To be honest, I'm not fond of mythology, but it has been quite an experience. Creating a myth was thus far difficult for me to do. It's like you have to logically explain things to make sense of everything. When I created the Darrel and the Falcon story, I had to do some research on the falcon, what it symbolizes, and so on. I even had to do some research on the timeline to create the Darrel character. Matter of fact, there has been a Deaf person in the account during the biblical times, but I wanted to do something that may be related to real-life experiences. The only thing that might seem less rational about the relationship between Darrel and the falcon is the communication between the human being and the bird. Sure, birds can get angry and dive over one's head, but they would never create a wind that strong to push Darrel a bit. But, you know... anything's possible. :-)
As for enhancing the study of myth, I think one of the most dangerous tools to debunk mythologies is trying to link the history in a very logical way that it makes it almost impossible to say, "This can't be." History itself tends to be recorded, but are they considered facts? You can consider them facts when you have evidence. This is why research plays a crucial role in the English department. When one of the students finds something in the mythology that seems out of whack, well, someone's going to say, "See? It's just a story." Can we make mythology a fact? I believe the answer to be "yes." I do believe there is something out there that we cannot really explain. As we try to challenge the English department to go beyond farther than just reading about mythology, we are trying to look for something to back up our logic reasoning. In a way, we're creating mythology to see how much critical thinking have been used in the field.
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Casey,
ReplyDeleteThe myth construction was difficult for me, as well! I think it has a lot to do with the narrow field of mythology that is actually studied in school. I, myself, was fairly unfamiliar with any world mythology outside of Greek and Roman culture. Because of this, my myth resembled mythology from those cultures.
I also felt like I had to severely suspend my disbelief. I find mythology to be very fantastical, and I don't believe myself to be a fantasy writer (which only made the process more difficult!) Like you said, "anything's possible," though in mythology and I had to just go with the flow!
It sounds like you put a lot of time and research into your myth idea, and I'm sure that it made a difference in the authentic feel of your myth. I love that you include your own personal experiences into much of your creative work. it definitely adds flair and personality.
- Paula Jennings
Casey-I really liked your observation that it's dangerous to try to hold mythology to the same standards as recorded history. It begs some interesting questions/answers. As you said, much of the details of myths do not hold up if scrutinized, whereas "history" is taken as fact unless inrefutable evidence comes along to challenge it. I find this interesting because essentially, history and the "made up" mythological tales could both be founded in absolute truth, but dependent on the form of recording or the recorder of fact themselves, the "facts" can be viewed as either the ultimate word or just a silly story to encourage society to behave in an ethical or right manner. Good work on the research you did to create your myth. And I've enjoyed having you in two of my classes this semester because you always give unique and insightful approaches to class discussions.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that you had not been a fan of mythology; it is such a prevalent form of historical accounts that it is difficult to avoid them. Casey, you do make a fantastic point that in order to create myth, one must have the groundwork laid to write a meaningful myth that answers a question whether in a humorous or logical way. Similarly I also found that it was of the utmost importance to research my myth. Although I did not choose to write about a particular historical figure, I did choose real-life characters to include in my myth and in order to create a story that would be understood I had to research as much information on my subject as possible. Your comment about making a myth becoming a fact is provocative and seems to me to be an allusion to the power of positive thought.
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDeleteI think you are right about history. I wanted to become a history major and then as I took more and more units I saw the change in everything, the history and the so called facts and then I saw the change. After I saw these so called facts change in so many different scholary books that swore they were true I began to change my mind about history. I wanted to base my learning and teachings on facts and everyhting that came along with it, and I am the person that does not like change. So as history changed so did the facts and my opinion on my major. So I decided to become an English major, and when I was reading your mythology blog I realized that that what you mentioned about the change in history is what made me change what I wanted to go down in history as.
Erna