Every human society has its mythology, a body of sacred stories about the Gods and matters of cosmic significance, from the creation to what happens after Death, people have been telling stories for thousands of years, to help them make sense of the world and their lives (Wilkinson and Philip, 2007, p.10).
Greek mythology is an important point of knowledge on young teenager's life, ages between eleven to fourteen years old. Their roots and their culture are behind mythology. Each culture has a different symbolism meanings and secrets. Their education on mythology, have to approach them with more fantasy. This could be adapting according the brain. A theory of a developmental psychologist can let us know the understanding and thinking at those ages. Also the reasons of reading a book and the way young teenagers will be stimulate are significant reason of succession.
"We live by myth and inhabit it and it inhabit us what is strangle is how we remake it" (Michael Ayton, in Mythology 2007, p.17). Mythology has a variety of myths and monsters. Each story and creature can trace you the culture and the history of each country. "Greek history can be traced back over 40.000 years. No-one knows when the first myth was invented. The spoken traditions probably help mythology to survive" (Wilkinson and Philip, 2007, p.).
Each monster has a certain symbolic meaning and a certain concrete importance. According to the Swiss psychologist and psychotherapist Carl Jung, symbols are given birth from the subconscious as a spontaneous expression of deep internal force. The human communication is mainly semiotic, with the form of written or oral reason, pictures or gestures (Jung, in the language of symbols, 2006). The older cultures recognized the force of symbols which are used intensively in art, in religion, in fables.
The myths of the ancient Greeks, like the myths of most other cultures, were forever in a state of flux, the stories have different kind of versions as they were passed on by word of mouth and retold in different ways by authors of successive ages. Greek mythology stories and their originality are known by Greek philosophers and historians from ancient times like Sophocles and Aristotle's.
As Dance said "To keep your sense of magic and wonder alive, begin viewing your life as a myth, as an adventure. A myth is a powerful image. Myths speak to other levels of truth, of deep human experiences that we intuitively know are real but find hard to logically articulate." (Dance)
"Myths are public dreams; Dreams are private myths" (Joseph Campbell, in Mythology 2007, p.19). When I read this quote I thought that myths are important in our life. You can find countless secrets and information that enclosed in their depth. Those secrets can give you lots of inspirations to work with you can explore them with different ways.
As Wilkinson and Philip said "Myths are stories that tell us the truth about ourselves". (Wilkinson and Philip, 2007, p14)
It's important for Greek teenagers to learn about their culture. Their culture originated by Greek mythology. Greek teenagers came across mythology on their education. As I remember from my childhood to teenage years, all Greek mythology books where boring with lots of text and only some old images from potteries, it was on Ancient Greek language and you had to translate it all the time to understand the main meaning. It was really hard and I always hate it.
Kang said that culture is important because it forms a certain system that shapes a particular groups way of thinking and living.() Also Stainer and Mahn argue that culture cognitive play a role in our daily routines. Each thing we do in our everyday activities, takes place in a cultural context, which is also mediated be language and other symbol systems within our culture.()
They are lots of artists and designers being inspired by mythology such Maria Trillidou. I like to see the different ways of approaching the same subject by different people of different cultures and their thoughts. Lots of artists can influence you through their work.
From the one hand, as Maria Trillidou told me on a conversation with her, her paintings spring out charm enigmas beyond logical definitions and conceptual barriers. She translates them as symbols expressing the drawing as an archetype coming from her extended self-connected to the universal collective. As an artist she is fascinated by the admiration of creation as well as by the scientific finds and technological advancements. She also absorbs a lot of inspiration from mythology (Trillidou, 2010).
Notorious by Maria Trillidou (2003)
On this specific artwork, you can see how mythology influences her. The creatures of mythology were created by different types of animals as Trillidou's creatures. Her specific creature was created by two different animals, fish and bird. She inspired me from the way she blend together the two animals and the colors she uses in her artwork.
With mythology stories you can explore your dreams through illustrations, drawings, abstract art and the combination of them, you can see how a myth is being magical with lots of fantasy. You can connect with the story through the visuals. The visuals on a mythology book are very important in activating our imagination. The visual part, makes the symbols more appealing to our fantasy and connects us more to the story, as well as triggers our imagination to add more imagery into our mind. A book can attract young teenagers learn mythology. The books can be rarely funnier, creative, dynamic, colorful and playful.
