Personal Lit & Media Lesson: Sun and Moon Myths

For this blog post I would like to discuss how people from long ago explained the theories of some unanswered questions through stories and legends of all cultures. Nowadays, most of those questions have been answered and are now common facts thanks to science. Back then, they did not have the science we have now, instead they made interesting stories and myths explaining their theories based on history and or religion of their culture. Some of these questions includes how the world was created, how humans were created, why do seasons change, how does it rain or snow, what are those bright dots in the sky, why does the sun and moon come in different times of the day, etc. Each of these questions has been made into a story or myth in every culture, and each of the cultures has their own unique version to the theory. Many of these stories had been passed on through oral tradition since they were very popular and well known. From one generation to another these stories have been passed on and expressed in a different manner. For example from the concept theory of  'The Origin of Night and Day' I found a variety of interesting versions. Each culture has their own version and reason on how the sun and moon can only appear in certain times of the day and why they cannot be together (not including solar eclipses since I will be referring to night and day, and back then people would assume it was a bad omen because of their rare occurrence). The Japanese version is the legend I personally enjoy the most. In Japanese Shinto belief, everything in nature is represented by deity, and the head of the Shinto pantheon is the sun goddess Amaterasu. The legend describes a banquet where the gods were attending. The two main gods Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi, her younger brother the moon god, were also attending. When all the gods arrived at the banquet, Uke Mochi, the goddess of food, came out to serve the meal to everyone by vomiting all the food and ingredients on the table. Tsukuyomi was disgusted by her actions and decided to kill her. Amaterasu got very upset at her brother's behavior for killing Uke Mochi at the banquet that she vowed to never speak and see him ever again. Eventually the two siblings ended up on opposite ends of the Earth resulting on day and night. There are many different versions of this legend, but this is the one I am more familiar with. I like the Japanese version because of the cause of separation between the sun and the moon. The description of the argument between the siblings gave me a big impression to my imagination. I can picture the sun goddess acting like a stubborn girl and using the silent treatment on her brother.

Below is the link to the article with the list of ten different cultural versions of the day and night origin myths. However, the link has the Japanese legend that I mentioned but in an alternate version of the one I know.

http://listverse.com/2013/12/20/10-mythological-origins-of-day-and-night/

Asterios Polyp

I read the graphic novel of Asterios Polyp, and I find it to be strangely interesting. The story is about the life of an architect artist called Asterios Polyp, and follows through his current situations, his past, his experiences, and personal issues. It really interest me how the story follows the life of the protagonist Asterios Polyp, by going back and forth from what he did in the past and his situation in the present. I like how the story varies in art styles depending on the character and their perceptions as well as how each character has a unique dialogue bubble to identify each of them when they are not in the frame. Normally graphic novels use circular dialogue bubbles, however Asterios’ dialogues are always in the form of a square, which I find very interesting. In addition, I find it weird how every characters other than Asterios are drawn in different styles whereas Asterios is drawn in a flat side view. Other characters are portrayed in different angles and perspectives, however Asterios’ head is flat no matter what angle his body is facing. His face is always shown as a flat surface, but his body is portrayed as a cubical model. Sometimes I find it very funny how he responds to people with very witty and snarky remarks, however other times, I find it to be vulgar; for example, his conversation with other people at the faculty meeting party involves a high amount of sexual connotations (page 54). This is not a usual and normal conversation that a professor should be engaged in. Lastly, I really like the way in which the author played with different artistic graphics and styles and the manner he developed ideas and told backstories. For example, when Asterios and Hana’s conversation started, each of them were portrayed in different styles and colors, however as the conversation progressed, the styles and colors of the two characters began to merge. (page 61) Overall, the art styles were simple, but interesting. The story structure is kind of disoriented, but creative enough to get me indulged into the story.

Personal Opinion on Media

 Today, there are many forms of media. I personally prefer the traditional form over the digital because of many reasons. Personally, I enjoy physically holding a book, and being able to flip through the pages, rather than sitting in front of a laptop or holding a device that strains my eyes. When I was in middle school, I used to go to the library during break time to read some books. Since then, I have developed a deep interest for reading books and have always enjoyed going to the libraries and bookstores. Today, the digital media and networks have created new products such as electronic books. This creation has profoundly changed the way of publishing. I have noticed that many books have been turned into electronic books, and are available in digitized form through E-books, Kindle and in apps. This digitization of books had caused many well established bookstores to go out of business. Personally, I have tried to adapt to this new form of media and I think that the electronic books have as much flaws as its benefits. I think that the electronic books facilitated the process for searching books to read; I could zoom in and read the texts more clearly as well as looking up the definition of specific words. However, it is frustrating that the medium used to read the electronic books constantly needs updates, requiring the user to spend more time learning and getting use to the changes. In addition, if anything bad were to happen to the device used for reading the electronic books, it will impede the user from their accessibility to the books, whereas a hard physical copy will always be available to the reader. Also, these devices are powered through battery, therefore it limits the usage of the device to a certain amount of time. As a reader, it is very annoying to be stopped in the middle of a story due to flat battery. Furthermore, the page swiping feature bothers me because sometimes the device is too sensitive to touch or too slow in reacting. Therefore I need to keep swiping the pages back and forth, trying to pick up where I left off. Below is the image that I found online in google. I believe that this image sums up today’s world of media; it puts all of today’s social networking into perspective in a traditional manner. In fact, I like these ideas of “vintage social networking” more. For example, social media is not my main communication channel. I do not have an Instagram, Tumblr, or Twitter account. Although I have created a Facebook and Skype account, I never had an interest using them to follow up people’s status, chat or video call. I do not use websites like Pinterest or Reddit. I would say the only exception is YouTube, where I use to watch some videos and hear some music. Overall, I am a more traditional person. I prefer reading hard copy books and communicating through phone calls or text messages.