Uses and abuses of mythology

[seluecus]

I’ve been thinking and talking recently with ploratrix about the use (and misuse) of mythology in geek culture and popular media, so I thought I’d post something about it and ask for feedback from the community

Comments

[paperclipchains]

Mythology is such weird and dicey territory, you always run into so many problems.

For example, Supernatural - at some point, it sounds like somebody said "Well, shit, we can't just have Abrahamic myth in here, can we...?" And so they threw in some tokens from other religions and promptly fucked them all up and the whole thing is just mired in Unfortunate Implications.

I appreciate seeing myth that isn't Greek/Roman or Christian in fiction, and I don't think it's inherently appropriative to use myth from things outside of your home (or sort-of-home, 'cause consider the usage of greco-roman myth) culture, but it can wind up really problematic. Going back to the supernatural example - leaving them out would be writing them out of existence, but including them wound up being just stupid. In supernatural's case I definitely think it's probably better to carry the Unfortunate Implication that Christianity is the One True Faith than to so terribly mangle all these other mythologies.

The other thing that springs to mind is Crystal Dragon Jesus and the ubiquity of the multi-tiered angel boss in Japanese video games and anime. I personally don't mind the stunning frequency with which we kill the Christian God or his representatives, but... well, you have to admit to the stunning frequency.

An example of using myth from other cultures and doing it right, I think, would probably be Avatar: The Last Airbender. The context of the world and all of the detailing added a lot to the credibility.