Comments on: Guest Blog: Mythology 101 with Philip Palmer

By: Philip Palmer

Philip Palmer — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:37:04 +0000

I like the Fisher King legend which (if memory serves, though it often doesn’t) also appears in the Golden Bough. The Fisher King is wounded and so he spends his days fishing while his country becomes a Waste Land. T.S. Eliot used this as the basis for, er, the Waste Land, and Terry Gilliam made a movie of it. (Boy, that man has chops.)

The killer in the story is that the Fisher King is wounded in the GROIN. And that’s why the land isn’t fertile.

Is that metaphor, symbolism, or did those ancient myth-makers have one hell of a sense of humour…?

By: Nicole Peeler

Nicole Peeler — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:54:35 +0000

One of the (many) elements that Peter Childs includes in his list of important theories that helped catalyze the paradigm shift which was Modernism is Frazier’s Golden Bough. Frazier (author of the Golden Bough and an early Joseph Campbell for those of you not familiar with him) went through and first catalogued all these various mythologies, including the Dying God . . . the God who comes to the earth in human form, sacrifices himself, and is reborn. Everyone nodded away at all his examples from pagan mythologies, but then it was like, “Wait . . . God that comes to earth as mortal . . . dies . . . is reborn. . . HOLY SHIT THAT’S THE JESUS.” Frazier–although he’s not talked about as often as Nietzsche, or Einstein, or Darwin–was just as important as these thinkers in terms of helping catapult us into our modern (and postmodern) world.

By: Philip Palmer

Philip Palmer — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:08:17 +0000

Thanks Laurie…I did bite hard on the bullet before writing in all those Christian references – but if you’re writing about myths, those are all huge myths! And there’s no point skirting around it.

And of course, many myths have some grounding in historical truth – mixed in with the, let’s face it, obviously made-up stuff.

I write science fiction not fantasy…but myth is the major story tool for all of us. Tales of the fantastical…it’s a vast tradition, dating all the way back to when the first gods created the first mythic universe….

By: Laurie

Laurie — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:10:48 +0000

I just discovered this site yesterday and it is chock full of awesome.

This was an excellent read. I like that it takes no prisoners, though I admit that it raised my eyebrows to see John the Baptist alongside Hercules. Most discussions I read that touch on these things skirt all the way around Christian mythos. Brave, brave man.

By: NicolePeeler

NicolePeeler — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:03:43 +0000

AWESOME guest blog on Mythology up on my site by Philip Palmer! http://www.nicolepeeler.com/2010/02/gues... @phil2palmer

By: Philip Palmer

Philip Palmer — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:26:54 +0000

Thanks so much Nicole!

Beware the Monomyth, that’s one scary sucker…

While I have you here, just one question: why selkies? And why Scottish malt whisky? (That’s two questions, but I have a hunch they’re connected..)

By: Nicole Peeler

Nicole Peeler — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:31:58 +0000

Thanks so much for this post, Philip! I lurv it! Not least because this idea of the Monomyth is EXACTLY what I’m playing with in TR. I always come from the Jungian archetype angle, but I always say I’m applying Occam’s razor to archetypes, or the idea of monomyths.

Obviously, the reasons every culture has these mythologies is because they’re REAL, right? Right?

Okay, maybe not. But if I’m going to create deceitful, untrue art, I might as well revel in that act. And challenge some of my favorite thinkers at the same time.

By: dirtyboy1uk

dirtyboy1uk — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:14:23 +0000

RT @NicolePeeler: AWESOME guest blog on Mythology up on my site by Philip Palmer! http://www.nicolepeeler.com/2010/02/gues... @phil2palmer