In salutation

[Opium]

It's a pleasure to have stumbled here in my latest train wreck style internet ramblings.

I've tested as Intp several times but recently have wondered why we should attempt be one thing so strongly that I've given up, temporarily, any attempt at self definition. I'll be back at it in a week.

About me:
I like the inevitable philosophy, obsessing over human nature, behavior and all its manifestations, Mexican, Indian, and Cajun food (spicy) and other than lurking, here and in the outer reality, have little other plans. Also perpetual motion, time (Is it real?), the flight patterns of birds, and currently whether myth has any value and then on to what that may be. (This may take a long time.) I hope to find some interesting thoughts here.

Trivia(l):

With the recent discovery of someone who I suspect is an Entp, my friend count has doubled.

Once, I went nearly two years without human contact. An ambivalent time.

With nothing more to add other than empty but sincere flattery about the lovely black back-ground, I'll fade back into it.

Regards,
Opium.

 

[OmoInisa]

Salutations. And here's to hoping you re-emerge with greater regularity.

 

[Jennywocky]

Hola and welcome... interested to see what your ideas of myth consist of.
Also, flight patterns -- intriguing. Do you mean flock flight patterns or migration patterns or what exactly?

Spices, though? I'm a pathetic little rural US Caucasian girl... my spice toleration sucks to the degree that even pepperoni (while I love it) makes me sweat. *doh*

 

[Opium]

Danke OmoInisa.

Hola and welcome... interested to see what your ideas of myth consist of.
Also, flight patterns -- intriguing. Do you mean flock flight patterns or migration patterns or what exactly?

Spices, though? I'm a pathetic little rural US Caucasian girl... my spice toleration sucks to the degree that even pepperoni (while I love it) makes me sweat. *doh*

Hola--> Aloh-a.

My ideas of myth consist of the possibility that in some form they may have been a form of mass communication of common ideas. It seems possible that they were an early attempt, not exclusively to explain the physical world (though that’s likely a fragment of it), but to determine in a way some of what lay behind it. Each culture has similar themes in quite a few myths so it seems plausible that myth may have been an earlier version of everything from philosophy to psychology. (Archetypes, etc.) Also, how their effects are continuing today. For example, Christianity has an interesting relationship to myth. In some parts of the world, the response to the myths of the culture that was being evangelized to was either attempt to eradicate or absorb them. These seem to have been the two most common reactions.

For the culture whose myths were destroyed versus absorbed, how are they different now and how might they have evolved otherwise and in comparison to each other?

And how does myth affect today’s societies? There seems to be a desire for myths again after a long period of a more scientific focus in literature. (The Scientific and Industrial Revolutions, Darwin, and the Renaissance in a way, in no order.) It’s a pet thought of mine that maybe an “I want to believe”, in anything, attitude is becoming prevalent since then.
Just a quick spew of some of my thoughts.

Birds.

I’m fascinated by the way they fly. How each wing stroke, think a flock of geese flying in formation or something, is used by the bird behind it. It’s efficient, neat, and, according to what I’ve read, a form of communication in current, speed, direction, etc. The synchronization achieved is fascinating. Also, yes, migration routes, though not so much. As a random thought, do birds have inherited memory, like lessons passed down or taught to other birds, to assist in navigation? I remember reading that multiple generations of ravens avoided the field where one of them was shot to the extent that for a long time they wouldn't even fly over it.

Enduring spicy foods was a family sport. I’m either immune now or have burned off my tongue.

 

[Pyropyro]

Welcome

 

[loveofreason]

Greetings.

 

[redbaron]

Birds.

I’m fascinated by the way they fly. How each wing stroke, think a flock of geese flying in formation or something, is used by the bird behind it. It’s efficient, neat, and, according to what I’ve read, a form of communication in current, speed, direction, etc. The synchronization achieved is fascinating.

If you haven't seen it already (I suspect you have) you should get your hands on the BBC Earthflight documentaries. Relating to this there's a particularly fascinating part in the Europe episode documenting just this kind of behavior in storks migrating around Istanbul(from memory).

Definitely an awesome documentary to watch whether you're interested in birds or not

Also welcome to the forum.

 

[Polaris]

Birds.

Welcome to the forum, Opium.

 

[Cavallier]

My ideas of myth consist of the possibility that in some form they may have been a form of mass communication of common ideas. It seems possible that they were an early attempt, not exclusively to explain the physical world (though that’s likely a fragment of it), but to determine in a way some of what lay behind it. Each culture has similar themes in quite a few myths so it seems plausible that myth may have been an earlier version of everything from philosophy to psychology. (Archetypes, etc.) Also, how their effects are continuing today. For example, Christianity has an interesting relationship to myth. In some parts of the world, the response to the myths of the culture that was being evangelized to was either attempt to eradicate or absorb them. These seem to have been the two most common reactions.