As Jean Piaget a Swiss developmental psychologist demonstrates on the theory of Cognitive development of the way children's in different ages understand things, the changes in cognitive process and abilities. In Piaget's view, early cognitive development involves processes based upon actions and later progresses into changes in mental operations. (Piaget, in Cherry, 2010) Piaget argue on the formal operational in the theory of cognitive development that starts from eleven years old until adulthood. Teenager's logic change as they develop though exploration, experimentation and creativity. (Piaget, in Walsh, 2008)
In my opinion creativity is an important part of our lives. Creativity connects with imagination. By experiment and approach creativity, your imagination is activating and you start reach for different things. All that together creates you curiosity.
Creativity is so diverse that it can't be localized in the brain very well. From the one hand right hemisphere of the brain is more responsible for creative thought than the left. From the other hand, left hemisphere of the brain is logical, ordered, and analytic, and it supports reading, speech, math, and reasoning. The right hemisphere is more oriented towards feelings and emotions, spatial perception, and the arts, and is said to be more creative (Willingham, 2010).
Moreover teenagers at that age can approach more complex and creative things. They start to develop and build their personal beliefs and their personalities. They develop their knowledge, with more deeper and complex information's. Moreover teenagers at that age can approach more complex and creative things. (Piaget, in Ramos).
Nowadays teenagers are strange. You have to be really careful using fantasy and fiction to succeed teenager approach. The illustrations should be attractive and influential, appeal to the audience.
Albert Einstein said "Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand." (Einstein, in Jonathan, 2010)
As Rowley said teenager fictions often overlap boundaries. It is part of the difficulty, historically, with getting publishers and literary critics to acknowledge this literary genre lay in actually defining the genre (Rowley, 2009).
Nodelman argue that teenager's books tend forwards fantasy. Fantasy often connote a symbolic meaning of our knowledge of real life and its possible that the depict lies that below on the surface of each people. Secondly it's didactic. Most of the time teenager literature is to try educating teenagers, with a universal theme. Some books are completely didactic giving examples of how teenagers become adults, or idyllic by dealing with ideas, communal concern, self-concern, good and evil (Nodelman, 1992).
I assert that the world is changing, such as literature does. But our history and roots cannot change. We have to be cognizant of our cultures. Greek roots are starting from mythology back over years. Nowadays teenagers have to learn about the past of our culture and history. A mythology book should affect them and be a learning starting point for them. It could be conducted with fantasy and fiction to approximate them. Teenagers tend to connect with superheroes.
Ancient mythology has been a rich source of inspiration for the creator of modern superheroes. Many of the protagonists of ancient myths and legends such as Perseus, Achilles and Hercules share the characteristics of modern day superheroes (McCulloch, 2010).
As Brad Issac said a book can help is build our spirit, make us think more deep and cultural, help us to write and think better. With a book you can gain limitless amounts of knowledge, you can be more intelligent, improve your concentration and focus, improve the memory and creativity.()
In my opinion the illustrations on a book can be eye-catching, with lots of experimentations and creativity. Some images should be abstract to create curiosity, to let you think and learn more information.
As Martin Salisbury said "The expanding range of communication media means that young people are exposed to more imagery than ever before. Artists are increasingly attracted to the medium of the picture book as a creative outlet. This may be attributable to a growing awareness of the creative opportunities in this field for those whose work demonstrates an interest in sequence, narrative, design and communication" (Salisbury, 2006, p.16).
Within my work, I am to approach young teenagers with new, avant-garde ideas. A book under my work will be more experimental, playful with opening and closing things, pop-ups, letter stick inside. In my opinion if a book it's more colorful, funnier, creative and playful, teenagers will have to discover things as they read the book and this is an interesting and effective way to approach young teenagers. Either if those combinations can remind more childish book it could be achieved to approach teenagers with the combinations of color and the effects that I am going to use.
Consequently, young teenagers will use the two-sided brain to read this book. Both sides of the mind are important, each one for a different reason. For this book I am thinking that the right hemisphere of the brain will be used more than the left side. I want their knowledge to be built through the visual thinking and imagery. Imageries could give lots of information's to the audience. You can connect with the story through the visuals. The use of symbolism though their meaning can connect us with the story.
This research will help me develop my spirit on a teenager book, and make me think more maturely and in depth. Apart of that will help me understand the way teenagers think and their interests towards a book.
