Hello,
We all know that we have spent days trying to come up with a myth that is worth reading. We had to use our imagination to come up with something creative and fun. I really liked this assignment. The major difference that i noticed from creating my myth was the fact that i could create my own reality. One of the best parts is that when it comes to 'creation myths', there are no boundaries. The story could go in any direction, and as long as there is a good resolution, then the myth is valid. I decided to choose a creation myth because it is fun to play with a reality that humans are just content with. The major difference from creating a myth to analyzing or reading one is the ability to implement our own ideals and our fantasies. Also, by writing our myths, we do not have to analyze it from any particular perspective. There are no major reasons as to why we wrote our myths, aside from the fact that we must get a grade. For the professional myth writers, they have a story to tell that would probably resemble something that happened before.
I guess that this activity could be used in my classroom as a creative assignment. I would probably give the students an object/thing and i would ask them to tell me how 'it' was created creativily. Then i would allow them to draw that myth (rather than using a computer). I believe that the students would get an insight into what mythology is, and then i could go ahead and introduce world mythology.
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4 comments:
I agree that the best part of the assignment was creating our own reality. Nothing is more fun than imagining things as we wish they could be. I don't, however, agree that a creation myth must have a good resolution, if by good you mean positive. Even the garden of Eden story ended badly for Adam and Eve. You're right about the reason we wrote our myths. I had no extra-curricular plans to produce a myth anytime soon. However, there must be some reason we wrote the myths we did. I would not specify that my students write a creation myth unless we were studying creation myths specifically. I think I would let them choose what kind of myth they wanted to write, after having read a few different kinds. Then again, maybe I'll be mean and make them write a myth for each category as we go along :-) I think professional myth writers still most often adapt old stories to make "new" myths. Even the new myth movies we're seeing these days are adaptations of old books which are adaptations of even older stories.
You know, I really agree with you that this assignment was fun, mainly because we were allowed to be creative. I love when I am given the free reign to mess around with something and come up with something that is unique to me. The idea of having no boundaries definitely improves the outcome of your myth.
I also like your idea about having students draw their myth rather than using the computer. The only problem that I feel this poses is that some kids are not artistic when it comes to drawing. Although, it would have its appeal to some students, you may lose the interest of others. I would suggest that you create something that gives the students the option to create their own myth in a way that expresses what they are. For example, maybe some kids are graffiti artists and would love to draw. Giving them the opportunity to do so would be great. However, for the student that prefers writing a creation myth on paper, or computer for that matter, you may want to have that as a possibility to.
I think once you give the kids the opportunity to express themselves through one outlet or the other they truly have amazing results.
I love that fact that I was able to put my own ideas and imagination into my myth. I totally agree with you about not having any boundaries when writing our own myths (as long as it is appropriate material of course). I also agree with the comment that as a professional writer, one needs to put more thought into what they write. Although I wouldn't want anyone to feel that my myth is the ultimate truth, I agree with the fact that myths do implement certain ideas of personal reality. I thought that was a really cool way of looking at this assignment.
I loved the ability to “create your own reality” as well. So often in writing I have been forced to adopt an academic tone. I was afraid that writing so many essays has made my imagination shut off. It took me a long while to channel my imagination and even grasp the concept that “anything goes.” While myths have certain guidelines and tendencies, there is no wrong way to write a myth. In myth, any animal can talk (or not talk), and entire continent traversed in seconds, you can really make anything up. From the myths that I have read so far, it is clear that this concept was welcomed by everyone. Because we are so often robbed of these creative liberties, being able to use them again was like a breath of fresh air. I think the study of myth could have this same effect in a high school classroom. Just like us, high school students are often asked to do so much academic writing that there is little time for imaginative writing. This assignment is a great opportunity to blend the two and allow the students to create.
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