The Hero’s Journeys in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”

Now that the enthusiasm has cooled down, the questions remains: is Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Episode VII) cool or not? The film has been released on December 2015 and has achieved an impressive number of records (stuff like being the highest grossing movie of 2015). It is now the third highest grossing film of all times, after Avatar […]

Chatuchak Market – Bangkok

When you travel through Asia you realise one thing: Asia is a big place. And full of people. What happens when a place is crowded, even for Asian standards? You have Bangkok (with its 16 million people) and its weekend-only Chatuchak Market. Also called JJ Market (a translitteration from Chatu-Chak), it is the biggest marketplace in […]

The Resolution (The End?)

As the end of the year approaches, so does the conclusion of my series on the Hero’s Journey. This post is dedicated to the very reason why all journeys start: to end. We are now at the real conclusion of our story. Anything that could have happened, has happened. Forge new friendships and test them, check. Encounter […]

“The Force Awakens”: Star Wars is back and delivers emotions, characters and… A new hope

Yeah! I am just out from the theatre (in Italy the movie has been released on December 16th, even before the US date, for some obscure – but welcome! – distribution reasons), and here I am trying to put down a few comments. This doesn’t want to be a full review: I am not evaluating the […]

11 reasons why I love “Star Wars”

If you live in this galaxy, by now you will have probably heard about Star Wars. And if you read this blog more or less regularly, the chances are significantly higher. So let’s not waste time by introducing the saga here (ok – if you really need a reminder, you can always invest 5 minutes by […]

Death and Rebirth

I know, the title of this post may sound a little exaggerated, maybe even scary. But it describes effectively the stage that comes next in the structure of the Hero’s Journey. Let’s try to remember all that happened so far: a Challenge has been set (and initially, naturally, Rejected); a Journey started; Teaching happened all […]

Gamification

Think about your favourite game, of any kind. What is it? When was the last time you played it? Were you alone, or with other people? Did you win? Did you even care, to win? These are common questions related to the topic of “games”. Is it easy for you to answer to them? And why? […]

The Reward

It is done! We faced our deepest fear, entered the Cave, killed the dragon. We didn’t even think it was possible but – here we are. We almost cannot believe it ourselves, but we did it! While we catch our breath and review the experience, we take a moment to consider all the steps that […]

The Dark Cave

This is it. It’s the darkest hour. The scariest of our fears. It’s when the danger becomes real. In the narrative of “The Hero’s Journey“, there is a moment when all the testing and training is over, and things become serious, very serious. This stage was also called by Joseph Campbell “The Ordeal“, an old English […]

Friends, Foes and All Those in Between

Often, the most exciting part of a story is when the “company of heroes” is formed. Many of such names are so iconic that have become symbols in their own right, so that just mentioning one of those legendary groups carries meaning beyond the simple sound of the words: “The Fellowship of the Ring“, “The Argonauts“, […]