Week 4 Lab
For this assignment, I watched the three Crash Course videos over mythology that were posted on YouTube: "What Is Myth?", "Theories of Myth", and "The Hero's Journey".
Right away, I think that the decision of Crash Course to address the connotation of "old wives' tale" that frequently accompanies the term "myth." Mike is right -- much of mythology and religion are intertwined. Because of this, it's almost guaranteed that at some point during the series, Crash Course will cover a tale or origin story native to the viewer's own religious beliefs (should they hold any). As religion can be an incredibly personal, delicate subject, the disclaimer that labeling something as a "myth" =/= calling it "false" was a savvy move. By enforcing the fact that we are evaluating the literary merits of these tales as opposed to their factuality, we can hypothetically lump Biblical stories under the same umbrella as Brer Rabbit and minimize the subsequent offended parties.
The second video addresses the idea that Zeus started off as an actual mortal king. I've never heard this theory and I find it intriguing -- after all, that sort of thing has happened before (i.e. Epic of Gilgamesh). Human beings are really good at latching on to something and elevating its status over time. Have you ever remembered your favorite restaurant being jaw-droppingly divine only to go back and realize that it's just better than average? Or what about Wilson, Tom Hanks' compatriot in the film Castaway? For a fella who starts the movie as a mere volleyball, Wilson ends up holding a significant amount of importance in the life of Hanks (and the viewers). We take things and play them up in our minds, like a fisherman's story that keeps getting bigger each time he tells it. To some extent, this occurred in Christianity as well -- Jesus, widely accepted to have been a living person, dies with a small following. His popularity then grows explosively through word of mouth and he reaches staggering new heights over time. This isn't a critique of the factuality of the story, just an observation. Take any viral trend on the internet -- if there's one thing humanity is good at creating, it's a cultural phenomenon.
Right away, I think that the decision of Crash Course to address the connotation of "old wives' tale" that frequently accompanies the term "myth." Mike is right -- much of mythology and religion are intertwined. Because of this, it's almost guaranteed that at some point during the series, Crash Course will cover a tale or origin story native to the viewer's own religious beliefs (should they hold any). As religion can be an incredibly personal, delicate subject, the disclaimer that labeling something as a "myth" =/= calling it "false" was a savvy move. By enforcing the fact that we are evaluating the literary merits of these tales as opposed to their factuality, we can hypothetically lump Biblical stories under the same umbrella as Brer Rabbit and minimize the subsequent offended parties.
The second video addresses the idea that Zeus started off as an actual mortal king. I've never heard this theory and I find it intriguing -- after all, that sort of thing has happened before (i.e. Epic of Gilgamesh). Human beings are really good at latching on to something and elevating its status over time. Have you ever remembered your favorite restaurant being jaw-droppingly divine only to go back and realize that it's just better than average? Or what about Wilson, Tom Hanks' compatriot in the film Castaway? For a fella who starts the movie as a mere volleyball, Wilson ends up holding a significant amount of importance in the life of Hanks (and the viewers). We take things and play them up in our minds, like a fisherman's story that keeps getting bigger each time he tells it. To some extent, this occurred in Christianity as well -- Jesus, widely accepted to have been a living person, dies with a small following. His popularity then grows explosively through word of mouth and he reaches staggering new heights over time. This isn't a critique of the factuality of the story, just an observation. Take any viral trend on the internet -- if there's one thing humanity is good at creating, it's a cultural phenomenon.
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| Will the cinnamon challenge eventually be immortalized as the mythological origin story of why human beings cough? Source: Wikipedia Commons. |
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