The Methodology of Mythology
Writing Myth
In the brief experience I had creating myth, I can definitively assert that it differs greatly in the study of myth. Myths have been told from time immemorial. The weight of that history is carried through every iteration of a particular myth when retold continually. In writing my own myth, I realized that it is impossible to artificially generate that history in a short time. As epic or nuanced as my writing may be of the myth (and I hope it was), it could not capture the centuries of culture building, societal influences, and lives of a people like myths about the Grecian gods, or trickster spiders could do. This vast history becomes more apparent in the brief exposure I have had to myths in the class. I found myself trying to connect trivial occurrences to my myth, even if they weren’t directly related to my overall myth because I feel it would help flesh out the myth itself. This made the myth a little hard to follow and left initial readers confused about what the myth was really about. Worldbuilding in any story is very important, and when creating a myth that needed to read as if it had a history worthwhile, I may have lost sight of my goal.
Studying Myth
Studying myths has opened various avenues from which I can begin to explore myths with my students. The idea is that most people will immediately think of the Greek gods when they hear “myth”, but the expansive world of myth that exists out there can allow for a fresh introduction to myths to most students. Cultural diversity and differing societal norms between these cultures of myth is a great way to introduce culturally responsive lesson plans in the classroom. A greater understanding of cultural norms between cultures and of the similarities that many cultures share can be a great way to have students work with myths.
My Myth
Visit Petrichor: The Myth, if you are curious how my myth writing endeavors turned out!
Hi Javier, I think your ideology on “Writing Myth” is intriguing because you connect it with a primitive state. I can agree that myths are primitive and your honesty about yourself is deep. Even though we cannot generate that history, as you said, when we create our own myth; however, we can emulate the traditions of mythical stories to our own to add that historical context. Meaning, we can create our own myths, but we can use the stories/ characters of old myths to help with generating that specific history. I do concur that when society hear “myth” or “mythology” the focus on the Greeks, also they might focus on the Egyptians. I think that’s because those cultures had much more interesting stories to tell. Cultural diversity is a great and imperative idea to connect students with various mythologies. Much like the myths we read in class have those diversities since many of them were African folktale.
ReplyDeleteDear Javier,
ReplyDeleteDear Javier,
I think your post could not be more accurate! I totally agree with you when you mentioned “in the brief experience I had creating a myth, I can definitively assert that it differs greatly in the study of myth.” Indeed, I can tell that creating a myth differs from studying a myth because when you create a myth you focus more on the “creative writing process” while studying a myth you try to understand the contextual information around the myth to then try to understand what was the purpose of that myth.
I am glad that I was not the only “one who found himself trying to connect trivial occurrences to my myth.” When writing my myth, I mainly focused on incorporating “relevant context” to the myth I created based on my question. I found this process a little bit tedious, but I liked the final result. Overall, I enjoyed reading your post! Thank you for sharing!
Leo Aleman