Kenny Chui, Period 6, 11/23/22

 Blog on Literacy and Learning

• Reflect on any new information you have learned in English class by considering how that learning influences your critical perception.

A major part of our brief myths presentation was that a lot of culture is made up of allusions or references to myths. We have words like “Narcissist” based on the character Narcissus and “Echo” based on the character Echo from the same story. We have references to heroes such as Herculean strength due to his superhuman strength that allowed him to famously finish the 12 tasks, and Achilles’ heel due to his complete invulnerability except for his heel (and it’s also the name for a body part). The divine and superhuman aspect of mythology is so cool to pop culture that movies like the Marvel franchise(Thor and Eternals), Wonder Woman(DC), Hercules(Disney animation), books like the Percy Jackson series, the God of War games, and the entire Fate series(ex. Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Apocrypha, Fate/Zero) among others use the wondrous and awesome characters to build upon their story’s lore with their own deep stories. The integration of mythology into today’s culture revived the popularity of these characters and a lot about them can be learned without even having to read their original myth anymore because of how frequently they show up. Because of all this, I can look for allusions and actually understand it in future texts, games, media, etc. and understand their purpose regardless of the new form of media that they take.

The lesson about Icarus and especially the painting representing his insignificance to daily life really changed my perspective on myths. To people on the outside of the story, do your struggles matter? Your ignorance? Your fall? Icarus was trapped in a Labyrinth with his uncle until he was finally given an opportunity at freedom with Daedalus’s wax wings, but as we all know, he flew too close to the sun that those wings melted till he plunged into the sea. But even as this all occurred, in the painting, people kept farming, shepherds kept shepherding, and so on. In the corner, just like the name of the painting, “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus,” he was just a footnote in their lives. It really is profound that not only is the world going on, but people may be right next to you and not know your story. It helps me frame myths in a different lens as well, that there is a world going on whether or not it mentions or connects to it in the story.

• Write about your thoughts regarding any of the fiction or nonfiction covered in class.

My answer above is reflected perfectly in the story of Prometheus and Io that we read for class. It has the story of Io, the story of Prometheus, a reference to Pan and Syrinx, and even Hercules who would be Io’s descendant that eventually free Prometheus. Isn’t it amazing that these stories don’t exist in a vacuum? The world of Greek mythology isn’t contained within individual stories. It isn’t contained in time either, with Prometheus who was chained to the rock ages before Io was born, both knowing each other's stories. They also reference the Nile river, the Caucasus Mountains, and the Ionian sea, places around the Greek Mediterranean. It really is a whole developed world that takes place in mythology, and whether or not it is true, the thousands of allusions to what can be seen all tie it to the observable reality, bringing the myths we love to life.

• How is what you’re learning applied to any other classes/the world around you?

Recently in our SING our script utilized the character Narcissus as a main lead with countless references to his egotistical nature and blatant self confidence(Narcissism is his namesake). Beyond that, there was even a reference to his grisly fate of death upon staring at his reflection for too long as well as his transformation into the Narcissus flower, the daffodil. We had an entire lesson on the link between love, tragedy, and flowers including the story of Narcissus in one lesson, and with that understanding, I was able to better imagine the character and how he should be portrayed in our show.