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A Collective Mythology
brian334
Member Posts: 2,214 Arc User
Grog sat outside the cave looking at the night sky. Guided by his fears, his hopes, his fantasies, he imagined patterns in the stars of animals, people, strange phenomenon that were unexplained.
"Where does the rain come from, Grog?" asked a small girl, and he pointed to the sky, saying, "See the stars there? They are the maiden who carries the waterskin of the gods, and from time to time she sprinkles the ground because she likes flowers to grow."
Grog was probably ticked the day someone said, "The gods withhold water from us to punish us!" But by then it was too late. Someone had taken his cute little story and added their bit to it, and the story continued to grow because everyone who heard it wanted to add their bit to the telling.
Gene Roddenberry took a cute story about Sir Francis Drake in space, added some exotic natives on the islands they visited, and told some basic morality plays from a point of view showing humanity to be more adult than we are today. He wasn't out for deification or to proclaim a new philosophy; it was just a good way to meet chicks and collect a paycheck.
Almost immediately people began to add their bits to the legend, and by the time Trek came back from the dead it had grown into an unrecognizable monster. Roddenberry learned that his creation had a life of its own.
Every direction Trek has taken under the guidance of a variety of crews has fans and detractors, and some of them are quite convinced their vision of Trek is the only correct one. One thing Mr. Roddenberry realized early on was that whether he liked it or not he accepted the myths that fans built around the franchise. This wasn't an abstract affirmation of support for individual creativity, but to assure a cash flow into the franchise.
But fans and professionals continued to add to the shared mythos, developing it farther and deeper than any TV show could ever do, and the monster has continued to grow. We are a part of this monster, we players and Trek fans here in STO. We play in the shared mythology inventing our own twists and details, developing our own stories and helping others to do the same.
We aren't in this sandbox alone, and that is the most wonderful part of it all: we collaborate in telling and retelling the collective mythology.
"Where does the rain come from, Grog?" asked a small girl, and he pointed to the sky, saying, "See the stars there? They are the maiden who carries the waterskin of the gods, and from time to time she sprinkles the ground because she likes flowers to grow."
Grog was probably ticked the day someone said, "The gods withhold water from us to punish us!" But by then it was too late. Someone had taken his cute little story and added their bit to it, and the story continued to grow because everyone who heard it wanted to add their bit to the telling.
Gene Roddenberry took a cute story about Sir Francis Drake in space, added some exotic natives on the islands they visited, and told some basic morality plays from a point of view showing humanity to be more adult than we are today. He wasn't out for deification or to proclaim a new philosophy; it was just a good way to meet chicks and collect a paycheck.
Almost immediately people began to add their bits to the legend, and by the time Trek came back from the dead it had grown into an unrecognizable monster. Roddenberry learned that his creation had a life of its own.
Every direction Trek has taken under the guidance of a variety of crews has fans and detractors, and some of them are quite convinced their vision of Trek is the only correct one. One thing Mr. Roddenberry realized early on was that whether he liked it or not he accepted the myths that fans built around the franchise. This wasn't an abstract affirmation of support for individual creativity, but to assure a cash flow into the franchise.
But fans and professionals continued to add to the shared mythos, developing it farther and deeper than any TV show could ever do, and the monster has continued to grow. We are a part of this monster, we players and Trek fans here in STO. We play in the shared mythology inventing our own twists and details, developing our own stories and helping others to do the same.
We aren't in this sandbox alone, and that is the most wonderful part of it all: we collaborate in telling and retelling the collective mythology.
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