New Mythologies for Modern Americans - Term Paper Example

? New Mythologies for Modern Americans through Movie Theaters New Mythologies for Modern Americans through Movie Theaters Mythology cannot be easily answered as it entails poetry and music in it. A person can only answer it once he has complete feeling of it. Understanding is synonymous with experience with nature and emotions that the realm of science cannot grasp (Jung and Kerenyi, 1941, pp. 1-3). Today some people say myth is untrue or not factual, but it is attractive. It offers great satisfaction to the emotions of people. It is also not exact by facts that can be a total lie, partial truth or just an image and not true in its form. It drives the power of beliefs of individual and even groups of people. It is believed but not accurate like the history. Words play the part as approximation tool for the truthfulness behind the myth (Dowden, 1992, p. 2). Myth or mythology is the history or legend of certain phenomena that are not explainable by science and is attributed to the divine intervention. It comes from the Greek words mythos, logos and fable which all pertain to discourse or description. Being familiar with Mythology, people in the modern times would have the ability to learn from the lessons of the past and understand the hidden messages within (Irving, 1822, p. 5). Mythology is a traditional way of addressing and explaining occurrences based upon the tales of gods and goddesses and heroic adventures. Mythologem is the Greek term for the unchangeable famous tales. Mythology is different from mythologem as it is solid but dynamic and continuously changes without losing its identity (Jung and Kerenyi, 1941, p. 3). Mythology has been linked with literature as it was once presented in verse. Prose was later on adapted to suit the oral culture. Logos is a noun that means speak as its counterpart verb is legein (Dowden, 1992, p. 3). Mythology can be linked to idolatry because of images projected as part of worship. Idolatry comes from two Greek words: eidolon and latreia which both pertain to worship of image or beliefs in beings with superior powers (Hort, 1825, p. 1). Movie theater is popular as proven by history but it experienced its glory and downfall. Films being shown must have a certain degree of mystery that can captivate the attention of people and turn them into audience. In making progress in movies, mistakes are inevitable for it will bring brighter future for the movie theater industry. When the movie created is just for earning purpose, it could not captivate the audience well and target audience would not appreciate. While the point of a great film is now one-of-a-kind achievement, the commercial cinema has settled for a policy-filled, derivative film-making, a combination and repetition of past techniques to assume success like in the past. Cinema was once of the great art produced in the 20th century but the cinephilia or the love and attraction being inflicted to the audience diminish at present. Each art gives progress and development to its fanatics, but the love that cinema inspired was special. It started from the premise that cinema was a unique art: modern, accessible, poetic and mysterious and erotic and moral at the same time. Cinema had followers like religion. Cinema can even be compared to a crusade. For cinephiles, the movies are their life. Cinema was considered as both the book of art and the book of life. About the year 1895, two divisions of films were created: cinema as the reflection of real unstaged life and cinema as invention or creation of the human mind. But this is not a true opposition. The whole point is that, for those first audiences, the very transcription of the most banal reality -- the Lumiere brothers filming "The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station" -- was a fantastic experience. Cinema began in wonder, the wonder that reality can be transcribed with such immediacy. All of cinema is an attempt to perpetuate and to reinvent that sense of wonder (Sontag, 1996). Cinema is like a modern church stand and it is not different from church assemblies. People flock go to the nearest theater, form groups, and experience together a worldview right in front of them in story form, allowing the people behind the movies to direct what experiences they perceive and reveal at their own very eyes. A film can give tears to the audience, sometimes some chills that even go deep down to their bones or even giggle and laugh until the people drop. The influence of the film through repeated catch phrases, remarkable settings and stories that reflect the real experience give acceptance or rejection to the audience. Nowadays the surge of technology even allow people to experience movie theater anywhere through home theater systems and even movies online but nothing beats the experience in a movie theater. Truly films and movie theaters affect the lives of all people as culture and philosophy are reflected in them. Cinemagogue is the exploration of notions as image-bearers of the Creator. Movie theaters thus can be compared to a church since the Creator is considered as the great storyteller of creation. It can be said that it can be like the tradition of Christians that they treasure the story of Jesus. People should find the importance of cinema not just as a form of relaxation or leisure but give proper importance and discernment in creating stories that would engage the viewers about the culture and how fantasies revealed on screen may distort the lives of many people. At cinemagogue, people take time to learn about the literary and philosophical concepts that may not have changed but are retold through new stories just like common themes with historical roots. All stories should have a central figure who is an ultimate protagonist that shares a narrative in life (Harleman, n.d.). The film can be considered to be a replacement of a novel. It gives plenty of understanding and learning for the people about concepts and life. Since movie makers began to use the style of storytelling as its basic foundation for films, the next step is to use the famous novels and turned them into movies. The novel was the twentieth century most popular prose and with its complexity and richness, film makes find the novels irresistible. They saw the vast potentials of the movie. Although the film has not dominated the novel over as many thought it would, the film got so popular that people today prefer the movie to see the real action of the story as it comes to life right in front of their own eyes. Many changes in the novel happened that led to an increase in emphasis on showing instead of telling. The emphasis changed both the way novels were made and changed later on how movie makers create their films. The changes included the shifting of the narrative voice of the author from being too personal from telling to less personal by letting the readers of the novel and the audience of the movie experience the story. The technique used by the novelists was also used by the film makers that became the secret ingredient to the success of the movie industry. Therefore the novelists had prepared the reader of their novels for the visual stimuli even before the filmmakers had identified their potential. The adaptation of a novel to a film is a big creative project that needs a certain kind of interpretation and choices but also the ability to offer something new in the story without destroying the main structure of how the original story flows. Three general forms to categorize the evaluation of adaptations like analogy, commentary, and transposition. In analogy the movie is created as a completely new work of an older with the objective of making a new art. In commentary the novel is used in the film but almost half of the story is changed by the film creators intentionally or unintentionally according to their interpretations to suit the audience. In transposition the story of the novel is transferred to the big screen without big changes. Considering the income from the movie is the big factor in choosing the story of a novel to be turned into a movie. Also they choose one script from another because they look at the possible appeal of the story once it is transformed into a movie. They would later on buy the rights of an expensive book than develop an original subject because the story already gained popularity. Using a literary work as a story for a film is truly a creative undertaking but it brings with it also a selective interpretation along with the ability of the movie makers to modify or keep a former established mood (Regal, 2009). References Dowden, K. (1992). The uses of Greek Mythology. London: Routledge. Harleman, J. (n.d.). Cinemabout. Retrieved from http://www.cinemagogue.com/about. Hort, W. (1825). The new pantheon, or, an introduction to the mythology of the ancients: In question and answer. London: Paternoster-Row. Irving, C. (1822). A catechism of mythology: being a compendious history of the heathen gods. New York: Gray and Hewit. Jung, C. G. and Kerenyi, C. (1941). The science of Mythology. United Kingdom: Pantheon, Amsterdam. Regal, M. (2009, December). Mythology to film: The importance of the Homeric poems to O Brother Where Art Thou. Retrieved from http://skemman.is/stream/get/1946/4191/12062/2/Sveind%C3% Ads_Ba_ritger%C3B0_pdfa.pdf Sontag, S. (1995, February 25). The decay of cinema. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://soma.sbcc.edu/Users/DaVega/FILMST_113/FILMST_113_0ld/GENERALTHEORY/The_Decay_of_Cinema_Sontag_1996.pdf. Read More