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The Cult of the Silver Pistol
As you can see I have edited this post so the general comments actually appear in the comments section. They are, of course, out of order, but the ideas remain. Part II of this post coming soon.
3 comments:
I just realised Chrisl is actually Chriph...although mine and your names really suck...so it doesn't matter that much.
Oh, and on second look at Lian's post, my story is more like four times that size...
yeah man, you touch on some of the exact issues I had in mind.
Beginning with your last point about Chriph's posts, i hope the satirical side came out in my story as well since I think making our myths funny and sarcastic is going to be pretty important as well. We should, I think, try to directly address the milieu in which we find ourselves (as per Homer, Genesis etc.) rather than try to copy the style and form of ancient myth since it has lost its air of irony to modern readers. Anyway, if the irony wasn't clear we need to make it so number 1.
As for theology, i'd like to approach this from a Genesian (?) theology that would hover in the background but never become explicit so that we could blur the lines about what deity means/implies and thereby comment on all sorts of social manifestations of religion, worship etc. So, in a way, it would be a sort of polytheistic even slightly animistic mythology but it would subtly delineate monotheism. Not like Tolkien or Lewis who have lesser beings representing the pantheon under God but in a more devious and less systematized way.
as for mortal interaction with deity I think that is crucial as the entry point. This is what makes mythology so un-systematic and difficult is that it is concerned with human problems and human perspectives. So, yeah, if we keep that very "mortal" perspective I think it will be more interesting and work better.
I agree with your last point, too. I'm not that interested in creating a new world for this mythology. It's fun to create your own world complete with geography etc. but it just doesn't ring that true with real myth (again Genesis or greek myth). They seem either to assume the readers/listeners are familiar with the geography or they are very vague on where the place was or what it was like. It's all very phenomenological rather than scientific. On the other hand, the "scientific/historical" approach is very important culturally at the moment so I think it is something we need to deal with in the myth.
Which brings me to a fourth point - Science. I'm not sure if you noticed the allusions to science and machines in the story, particularly in connection with the gods. I really don't want to go down the Tolkien path of contrasting the evils of technology with the natural world or anything, but to me science versus mysticism and myth is a really important theme. The relationship, of course, is ambiguous and may not always be adversarial. I often think about the law made by a prominent atheist: "Any alien being, sufficiently advanced, would be indistinguishable from God" [where God is proving his deity through phenomena]. I love the title of your post because it kind of hints at all this: that the pistol has become some sort of relic or icon. That's pretty cool.
Anyway, there's some rambling responses to your points. Really, I'm just agreeing with you and trying to clarify or expand.
So, this was supposed to be the much anticipated story that I've been harping on about...but... after I spent most of one night (and early morning) reworking it, I reread it only to find it had gotten much 'crappier' than before. I also got a certain critic to read the story and she agreed it had lost something rather than gained anything. SO...rather than keep us in this limbo of languid propositions I thought I would go ahead and post a few things to get some real discussion started. As it is, my piece would have been only obscurely relevant so it certainly wouldn't have been cause for a sudden outpouring of collective and cohesive understanding.
I will finish it, and hopefully soon, although it has turned into a rather large short story for a blog (I think maybe twice the size of your's, Lian). But you can wait in any case...
In brief summary, I took away quite a few ideas from Lian's post. (I will get to Chrisl's posts later on). They are:
1. The topic of 'deity'. I have found in the fantasy and sci-fi that I have read, (although limited) deity is approached in one of two ways. Firstly, a traditional or orthodox way; that is, with a distinct correlation between human religions/beliefs/myths, or secondly, with a scientific or even abstract approach (especially the Arthur C Clarke,/Isaac Asimov school of thought).
I think these ideas of semi-gods, false gods and even 'human' gods are rarely tackled in such a way that propels one towards theological thought. By theological, I do not mean in a 'Christian ' sense or even a religious sense...merely the study of gods. The broader implications are numerous. This point is perhaps the one I feel is still very undeveloped, but perhaps very crucial and therefore, to me, of great importance.
2. Interaction between humanity and deity. This needs less explanation and really ties in with the last point. I think you struck gold with the young boy's part in the narrative and I personally was dying to hear his story in more detail (which sort of led me on my own story path...)
3.Untamed location. I do not know whether this was deliberate or not but I read the narrative with a very vulnerable sense of time and space. It was ethereal but still created a very defined mood in relation to place... almost the idea that you can rely solely on character and tone to fill in the other blanks that traditional writers of 'myth' love to describe or simply steal from true to life situations E.g. Tolkien for the former, Most Greek Myth for the Latter. I drew heavily on this idea for my piece.
So these were the three biggies. Does that fit at all into what you were thinking? Some more detailed exposition of these ideas would be great... I will have to do some more thinking myself
Before I sign off I will mention what I took from Chrisl's posts, although it may seem cheesy. Ancient Myth had a way of never taking itself too seriously and think that is something that we need to always keep in mind. Myth can imitate life, but usually in a distorted and sometimes outrageous way. I don't know what the implications are here but...time is still our friend. (Our combined age after Saturday will be Sixty-Nine...)
Toddl
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