The Remyth Project

[yeloson]

The Remyth Project is a simple idea that came from thinking about mythology, stories, and appropriation. There's this way in which traditional stories and mythologies of people of color have been misused, abused, and ultimately redefined by others, for profit, for power, for fame.

Mythology is not just stories, not just beliefs- it's icons, it's a way of thinking. It's a way of talking about things with symbol. It's a language, which, like many other languages, has been chopped up and is dying off for the purposes of a world defined by a few.

But let's talk myth.

The Remyth project is this: You, as a person of color, as a person whose myths have been sidelined, removed, changed, altered, turned into movies, popularized and sold, you as a participant of your heritage (even divorced by many generations)...

You write up, draw, or ramble in whatever way befits you about a myth you can claim ownership to. You take back that myth. You tell us what you think it is. Reinterpret, reconstruct, or even revise- give it a rebirth, as you would.

And, if you want, give a link back here.

Let's stop hearing second-hand stories from colonizers with vested interests in ridiculing, exoticising, and taking our stories.

Let's hear each other's stories.

And let's remember.

ETA: Why the Remyth project works best without an LJ community.

There's folks organizing some Remyth readings at WorldCon in August.

Comments

Dragons

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

http://yeloson.livejournal.com/#post-yeloson-530249

pirates of the caribbean

[bossymarmalade.livejournal.com]

http://bossymarmalade.livejournal.com/2009/01/14/

Re: pirates of the caribbean

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

Yes. Ghosts that don't stay, and don't go away.

[oyceter]

Ooo cool! Is it ok to post links to stuff written a while ago instead of specifically for the project?

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

Yes!

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

I don't really write, but I'll see what I can do.

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

You can simply write about your experience/ideas/reinterpretation.

I was halfway on the edge of writing about the fact my first encounter with Chinese dragons in any real sense was through the cheesy and often problematic Power Man and Iron Fist comic, which surprisingly had an actually pretty true to the stories bit about them for the time I was reading...

The idea of a half chinese half white kid reading an American superhero comic about a white man living an orientalized myth and finding real chinese myths embedded in a story about finding oneself, is kind of an infinite regression of reflections that trips me out.

[littlebutfierce]

Ooooh, awesome. I look forward to seeing all the things that people come up w/!!

Is the asterisk after "claim ownership to" missing its referent or am I just missing something?

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

Ugh. That's what I get for late night posting. I was thinking of putting this whole thing about the ways in which we're so divorced from our own cultures, the issues of diaspora living, colonization, being second, third, or more generations in other cultures, but eh.

[delux-vivens.livejournal.com]

This is awesome.

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

The Ghosts Close to Home:

http://yeloson.livejournal.com/530634.html

[bossymarmalade.livejournal.com]

our blackness is buried:

http://bossymarmalade.livejournal.com/478159.html


I can't thank you enough for starting this project; it's an outlet that I didn't realize I needed so much until I started doing it!

Changling, by caphe

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

http://caphe.livejournal.com/215599.html

Re: Changling, by caphe

[unusualmusic.livejournal.com]

its protected.

Mirrors

[the-willow.insanejournal.com (from livejournal.com)]

http://the-willow.insanejournal.com/824041.html

That Old Time Folk Religion without the Folks:

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

http://yeloson.livejournal.com/532468.html

[delux-vivens.livejournal.com]

http://delux-vivens.livejournal.com/1169719.html

bones

[delux-vivens.livejournal.com]

http://delux-vivens.livejournal.com/1171500.html

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

I'm debating if I want this to be an annual thing, like nanowrimo, a comm, or just a one time thing.

Part of the problem is that right now, my home computer melted down, and it'll be something like 6 months before I can replace it, making me less inclined to necessarily start anything that's going to require modding/work.

I'm going to think on it for a couple of weeks, but if anyone wants to drop some ideas, let me know.

[unusualmusic.livejournal.com]

i can co-mod, if you need help. and deepad has a good idea re: the setup.

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

After some thought, I think a community is not what will work best for this. (http://yeloson.livejournal.com/533157.html)

But thank you for the offer!

[dirty-diana.livejournal.com]

http://dirty-diana.livejournal.com/95757.html#cutid1

Done. Original spider-man stories.

[skywardprodigal.livejournal.com]

http://skywardprodigal.livejournal.com/713759.html

[oyceter]

The Journey West (originally written for Yuletide 2007)

[starfishncoffee.livejournal.com]

This is wonderful.

[gabby-silang.livejournal.com]

I am not what you call me. (http://gabby-silang.livejournal.com/233933.html)

Thank you for this. We need this.

[abydosangel.livejournal.com]

Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans? (http://abydosangel.livejournal.com/464853.html)

[unusualmusic.livejournal.com]

Dear God. That hits so hard, I can't even explain.

Names

[avalon's willow (from livejournal.com)]

http://seeking-avalon.blogspot.com/2009/01/names.html

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

The Ocean tried to take me

http://yeloson.livejournal.com/533308.html

Grace

[sugargroupie.livejournal.com]

http://sugargroupie.livejournal.com/249530.html

[ciderpress.livejournal.com]

In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west:

http://ciderpress.livejournal.com/213847.html