Story Lab: Crash Course Myth Videos

I found the Crash Course videos on Mythology to be very thought-provoking. I thought it was really interesting how long the idea of myths as something primitive has been around for. The idea that science somehow replaces myth is really fascinating to me. I feel like I used to subscribe to this view of myths as something old and rather unuseful outside of entertainment purposes but after a semester of reading and re-writing myths and folk tales in my own ways I think I've grown to understand why myths have endured so long and how they remain relevant. As was pointed out in the video about the hero's journey, stories and their unifying elements help us understand something about ourselves and about what it means to be human. The art of telling and understanding stories seems to be one of the most universal way to spread ideas, feelings and information. I liked the perspective presented about the mythology handbook that provides people with a bunch of questions to help them consider myths in a variety of ways. I think that is how the most meaning can be drawn out of myths and I think it is their breadth of meanings that make them so captivating and increasingly relevant and informative.

When the videos dove deep into the theories of mythology I did often find myself wondering what the point of some mythological theory is. For example, I don't really see how identifying seventeen different sub-parts of a hero's journey is really necessary. It feels somewhat arbitrary. I'm sure you could find more sub-parts in the hero's journey if you looked hard enough so it seems good enough to stop at the three basic divisions of separation, trial and victory and return but that's just me. Overall though the videos made me consider the importance of myths both in ancient and modern times and I enjoyed them for that reason.

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