Superheroes and villains satisfy the need for a mythology in modern society.
Discuss.
>>81492526
right in the feels with that one
>>81492463
It serves the same function, but mythology and ritual aren't really that huge in modern culture. Mythology is tied more to ritual, anyways, which a society heavy on tech and social media still integrates into daily life.
That said, I wonder what the percentage is of people interested in capeshit that are religious. I'd imagine not very high.
>>81492792
Should clarify, I meant mythology and ritual in the classical sense.
>>81492463
No. Mythology is no longer needed in our society because religion has been differentiated into a separate sphere of life.
>>81492463
>Superheroes and villains satisfy the need for a mythology in modern society.
agreed
>>81492792
are you capable of writing a clear, concise sentence?
>>81492850
Mythology was more than a need to have a supernatural force governing the universe. For the longest time it fulfilled the innate human desire for storytelling and narrative. That same desire isn't gone, it's just slowly transformed into a different medium as society has become more secular.
>>81492906
Didn't proofread. Ya got me there, anon.
I swear I write good.
I wrote an 8 page essay for my Mythology course that used Campbellian, Jungian and Proppian analyses to help support the idea that comic book stories are the modern myth.
Most fun I had writing an essay.
>>81493078
Go on
>>81493078
>8 page essay
Sure, I'm always down to read a high-schooler's thoughts.
>>81492943
I disagree with you. Mythology stems directly from some discourse on the transcendent, and it is through narrative that a greater religious discourse is divulged under the guise of entertainment. It was always intrinsically tied to religion. I'd say that the innate human desire for storytelling that you contend is an extension of a desire to categorize and explain the universe. Mythological stories offer methods to ease anxieties surrounding the greater world.
With the development of the secular field, mythology was no longer necessary because it was seen as literary genre rather than quasi-historical entertainment. This genre may have influenced the conventions of capecomics with the advent of the Hero figure, but they are largely distinct in my opinion.
>>81493134
I used Campbellian analysis on Spider-Man's origin and used both Jungian and Proppian analyses on end of Civil War and OMD (Don't hurt me) to show that, despite the span of time and the numerous stories in that time, it can still work.
Chose Spidey because he's my favorite and I'm well versed in his stories and chose those stories because origin was perfect for Campbell's monomyth and CW/OMD had a lot of elements, Jungian and Proppian analyses are very meticulous when deconstructing the story and I wanted a challenge.
>>81493192
College, buddy
>>81492989
fair enough, happens to the best of us.
Storytelling in general serves the role of mythology. Superheroes do share a sense of bombast and grandiosity with mythology, but not in the same specific sense.
>>81493217
I'm not saying that mythology didn't fulfill humanity's curiosity for the universe. Rather, I'm arguing that entertainment and religion were one and the same for a long period of time. Traditional oral storytelling and most classical pieces of entertainment (written, visual, performative) were based in religion because it was common knowledge and easily accessible to the layman.
Pointing to the Greeks, specifically, there is a common thread tying their religious figures and histories together, but through the years different iterations of the same story are told and changes based on the social and cultural mood of the times. Antigone, for example, is a historical figure tied to Oedipus and heavily involved in the Ancient Grecian idea of fate and the will of the gods. Sophocles' play, however, was written in a time where Athens was nationalistc, and he warned against the dangers a democratic society could face under a tyrannical regime.
Fast forward to the modern era, where the layman has easy access to news and discourse, that same sort of mythological storytelling can be seen in comics. It's not exclusive to it, but it does serve a similar role.
>>81492526
you had to make me remember
>>81493319
Not gonna lie, when I was in college I used whatever opportunity I could to write about comics, cartoons, and vidya. Wrote a paper about the differences between Eastern and Western sociocultural values and how that affected modern video games.
Fun to write and I got to academically bullshit about Final Fantasy.
>>81492463
Nobody actually believes superheroes and villains exist.
>>81493553
I think your point is valid, but OP states that cape comics "satisfy the need for a mythology", thus supposing that there is a need in the first place. This is not the cases.
Mythological concepts can be used to address pressing matters, but so can other forms of literature. Saying that Cape Comics fill a void left by mythology because it can be used to address other issues in an entertaining manner is tantamount to saying Pop-Eye fills a void in the wake of mythology. The only reason OP supposes his statement is, in my view, because of parallels in Hero characters. That is their chief similarity in function.
>>81493678
Shedding light on an unknown factor or showing the correlation between it and something that seems entirely unrelated is always fun.
Passion helps get shit done and helps you put in was is necessary and integral.
I loved anytime my writing courses let us integrate any topic into our writings and what we were learning.
>>81492463
>>81493919
Fair enough. I just wasn't thinking in terms of extremes like that because, like you said, there are many different ways for humans to address sociocultural issues and religion. The relationship between comics and mythology is not a mutually exclusive one.
>>81493959
For sure. That's one of the most valuable things I learned in college. Take what you're passionate about and it's possible to find a way to work with it artistically or academically.
>>81494236
>>81492463
nah, do your freshman lit homework yourself.
>>81492463
Mythology is inherently tied to ritual and the modern (western) world doesn't have it's rituals tied to it's mythology.
Mythology wasn't just a series of stories, it was legit and genuine belief and was used to explain the world around a culture. Superman doesn't do that. Batman doesn't do that.
this is a nice thread.
>>81497500
Fair point, but IMO it has shifted to to the belief in the ideals these characters represent
>>81492463
I fulfill there need with World of Warcraft RP
>>81498199
that*
>>81493192
You creepy fuck.
>>81492463
>Superheroes and villains satisfy the need for a mythology in modern society.
It's a lazy and culturally nearsighted argument, IMO. The world doesn't revolve around superhero comics, and the importance of mythology, in a Classical or Campbellian sense has been eroding ever since the start of the mass communications era.
You want your modern myths? It's the myths of capitalism, socialism, and all the other "-isms" modern society uses to reduce the contemporary experience into something it can parse intellectually, and give history some sense of linear narrative.
>>81492526
Just eat a beefy nacho loaded griller.
>>81499621
see
>>81497949
(Not trying to argue, I just want to hear your thoughts)
More wolverine
>>81492463
capeshit satisfies the need for manchildren to never have to grow up.
Eh, first you need to show there's a need for mythology. Next you need to show why other ones can't suffice.
>>81497949
What characters? Because beside Superman, Batman, Spider-man, Hulk and maybe a few others, no cape represent an "ideal" to the people.
The "super-heroes are modern mythos" thing makes sense only for a few of them. Guys like Iron-man or Green Lantern have no meaning behind being funny pictures on paper.
