Our view of mythology often ignores that it was propaganda from Gilgamesh to Oracle visits to the foundation of Rome by escaped Trojans. Wouldn't modern mythology be the same?
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Replying to @Lithobolos
I just don't think that a commercial product that everyone who makes and consumes it understands is pure fiction designed to entertain the viewer as a customer is the same thing as "mythology"
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Replying to @arthur_affect @Lithobolos
Yes, it does a lot of the things mythology does, it is in many ways analogous to mythology or "what we have instead of mythology" Fine When you say it actually is mythology you're ignoring a lot of obvious facts as though they just don't matter and that's annoying
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Replying to @arthur_affect @Lithobolos
It's like when people say stuff like "Football is my religion" and in some broad anthropological sense that's true and insightful and yet if you actually literally mean it and try to push it as literally true it's just stupid No it's not
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Replying to @arthur_affect @Lithobolos
"American civil religion" is definitely a thing, even among some people who are militantly "anti-religious"
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Replying to @LizardOrman @Lithobolos
Okay see yes and I would say that as hokey as you might find it there is actual literal "American mythology" that goes with the American civic religion that actually fits the definition of mythology much better than any fiction created for commercial media
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I mean, sure, George Washington chopping down the cherry tree has much less cultural relevance than Spider-Man (although not ZERO relevance, looking at the success of stuff like Hamilton)
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But that's not comic books being the new mythology, that's commercial fiction being more important nowadays than mythology Mythology, qua mythology, is much less of a thing in modern society I think the distinction does matter
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I mean How do I put this Actual mythology isn't something you *choose* It's just *there*, its relevance is assumed
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Like if someone shows you around their hometown and says "Oh yeah that's where John Henry died racing the steam drill" They're not saying that as a "John Henry fan", they're not talking about something they chose to watch for entertainment and assume you did too
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It's just a fact about the world Everyone who grows up here knows that that's the rock face John Henry was hammering when he died They may not *believe* it, they may be fully aware it's bullshit and three other towns have the same story
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But the story is fundamentally attached to the real history, interwoven with it, and it's just generally understood as part of the "lore" of a real life community
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And see you're gonna say Spider-Man is like that and you can, like, point to the Empire State Building and say he swung off of it and I'm saying no you couldn't I'm going to die on the hill that it actually is fundamentally different
2 replies 1 retweet 14 likes - Show replies
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