Writing: Using Myths to Kick-Off a Fantasy World

[jpskewedthrone]

This was the title of the one of the panels I was on at Worldcon and I have to say that I'm not 100% certain why I was put on the panel. David Coe (davidbcoe) wondered the same thing when he introduced himself as one of the members of the panel, and what he said pretty much summed it up for me: I don't use myths to create my world, I create the world on my own.

Don't get me wrong, myths can be a great source for jump-starting a novel, and there are plenty of great novels out there that began in just this way. One of the all-time classics that was brought up on the panel was the Arthur myth. We spent a bit of time discussing whether or not we really need another novel based on the Arthur myth, and what it boiled down to was that any myth can be used over and over and over again as long as the author does something new with it, or has something unique about their writing that makes the myth seem new. So the short answer is yes. (The general rumbling unvoiced agreement amongst everyone on the panel was no, we don't.)

There was also some discussion of what we actually mean by "myth" and the fact that it can so easily be confused with "religion" and how you have to be careful when using a religion's mythos when the people that practice that religion--perhaps fervently--as still around. Obviously, you don't want to offend the people that practice that religion, but at the same time shouldn't you have the right to play around with their mythos in a novel, especially an obvious fantasy without fear of offending someone? (Look at C.S. Lewis.) I have plains people in my new novel and I spent a good deal of time stressing over whether or not I'd be offending Native Americans if I used something as simple as a peace pipe. I didn't base the culture of these plains people on any of the Native American group out there--in fact, went out of my way NOT to read about their beliefs so that whatever I made up on my own would in fact be my own--but when it really comes down to it, the religion of a people that live on the plains is going to have some similarities to real world cultures based on plains no matter how much I play with them. This is because the world itself--the plains--is part of what shapes the culture and that culture's mythos.

And that's more or less what I had to say about the topic of the panel at Worldcon: I don't think myths kick off fantasy worlds and are used for the basis of cultures. It's done in reverse. I think the world itself shapes the myths and forms the cultures. You have to look at where people are living and what those people have to deal with on a daily basis--have to seriously THINK about this--and once you've done that, THEN you can start to see the shape and form that the culture's myths and religion create. In my books, I have a race of people called the Chorl who live on volcanic islands in the middle of the ocean, sort of like Hawaii. Their culture and their myths are based mostly on the ocean, because most of their food sources come from the ocean. It controls them to some extent, so it seems logical that they'd form a religion around that. Similarly, they have some beliefs based on the violence and unpredictability of the volcanoes on the islands. These are obvious factors that would form their myths.

However, in a fantasy world, you also have to take into the account how the magic of the world will affect their myths and religions as well. The Chorl were affected by the passage of the White Fire, one of the magical forces in my books, and this White Fire's presence significantly altered their myth and religion when it first passed through. There was no explanation for it. It simply appeared, passed over them, and then moved on. And it was pervasive--everyone at the time experienced it. They'd need to come up with an explanation for what this was, and they did, and this shaped their mythos and their beliefs. Similarly, the Throne of Amenkor is a rather significant source of magic for the city of Amenkor, and while it isn't as spectacular as the White Fire--they know where the throne came from; know that it was created--it still has its own presence and certain beliefs/myths have arisen around it.

In the end, all I'm rambling on about here is how I think about the creation of my myths and religions for my books, and my surprise at the panel topic and how it played out. I've never used any of our own real world myths or religions as a basis for a fantasy novel. I let the world of the fantasy novel create the myths themselves. I mean, what came first, the world or the myths we use to explain to ourselves how that world works? Shouldn't creating your own fantasy world follow the same path?

Comments

[davidkeck.livejournal.com]

(greetings from the ether)

I'm sure we've all read enough that we are fluidly stealing from a thousand myths with every keystroke.

I like grubbing around below the big myth level, hunting for the weird details of other times and faiths and places -- the little things might trick folks into believing they're really somewhere else. (Playing the willing suspension game).

(Another world should be at least as full of such surprises as another country, I think).

~D

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

We are of course stealing from thousands of myths when we write whether we realize it consciously or not. I guess I'm just saying that I don't sit down and say, "I'm going to write an Aztec-like culture today because their creation myth is so cool." It's more like, "I have people living in the high elevations of these mountains," and in the end they are sort of Inca-like.

[davidkeck.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I'm with you.

And I think that lifting an entire mythology might be better suited to either the true historical fantasy (where every element of the culture is reproduced with as much veracity as the author can manage) or modern fantasies (where one wants to avoid the Lady in the Water effect of invented mythology).