I think about classical mythology frequently.  Like Sayf Bowlin (thanks again for the super guest post!),  I was fascinated with the stories when I was a child, and I find that the literature I enjoy for myself and assign for my students has a definite theme of Greco-Roman deities.  Recently, as I was teaching William Butler Yeats’s “Leda and the Swan,” a powerful but distinctly unpleasant little gem, I was thinking about how Yeats used the story of Leda, usually captured by artists as a nice opportunity to pose a pretty girl with a pretty bird, as a vivid reminder of the way those in power use and discard others with no regard for either long- or short-term consequences.

Myths, despite their seemingly fixed narratives and characters, have always been in flux, changing, developing, rather than remaining as static artifacts.  Sometimes it is easy, particularly for those of us who are familiar with the classics, to stomp out of a movie or throw down a book and exclaim, “Well, that isn’t how that myth goes,” and certainly, there has been some mythological tinkering that is  just appalling in its disregard for any of the accepted elements of the stories as we know them. But rather than wringing our hands over kids these days who don’t know Tartarus from Tartar sauce, it might be more interesting to examine why writers, artists, and movie makers alter mythology. Sometimes, as we’ll see, there is not much depth or thought put behind the decision to change a traditionally accepted version of a classical myth, but often, those changes are done for very complex and thought-provoking reasons. In order to make this easier going, I’ll post this part, and later one(s) to follow.

[Read more…]

As you may recall, a few weeks ago, John posted my concerned letter to Focus on the Family after their two-part program that essentially threw up caution tape around the Twilight Saga. After a week or so, I received a response. Below please find the letter Focus wrote to me, my reply, and the most recent response from Focus to my second letter. I’m not planning to reply further, as they clearly are getting more mail on the subject, and I feel a little sorry for Michael Krider, as he may just be the poor guy who drew the short straw and was assigned to respond to the Twilight backlash. I am intrigued by the line in the last letter that indicates  Focus is, as John supposed, taking heat for not being anti-Twilight enough for some folks. There are also, it seems, plenty of others who, like myself, feel that High School Musical is far more “dangerous” than Twilight. Maybe I’m just over-sensitive, but it seems that the FOF folks are more afraid of the crowd that wants them to start burning any book with fictional elements than they are of me. Oh well, now back to our regularly scheduled thoughtful discussion; for me, that means back to the Hunger Games post I’m working up for later this week and some more thoughts on reading , writing, and thinking.

[Read more…]