The Myth's New Duds

A Short Article by Krazydiamond

The idea of taking an old story and adding modern flares to it is not a new concept. Writers have been dressing the old up in shiny new duds for centuries. Even the Grimm brothers took their fairy tales from older spoken folklore. Mythpunk has its roots in this tradition of storytelling, a subgenre of science fiction influenced by the tropes, themes, and symbolism of myth and folklore to quote the venerable annals of Ooorah.

This doesn't necessarily mean any retelling to come out of the gate, which there have been a flood of, both in literature and in movies and television. Mythpunk strays into the weird, with bizarre twists, multicultural melding, exploration of sexuality, extensive symbolism, delving into fear of change, and often turns the original story on its ear.

Gaiman's Sandman comics land solidly in this territory, so does Willingham's Fables, another graphic novel series that thrusts fairy tale characters into more dark and compromising situations than Once Upon a Time could shake a stick at.

In the modern age of storytelling, mythpunk has many platforms, everything from comics, movies, novels, and television. Burton's Alice in Wonderland, Mirrormask, and Pan's Labyrinth roll across the big screen with dark, engrossing visuals as prime explorations of the genre. The newer Alice in Wonderland builds more tropes of modern myth into this retelling than the original story possessed, allowing Alice to transition into adulthood and accept the inevitability of change in the surreal and twisted landscape of Wonderland. Examples vary on the silver screen as well. Dr. Who, for example, has quite a few episodes with a mythpunk flair (Pandorica Opens anyone?)

While these stories can be equal parts deep and dazzling why retell a myth in the first place? This argument could easily stray into the 'Seven stories' theory, the idea all stories boil down to variations on seven basic plots. Aside from a literary discussion to make any college professor giddy, what is the draw from a storyteller's perspective? Why did the Grimm Brothers collect all those folk tales? Most were passed down through oral storytelling tradition, from parent to child. Myths themselves, are stories steeped in tradition, whether factual or completely fictional in origin, and they were more than mere stories. People used myths to explain the world and man's experience in it. Before science delved into the mysteries of the universe, when the nights were still deep and dangerous, man used myths to define the world, to serve as cautionary tales to keep their children safe, and also as a means to teach the next generation a strong moral code. Myths, parables, fables, folk tales, were once vital to people who didn't grow in a world saturated with technology.

Mythpunk makes these stories viable in world of science and tech. While there are many rehashings and retellings flooding the market of movies and literature, few capture the essence of this form of story telling. These stories are entertaining, but often lack the lesson or morale that stays with the audience. While science has redefined the world away from godly Pantheons that run the universe and technology as conquered the monsters in the dark, mythpunk can still pull lessons from these stories, important ones that have become the tropes of the new age. There are still cautionary tales to tell, or new monsters to beware with human faces. Heroes are still needed to defy the boundaries of man and give hope. The modern mythological hero might wear a mask and cape, but the stories still hold strong moral foundations of right and wrong, good versus evil.

Some retellings might miss the mark, but there could be a rise of mythpunk quality fiction in the years to come due the resurgence of mythological elements in popular fiction, particularly in the young adult market. We will hopefully begin to see myths in new clothes with more substance and quality that resonate with the modern audience.