Digging Our Own Well

At the beginning of the month, Gregory Little talked about the two main reasons why myths and legends are inevitable-humanity’s unconscious desire to flatter and preserve itself. It seemed appropriate to head back to that well at the end.

Yes, it’s true. We are a selfish species, aren’t we? But we do it with style. And we’ll never stop. Our natural oral tradition of myth-making is alive and well even in this day and age. We see this most acutely in the form of urban legends, or urban myths.

Everyone’s heard them, those stories someone swears is the truth about some strange, off-the-wall incident that happened to some distant relation or a friend of a friend you’ve never heard of before. These myths are based on hearsay and passed from person to person like juicy gossip that has no basis in times gone by.

There are hundreds of them, from the scary but mundane (the guy who went into a store only to find out from a passerby that there’s someone hiding in his backseat, or ate pop rocks and drank a coke only to have his stomach explode), to the weird and unexplained (the moth-man or ghost hitchhiker), to the natural world out to get us (the crazy ways you can catch a simple disease that will kill you!).

Let’s remember, though, that the myths we know were once brand-spanking new, too. What do you wanna bet that there were people in Columbus’s day who knew a guy whose brother had a lady friend whose cousin grew up with a sailor who was on a ship that sailed off the edge of the world or was eaten by sea monsters? That medieval children knew the name of someone long dead who went into the forest on a dare in the middle of the night to be eaten by some sort of hobgoblin?

And everyone will have sworn it really happened.

Sure, the subjects of the stories have changed. Instead of sea monsters, we have psycho-killers. Instead of selfish step-mothers, we have shadow governments. Instead of witches out to snatch our first born, we have kidney thieves. But the message remains the same-be careful, little ones, dark things are waiting to happen out in the big, wide world.

We’re still making up stories to preserve ourselves.

But what about the flattery part?

Am I the only one who noticed that, unlike our ancestors, our current monsters for the most part…are ourselves? Perhaps we’re not as vain as has been put forth.

In fact, I suggest that the purpose of that flattery isn’t simply about making ourselves look good (though that can often be the case, I admit). We take what is best and hold it to the light not just to wash away the dirt of our inequities but to draw ourselves to something purer. King Arthur isn’t remembered because he was a good military commander. Martin Luther King isn’t remembered because he made good speeches. These legends don’t just make us look better. They inspire us to be better. They remind us that even a selfish species can rise above.

And the fact that we remember these legends, even after thousands of years, shows that we, as a species have always aspired to the better parts of our souls even when we don’t succeed.

Myths aren’t just about where we came from. Legends aren’t just about people gone to dust. The importance of these stories don’t just exist in what’s come before. They speak as much about who we are now as what we were then. We may no longer need to explain the world as our ancestors did-that’s what science is for-but there are still things out in the dark that can eat us. There are still silly, stupid actions we can take to hurt ourselves. We’re still insecure little creatures out to overcome our frailties. And it shows in the stories we tell.

Even our modern appropriation of older stories tell more about us than they do about them. There’s barely a hint of Ovid’s statue in George Bernard Shaw’s flower girl in his rendition of Pygmalion. The women of Shaw’s time were very different than in Ovid’s. Is it a surprise that Farscape’s “lotus flower” turns out to be the base ingredient for the ammunition of pulse weapons? While taking a class on West Central Africa, where oral-culture has never lost its prevalence, I read origin myths that had warlords with guns. Yeah, I pretty sure they didn’t had guns at the beginning of civilization.

We like to say that we reuse these stories because they are familiar. People are drawn to the stories that already resonate with them. Yet, when we adapt, we’re not just telling those stories. The present overlays the past in every adaptation we do. It’s unavoidable. So, really, is it the tale itself that’s the familiar? Or is it what we interject into them? Are we using the tale to bring in the audience? Or are we using our own lens to help the reader better understand the message behind the myth?

So, let me offer another facet as to why myths and legends are important and inevitable-they keep us connected. They connect us to each other with their universality and to our past in their malleability. As humans, we are all more similar that different on the inside. Appropriating an old tale is more than using a ready-made plot people are familiar with; it’s communing with the past in a way the present can understand.

