Beginning of the Essay for Karen

[alanajoli]

All right, Karen, here's the rough start. We'll try conversational at first, rather than formal essay, because this is a blog and because I don't have a formal introduction or conclusion, just an opinionated thesis. ;)

Topic: Use of Mythology in Fiction (and what elements of mythology actually count)

Why this came about: I was speaking with a friend about the seventh Harry book (for which I, finishing on the Sunday after the Friday midnight release, was one of the slowest readers among my friends). One of our mutual friends had called J. K. Rowling a "master of using mythology," a comment I bridled at a bit. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy the Harry Potter books. I think Rowling is amazing at handling the development of her characters from eleven-year-old children to seventeen-year-old adults (which they arguably are by the end, despite still being teens). I think her invention of Hogwarts is wonderful, though the rest of the Wizarding World is less well developed. I find her incredibly clever. But as for her use of mythology...

"She only really uses magical creatures," I rebutted. "That's not using mythology." I didn't at all mean this as a criticism of the books--I don't really think she needed the greater depth of mythology that I demand for my definition to tell the stories she was telling. But the statement was out, and now I had to figure out how to defend it. This turned into a drawn out conversation of what using mythology actually *did* mean, and who's out there doing it now. To qualify in my definition, a writer can use either mythology or fairy tales as a basis, the distinction between the two I expect to be following up on in this journal in days to come. Magical creatures are a part of mythology, certainly, but such a small element in my mind that they do not make up mythology all by themselves. Here are some examples of topics that do:

a) Use of societies and cultures. The treatment of the faerie courts as societal groups qualifies as a good use of mythology in a fantasy novel. Melissa Marr (melissa_writing) did a marvelous job with this in Wicked Lovely, going so far as to include excerpts from texts where faerie behavior is recorded at the beginning of every chapter. Stephenie Meyer, in New Moon particularly, drew on both werewolf legends and the folklore from the Quileute tribe to develop her shape-shifting heroes. So while faeries/fairies, vampires, and werewolves are all creatures, to a certain degree, because they also have their own cultures (and are used as main characters in the works I mention), use of them based on real-world legends counts as integrating mythology into fiction.

b) Use of actual characters from myth, legend, or fairy tales. This usage is actually far more common, but shows up in anything from very young children's lit (the "Sisters Grimm" series) to YA ("Percy Jackson and the Olympians") to graphic novels for adults (Fables). Some are done better than others; as much as I enjoy the "Sisters Grimm" books, I don't think they're nearly as sophisticated in their use of fairy tales as the "Percy Jackson" books are at tailor Greek mythology to the modern world. In part, I think, their purpose is different; Rick Riordan was a middle school teacher of mythology. When I interviewed him awhile ago, I didn't ask if part of his goal was to encourage more young readers to get into Greek mythology. But since I actually remember my Greek myths better from reading the "Percy Jackson" series (much to my chagrin) than even Edith Hamilton's Greek Mythology, I have to suspect that ulterior motive on Riordan's part.

c) Hidden usage of mythology as a template for characters/plot. I suspect this one's out there quite a lot, but it's harder to recognize, particularly if it's done well. I suspect that Orson Scott Card's "Alvin Maker" series fits in here, and if you read the wikipedia entry on the "Wheel of Time" series, his use of mythology is pretty darn evident.

My general thesis is that there's a lot more to mythology than monsters, and in fact, monsters are such a small part of mythology that it's a shame how many people consider them the whole of it. Don't get me wrong, I love a good dragon tale. (The Book Dragon is my very favorite, and I'd love to find it again.) But just because a book has dragons doesn't mean it's using legends or mythology as a background. And even if the books, like the Harry Potter series, use legends as the background for how mythical creatures act, if that's not a major part of the tale, then the mythology is just an aside. For some stories, that's absolutely how it should be. For others, like Wicked Lovely and the "Percy Jackson" books, the mythology is so integral to the tale that the stories are seeped in it. Both are valid techniques, and both are completely enjoyable.

But if you want to talk about using mythology, it's the latter category that gets the gold star.

Comments

[elven-wolf.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

And, if it weren't obvious already, werewolves are my thing. Well, at least I started writing about regular old werewolves, but as I started reading more about wolf myths around the world, my story began to evolve into something different. I really credit an old passion for myths. I started reading about Native American tales of wolves, and about the ulfhedinn of the Norse... One of my interests on LJ is 'abusing mythology', because I pretty much have.

I guess that's part of why it took me a while to 'classify' my writing as 'fantasy'. I don't write about elves or faeries in sword and sorcery settings (okay, I do, but not as my magnum opus over here), and I don't write so much anymore about shapeshifters making other shapeshifters with only a bite. I make more of a distinction between 'fantasy' and 'mythology'. If that makes sense.

[kstoddardhayes.livejournal.com]

These definitions make a good start. I wouldn't have thought of including hidden uses as one of these, so now I'm going to be looking at some readings and wondering about that.
For myself, though, the effective and informed use of mythology in literature goes even a bit deeper than using societies or characters with understanding. I used to have in my signature (several ISP's ago) a quote from Joseph Campbell in which he defines myth as the doorway through which the energy of the cosmos enters human culture (that's an inexact paraphrase, if anyone knows the exact quote I'd love to see it again)
For me, a writer who uses mythology well is one who succeeds in capturing some of that cosmic mystery, giving us a glimpse of something too large to be seen complete with human eyes. It doesn't matter whether the glimpse comes from bits of old mythology walking into our world (Charles de Lint or Neil Gaiman) or from a whole subcreated world (Middle Earth, Earthsea, Discworld). If the story makes me feel that its events are connected to or influenced even in a small way by that cosmic energy, that metaphysical Beyond, then its mythology works well.
As an aside, I'll add that I'm slowly working my way through Tom Shippey's studies of Tolkien's work, and his insights into the ways and the whys of Tolkien's use of mythology and folklore are absolutely fascinating. For the first time, I'm really beginning to understand why these books grabbed me so hard and so deep, from the first time I read them. Highly recommended for any Tolkien lover.