Myths and Making

Just recently we made our own myths in class, and I was initially pretty scared of what that all entailed. I thought that myths had to be historically grounded, because the myths that we studied usually were, but I didn't consider that the myths themselves were created to try and understand something historically. Kind of obvious now, but of course the Mt. Fuji myths I read didn't research Mt. Fuji and its symbolism before being made. Rather, the myths attempted to answer questions the people of that time had, and when this clicked, it made writing my own myth a lot easier.

I first thought of questions I myself would like to have answered, but they all seemed either too specific to me or too vague to do in a short time. I decided to write on something I had stumbled across online around that time. being why British food gets the (almost deserved) bad rap in America. So I focused on the modern British baked potato, or "spud," as they call it. Apparently it's pretty common to top the things with tuna over there, which my mental palette doesn't agree with. I haven't tried them myself, but the topic blew up online when American food reviewers tried the dish and displayed a very obvious distaste for it. This fit the bill for writing a myth, because it's a question I asked myself, and clearly the rest of Americans on TikTok asked it too.

It was a fun write even though I'm not too experienced with creative writing. The process taught me to not overthink the genre of "myths" just because they're something I've never worked with before. They can basically be treated as writing a story, though the focus has to be on answering a question. Writing myths helped to simplify my understanding of the genre, and now I can start looking for which questions were trying to be answered by the author. In future teaching, I would probably use a similar structure that we used in class. I think the creative writing activity is strong and most importantly fun for students.

Anyway, if you read this far and haven't seen the myth yet, here's a link:

The British Potato

Comments

  1. Hey Mark!
    I agree entirely with your reflection. It's interesting to notice and learn that myths aren't necessarily historically grounded but are instead created to explain the unknown. It definitely makes myth-writing much more accessible and less intimidating--which I was at first. I also loved the modern and lighthearted approach to your myth. It underscores the idea that myths don't always need to be grand or ancient, but that they can be about everyday curiosities too. Your takeaway that myths are stories with a purpose? SPOT.ON. This would be such an amazing writing exercise to engage students with on the teaching side of things as well, especially since it does a great job of deepening understanding while still being relatable. Thanks for sharing!

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