Story Lab Week 6: Crash Course!
I love crash course! Who knows what would have happened to high school me without crash course world history. I didn't even realize they had a crash course mythology, so I am actually quite excited to investigate the videos for their interpretations of things I may have read so far in the course.
"What is Myth" Video 1:
The analogy of mythology being a Slurpee of knowledge is phenomenal. Mythology incorporates so many disciplines because it is rooted in humans and their culture. Two complex systems need a wide variety of perspectives to analyze and explain them.
I also enjoyed how they addressed the fine line between myths and religion. Many of these myths and belief systems were, and still are, deeply connected to a regions religion. I think it is important to separate the two however as the myths are the stories that makeup religions. In my point of view, religion is nothing without people utilizing stories to explain the creation of the world and its structures, good vs evil, etc.
Finally, this video did a good job at capturing the complexity of myths while also appealing to the simple nature of entertainment and culture preservation.
"Theories of Myth" Video 2:
Oh boy... theories. Normally you get to the theories section of the textbook and cry a little inside, but this video was actually interesting. It looked at mythology through the eyes of different ideologies and explained the role of myths in society according to their philosophies. This just reiterated the fact that mythology, if to be examined accurately, requires a lot of different contexts and perspectives.
I enjoyed how they encouraged to keep an open mind in exploration of these theories. Usually, when presented theories of an ideology, you have this overwhelming pressure to accept them as fact as they laid the groundwork for what we believe today (I cannot tell you how many times a psych major has to study Freud's theories even though we believe today that they aren't as good as we thought they were). Theories are important for understanding the development of ideology and understanding of a subject. Since mythology is a big combination of perspectives, it is interesting to get a glimpse at how specific theories of these perspectives shaped the way we view myths.
"The Heroes Journey and the Monomyth" Video 3:
The heroes journey is everywhere, it seems like the basic building block of any good story. I vaguely remember examining this in detail in high school, so this video acted as a nice refresher. On the surface, it seems a little sad that so many stories are crafted after the same steps, but if you dig further in these stories, you can see that no two are exactly alike. Its kind of magical how so many stories can have a similar core but teach so many different lessons and establish so many different feelings and ideas.
It was really cool to hear about the Australian myth. I had never heard of this myth before but it was really interesting as it featured seven powerful women as the main characters. It was good to see how this story captured elements of the heroes journey but also had elements of it's own.
I think this heroes journey structure is important to keep in mind when reading myths but also when crafting your own stories. It supplies a basic outline to follow to develop a great story. I am interested to go back and look at my stories to see if I can identify any elements.
Here's a link to the YouTube page with all three videos: StoryLab Crash Course
"What is Myth" Video 1:
The analogy of mythology being a Slurpee of knowledge is phenomenal. Mythology incorporates so many disciplines because it is rooted in humans and their culture. Two complex systems need a wide variety of perspectives to analyze and explain them.
I also enjoyed how they addressed the fine line between myths and religion. Many of these myths and belief systems were, and still are, deeply connected to a regions religion. I think it is important to separate the two however as the myths are the stories that makeup religions. In my point of view, religion is nothing without people utilizing stories to explain the creation of the world and its structures, good vs evil, etc.
Finally, this video did a good job at capturing the complexity of myths while also appealing to the simple nature of entertainment and culture preservation.
"Theories of Myth" Video 2:
Oh boy... theories. Normally you get to the theories section of the textbook and cry a little inside, but this video was actually interesting. It looked at mythology through the eyes of different ideologies and explained the role of myths in society according to their philosophies. This just reiterated the fact that mythology, if to be examined accurately, requires a lot of different contexts and perspectives.
I enjoyed how they encouraged to keep an open mind in exploration of these theories. Usually, when presented theories of an ideology, you have this overwhelming pressure to accept them as fact as they laid the groundwork for what we believe today (I cannot tell you how many times a psych major has to study Freud's theories even though we believe today that they aren't as good as we thought they were). Theories are important for understanding the development of ideology and understanding of a subject. Since mythology is a big combination of perspectives, it is interesting to get a glimpse at how specific theories of these perspectives shaped the way we view myths.
"The Heroes Journey and the Monomyth" Video 3:
The heroes journey is everywhere, it seems like the basic building block of any good story. I vaguely remember examining this in detail in high school, so this video acted as a nice refresher. On the surface, it seems a little sad that so many stories are crafted after the same steps, but if you dig further in these stories, you can see that no two are exactly alike. Its kind of magical how so many stories can have a similar core but teach so many different lessons and establish so many different feelings and ideas.
It was really cool to hear about the Australian myth. I had never heard of this myth before but it was really interesting as it featured seven powerful women as the main characters. It was good to see how this story captured elements of the heroes journey but also had elements of it's own.
I think this heroes journey structure is important to keep in mind when reading myths but also when crafting your own stories. It supplies a basic outline to follow to develop a great story. I am interested to go back and look at my stories to see if I can identify any elements.
And now for my favorite hero....
Here's a link to the YouTube page with all three videos: StoryLab Crash Course
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