Hegel goes to Hollywood

I've been reading Derrida's Glas (don't ask me why), and it gave me a striking idea about Hegel's Phenomenology of the Spirit. (Now there's a topic with universal appeal... the comments section is going to explode with people chiming in on this one. The horror! The madness! The Hegelians!!!)

ahem.

[Making another parenthetical remark, Hegel actually went through three different titles for the book we call Phenomenology of the Spirit/Phenomenology of the Mind. The original title of his book was Science of the Experience of Consciousness.

This is by far and away the best title for this book, I think. However, he changed the name to Science of the Phenomenology of the Spirit. Tom Rockmore, whose book Cognition:An introduction to Hegel's Phenomenology of the Spirit is my source for all this, points out that he probably made the switch in names when he was writing the preface.

This is extraordinarily interesting, I think. The initial title is more of a first-person-experiential title, since the experience of consciousness is something We each experience as individuals. The final title is more of a third-person-observer title, reporting on the things that Spirit/Mind experiences. There is a shift from interiority to exteriority that may coincide with Hegel shift from writing the "actual" work to writing the preface "outside" the work.

Rockmore's book is way cool and is on my Amazon Wish List (all rich patrons please search for Neil LaChapelle to find my list!).]

AAANNNYhow...

I got to thinking that one could read the Phenomenology of the Spirit as a theory of story. It would describe a story arc that would begin in a self-unaware state, a patientive state rather than an agentive one, but one where some catalyst (e.g. the obligation imposed by a gift) forces the protagonist to evolve towards greater and greater self-awareness through a series of conflicts. The resolution of each conflict sets the new limits which will have to be overcome in turn. It would be a Teutonic alternative to Joseph Campbell's "hero's journey", one skewed more towards interior struggles of recognition.

As long as one was not too heavy-handed with this, using the Phenomenology as a guideline rather than a crutch, it might help one create character-driven dramas of self-actualization or self-mastery. Those are the pictures that earn prestige, although they don't always earn a ton of money. Still, you never know...

I'm just waiting for a book to come out called The Phenomenology of Spirit for Screenwriters. It'll go on my Amazon Wish List too. My Amazon Wish List. Did I mention that I have an Amazon Wish List? (The online store... not a list of robust females...) Search the lists for Neil LaChapelle to find it. (Rich patrons need a lot of encouragement!!)