In a way, we’re not just going back to the oft-used well when we work with myth & legend in our fiction. We’re digging our own new ones as well.

But then, maybe that’s just another form of flattery.

Myths and Legends in Anime

StonepicA guest post by Stone Sanchez.

There have been a more than just a few anime that have drawn inspiration from the myths and legends that cultivate our world, some of them are far more popular than most people realized, while still being completely out in the open about their inspirations. One of the biggest names I know of is Dragon Ball Z.

The main protagonist Goku’s Origins stem from a 16th century novel called Journey to the West, written by the novelist Wu Cheng’en about the Monk Xuanzang traveling to the western regions during the Tang dynasty on a mission handed down to him from the Buddha. Goku’s name is a Japanese translation of one of the main characters’ names, Sun Wukong-a boy with a monkey tale that joins Xuanzang in his journeys alongside two more companions. The classic novel is deeply rooted in Chinese mythological and religious basis, which is where Akira Toriyama drew a lot of his influence from in the early days of Dragon Ball; Goku even had similar weaponry to the legendary literary figure, namely a magical poll that was able to get longer or short on command.

Although as the series progressed, a lot of the roots were covered up with a more science fiction type feel with the introduction of fighters from other planets, those roots found in Journey To The West are ever present in the popularized fighting anime and manga.

Japanese Mangaka have drawn from outside inspirations countless times when building their worlds, anime like Mythical Detective Loki Ragnorak, and even Kaleido Star have relied heavily on the cultures that surrounded them to give life to the internal story and conflict that surround the Manga’s and Anime that are crafted at their roots from these stories.

In Mythical Detective Loki Ragnorak, the anime tells the story of Loki, the Norse god, who’s been trapped in modern day Japan and is using a paranormal detective agency to front his hunt for real magic existing in the world so that he can one day return to Asgard, the home of the gods. As the story progresses a very Japanese spin is thrown into classic Norse mythology, like the introduction of Thor-who normally wields the mighty war hammer Mjolnir, instead hefts a Bokuto (a Japanese wooden sword) by the same name.

Kaleido Star finds one of its source roots around the mythological realm of Tarot cards. The show infers a lot of the readings given by the personification of one of those cards, The Fool, for a lot of the situations that spring up in the life of Sora Nagito, a rising star of the theatrical circus, who is one of the few “chosen by the stage” to be able to see The Fool and granted the right to attempt the Legendary Great Maneuver.  At a later point in the show, it even delves into astrology and reading the stars to determine the paths of the characters.

There are so many ways that ancient and mythological tales find ways to spring into modern storytelling, even in Anime.  These classic tales bring so much to the table whenever they’re implemented and used within the vast scope that this format provides. Just like with old legends and myths that have yet to be discovered, you just have to be willing to look beyond what’s there to see them.

Great Anime: .Hack//Sign, Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, Evangelion, Basilisk, Desert Punk, Cyborg 009, Another

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Stone Sanchez is an aspiring professional author who has been active in the writing community for the past two years. Currently Stone is associated with the Superstars Writing Seminars, where he records and manages the production of the seminars. He’s also worked with David Farland by recording his workshops, and is currently the Director of Media Relations for JordanCon, the official Wheel of Time fan convention. Often referred to as the “kid” in a lot of circles, Stone is immensely happy that he can no longer be denied access places due to not being old enough.

 

Odysseus and the Leviathan

Guest Post by Kim May

What could a Campbellian hero quest possibly have in common with a twenty-fifth century space battle? On the surface they are completely different entities, but if you strip them down to their basic building blocks, you can trace the thematic elements in both stories back to ancient myths and legends. To show you what I mean I’ll break down one of my favorite shows – Farscape.

For those who haven’t watched the show, Farscape is the epic tale of American astronaut John Crichton. While testing a prototype spacecraft an extremely large solar flare knocks him into the mouth of a wormhole that takes him to a galaxy far, far away. He joins up with a group of escaped prisoners – Zahn (a priestess), Rigel (deposed emperor), Dargo (berserker-like warrior) – and Aeryn, the kick-ass space marine. They sail through the strange and wondrous galaxy in Moya, a living space ship, with it’s symbiotic pilot as they try to avoid Commanders Crais and Scorpius’ many attempts to re-capture them. Oh yeah, and a third of the characters are Jim Henson Creature Workshop puppets.

