Modern Myths

I’m tempted to type with  a lithp and write about thethe Modern Myths who go out Binge Drinking. They’re not like the Myths I used  to know in my day. And boy don’t they grow up quickly thethe dayth?

Then I thought that I thould be more theriouth …oh sorry.. Try again Maggers.

Modern myths? Diana was murdered. The CIA blew up the Twin Towers. Car thieves stole a car with a dead body inside.

Are these really Myths?

Teaching Literature to Primary School Children we always used the following definition:

A traditional, typically ancient story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that serves as a fundamental type in the world view of a people, as by explaining aspects of the natural world or delineating the psychology, customs, or ideals of society

Well, we left out the Psychology bit. So no, these are not myths.

Look  at another definition:

A popular belief or story that has become associated with a person, institution, or occurrence, especially one considered to illustrate a cultural ideal.

Maybe we’re getting closer. I don’t know that these “Myths” fit the “cultural ideal” part of this but it doesn’t say that that is essential.

I am not a fan of John Ruskin for various reasons but he defined a myth thus:

A myth, in its simplest definition, is a story with a meaning attached to it other than it seems to have at first; and the fact that it has such a meaning is generally marked by some of its circumstances being extraordinary, or, in the common use of the word, unnatural.”
This definition was made by John Ruskin, in 1869, in The Queen of the Air.

Close to what we used to teach the children.

What is my point you may wonder?

Well, simply that there is no such thing as a modern myth.

Now back to thothe Modern miths….