Just curious

[-thedarkone-.livejournal.com]

Why do people refer to the supposed archetypes in morality as the 'Dark' and the 'Light'? Did this come about as the result of someone's canon and suddenly we all adopted this?

I'm not trying to pick a fight, but it is somewhat annoying when people try to impress this upon such things as the Force, calling the respective sides/aspects as the 'Dark' and the 'Light'. This is incorrect. There is the 'Dark Side of the Force' and the 'Light Side of the Force', but it isn't like there is no anthropomorphisation of the Force and I'm sure this sort of thing applies to many other characters and their canons as well. The 'Dark Side of the Force' and 'Light Side of the Force' aren't entirely accepted concepts within Star Wars canon itself to begin with. Many people have different views and the Jedi Masters themselves spend nearly all their time contemplating these things and are yet to come to an established and entirely accepted model of the Force.

Feel free to chip in your opinions, yo. Don't let me bitch for the whole time.

Comments

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

My Joseph Campbell seems to have gone AWOL at the moment, but I think it's a highly standard division -- good and evil, dark and light, that harkens back to the days when our ancestors feared the night and the preditors it hid, the fact that fire was clearly good, as it provided light to drive away the monsters and such. It's a concept that severely predates cannons.

[stilljustandrew]

Mr. Joseph Campbell is always in the house.

*nods firmly*

And remember: a collective unconscious means we're all Jung at heart.

[forbiddensailor.livejournal.com]

a collective unconscious means we're all Jung at heart.


ha! ^__^

[notsoyoung.livejournal.com]

I think it's pretty much to do with yin and yang. Darkness and light. bad and good.

Nothing to do with canon at all, as Snow-mun says.

Just... good is light and evil is dark. You know, one balancing the other.

[la-calice.livejournal.com]

Well, it shows up in many canons: Star Wars, as you mentioned, and also The Dark is Rising (... okay, not exactly, but.), and The Wheel of Time, for starters. So I don't find it surprising that many characters use Dark and Light to stand for Evil and Good when it's there in their canons to start with, from their point of view even if not absolutely true.

Mind, I'm just talking about Milliways here. For real-world usage, I'm not so sure, but Snow-mun seems to explain it pretty well...

[young_tmriddle]

I started playing Tom in early July and began referring to Tom's magic as Dark, and referred to Tom having Darkness within, since in HP canon you have Dark wizards, Dark arts, etc. Naturally the opposite of Dark is Light. I'm not saying I started the whole thing, as many characters at the time and since have used the terms Dark and Light - it's much easier than typing out "Dark Side of the Force" every time.

*shrugs*

It's just an archetypal generalization.

[kimpire.livejournal.com]

I'll never forget when Will Stanton said something about the Dark, and Crichton's exasperated response was something , "I don't know what the hell the 'Dark' is, except when a lousy fantasy author with no imagination can't come up with a decent way to describe 'Pure Evil'. Want to start talking in English?"

[ezekiel-36-27.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's a standard rule, just often used. What about a character like Arithon? A character who deals in the Shadows but considers himself Good and finds the Light his enemy?

[prince-arithon.livejournal.com]

*holds up a hand*

His magic is based around shadows. He doesn't consider light his enemy, its just that his brother has magic based around light and they are cursed to fight each other.

He thinks any sort of division of good/evil=light/dark is "warped, unbalanced, and insane".

[ezekiel-36-27.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the confusion. ::beats self with stick::

[prince-arithon.livejournal.com]

Nah, nah. It confuses pretty much everyone else he talks to, too. Its a plot! *grins like an idiot*

[-thedarkone-.livejournal.com]

Thank you all for your opinions in this discussion. Since I've already delivered a piping hot mouthful of my opinion, I won't apply further cruelty upon you by reiterating my opinion of the subject.

Instead, I shall wish you a Merry Christmas (don't expect me until around the 27th) and peace, goodwill and happiness for you all. Peace out, rock on and all that. Oh, and let's hope you get that Barbie that's been catching your eye all year- you know, the one with the poliester hat. That one. Let's hope Santa gives it to you for Christmas.

Bye!

[sign-seeker.livejournal.com]

Speaking as someone whose character does this constantly... *grin*

Will thinks of the world in those terms because that is, quite explicitly, his canon. Heck, the series is called The Dark Is Rising, and for a reason. A Will Stanton who did not divide the world that way, or who used terms other than "Dark" and "Light," would not be the Will Stanton of The Dark Is Rising. I can't really avoid it.

In terms of the larger, meta question... I'd say Snow-mun addressed it pretty well. It seems to be a pretty solid archetype -- maybe not a universal one, I dunno, but a pretty well-established one. We all know what's meant, after all, by "the powers of darkness" or "goodness and light," even without a canon context. (Well. Unless we're Arithon.) The theory I've generally heard for this is the one she mentioned, although of course no one can be absolutely certain about something that far back in the collective unconsciousness. That is, the night is generally a time of fear -- visibility is limited, it's colder, many predators are out, it's very easy to imagine demons lurking in the shadows. And the daytime ends most of that: the sun comes up, and there is warmth and clear sight and the terrifying shadows become just that, shadows.