I think the modern practical perception of crows has shifted the most from the classic archetype. It’s now as much clever, tool-using urban bird as it is an omen of death or a witch familiar.
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while that makers some sense, & I get the allusions that come up for you, it feels like you'd be working against the grain more than you need to? Note e.g. "The Crow" movie with the dark/ominous Brandon Lee death on set that several folks mentioned on your tread
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I take cultural archetypes much less seriously than you , these prompts were ,ore about seeking inspiration than constraints, and I have other sources. For example, in Indian comics I grew up with, the crow was a clever hacker character in a popular comic
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Crows were a favorite motif of my favorite daily cartoonist R.K.Laxman as well. In general, the connotations of crows for me are far more positive than for westerners. They are in indian culture more like cleverer pigeons than dark omens.
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"Clever hacker" angle again fits with The Trickster/SC. What in the uses you describe coincides with the social space for you?
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As an aside, I’ve never bought into the idea of fundamental archetypes a la Jung/Archdruid/magick. It is to to archetype theory what the old theory of “6 basic emotions” is to Lisa Barrett’s constructivist theory of emotion. I operate by a constructivist theory of archetypes.
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I get you've always used it more loosely, but then why appropriate the term "archetype" at all? If it's not anchored somewhere deep in the human/tribal firmware, then it's all just social learning/mimesis?
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(& we know you don't like Girard... :) I don't have much use for his rebrand of SocLearning/Referencing either)
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As to Barret, I went over her key paper on this with a fine-tooth comb immediately, as there was obvious "archetypes as firmware yay or nay" import… overall I came away with the impression that she just pushed proto-emotion/instinctual circuitry a bit further down the stack NBD
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I'm a big believer in appropriation of this sort :D
Good topic for a future coffee discussion if you're in LA or I'm in Portland again (which might be in a few weeks actually)... also sorry Sarah for spamming your mentions. Forgot to untag you.

