Conversation With Another Writer

This is part of a conversation I just had with another writer about plot and mythology:  

S-- Well, it [Star Trek] was a western in space, which is how he [Roddenberry] used to refer to it, as I recall. :) As for being based on myths, lots of TV and books are, but I don't see the myths behind them. I rarely see themes. My brain doesn't seem to be wired that way. I see stories. And since I never really cared one way or the other re: Star Trek, I don't know if Roddenberry consciously used myths as underpinnings for the series.

ME: A course I have taught at the university for a long time is "The Myth of the Frontier."  The western is America's great myth and our heroes echo the heros of old.  Poems written after Custer's death, for instance, compare him to Achilles.  Westerns were popular when Star Trek came out, and I once read that R. had said he used the "western in space" as a marketing tool.  But it is also true that space adventures are little different than western adventures, in the final analysis.  I do prefer R.'s vision, though.  I think his series was more about the inner quest, slaying external "dragons" as manifestations of our inner dragons (hatred, greed, prejudice, etc.)  I'm not sure the extent to which any of us consciously use myths--I believe in the collective unconscious that Jung wrote about.  All that stuff is imbedded in us.

S-- I mostly think in terms of basic plots, and myths just used most if not all of them. There are supposedly only 3 to 10 or so basic plots, depending on who you ask. These are the ones I differentiate:   Romance (boy meets girl and all the variations) Quest Whodunit?/Mystery Coming of Age Good vs Evil "Man" vs the Environment and in Science Fiction, we can add in such plots as Alien Encounters (what makes humans human).

ME: Yes, this is true.  A book we use at my university calls these "Shapes."  (Jerome Stern--"Making Shapely Fiction")  And thinking which shape best fits the story you want to tell is very useful, although I rarely start out that way.  I like to start with the messy stuff, emotions, symbols, metaphors ESPECIALLY METAPHORS.  Mythology is metaphorical.  The metaphorical aspects of language and being are what excite me the most.  When I read a good story, I find myself searching for symbols and metaphors as a child searches for Easter eggs; some wonderful truth becomes unveiled for me as I do this.

S-- Pretty much anything else is usually a variation on one or more of the above.  

ME:  That is the structure; I have always been more interested in the decoration!

S-- So it stands to reason that modern stories will overlap myths and fairy tales, sometimes consciously (purposefully paralleling them) or by coincidence.

ME: For me it is all connected.  It helps me to think of my characters as modern-day incarnations of, say, Inanna, delving into the underworld to retrieve the object of her yearning.  The plots are just convenient moorings to hang my decorations on.  

See more of S's views @ Presto Speaks!

She says it best: If you read my Presto Speaks! journal, you'll see I talk about the reasons for writing and my experiences with other writers online and off. The variety of motives and methods is amazingand I learn something from each one.    

http://prestoimp.blogspot.com/