Comic (in the sense of societal integration) and Myth (in the sense of God or Gods being involved) is, frankly, a badass category of literature. You got your Illiads and your Odysseys and your Hercules and so on and so forth, but I'd like to talk specifically on this as it relates to one of my favorite pastimes: video games. I know, I know, but I'm a nerd, so you have to deal with it.
The game "God of War" deals with a human's rise into the realm of the Gods, first doing favors for them, and finally (unlike that wimp, Hercules) kills a God, Ares, only to take his place upon the throne of the God of War atop mount Olympus. I always loved this game for its well-developed game play, excellent presentation, and theatrical storytelling. But you may like the way it looked when your car explodes, but you're still going to hate the fact that it did, indeed, explode. I'm alluding to the content, you see. The amount of ancient Greek mythology represented in the game (well, spread across two games) is marvelous, from griffins to Medusa to the Golden Fleece. Long story short, it's my favorite Mythic Comedy ever.
I love myth so much because it is so much more than what life is. Like Don Quixote, I, too, yearn for a greater purpose than mortal life. Giants, ogres, cyclops, dragons, faeries, elves, all that J. R. R. Tolkien stuff of fantasy and legend, or the epic stories following a lone adventurer in the days of polytheistic religion (those were the days, eh?) saving the world, or sometimes just himself--stories designed to captivate, but told with such deliberate intention as to make you believe them. Everyone, back in the day, really did think there were Zeus, Hera, Hades, and all the other Gods I can't think of from that one Disney©®™ movie.
I love the comic, not because of the humor implications, but who wouldn't want to be integrated into a society of Gods? Drink some ambrosia, smite a few heathens here and there, become the divine inspiration for some old dude to build a boat. Sounds sweet to me. Plus the whole never dying thing sounds like fun (especially considering the amount of literary knowledge one could attain). Who wouldn't want to be accepted into a group of anything? That's why gangs, cults and religion are so darn popular, I surmise. I suppose the combination of the overly-fantastic (myth putting romantic literature to shame) with a sort of success story that comes with the comic mode tends to engage me best as a reader.
"What did you do today, Bob?"
"Read a book on literary criticism by the renowned author Northop Fyre. You?"
"Totally flew my flaming chariot around the skies a few times, getting the sun to set and rise. Then me and Somnus made a bunch of people at the vommitorium fall asleep in their own filth. It was totally good times."
The game "God of War" deals with a human's rise into the realm of the Gods, first doing favors for them, and finally (unlike that wimp, Hercules) kills a God, Ares, only to take his place upon the throne of the God of War atop mount Olympus. I always loved this game for its well-developed game play, excellent presentation, and theatrical storytelling. But you may like the way it looked when your car explodes, but you're still going to hate the fact that it did, indeed, explode. I'm alluding to the content, you see. The amount of ancient Greek mythology represented in the game (well, spread across two games) is marvelous, from griffins to Medusa to the Golden Fleece. Long story short, it's my favorite Mythic Comedy ever.
I love myth so much because it is so much more than what life is. Like Don Quixote, I, too, yearn for a greater purpose than mortal life. Giants, ogres, cyclops, dragons, faeries, elves, all that J. R. R. Tolkien stuff of fantasy and legend, or the epic stories following a lone adventurer in the days of polytheistic religion (those were the days, eh?) saving the world, or sometimes just himself--stories designed to captivate, but told with such deliberate intention as to make you believe them. Everyone, back in the day, really did think there were Zeus, Hera, Hades, and all the other Gods I can't think of from that one Disney©®™ movie.
I love the comic, not because of the humor implications, but who wouldn't want to be integrated into a society of Gods? Drink some ambrosia, smite a few heathens here and there, become the divine inspiration for some old dude to build a boat. Sounds sweet to me. Plus the whole never dying thing sounds like fun (especially considering the amount of literary knowledge one could attain). Who wouldn't want to be accepted into a group of anything? That's why gangs, cults and religion are so darn popular, I surmise. I suppose the combination of the overly-fantastic (myth putting romantic literature to shame) with a sort of success story that comes with the comic mode tends to engage me best as a reader.
"What did you do today, Bob?"
"Read a book on literary criticism by the renowned author Northop Fyre. You?"
"Totally flew my flaming chariot around the skies a few times, getting the sun to set and rise. Then me and Somnus made a bunch of people at the vommitorium fall asleep in their own filth. It was totally good times."
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