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mythology as nonfiction
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From: uma at cyberport.com <uma>
Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 07:30:32 -0600
Doris Orgel wrote: "I hope it?s not too late to raise
My understanding is that retold mythology (itself a culturally defined term) is classified as nonfiction because the writer did not make the story up. S/he had to study its origins, research it in several forms and variants, and render it consumable to a young reader in much the same way as one would do w/, say, history. To me this makes sense, but every so often I've seen it get questioned, and someone well-known will come out and say nonsense this stuff is clearly non?ctual, after all no one ever really met Ganesha or Gluskap. With clearly extinct civilizations one can of course do this w/ impunity, bcs worshippers of Hera et al aren't around to protest. But mostly, pursuing this line of reasoning isn't very helpful bcs inevitably it leads to questions of why one set of stories is considered religious truth while another is considered mythology.
Two additional points. 1. most of the traditional societies from whence so?lled mythology comes did not and do not feel the need to differentiate between real and make?lieve, history and legend, material and spiritual. 2. it is only in the Western world that we believe in history and the sciences as incontrovertible fact, instead of the bodies of knowledge
(growing, changing, constantly being refuted and refined) that they really are. E.g., origin stories of Native American peoples vs. the land-bridge timeline of migrations to North America. The latter is still being revised and redated by scholars but the 20-year old version is accepted as fact by most people. Maybe one day they'll find yet another set of remains so far south that it will indicate that primordial underworld origin stories were not so much mythology as metaphor for -- truth?
This has been a great discussion to read.
Uma
Uma Krishnaswami http://www.childrensbookguild.org/Krishnaswami.html
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between.
[Diane Ackerman]
Received on Fri 12 Apr 2002 08:30:32 AM CDT
Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 07:30:32 -0600
Doris Orgel wrote: "I hope it?s not too late to raise
My understanding is that retold mythology (itself a culturally defined term) is classified as nonfiction because the writer did not make the story up. S/he had to study its origins, research it in several forms and variants, and render it consumable to a young reader in much the same way as one would do w/, say, history. To me this makes sense, but every so often I've seen it get questioned, and someone well-known will come out and say nonsense this stuff is clearly non?ctual, after all no one ever really met Ganesha or Gluskap. With clearly extinct civilizations one can of course do this w/ impunity, bcs worshippers of Hera et al aren't around to protest. But mostly, pursuing this line of reasoning isn't very helpful bcs inevitably it leads to questions of why one set of stories is considered religious truth while another is considered mythology.
Two additional points. 1. most of the traditional societies from whence so?lled mythology comes did not and do not feel the need to differentiate between real and make?lieve, history and legend, material and spiritual. 2. it is only in the Western world that we believe in history and the sciences as incontrovertible fact, instead of the bodies of knowledge
(growing, changing, constantly being refuted and refined) that they really are. E.g., origin stories of Native American peoples vs. the land-bridge timeline of migrations to North America. The latter is still being revised and redated by scholars but the 20-year old version is accepted as fact by most people. Maybe one day they'll find yet another set of remains so far south that it will indicate that primordial underworld origin stories were not so much mythology as metaphor for -- truth?
This has been a great discussion to read.
Uma
Uma Krishnaswami http://www.childrensbookguild.org/Krishnaswami.html
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between.
[Diane Ackerman]
Received on Fri 12 Apr 2002 08:30:32 AM CDT
