From: Mermaid (hidden@lucifer.com)
Date: Sun Feb 01 2004 - 02:49:16 MST
[quote from: Jake on 2004-01-26 at 16:18:12] We could be taken much
more seriously if we would spend a little effort beforehand to actually engineer a being, human or otherwise, to take the trip rather than simply sending a raw individual better suited for terrestrial existence on a mission that he/she/it has no hope of succeeding at.[...]So in a nutshell here is my version of mythology which I think will take humanity into the relevant (nonextinctual) future. We shall through
genetic engineering and cloning technology succeed in creating a species of space faring animals capable of spreading our own values if not our own genetics in some degree (ever consider the possibilities of hybridization?)
across the cosmos.
[Mermaid]Hi Jake. From what I understand, you are suggesting an outline for virian mythology consisting of the space monkeys. I do appreciate the idea of creating virian mythology. I encourage and would appreciate entries for virian mythology. It can be fantasy with a vision.
Although, I have to add that mythology usually follows a certain formula. I recommend Joseph Campbell's Power of Myth for easy reading. Online, you can find www.pantheon.org for world mythology and the cast. To write about space monkeys is just sci-fi, but to weave the ideas and foresight around a framework for life is mythology.
For Joseph Campbell:
Power of Myth
Hero with a thousand faces
www.jcf.org
I'd also recommend looking into Mircea Eliade's works. His novels were mostly 'wet' and dreamy. Pass unless you are into that kind of fiction. Unlike Campbell, he did boldly go into the fiction arena. While Campbell wasnt openly irreligious, some took sides, but most of them walked the rope. While we might not always appreciate these authors and their ideas(I also recommend reading emile durkheim's sociology of religion), it is important to understand what we really need and seek is the underlying philosophy that is the tit for our own infant mythology to suckle. If cov is to be a modern religion and if we insist on creating and nurturing our own mythology, it has to be done in the right way.
Eliade's major works:
Patterns in comparitive religion
The Sacred and the Profane: nature of religion
The myth of the eternal return
Images and Symbols.
I believe that without a full understanding of mythology and how mythology operates, one should stay away from creating a new mythology. I havent read most of the above titles. I invite reviews for any Campbell/Eliade works. However, I am looking forward to reading The Saga of the Space Monkeys as sci fi..:)
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