This just in from Juggler video-gaming expert-in-the-field Pagan Puff Pieces (Px3): ok, it’s taken me awhile to get my head around this, but- Px3 recently attended (in PPP’s inimitable phrasing) a “nerdtastic event” that produced “nerdgasms.” That event? The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddess. Frankly, when I first saw Jason’s forward, I thought, Someone composed a Symphony for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s wife? But no: it seems that Zelda is a Nintendo video-game of some renown (a site that I consulted- cause I had to do some research on this- calls Zelda the “world’s most popular video game,” inspiring both book and comic-book series, a cartoon show, and a breakfast cereal). Now, as I understand it: The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddess is the “first ever video game-themed concert,” accompanied by a four-movement symphony (ie, someone composed a full-on symphony, performed by an orchestra, to accompany this cinematic presentation of Zelda and what Px3 identifies as the “Hylian Gods”- of Whom, I am now clueless.) According to PPP, the performance that PPP attended was a powerfully moving one for the audience (fulfilling the ideal of theater- to transport an audience to a “head-space” outside their accustomed one); Px3 urges all gaming-fans (especially Pagan ones) to see the touring performance “if humanly possible” (tour-dates and locations noted above).
More than this, however- and maybe it would be helpful to have Pagan Puff Pieces help us to understand Px3′s thinking a bit: PPP asks how one makes the call, when one suspects something “potentially tingly” is going on in the pop-culture and in the media? How does one draw the line between “fan-girling” or “Trekking out”: and identifying genuine “Myth-Making” in process? Bringing up some very interesting points, I believe: is “Mythology” strictly a Thing of the past? Or is it possible to “invent” a modern Mythology, just as viable as an Ancient one? In certain aspects of comic-books and video-games, are we witnessing a spontaneous cultural “Creation” of particularly Modern Mythology? As the performance of a Transcendent theatrical/ musical event very closely resembles that of a Religious Rite- and if the Spiritual Philosophy holds true, that All Avenues to the Sacred and Divine are Avenues of Enlightenment- in the distinctly modern fusion of the live concert-experience and projected video-animation:
Is the Zeitgeist in the process of inventing Modern Mythology for us, as we speak?
GAH! I didn’t mean for you make a post about thaaaat…. That… that was kind of the fangirl equivalent of drunk dialing, you see. I immediately regretted it the morning after.
(Though I could type on and on about this series if you want me to clarify things becauseohgoddessesIamhoriblypathetic)
I should be going on about things like the effect on the actors and the audience of performing Shakespeare in OP and whatnot….
Agh, be right back, I’ll just be curled up in this dark corner here.
But, no, it’s surely not the FIRST video game concert. There have been plenty. It’s not even the first time video game music has been arranged for an orchestra and choir (a 1989 sountrack of music based on that of the NES game Mother, kind of cultural phenomenon of a game in Japan, used the St. Paul’s Cathedral Choir. Remember that back then, the music in the games themselves was still 8 bit chiptunes!). In fact, last year there was a 25th Anniversary concert for The Legend of Zelda (which I missed). Maybe Symphony of the Goddesses was the first four part symphony?
And if recall right, Zelda Fitzgerald did inspire the name for the titular princess, but not for any real reason other than that it sounded nice. Sure enough, you say that name now, and a lot of people will think of the game. Robin Williams admits to naming his daughter after Princess Zelda, and Zelda Williams did host the LA performance. I doubt there are many Zeldas under the age of 25 whose parents did not have the game in mind.
By the way, I should mention, to avoid a common error, that the hero you play is named Link–Oh, no! I’m doing it again… See what I mean?
But, speaking of pop culture things of interest the horribly nearsighted monitor-gazing young people are into… Have you been keeping up with The Legend of Korra, the sequel series to Avatar: The Last Airbender (not to be confused with the horrible live action movie that, as far as the fans are concerned, never happened)?
Hey, listen!
Feel free to unleash your inner fangirl on this site whenever you’d like, PPP. I’m sure zan would be happy to facilitate any guest posting you’d care to do. I’ve only played through Zelda 1 and 2, and a bunch of Phantom Hourglass, and so I’m no expert on the mythos (though, clearly, I’ve listened to my son playing through Ocarina of Time way too much).
I would say, however, that I’m uncomfortable with any world-view in which the process of mythopoesis can ever cease. The Goddess is relentless. Everthing She touches…&c. And so I’m sure the Gods are speaking through the Legend of Zelda as they do through many human artifacts. I am skeptical that many will be creating altars to Din, Nayru and Farore, though.
(Aww, that made me smile!)
I have no business guest posting. I just kind of hang around uninvited and butt into important sounding conversations, hoping I don’t reveal how deficient I actually am. At least in The Wild Hunt I’ve managed to leave the debate to the professionals.
You actually made it through Adventure of Link? That game is crazy hard! I can barely play it at all! Well, the first two were kind of thematically generic, but the third (A Link to the Past) was the one that established… (twenty minutes later) …but really the thought came to me watching the way the video accompaniment presented the events of varying games (the “big” home console ones). That gave me my “hey, wait a minute, there are some themes I’m seeing here…” moments. I suppose you could look up Youtube footage filmed by people who attended, but that’s no fun at all, is it?
True, gamers may not be building altars to Din, Farore and Nayru anytime soon, but if your son picks up Skyward Sword, you might find interesting a few things concerning a certain goddess you can’t take two steps without encountering some sort of reference to.