For those of you subscribed to my Wordle Quest stories on Cent Pages, your subscription also includes this Mytholoversal Newsletter of essays and writing project updates.
In this issue, look for a major Wordle Quest update after a bit of mythology housekeeping…
Myths vs. Mythology vs. Lore
In my last newsletter, I shifted my usual focus from ancient mythology to modern nationalist mythology, particularly the mythology of the United States, reflecting its foundations, its values, and its formative events.
My colleague in mythology, D.W. Frauenfelder, wrote a response in his own excellent newsletter, The Invention of Greek Mythology. He makes some excellent points. At the most basic level, David and I agree on most things. Where we differ is mainly a matter of emphasis, approach, and, it would seem, terminology.
In my own working definition, “myths” are the stories a culture tells itself about itself, while “mythology” is the study of these myths. The problem is that some words in the English language are slippery little eels that defy our attempts to nail them down to a single agreed-upon definition. David points out that “myth” has a negative connotation that he traces back to Plato, and therefore he prefers to stretch “mythology” to serve double duty.
Neither of us is necessarily right or wrong in this, as long as our usage is consistent within our own writing. It just requires a reader to do some extra work when moving from one source to another, while also never confusing “myth” with “miss.”
My daughter is currently reading the Mermaid Tales series by Debbie Dadey, which uses the term “Calypsos” to distinguish a particular group of mermaids from the other young mermaids at Trident Academy.
In reception studies, we might talk about the “mythology of Mermaid Tales,” meaning those many aspects of the series inspired by Classical mythology. Meanwhile, in literary theory, we might talk about the “mythology of Mermaid Tales,” meaning the the history and rules that distinguish the setting of Mermaid Tales from other works of fiction.
I’d be happy to write about either of these, by the way, if there’s any interest in the comments. There’s a lot going on in these happy little mermaid stories.
The main point is that our slippery eel-like word “mythology” is stretching itself into multiple contexts.
So when we refer to the “mythology of Star Wars,” we could either be talking about George Lucas’s obsession with the monomyth of Joseph Campbell, or about the history of the Jedi Order. That gets confusing, so for this newsletter, I’ll try to refer to the former as “mythology” and the later as “lore.”
With the exception that capital-L “Lore” will be used exclusively to describe the mythology-themed “Lore Olympus” webcomic by New Zealand artist Rachel Smythe.
But even that doesn’t solve our terminology problem entirely, since the lines between “mythology” and “lore” can blur as story and culture interact, as the stories of Greek mythology have interacted with culture for thousands of years.
Getting back to American nationalist mythology…
In John McCain’s 2008 Presidential run, he referred to himself as a maverick within his own party and within American politics as a whole. In one instance, he referred to himself as Luke Skywalker attacking the Death Star with an X-wing, and everyone knew that he meant the reference as a call to put personal conscience ahead of partisanship, and the needs of the people ahead of the aggrandizement of a political party.
In this case at least, the lore of Star Wars has been incorporated into the mythology of American politics.
Wordle Quest NIGHTfall Event
Every morning, a new Wordler sets out on a quest for the five-letter word that can protect Wordler Village for one more day…
That was the setup for daily stories using Wordle answers as writing prompts and posted to Greg.Cent.co as free digital collectibles—until Wordle 388 tripped me up. It seems NIGHT has one more rhyme than I realized, and six guesses weren’t quite enough for me to get them all.
In the lore of Wordle Quest, a single missed puzzle was said to mean the destruction of Wordler Village. In my writing, I try to keep my promises. And so, WQ Season One drew to a close with the survivors of a cataclysm scattered from the remains of their village, and still hounded by the agents of an ongoing curse.
As I write this, the final episode of Season One, “Wordle Quest 392,” is still available as a digital collectible for readers to claim on my Cent Page. Readers have limited time to grab each WQ story before the next one gets released, and each story’s print run is capped by how many copies are claimed. None are held back in any kind of vault or warehouse. But in this case, the entirety of Season One collection will be capped, and “Wordle Quest 393” will begin a brand new Season Two collection.
The Wordle Quest project folds unpredictable daily themes into a ever-expanding and deepening story world. I don’t know what’s going to happen in Season Two. I don’t even know what story tomorrow’s Wordle answer will inspire. But I’m having a blast writing these, and I hope the WQ community is having a blast reading and collecting them as well.
The story is constantly evolving. It’s come a long way already.
When Season Two sets off into uncharted territory, probably later this week, collectibles from the early formative stories of Season One will remain in the hands of nearly 3,000 early supporters. There’s a secondary market, but collecting a complete set of Season One is going to be a challenge. Even with the benefit of having written these stories myself, I’ve only managed to collect 24 out of 40 of them.
NIGHT has fallen. Last call on Season One.
Medusa Writer’s Studio
There wil be another chapter ready for review from my ongoing literary collaboration with Cryptoversal Books and the Medusa Collection. It really is coming soon.
The community-directed novel under development will attempt to voice a long-repressed part of a once-diverse canon. The community has asked for a full-length novel version of Medusa’s story that can be described as Circe meets The DaVinci Code.
I will provide further updates as the novel progresses toward publication.
—Greg R. Fishbone, Mythology Disruptor
Slippery Little Eels of the English Language
Slippery indeed! Long ago I used to distinguish between a number of different terms: "a myth," myth, mythos, mythology, myth and author, author.
"A myth" = a lie. ("That's a myth. The truth is...")
"myth" = a traditional story used in a particular culture for particular reasons; does not generally have an author ("The Achilles myth is mostly about the importance of family")
mythos = The collection of myths that make a up a coherent and meaningful complex or network of stories in a particular culture ("The Greek mythos is a product of the collision of Bronze Age Greek warrior culture and West Asian polytheism and epic")
mythology = The study of myths.
myth and author = a traditional story reworked by a specific author for specific literary reasons (e.g. Sophocles' Oedipus the King)
author = an original story that has no ties to myths on its surface (e.g. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald).
Lore and legend... we can go on and on. Nowadays for me it's just "myths" (the original stories) and "mythology" (the bending, blending, and breaking of those original stories). But to each their own.