I have been increasingly wanting to explore and integrate Folklore into TWOLD, particularly folk mythology, but have been concerned that the folklore I am interested in is too intrinsically connected to superstition, and I don’t want to promote superstition.
But after researching folklore more, I’ve discovered there are actually more wholesome elements to it than I thought, and that part of its appeal has been escape from a larger and more immediate fallacy—modern superstition.
Folklore is tied closely with Community. In societies with limited technology, folklore is an important tool for defining cultural structure and passing on culture between generations.
The fantasy of folklore used to be closely tied to everyday life.
With the rise of Atheism and Materialism, fantasy became compartmentalized from everyday life.
With the rejection of spiritual reality, the enlightened mind had to partition fantasy.
Fantasy became pure escapism—entertainment stripped of religious relevance.
As fantasy became partitioned, fantasy settings became less here and more elsewhere.
In cases where modern fantasy remained within ordinary settings, the fantasy was still compartmentalized from everyday life. The primary case of this is superhero comics.
It is rare and novel to tie superheroes to everyday life. It is novel for superheroes to marry and have kids, and when they do, there is a constant tension between the fantastic elements and the familial elements.
<aside> 💡 The standard Western superhero formula is incompatible with everyday life.
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That is in contrast with classic folklore, where most of the characters and their experiences were rooted in every day life.
Over time, fantasy has increasingly become systematized. That can be helpful, but some of it has been driven by rationalism, reducing what we believe to what we comprehend.
The Bible does not contain mythology.