REFLECTION
For this second project, originally I wanted to do another story about the topic. Instead of Slavery, I wanted to foucs on the mythology of Indian culture. With this in mind, at first I wanted to focus on the Cryptids of India. Crytids, as explained in the video essay, are creatures and animals that have yet to be discovered or recognized by science. Think The Kraken, right? For the longest time people thought that did not exist, then we found the giant squid. Now the idea of a cephalopod that big does not seem as silly. So when I looked up the cryptids of India, all I got was the yeti. Which, him, belongs to Nepal and Tibet more than India I feel. So I went more broad, and found some interesting mythological creatures and gods. That is when I realized hey, there really isn’t a whole pantheon of gods in America, or even our own sort of mythology, that’s purely an old times West and More So the East sort of thing. So that is how the video essay idea came to be. I feel like with this response essay to the topic, there is not a whole lot I can talk about that I did not already cover in the video. I did enjoy this more than the story, because I love the idea of mythology and cryptids in general. I truly believe Bigfoot exists. The chupacabra, the goat sucker of Mexico and south Texas, that totally exists. It’s not a demon looking alien though, it’s more like a mutant coyote or wolf. I used to watch this show on the history channel called Monster Quest, it went in on all this. In the chupacabra episode, it showed pictures and videos of the animal, it looked like a skinned dog. Mang could have caused it but it was deformed and misshapen as well, it Simply wasn’t a dog. The fangs proved otherwise. What I am curious about is how it feeds, because the goats and animals found have two holes in it, like puncture wounds. Now in the movies, that is how vampires feed sure. Did you know that vampire bats, the animals bloodsuckers of the night are named after, actually scrape and lick their prey to feed. Then again Spiders actually suck the fluid out of their prey, so who knows. It is intriguing.
People say bigfoot can not be real because we would have come across a body in the woods by now. That is a ridiculous argument. People have no idea how big the woods in Northern America truly are. Hell we still have no idea what happened to DB Cooper after all this time once he jumped into the woods. Same thing goes for the yeti. The himalayas are a MASSIVE mountain range. A species of ape living up there, not impossible. I have seen the photos, the footprints. It simply isn’t natural. All those myths and legends about gods and monsters in the east have to start from somewhere. There is at least a grain of truth in every legend. Like, like sea monsters. Serpents, great slithering beasts that attacked sailors. How do we know they didn’t rise to the surface and attack people, only retreating to the dark depths once we polluted the ocean enough. I truly fear what we will see rising to escape the smog and filth when it gets deep enough. I said the forrest was massive, the mountains, fuck that is nothing compared to the ocean. I like how this little response just turned into me talking and ranting more about cryptids. Shanktula really inspired me, I look forward to how the last project will inspire me. If we start talking about Japanese stories, oh boy the legends and myths I could talk about, or even write about. I love learning about the myths of other cultures, it’s like, enriching or something like that.
- List of sources/details about mythology.
- https://pinelandsalliance.org/learn-about-the-pinelands/pinelands-history-and-culture/the-jersey-devil-and-folklore/
- https://www.legendsofamerica.com/mn-wendigo/
- https://www.legendsofamerica.com/native-american-legends/
- https://traditionalpolytheist.com/2017/06/27/ten-differences-between-polytheism-and-monotheism/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makara#:~:text=Makara%20(Sanskrit%3A%20%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%B0)%20is,of%20the%20sea%20god%20Varuna.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganga_in_Hinduism
- https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/27/opinion/thanksgiving-history-racism.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mokele-mbembe
- https://www.history.com/topics/folklore/loch-ness-monster-video
- https://www.mothmanmuseum.com/
- https://muse.jhu.edu/book/29882
- https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/10327
- https://www.livescience.com/11328-rumor-reality-creatures-cryptozoology.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_mythology
Thank you for going into such detail on the topic of Gods and monsters, Cryptids and other mythological friends and foes. I’ve always thought it was silly of humans to assume we can keep track of every movement that has occurred in and around this planet. I thought your connection from the Eastern myth of Shakuntala to our lack of Western mythology was smart and compelling. I fully agree that it’s because of Christianity that we don’t have more interesting legends and myths. As I get older it seems that Christianity’s entire purpose was just to provide “answers” and order, so that there was no question or creativity around how We came to be. Thanks for speaking on this! I enjoyed your project.