The Modern Mythology By: Mr. Scientist
I was listening to a discussion on NPR recently about the place of mythology in today's society. The Greeks and Romans instantly come to mind in any discussion of myth, but is our modern society just rehashing these old tales with present-day culture? George Lucas has openly said that ancient mythology heavily influenced his writing of the original Star Wars movies. Since then science fiction has exploded not only with an entire Star Wars universe, but also with Star Trek, Babylon 5, Battle Star Galactica and the like. It is interesting the different tones that each of these shows adopts. I recently watched the entire Star Trek Deep Space 9 (DS9) series and I loved it! The bonus features were very insightful and the show creators admitted to giving it a Western feel. They wanted the space station to serve as an old west town. Quark’s bar was like the town saloon. You had a sheriff in Odo and nonstop encounters of good vs. bad. Another noteworthy sci-fi series with a similar Western flare was the cult-classic Firefly. There is just something relatable and appealing about the grime and grit of the old west that comes out in this classic by Joss Whedon as well as the DS9 series. But is this all just a modern take on classic mythology? Good vs. Evil? Dark vs. Light? These battles between forces, either in sci-fi classics or often real life battles, get hyped and passed on until they become myth and legend.
But let’s return to the NPR special. They brought up another interesting point in that even today we are still referencing the ancient Greek and Roman myths! A thousand years from now, will any of our modern mythology still be in our cultural memes? Will Star Wars and Star Trek be as ubiquitous in the modern consciousness? These days we have things like Harry Potter and an endless onslaught of zombies, werewolves and of course, vampires. What is going to stick? What of today’s stories is our modern mythology?
January 20th, 2012 - 15:09
@Mr. Scientist We watched Cowboys and Aliens last night and I was surprised. I won't say it was a great movie but it was fun and entertaining. I was surprised at the outset that it was a Jon Favreau movie. As the movie unfolded I didn't have much else in the way of 'surprise' or overwhelming revelation though.
In this case it was a sci-fi western. The plot was fine but the story and characters lacked any sort of depth and refinement. (Perhaps this was the Jon Favreau element?) Aliens come. Start stealing people. One escapes with an alien weapon. Chaos and panic ensue. People kill each other. People kill aliens. Another mysterious alien destroys the alien ship. All the people inherit the alien gold and everyone leaves happy.
As we've discussed it isn't enough just to have a solid motif. It takes strong characters and a layered story. All things which Star Wars Episodes IV-VI had and things which Star Trek had the benefit of a long running TV series to develop and explore. Sadly the Star Wars universe was let down by episodes I-III as they all universally lacked these key elements.