Sith, Slayers, Stargates, + Cyborgs: Modern Mythology in the New Millennium

by John Perlich, David Whitt

The beginning of the twenty-first century has already seen its fair share of modern myths with heroes such as Spider-Man, Superman, and Harry Potter. The authors in this volume deconstruct, discuss, engage, and interrogate the mythologies of the new millennium in science fiction fantasy texts. Using literary and rhetorical criticism - paired with philosophy, cultural studies, media arts, psychology, and communication studies - they illustrate the function, value, and role of new mythologies, and show that the universal appeal of these texts is their mythic power, drawing upon archetypes of the past which resonate with individuals and throughout culture. In this way they demonstrate how mythology is timeless and eternal.

Genres: Nonfiction, Mythology

232 pages, Hardcover

First published December 27, 2007

Reviews

[Kathy KS · Rating 2 out of 5]

I originally wanted to read this one because one essay discussed Firefly. As I read, I actually found this essay one of the easiest to read.

This is NOT because I am unfamiliar with the other works discussed. I have watched the entire run of seasons for the TV series and watched most of the movies. Only one movie was unknown to me. Unfortunately, although I found many interesting points about mythology and these works and enjoyed reading the discussions about specific episodes, I found the book too much written in what I call "scholareze". One essays had a couple or three pages that rambled on with buzz words and phrases and the whole thing actually amounted to "this is character-driven". I realize that the common reader may not be the planned audience for this one and it's written to appeal to other scholars in the field, but the information was much more interesting than the presentation.

I've read many scholarly works in history, so perhaps it was the difference in the fields that made this one choppier.

[M.D. · Rating 1 out of 5]

So far I'm disappointed to see that science fiction/fantasy discussion is limited to film and in fact excludes all the written body of SF work. Not sure if the book is a good representation of modern mythology making.