This show is so rife with mythic themes that it’s hard to know where to start. I could talk about the character archetypes because Crais is the threshold guardian, Scorpius is a shadow figure, and Rigel is the epitome of the trickster. Or I could break down the show’s biblical parallels with John as Jonah and Moya as the whale. However, that would be too silly since that would mean Aeryn is Mary Magdalene (which is so frelling wrong). So lets look at it through a Greek lens instead.

First off, the overall premise of the show is an Odyssian journey. Like Odysseus, John’s primary objective is to go home. More than once John is within sight of his goal when he is cruelly torn away and forced to travel the path again. Of course, in John’s case, he never makes it because it’s either the wrong version of home or his crewmates need his help out of a deadly situation.

Some of the episodes have an even more direct correlation to the Odyssey. In Back and Back and Back to the Future, they answer the distress call of a couple of scientists, and the good deed almost gets them killed because the scientists were playing with black holes. It doesn’t take much imagination to see the similarities between a black hole and Charybdis – the whirlpool that threatened to pull Odysseus’ ship into the depths of the sea. The Sirens also come to mind since the distress call lured them into danger just as the Sirens’ song lured passing sailors.

In Thank God It’s Friday, Again they encounter the uncharted territories’ version of the lotus eaters – a hippy commune growing plants for “medicinal use” and are a little too generous when it comes to free samples. True to the myth, when Dargo consumes said sample, his rage and desire to return to his son completely disappear. He spends most of the episode in a Matthew McConaughey-like daze and it’s up to John to save his crewmates from their drug addiction before they start playing the bongos.

One of my favorite episodes, A Human Reaction, has a built in Deus ex machina. John thinks he’s made it home only to find out it’s all a dream and his dad is Zeus…I mean an ancient alien disguised as his dad (which is totally what Zeus would do if he ever went into space). The most brilliant aspect of this episode was that they never explained the technology that allowed the Ancients to do this. Because of that they have a very godlike distinction for the rest of the series; and unlike Stargate, the writers don’t overuse the device. One could argue that the Ancients ultimately harm John more than they help him in the end – which is exactly what the Olympians did to the Greeks.

So why do these classical elements work so well in futuristic, technology laden settings? First of all, they’re familiar. They’re the security blanket we can clutch when hostile forces threaten to destroy Moya or when Scorpius is frying John’s brain in the chair. Because of the storytelling tradition of myth and legend, we know that eventually, somehow, the hero will emerge victorious. Whether it’s a clever idea that helps them or they’re rescued by one of their companions doesn’t matter, as long they win the day.

Another reason is that depending on the viewpoint, magic can be science and vice versa. The two can even be combined into one epic tale. Ken Scholes does it wonderfully in the Psalms of Isaac novels.

So when you sit down to write your next story, don’t be afraid to mix the genres and use ancient legends as inspiration. The slipstream may be what your characters need to find their way home.

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Kim May writes sci-fi and fantasy but has been known to pen a gothic poem or two. She works at an independent bookstore and dog/house sits on the side. A native Oregonian, she lives with her geriatric cat, Spud, and spends as much of her free time as she can with family and friends. She recently won The Named Lands Poetry Contest. If you would like to find out what she’s working on, please visit her blog.

 

No News is Bad News

Reality has taken a strange turn of events lately, becoming fiction and arcing out into quite possibly the greatest spy story since the Cold War.

There’s a saying in my line of work, it involves a couple of expletives and the rationale that truth is stranger than fiction.

Consider the news coverage over the past several months, the conspiracy theories that have popped up and the whistle blowers who are making history.

When we write fiction, there are always certain beats that you aim to hit. And when I long for inspiration, sometimes the best medicine is a quick trip to the television and a tune in to the nightly news.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I do live in a rather strange place. We have face eating zombies and killer bees. Primordial forests and dank swamps. But it wasn’t a local caper that caught my muse this time.

