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Persian legends and their Western counterparts (2020)

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Re: Persian legends and their Western counterparts (2020)

#31

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

autarch wrote: post #30
YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #26

>> While poring over Persian myths and legends for my upcoming novel, Girl, Serpent, Thorn, I was always delightfully surprised whenever I came across a story that sounded familiar to me from my western upbringing. Here, the author of the article is advertising her book. I see this very often- I'm reading an article on an online publication and the author suddendly and more or less surreptitiously inserts a reference…

This is published on tor.com. Tor is a publisher of SF/F books. The author wrote an SF/F book for Flatiron Books, a publisher with the same parent company, Macmillan. So clearly this article is part of her book's marketing.

So you believe she was asked to do it by her publisher? I agree it's likely. I also wonder whether this is a common thing that is done in the publishing industry.

Re: Persian legends and their Western counterparts (2020)

#32

Post by autarch »

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #31
autarch wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is published on tor.com. Tor is a publisher of SF/F books. The author wrote an SF/F book for Flatiron Books, a publisher with the same parent company, Macmillan. So clearly this article is part of her book's marketing.

So you believe she was asked to do it by her publisher? I agree it's likely. I also wonder whether this is a common thing that is done in the publishing industry.

> So you believe she was asked to do it by her publisher?

Yes, almost certainly. It seems like a smart way to get the author and her book in front of more eyes, and it seems to have worked, since we're talking about it here!

Re: Persian legends and their Western counterparts (2020)

#33

Post by lioeters »

OnlyMortal wrote: post #21
geijoenr wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comparative mythology is a field of study. Is is well known there are common Indo-European roots for many myths that are similar across a number of cultures and religions, including Norse one.

TIL. It’s an interesting subject, for sure, given we incorrectly generally consider ancient peoples isolated. It’s obviously untrue given Alexander The Great and the peoples who traversed the Mediterranean, like the Phoenicians. As for Northern Europe, I understand that a Buddha was dug up in a Swedish Viking era burial site. My point been, some people travelled far for trading reasons.

> a Buddha was dug up in a Swedish Viking era burial site

Fascinating, it's the first time I've heard of this.

The Helgo Treasure: A Viking Age Buddha - http://irisharchaeology.ie/2013/12/the-helgo-treasure-a-viki...

> A remarkable collection of religious items sourced from diverse lands was discovered during archaeological excavations on the Swedish island of Helgo.

> Discovered close together, these artefacts included a Buddha from the Indian sub-continent, an elaborate crozier-head from Ireland and a bronze ladle from North-Africa.

> ..[T]he most extraordinary find..was a small, bronze Buddha. This devotional figure dates from circa the 6th century AD and was probably made in Kashmir, on the Pakistan/India border.

> The Buddha has a silver urna on his forehead, symbolizing the third eye, while the ears have long lobes, the insignia of royalty. He sits in a meditative pose upon a double lotus throne, the latter representing purity. The Buddha probably arrived in Helgo via Swedish merchants whose eastern trade routes were concentrated along Russian rivers such as the Volga.

Re: Persian legends and their Western counterparts (2020)

#34

Post by boringg »

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #26

>> While poring over Persian myths and legends for my upcoming novel, Girl, Serpent, Thorn, I was always delightfully surprised whenever I came across a story that sounded familiar to me from my western upbringing. Here, the author of the article is advertising her book. I see this very often- I'm reading an article on an online publication and the author suddendly and more or less surreptitiously inserts a reference…

Smart, aware of how the market works, self promoter author would do it naturally - otherwise publisher would ask them to do it.

Re: Persian legends and their Western counterparts (2020)

#35

Post by JasonFruit »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #8
handrous wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oedipus is an early one. What, 350-400BCE? Somewhere around there? [spoilers?] Oedipus is prophesied to kill his father and marry his mother, so runs off trying to avoid this horrible fate, but makes the rookie mistake of killing some rando old enough to be his dad (surprise! He was!) and then marrying a lady old enough to be his mom (surprise! She was!) Though that's more of a literal "killing father" than a metapho…

Well each culture has its own quirks which changes how often you see a particular story. Greek culture held that the Gods saw "blood crime" as the worst thing imaginable, so you get a lot of mythic story arcs around it. For later Western European cultures, killing your kin just means you're taking initiative.

> killing your kin just means you're taking initiative

Well, that's a lot less true once you get outside the upper classes where succession based on descent was a way to wealth and power.

Re: Persian legends and their Western counterparts (2020)

#36

Post by orlandohill »

The creator of Prince of Persia, Jordan Mechner, has recently adapted the ancient Persian tale, Samak the Ayyar.

Samak, a rogue with the skills of a ninja and the ideals of a knight, leads his band of ayyars in a thrilling adventure of secret missions, battlefield heroics, love and intrigue. A masterpiece of Persia’s thousand-year-old oral storytelling tradition, Samak the Ayyar is a vivid glimpse into the enchanting world that inspired Prince of Persia.

http://jordanmechner.com/samak/

Re: Persian legends and their Western counterparts (2020)

#37

Post by ludamad »

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #26

>> While poring over Persian myths and legends for my upcoming novel, Girl, Serpent, Thorn, I was always delightfully surprised whenever I came across a story that sounded familiar to me from my western upbringing. Here, the author of the article is advertising her book. I see this very often- I'm reading an article on an online publication and the author suddendly and more or less surreptitiously inserts a reference…

Yeah it's a big reason articles are written, as others have mentioned. I give some leeway for people shilling their own creative work

Re: Persian legends and their Western counterparts (2020)

#38

Post by sangnoir »

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #26

>> While poring over Persian myths and legends for my upcoming novel, Girl, Serpent, Thorn, I was always delightfully surprised whenever I came across a story that sounded familiar to me from my western upbringing. Here, the author of the article is advertising her book. I see this very often- I'm reading an article on an online publication and the author suddendly and more or less surreptitiously inserts a reference…

I don't see this any different to engineering incident blog posts that are legitimately interesting, but insert "by the way, we are hiring!" somewhere in there - and it's always unrelated to the blog subject. Authors have to eat, and companies have to hire, I guess. I think it's in the authors self-interest to promote their own books - they don't have to be asked to do it.

Re: Persian legends and their Western counterparts (2020)

#39

Post by ffggvv »

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #26

>> While poring over Persian myths and legends for my upcoming novel, Girl, Serpent, Thorn, I was always delightfully surprised whenever I came across a story that sounded familiar to me from my western upbringing. Here, the author of the article is advertising her book. I see this very often- I'm reading an article on an online publication and the author suddendly and more or less surreptitiously inserts a reference…

almost any guest you see on any show is doing publiciity either for their new album, new book, or show/movie (even if they dont explicitly mention it)

theres a reason we only ever see kanye west every few years when he as an album coming out.

My point is that this isnt just the book industry.

Re: Persian legends and their Western counterparts (2020)

#40

Post by jhbadger »

geijoenr wrote: post #17
OnlyMortal wrote: post #15

It’s not surprising that the tales are similar. It’s not like Persia was disconnected from the Greeks, Egyptians or even the Romans. I imagine a good tale went in all directions. The epic of Gilgamesh been an obvious candidate.

Comparative mythology is a field of study. Is is well known there are common Indo-European roots for many myths that are similar across a number of cultures and religions, including Norse one.

Indeed. There are a lot of myths of Greek/Roman gods that are similar to ones about Hindu gods that may be due to a shared Indo/European ancestral culture.
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