The Great Books Renaissance: Hero’s Journey Entrepreneurship Festival: Fay’s 300, Bogle’s Battle, & Homer’s Odyssey

The Great Books Renaissance

Hero’s Journey Entrepreneurship Festival: Fay’s 300, Bogle’s Battle, & Homer’s Odyssey

http://herosjourneyentrepreneurship.org/

Shot on a “spartan” budget with no major stars and breathtaking technological artistry, William Fay’s number-one movie 300 (Legendary Pictures) is breaking boxoffice records via that time-tested asset—classical ideals rendered in classical story. John C. Bogle, the founder and former CEO of Wall Street’s trillion-dollar Vanguard Group, built Vanguard upon a classic, idealistic premise—the risk takers—the common investors—ought get the rewards. Homer’s Odysseus makes it on home not just via his warrior strength, but by his ability to resist temptation while serving the higher ideals.

The students in Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology 101 read Bogle’s Battle for The Soul of Capitalism alongside Homer’s Odyssey, joining a natural Fellowship that spans time and space, that ranges from Wall Street to Main Street, from Hollywood to the Heartland, from ancient Greece to popular culture. They see this—all lasting value has ever been built upon values. And they’ll get to hear it from William Fay, executive producer of 300, The Patriot, Superman, and Independence Day, as he keynotes The Hero’s Journey Entrepreneurship Festival on March 31^st at Pepperdine University: herosjourneyentrepreneurship.org.

A couple weeks back HJE was honored to host Mr. Bogle, who delivered a most eloquent speech “Vanguard: Saga of Heroes,” in which he paid tribute to the spirit of the Great Books, as well as the contemporary video game Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Though he is the last to call himself a hero, the fact is that John Bogle always put his crew’s and clients’ interests before his own “spartan” desires. The Wall Street Journal reported on how he resisted the temptation of hundreds of millions dollars that could have easily been his throughout his career, had he not stayed focused on his simple moral premise—every fee taken by the management comes from the common investor. 300 captures the spirit of Bogle’s Battle, and one can almost envision Bogle leading a small crew of Spartans on Wall Street, motivated not by riches nor wealth, but by Honor and Duty, en route to creating Vanguard—the Street’s best deal.

Director Zach Snyder also lead a small production crew against common wisdom, and 300, based on the historic battle of Thermopylae described by Herodotus and rendered in Frank Miller’s graphic novel, is now making history. In this era of burgeoning Hollywood budgets and star-driven remakes, 300 was shot for less than 65 million—less than half of what a modern Hollywood epic costs—and instead of relying on stars, it created stars. 300 was shot entirely indoors, marrying cutting-edge technology to the timeless principles of Honor and Duty, and emerging with the lasting Glory of an Epic Story. King Leonidas’s can be heard resounding throughout Hollywood—“A new age has come—an age of freedom!”

And 300 touched a nerve. Though the fashionable postmodern sunglasses obscure this reality to many, the fact is that 300, like The Odyssey, “lifts the great song again,” via the ideals of Honor and Valor. 300 defines Artistic Entrepreneurship & Technology—marrying timeless ideals to tomorrow’s technologies, performing epic truths in the living language, and returning home with the elixir—the lasting value of a timeless epic. It is quite an honor to have William Fay keynoting the HJEF.

Fay and Bogle demonstrate that opportunity abounds for those seeking to perform the classical ideals in the contemporary context—for those willing to own the risk of the renaissance. The HJEF is also quite honored to be hosting Flint Dille and John Zuur—of filmandgames.com—who are pioneering the merger of the two mediums, as well as utilizing the interactive technologies of video games to bring story to life. And Christopher Vogler of The Writer’s Journey and David Whatley of The Hero’s Journey video game will make for a most fascinating panel.

Bogle's Battle opens with a flourish from St. Paul, I Corinthians, “If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” And 300’s King Leonidas tells us, “Well that’s an easy choice for us to make, Spartans never retreat, Spartans never surrender!”

So come join us on March 31st for that which has been a long-time coming—a Great Books renaissance—a revival of the classical spirit and soul which shall be driven by humble heroes—seeking not Glory itself, but the Honor and Duty that leads to the Glory of Epic Story—rendered in tomorrow’s video games, ventures, novels, and films.

http://herosjourneyentrepreneurship.org/