What I found most interesting about creating a myth is how much myth/storytelling I relied upon to make up a “new” myth. In short, nothing is really new. My site focused on narcissism in celebrities and why these “lucky” individuals seem to repeatedly mess everything up for themselves. I never thought I could create a myth in the style of mythology that I’ve studied over the years. However, I found that most stories we have heard or re-tell, or even make up have many of the same components and every story is just a variation of a story told before.
As I learned doing our myth presentation, the Br’er Rabbit myth has had many incarnations with many different cultures over centuries. Yet each adopts it as their own, with often only the tiniest twist on the story. In my created myth, I am telling the story of how someone who has so much takes it for granted and ultimately loses it. Only then do they realize how much they had, how ungrateful they were and how easy it all can go away.
I definitely found writing the myth to be easier than I expected. I’ve always felt Greek mythology was so multi-layered and well-constructed that it was too intimidating to attempt myself. But some of the Native American stories I read were almost non-sensical and that took away some of the worry. I tried to write a story that was cohesive, with a beginning, middle and end that also explained something about a societal issue. Hopefully, I accomplished that.
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Silver, I think there's something really interesting in your myth and how you could apply it to teaching.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you could have students twist a legend/myth by applying modern day figures to the myth. Twisting the myth to reflect something that is more tangible for adolescents is not too shabby a way to really grasp how multifaceted myths are.
Which sparked the following idea: madlibs myths! Imagine if we took a myth and inserted Amy Winehouse or Kanye West or Taylor Swift; interjected their names and personas into an existing myth; imagine how easy it would be for students to engage in the wonders of myth and how myth reflects certain aspects of society.
Anyhow, thanks for sharing your myth!
<---Viktoriya
ReplyDeleteSilver,
ReplyDeleteI love that you created a myth that resonates with our society today; after all, that's exactly what the ancient myth orators and creators did as well! Your myth also digs deep into the human psyche, and gives a well developed explanation for something that we see at least three times everyday--narcissism (and celebrity combustion due to it). I like to think of your myth as a modern adaptation to the ancient Greek myth of Narcissus and Echo. Yours, as well as the ancient myth, gives an explanation and sheds a light into the minds of us as human beings and what it means to be self-absorbed and what exactly the outcome may be from it! Well done! :)
-Ashley
Silver, I like that you tried and succeeded to write a story that was cohesive with a beginning middle and an end, that still signified on the old Greek style of myths. It was also intimidating for me too, and like as I sat in front of my laptop I just kept thinking to myself about how much I wanted to say and why it meant something to me. My myth about “Adam and Steve” may just seem like a comedy. But I’m retelling the classic story of Adam and Eve while trying to make societal comments about the notions that people have about Adam and Steve. It was quite difficult for me at times because I just had to make sure my plot lines didn’t falter and that everything made sense the entire way through. I was also kind of scared because I’m a very religious person and I didn’t want to be deemed as sacrilege, or even plagiarizing the Bible.
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