Note on Settings: History vs. Mythology

courtesy: http://kotiro.petermichaud.com/

What is Mythology?

Mythology is a narrative explaining how the world came to be in its present form. This is also the frame most authors are writing from when they develop their back story: how did the setting get the way it is?

The difference is that the events in a myth are metaphors, whereas a back story is supposed to be a self-consistent historical account.

For example, there is a Māori story about Tāne, god of the forest, who ascends to the highest heaven to receive 3 baskets of knowledge from Io, the prime mover, or “self created.” Tāne, who himself is one of the most revered gods, has to undergo extensive purification on the way up and down. The story is instructive of the procedure to receive sacred knowledge from the iwi priests: one must have the birthright, receive permission, undergo the appropriate purification, go through the correct rites of initiation, and respect the tapu of both the institutions and knowledge itself.

The specific facts of Tāne’s ascent aren’t relevant to the message. In fact, the story changes each time an elder tells it, because in large part, the details of the account don’t matter.

What is History?

History, on the other hand, is an attempt to relate the facts of the past world in such a way as to explain the present state of affairs. Ideally, it’s not moralistic or metaphorical, it’s just an explanation of cause and effect.

It’s complex because there is never just one history — there are just people looking back, with their foibles and biases, and deciding what is relevant and what isn’t. It’s Americans believing they won World World II because they were morally superior to the Nazis, and it might well have been the Nazis looking back and saying the same if they had won. It’s people trying to make sense of chaos, and finding one or two main causes for events that probably had thousands or millions of tiny causes.

It’s never easy to figure out exactly what happened, and it’s impossible to figure out exactly why. Remember that.The confusion maui_tames_the_sun

It’s common in mythology to tell “just so” stories. A good example is the hero Māui, who decided that the days were too short. How to solve that problem? He kicked the sun’s ass and told him to slow down.

It’s a common pattern for a hero to take some supernatural action that is very direct, works immediately, and has no unintended side effects. That’s okay, because the action isn’t a fact, it’s a metaphor. That’s not how history is though, and it’s not how your setting should be.

Don’t be confused: mythology is a metaphor for the status quo. History is an explanation for the status quo. If you use one when you should use the other, both your mythology and history will suck.

Some Considerations

History is biased. History is written by the victors, as they say. You as an author have to know what “really” happened, and you have to decide what people think happened. There’s a difference, and the gap between belief and reality is often ripe for stories.

Causes are complex. There is never a single cause for a major event in history. If you can explain a major world event in one sentence, you are writing a myth, not an account of history. Explain the many reasons and forces that allowed or forced an event to occur.

Groups do not make decisions. In bad back stories, groups will often decide something and take decisive action. The only group that behaves that way is an army, and the reason is that it’s actually a person or small group deciding and the army following orders. In reality, public sentiment is divided and takes time to evolve, and even when there’s wide agreement on a subject, many possible actions can be taken. Cliches like neighboring kingdoms that all have very specific cultural traits, all diametrically opposed, smack of myth, not history.

People are in power for a reason. Lots of reasons. No one just declares themselves dictator; it’s a process of building small pockets of support and infrastructure that eventually leave no one to fight back when power is finally taken. Think about why leaders, especially “evil” leaders, are in power.

Posted in Indian Science Congress, MYTH AND HISTORY, mythology and science, Vedas and scientific discoveries, Vymanika Sastra