Week 4 Lab: Crash Course

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I truly enjoy crash course, even if I am not using it for this class. I have used crash course in my philosophy, history, and science classes in high school, and the way they convey their stories is done so well, that sometimes I just watch these videos for fun. I started by watching "What Is A Myth?" where they go over what myths are and what to expect from the rest of the videos in the series. One of the things that stuck out most to me was when they explained that when you take myths for the stories they are, it allows for you to enjoy them without thinking of their values as structures of religious belief. I think this really describes why videos like crash course and books like the Percy Jackson series are so popular. When you tell someone a myth, they think of the deeper context. But when you just tell a story and leave it up for interpretation, the stories are very interesting and you get hooked in. This point is furthered in "Theories of Myth" where the video states that Plato believed that myths about gods and heroes were always lies. They were just stories. But we take lessons from these stories and apply them to our lives, and that is why myths are so popular. i think I can use this technique in my storytelling by trying to take a modern spin on myths to show how they can apply to the real world. Lastly, the video "The Hero's Journey and the Monomyth" which covers the similar structure and map for stories regarding hero's. I plan on looking for similar structures regarding hero's in the works I read throughout the class. Though I would like to see the similarities in the hero's journey, I may find that difficult as I am researching Ravana, and we don't read many long myths like the Ramayana so I may not have many opportunities to do so. I will pay close attention to Ravana's journey and see if there are any similarities or differences in the antagonist's journey compared to the hero's.