For the culture whose myths were destroyed versus absorbed, how are they different now and how might they have evolved otherwise and in comparison to each other?

And how does myth affect today’s societies? There seems to be a desire for myths again after a long period of a more scientific focus in literature. (The Scientific and Industrial Revolutions, Darwin, and the Renaissance in a way, in no order.) It’s a pet thought of mine that maybe an “I want to believe”, in anything, attitude is becoming prevalent since then.
Just a quick spew of some of my thoughts.

I've had a notion that myths, or stories (sometimes even tropes), are kind of thought tool. Our minds remember stories without having to work at it. We recognize patterns naturally. Our subconscious grasps at threads and when we reach a point where the thought tool suddenly becomes relevant we are primed to use it.

Welcome. Please stick around.

 

[Opium]

Grazie all.

I've had a notion that myths, or stories (sometimes even tropes), are kind of thought tool. Our minds remember stories without having to work at it. We recognize patterns naturally. Our subconscious grasps at threads and when we reach a point where the thought tool suddenly becomes relevant we are primed to use it.

Welcome. Please stick around.

I was intending to be more ghostly, but I'm interested, darn it.

Cavallier, do you mean that we, as much as we already know and recognize these "thought tools", that we are also simultaneously making them to use either later or in the occurring situation? I'd also love to know what a "relevant" situation would be to you. Or any situation today where they (myths/ these tools) could be applied. (As I said, I'm fascinated by the effect myth has, and to what extent that it does have an effect, on today's society since myth is less commonly used now, as either tools or explanations, what have you.)

Regards,
Opium.

 

[Cavallier]

^Specifics?!?! Gross.

There is a story that I think explains what I mean best:

Spoiler

The Zebra Storyteller

Spencer Holst

Once upon a time there was a Siamese cat who pretended to be a lion and spoke inappropriate Zebraic.

That language is whinnied by the race of striped horses in Africa.

Here now: An innocent zebra is walking in a jungle, and approaching from another direction is the little cat; they meet.

“Hello there!” says the Siamese cat in perfectly pronounced Zebraic. “It certainly is a pleasant day, isn’t it? The sun is shining, the birds are singing, isn’t the world a lovely place to live today!”

The zebra is so astonished at hearing a Siamese cat speaking like a zebra, why, he’s just fit to be tied.

So the little cat quickly ties him up, kills him, and drags the better parts of the carcass back to his den.

The cat successfully hunted zebras many months in this manner, dining on filet mignon of zebra every night, and from the better hides he made bow neckties and wide belts after the fashion of the decadent princes of the Old Siamese court.

He began boasting to his friends he was a lion, and he gave them as proof the fact that he hunted zebras.

The delicate noses of the zebras told them there was really no lion in the neighborhood. The zebra deaths caused many to avoid the region. Superstitious, they decided the woods were haunted by the ghost of a lion.

One day the storyteller of the zebras was ambling, and through his mind ran plots for stories to amuse the other zebras, when suddenly his eyes brightened, and he said, “That’s it! I’ll tell a story about a Siamese cat who learns to speak our language! What an idea! That’ll make ’em laugh!”

Just then the Siamese cat appeared before him, and said, “Hello there! Pleasant day today, isn’t it!”

The zebra storyteller wasn’t fit to be tied at hearing a cat speaking his language, because he’d been thinking about that very thing.

He took a good look at the cat, and he didn’t know why, but there was something about his looks he didn’t like, so he kicked him with a hoof and killed him.

That is the function of the storyteller.

 

[loveofreason]

I don't know your age or background, Opium, so at risk of teaching you to suck eggs... have you followed the works of Robert Bly and Clarissa Pinkola Estes?

It would be easy to assume that anyone interested in the modern role of myth would already know these story-tellers back to front, but sometimes the literature of one generation escapes the next - though not if such 'literature' were myths, eh? - so just in case, they are names to look for. I'm sure there are other modern mythologists and cantadora I'm overlooking.

 

[Cherry Cola]

What do you think about feminism opium?

 

[Opium]

Thanks Cavallier, I learned from that.

Loveofreason: I am temporarily unfamiliar with Estes. currently correcting that.

What do you think about feminism opium?

To simplify, perhaps too much, it seems to be little more than female chauvinism now. Too many feminists are doing what was done to the "fairer gender" pre 1960. They have a few legitimate concerns still, but they're not mine. The equal and superficial consideration (Not worth or ability, etc; those are too variable and specific. Example: I'd rather know a survivalist during the apocalypse much more than a cat therapist.) of humanity is a greater (impossible) ideal to me. About feminism, it's true that I may be judging a group and idea too strongly on its more zealous members, but I'm starting to waver off topic.

 

[OmoInisa]

What do you think of feminism, Cherry? If I remember correctly, this isn't the first time you've asked this question on a thread. And it is do random as well. I'm intrigued.