I’m thinking about working on a magical realist story called Amerithology. Just one more project to add to the arm-long list of projects that I have rattling around in my brain. Question is, what’s distinctly a part of the American mythology, such as it is? (Both old and modern.) Here’s what I listed in a first brainstorm…
- Individuality
- Celebrity
- Bigness
- Newness
- Comic books
- Al Capone
- Paul Bunyan
- James Dean
- Elvis
- Marilyn Monroe
- Johnny Appleseed
- Highways
- Gold rush
- Electric lights
- Jazz
- Las Vegas
- Hollywood
- Area 51
- New York
- Chicago
- Detroit
- Gangsters
- Cowboys
- Immigrants
- The Mississippi
- Blue jeans
- Sneakers
- Baseball
- Racial tension
- Indians
- New Orleans
- Tornadoes
- Big business
- Guns
- Mormons
- Buffalo
Any additions? As you can see, this is a pretty wide-open list.
One response to “Amerithology”
Places that Stand For Ideas: The West, The South, Hollywood
The Fountain of Youth (youth culture idolized)
Manifest Destiny: The West (geographic destiny), Progress (political destiny), Technology (scientific destiny).
Freedom, Liberty, Emancipation of the Individual
Flag-Wavers & Flag-Burners (the idolators & iconoclasts of American political religion)
Angry Political Women: Abolitionists, Suffragists, Prohibitionists, Feminists