined individually, you can see another layer of mind, body and spirit. The Spirit Character: Joan Girardi (Amber Tamblyn) Joan sees and interacts with God. She will do whatever God asks her to do, but often reluctantly. She often asks "why," but continues forward despite never getting an answer to her questions. God explains that she can see him because she is open to more possibilities than most people. This is undersco...

I recently got into a discussion with a fellow writer about stories with multiple layers, subplots, etc. One of the movies we discussed was Independence Day . It had been a while since I'd seen the movie, so I could only make general observations. I couldn't even remember the characters' names - just the actors'. After the discussion, I decided to watch the movie again and do a mind/body/spirit analysis. One of the things I realized in re-watching the movie was how wrong I had been about the main plot - specifically, the "main character." Cinematically, the main character is Capt. Steve Hiller, played by Will Smith. He has all the great lines, is involved in all the action, and has a dominating presence on the screen. The main character of the story, however, is not Capt Steve Hiller. The story is really about David Levinson, played by Jeff Goldblum. David Levinson is a part of every major plot point and is the character who undergoes the great...

A friend recently posted on Facebook that she planned to add some Faulkner to her reading list for the coming year. That inspired me to pull down my copy of "The Unvanquished." As I read, I was reminded of the universality of the "brains, brawn, and bravado" concepts. In these posts, I do not try to explain the plot of the story or give a review of the book or the film. I am only trying to pass on enough information from the story to illustrate the mind, body, and spirit characters and concepts. I try to make the post relatively brief and therefore encourage you to read the book for yourself to discover all I haven't included.  The Body Character: Ringo Ringo is a young slave boy who is more of an adopted son than a slave. After the fall of Vicksburg, the Sartoris family must leave their land, taking their valuables and their slaves with them. They stop in town and receive a gift of rose clippings, which Ringo must tend to along the journey....

In C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe , we see mind, body and spirit clearly in the characters of Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie. Peter Pevensie is a 4th character who is transformed through his interactions with his siblings. This transformation model is common , and especially so in fantasy fiction. At the beginning of the story, Peter just wants to be a leader within his family and doesn't want to have any part of Narnia's struggles. By the end of the story, he is crowned High King of Narnia, Peter, the Magnificent. The Body Character: Edmund Pevensie Edmund cares only about himself. This is illustrated in the story through his obsession with Turkish Delight. He accepts the treat from the White Witch, the personification of evil in the story. He even begins to ignore her as he "...thought only of trying to shovel down as much Turkish Delight as he could, and the more he ate, the more he wanted to eat." The White Witch prom...

In case you haven't picked up on it, I like romantic comedies with Drew Barrymore ( Music & Lyrics , 50 First Dates , The Wedding Singer , Fever Pitch , etc.). For this post, though, I will not be focusing on her character. Instead, I will be focused on the male lead, Ben, played by Jimmy Fallon. Usually, I look at all three character types, but Ben is such a strong spirit character, I thought I would devote the entire post to him. Drew Barrymore plays Lindsey, a mind character with three friends. Two of her friends are spirit characters and one is a body character, creating the 'Lindsey' set of mind, body, and spirit. Ben is a spirit character with three friends. One of his friends does not interact enough to really nail down his character type, another is a mind character, and the third is a body character, making up the 'Ben' set of mind, body, and spirit. If you haven't seen the movie, beware of spoilers. As is my usual advice, see the mov...

In the last post , I took a look at Lucy Whitmore, her father, Marlin, and brother, Doug. They make up one mind-body-spirit triad in the movie 50 First Dates . Today, I will look at the male lead, Henry Roth (Adam Sandler) and the characters who surround him. It's been a while since I explained this, so I will review it here - I do not intend for these posts to be a review of the film or book about which I am writing. I will not, generally, go deep into the plot of the story, except where it helps in the character analysis. I will assume the reader has some familiarity with the book or film being analyzed. If you feel like you need a little more info, then please leave a comment. I'll be glad to fill in any gaps I might leave in my effort to keep these posts relatively short. The Spirit Character: Henry (Adam Sandler) Henry is a veterinarian at a local aquarium, but he has a dream to sail to Alaska where he plans to study the underwater habits of walruses. H...

50 First Dates is a romantic comedy starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. In a previous post , I talked about two types of mind, body, and spirit use when it comes to romantic comedies. This one is the type with two sets of mind, body, and spirit characters - one on the side of the male lead and the other on the side of the female lead characters. For this portion of the analysis, I will focus on the female lead's side of the mirror. The Spirit Character: Lucy (Drew Barrymore) Lucy is an artist, a fact that should already have you thinking 'spirit character.' She comes into the same cafe every day and has waffles for breakfast. Instead of eating the waffles right away, though, she makes little cabins or tepees with them. When she meets Henry (Adam Sandler), who is a veterinarian at a local aquarium, one of the first things she notices is that is hands smell like fish. Normally this would be off-putting (Henry even says, 'Fish don't even like...