This is just a short post, because I'm going to start another series, describing my personal views on how best to incorporate mythology - popular and historical - in one's work. And yes I'll explain what I mean by that, too. Of course it'll be full of personal bias and weirdness, but if you read this blog then you know what to expect. Luna also wants to contribute and I don't really plan on letting her because that would probably not go over very well.
For one thing, yes, it's popular to do. And yes, if you want to create your own whole mythology, that's fine, too. Just don't come crying when you find out how insanely hard it is to weave all the stuff together properly. Plus there's the fact that many mythologies have a distinct sort of theme to them: the gods - or spirits, or entities, or whatever-they-may-be - all work together in a certain distinct way, have varying relationships, and often all bear some similarities. And even more important than that, common mythologies teach us to commonly associate so-and-so with this-and-that: in other words, it saves you the trouble of a whole lot of character building and design. I mean, hell. I just say the name 'Zeus,' and what do you end up thinking about? What kind of thing are you picturing? Beards and lightning bolts. You can play off that: either in the expected direction, or by inverting or juxtaposing the anticipated image with something more of your own creation.
But we'll get more into that next week. For now, let that serve as a warmup. Partly because Luna wants to. We're not going to go punch a god in the face, Luna. That's not how it works. Please put that away and I'll read you a folk tale instead of trying to make one with you. Mythology is not just about things punching other things.
~Scrivener Blooms
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