O
BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?
This
modern-day Odyssey/Sullivan's Travels is a pleasant
diversion. But the question that kept nagging me in
the back of my mind was: O Brother, Why art thou?
Using the myth structure for a new story is a fine
technique, but you have to create something truly
new. Otherwise it is literally paint-by-numbers. Here
the pleasure is limited to recognizing the basic associations:
look, there's the sirens, there's the cyclops, etc.
When
you use a myth as a foundation for a story you are
writing, the first thing you must do is look at the
theme. Ask yourself: what can this classic story tell
us about our world now? How does flipping it on its
head create a whole new perspective?
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