It’s answering these questions that makes a world unique and believable. Mythology is about explaining how things came to be. In creating the mythology for my books, I look closely at the world I’ve built along with the premise of the story. A futuristic mythology born of predicted apocalyptic events. With the newly emerged and proven theories of space and time and the universe expanding faster and faster (not more slowly as some would believe) to end up in a black hole that swallows it entirely – like how do we explain that? Mythology, that’s how. It is all a way to rationalize, to understand our history, what makes us human and to explain the anomalies and paradoxes of who we are and where we’ve come from.Īnd where will the next new mythology arise? The future.
This is the mythology of ancient aliens coming to earth for their own purposes and seeding mankind (biologically and technologically). And many myths born of ancient legends and modern science are being created and believed by people (no judgements here). We’ve established that not only can we create new mythology we must do it to explain the rules of the new worlds we’ve created. How do heroes, people and proto-people (vampires, werewolves and the like) behave? What kills them (silver bullets, kryptonite or a stake through the heart)? Who are the gods, and what are their rules? How did creation happen and what happens after death? Why are their problems? Can man solve them or is he powerless? We discover new ways to escape and to solve problems.
When we delve into other people’s belief systems, we challenge and enrich our own. Do we have to believe in those specific gods for the mythology to be relevant, to explain creation, our relationship with the world, our struggle with life’s paradoxes and our need to have legitimate heroes to inspire us? Not at all. We no longer believe in the Greek Pantheon of gods yet they’re as popular as ever in literature like in Rick Riordon’s Percy Jackson and the Olympian’s series. But who draws that line? Who determines when an idea crosses that line? And does it matter? Is it any less compelling? I think not. Apply it to books and we call it world building.Īnd perhaps that is the difference – scholars will argue that because what writers create isn’t part of the everyday, ordinary belief systems for people, then it isn’t legitimate myth. How was life created? How do the gods and people interact? What are the rules for interaction? Apply it to everyday life and we can call it religion. Humbug! Myth is a way for people to reconcile the paradoxes of life – the things that don’t make sense to us. There are those who argue that because myth is defined as being of the distant past, that it has its own cultural criteria and that it requires organic growth in a culture, that it can’t be instantly created. In Tolkien’s books, the fantasy world received a new mythology Middle Earth and that lore, that mythology, is still embraced by people today.
This is newly created mythology has been embraced by generations of readers. Today, we understand the social action and values for vampires, werewolves and zombies. When Bram Stoker penned Dracula, he took an obscure legend, gave it its own rules and a new mythology was born. Creating your own mythology – how cool! And loads of fun! We write in an era where readers embrace modern and new myth.
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