The Uses Of Enchantment - Bruno Bettelheim

Bart Oliver · 03 March, 2006, 05:02:26 AM

Ploughing through it at the mo'

It's required reading on a narrative illustration brief I'm teaching this month..

Anyone else read it?

Buttonman · 03 March, 2006, 05:06:44 AM

No, sounds like what Dredd would term 'Weirdo freak out stuff'.

Hope you enjoy it though!

Bart Oliver · 03 March, 2006, 05:14:31 AM

Apparently everyone from Irving Kershner (director of The Empire Strikes Back) to JK Rowling has read it at some point or other..

Quirkafleeg · 03 March, 2006, 07:11:19 AM

Comes over as a right nut job (even taken the time spent in a concentration camp into consideration)

"Critics also claim that he often spanked his patients despite the fact that rejected spanking as "brutal". Treatments based on his autism theories failed to help children, and his reported rates of cure (around 85%) were found to be fraudulent."

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Bettelheim" target="_blank">wiki

Max Kon · 03 March, 2006, 07:36:06 AM

my mother read that recently

Matt Timson · 03 March, 2006, 02:20:55 PM

Ahhh... but does she spank you, Max?

Bart Oliver · 04 March, 2006, 10:30:31 PM

Why is your mother interested in Freudian analysis of the fairy tale genre?

Queen Firey-Bou · 04 March, 2006, 11:12:28 PM

geez a synopsis bart ... its one of those books that comes up a lot.

is it in the psychology / folklore section ? or am i way off as usual ?

i was digging up lots of folklore for a recent project, leads me to want to track down some book by some feminist type who goes right into the jungian symbology of common tales, you know all red rose / white rose stuff.

i found some right wierd siberian / mongolian tales with nasty shamans & magical birch bark paintings, awesome.

Bart Oliver · 04 March, 2006, 11:54:30 PM

Bou, wouldn't know where to seek it out in a Waterstones but I'm sure a quick trawl on Amazon UK would produce a couple of copies.

As for a sysnopsis check the link below, Mr. James-I-teach-screenwriters pretty much sums up the significance of the book ;)

Link: http://www.jamespmercurio.com/review_enchant.html" target="_blank">*Ahem* "..recovery and consolation.."

GordonR · 05 March, 2006, 12:18:26 AM

"Let those that cannot do, charge ?275.00 for a one-day screenwriting seminar. (Fee includes copy of latest book. Inspirational lecture DVD charged seperately.)"

Wils · 05 March, 2006, 12:22:34 AM

Along the lines of what you're doing, and if you've not done so already, 'Art and Illusion' by Gombrich and 'Ways of Seeing' by John Berger are good for a read.

Bart Oliver · 05 March, 2006, 01:31:15 AM

Arhh yes, the twin towers of Gombrich and Berger ;)

I'v e also got 'No Go the Bogeyman' by Marina Warner to read after Bruno..

Never expected to be this well read teaching a bit of practial HE on the side..

Queen Firey-Bou · 05 March, 2006, 05:28:43 AM

john d barrow, the artful universe. covers lots of science/ psychology/ art/ the senses/ perceptions & sociology stuff. heavy going.

my olde guru from student days wrote a nice fat book "Keltic art & Faerie Tales, by Kaledon Naddair " sort of unpicked some basic celtic myths & archetypes. some great stuff on archetypes etc & some spurrious cack ogham bollocks channelled by the wildmen, certainly worth grabbing from second hand bookshop nutter section.

Bart Oliver · 05 March, 2006, 07:03:11 AM

++ ?275.00 for a one-day screenwriting seminar. ++

After a quick scout round the site I read that JM charges a $900 fee for a read through with some pointers as to where a script is failing to deliver..

WTF?

GordonR · 05 March, 2006, 03:13:57 PM

The thing about all these scriptwriting gurus is, if they've mastered the secrets of the three-act structure so completely, then how come I'm not seeing their names on Oscar statuettes or the credits for hugely successful blockbusters?