No, it was something on a more global scale. I won’t get into the specifics, or even mention the incident for fear of coloring this blog political in any way. So, instead let’s focus on a few general beats that every story needs to succeed. Every night when you watch the news, there is always a beginning, middle, and end to every story. Heck, that’s why they call them stories. News media operates in a reverse pyramid formula where the most important element is mentioned first. You can take that theory and apply it to fiction as well. All good stories should start with the most important thing that has ever happened to your character. It’s something that triggers the rest of the plot to move forward.

Let’s take a news event and break it down:

Catalyst – Every story begins with a precipitating event that sets your main characters on a collision course with destiny. In this case, something that has far reaching global implications. Do we hold Pandora’s Box? Did we just set off a nuclear bomb or leak a secret government plot?

Reaction – The main characters react to the catalyst, sometimes in strange or unusual ways. Sometimes even more mundane. Do we flee the country? Blast off to space? Vow to seek revenge?

Romance – Do the characters fall in love? Fall out of love? Do they sacrifice their relationship to save the world?

Climax – The chase is on, the reaction boils over and spills into a global conflict. The gods have awakened and they are angry. Pandora’s box is open. Nuclear winter is here.

Resolution – Does your hero go to jail? Get the girl? Save the world? Or tragically die trying to do the right thing?

It’s not just news that we can draw inspiration from. I’m a big fan of conspiracy theories. Not because I believe in them, but because they tell a great story and lead to some awesome What If  moments. If I recall correctly, Stephen King writes most of his books under a “What If?” scenario. Let’s take a few of the more common conspiracy theories and break them down into a story.

Chemtrails:

Certain conspiracy theorists believe that every time a plane flies overhead, its contrail is a secret mixture of chemicals used for mind control, population control, weather control, or any other sort of illicit means you could think up. So – let’s play What If.

What if your main character is an air force pilot, retired. Let’s call him Jim for ease. Jim flies for GloboAir. Before a Trans-Atlantic flight, he is approached by a shadowy man in a business suit. The man claims to be from the TSA and there’s been a threat to the security of the plane. The federal government received “credible information” that a terrorist organization was preparing to shoot down a commercial airliner as it passes through the 48th Parallel. The shadowy man offers an alternative flight path that leads him, his crew, and his passengers safely out of harm’s way. The detour he is provided secretly takes him into a military operation in which his plane has become a weapon of mass destruction. The chemtrails that his plane are set to leave will result in a monster tsunami that will destroy a large city, which would open the country up to a mutually beneficial trade agreement as the USA helps them rebuild from their disaster. Jim discovers the secret plot while in the bathroom and vows that he will not become a pawn in a global chess game. He ignores the new flight coordinates and his plane goes off the air traffic control flight path. Military jets scramble under the belief that Jim’s plane has been hijacked. Now Jim is on a race against time to save his passengers and the world.

Bermuda Triangle:

The Bermuda Triangle is more of a supernatural conspiracy in which people believe that there is a strange reason so many ships or planes disappear in the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida, between Puerto Rico and Bermuda.  Popular victims of the Bermuda Triangle include Amelia Ehrhardt, USS Cyclops, and the creepiest to me, The Connemaria IV.

Let’s play What If.

Jim, the fisherman runs a charter vessel off the coast of Florida. He accidentally sails into the Bermuda Triangle, where he is accosted by the ghosts of the Connemaria IV. A chase ensues as the ghosts attempt to destroy Jim’s vessel. While fleeing, he ends up running aground in the middle of the ocean.  There he discovers the lost city of Atlantis and falls in love with a beautiful siren named Janis. Jim becomes the target of an assassination attempt when Janis’ boyfriend, John finds out. The assassin fails and accidentally kills the king with poison meant for Jim. Now Jim is accused of a crime he didn’t commit and trapped by people he could never hope to understand.

Elvis:

One of the longest running conspiracy theories is that Elvis Priestly never really died.

Elvis Priestly, Knight of Thorns, had to fake his own death so that he could begin his secret life as a vampire hunter. Seriously, how fun does that sound?

There are plenty of other conspiracy theories out there that are ready to burst with creative energy. Operation Northwoods, MK-Ultra, Psychic Warfare, New World Order syndicates, and dozens more beyond that.  So, don’t get discouraged when you hit a stumbling block or can’t think of the next great story. Just know that whatever impetus you need to propel your muse back into life can be as simple as a click away.