insert name here.
It's you. It's you, your name. The label, the symbol which encompasses every little nuance and eccentricity that makes you, you.
But what just what is a name? A series of symbols; more specifically, a series of symbols put together from an assortment of letters, which collectively, form the Latin alphabet. When put together in just the right combination, a collection of letters take on meanings, become words. Words have meanings, both objective and subjective.
Except the names we, as people, arbitrarily assign to things.
Arguably, we are responsible for the meanings our names carry. For example, Jesus Christ is a name that carries exceptional weight, a name with a vast amount of meaning. Objectively and historically speaking, Jesus Christ was a man proposed to have lived in modern day Israel during the reign of Julius Augustus. But his name carries so much more meaning, a fact which people the world over, whether Christian, Muslim, white or black, can attest to.
Jesus Christ is, in fact, an archetype. As we all are.
When you look at yourself, and the name you have been assigned, you can look at all the physical facts which make up the meaning of your name. The mass you take up in physical space, your age and weight and all sorts of physical factors which make you, you. But there is also the various sorts of ideas and meaning which others take from you.
For example, I'm on a stage with my band (Coast Van Garde), playing guitar, performing for the crowd. Observers see the physical space my body is taking up, hear the sounds and vibrations I'm manipulating with my guitar through an amplifier. Observers sense me. But they also come up with their own sorts of ideas about me. Ideas pertaining to what I as a person actually mean to them.
Do I represent faith, Christianity and goodwill towards men, as Jesus Christ did? Do I represent avarice? Do I represent the western notion of youth and rebelliousness, as most people in our culture do associate with young musicians playing rock music?
I am, for the observers of my band, an archetype.
I also carry my own sort of meaning for myself, but this meaning could be vastly different from the meaning that others have of me. In fact, it could be directly at odds with it.
Think of Joaquin Phoenix, and the drastic change he underwent from poster-boy movie star to disheveled recluse. Think of the backlash he experienced, because he rebelled against the meaning the status quo had of him. He's a true rockstar in that sense, a true rebel.
Wow. Archetypes.
