[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 249 KB, 1200x1112, Terror_Antiquus_by_L.Bakst_(1908).jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
19067261 No.19067261 [Reply] [Original]

What differentiates a legend from a simple fictional narrative? I don't think Marvel comics are "legend" material, for example, but nowadays you hear certain people say they might as well be, because they speak of gods and heroes and embody aspects of contemporary culture. Can one write a legend in the 21st century? What would that entail, must it be historical? Should a legend bear mythological elements, or not necessarily? Must it be tied to a specific culture? What makes a legend a legend?

>> No.19067288

>>19067261
Oral tradition. Marvel stories are a product and belongs to the market. Legends are oral histories, belonging to the hearth.

>> No.19067341

Legends (myths) are inhabited and recalled, even unconsciously. Fiction is just imbibed in.

>> No.19067355

>>19067288
So they can't be transcribed in literary form?

>> No.19067364

>>19067261
You have to write it in a way that makes it possible to be confused with and inserted in a contemporary of a common history. Most legends you're familiar with are probably urban.
Also, Lovecraft writes good legends.

>> No.19067367

>>19067364
contemporary understanding of*

>> No.19067399

>>19067364
Very interesting thought. But I feel like it means it cannot happen in a contemporary setting because that would mean you'd have to write about real and existent people (so that the legend can be confused with history). Which is obviously an impossibility.

>> No.19067662

>>19067399
Think of all the true, untrue, and maybe true things that are believed about real people. History changes all the time. Often it only takes saying something for people to believe it, especially if it's being said by a perceived authority. Perhaps you could spin up fictional academics and scientists that talk about a mix of real people and real places and real events interspersed with fake people and fake places and false events?

>> No.19067702

>>19067364
Nah nigger. You think the Greek believed Troy happened? It served as pageantry for their state.
>>19067261
What makes a legend a legend is its connection to history. There must be a past to compare to the present, if not explicitly than implicitly.
>>19067399
Urban legends were a thing for awhile. But I think a good modern day "legendary age" would be World War 2. The perception of what World War 2 was is very different than the reality of it, being thought of as fantastical and full of tragic heroism.

More than likely, in maybe 80 years time, the Covid Pandemic will undergo a similar treatment. Things are rather tame in reality, but it'll probably be depicted the same way people depict pandemics and fictional black plagues in movies.

>> No.19067729

>>19067702
>What makes a legend a legend is its connection to history.
But you just said "Nah nigger" to the anon who claimed it must be inserted into history. Isn't this contradictory?

>> No.19067747

>>19067729
I didn't contradict him, my opinion was just a better version of his. I kind of contracucktion

>> No.19067750

>>19067662
The problem is that today everything is verifiable, you can just do your research and see what's fake and what's not. Whereas in ye olden times there was no way to know whether you were being bullshitted or not. I was pessimistically thinking that it is the reason there can be no contemporary legend, but I'd love to be proven wrong.

>> No.19067883

>>19067750
If anything shit is less verifiable. The internet only lets you see the narratives competing for dominance in culture. Future legends might not include as many mystical elements but they'll still exist.

>> No.19067914
File: 81 KB, 1080x1331, 83183EFA-186A-4ADF-93B6-B73D3F1A4E50.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
19067914

Legends are true.

>> No.19067976

>>19067883
But you can’t invent a character and say they were a real person, whereas prior to this you could.

>> No.19068124

>>19067702
>You think the Greek believed Troy happened?
Yes.

>> No.19068797

>>19067750
My verification methods rely on consensus with other individuals and my perceptual systems are faulty to begin with, so I have a lot of trouble discerning what's fake at times. When I research things the information I find is often contradictory. Even when they aren't regular people and even news outlets have a bad habit of not fact checking. a good example of this is the time Negativland tossed out a press release saying a fictional federal agent, Dick Jordan, had forbidden them from going on a tour (that they were canceling) because their song "Christianity is Stupid" may have played a role in the David Brom's decision to murder his parents. A New York Times article on the incident had mentioned an argument in the family about a cassette tape, and negative land used this fictional authority to assert that their music was on the tape. Eventually the news ran with it as fact.
https://youtu.be/fFncIiUURSo