Explication of my Mythic Coat

A Reminder of Our Shared Story

“The general principle is that the higher up we are, the more clearly we can see the bottom action as a demonic parody of the top” (Frye, 52). Throughout the course of the semester, the underlying theme is how the past possesses the present. Frye takes this concept a step further. I interpret this quote as meaning that the further each of us is from an event in our own lives, we can see more and more clearly that the present is merely a twisted displacement of previous episodes in our lives. This theme has been alluded to in every text we have read, “In my beginning is my end” (Eliot).

As I thought about this idea introduced most poignantly by Frye, I could not shake the idea that we, each individual human, is carrying with them a metaphorical coat. We carry a coat of all the shared stories of our earth, and of our ancestors, and stories from every corner of the globe. Similarly, we wear our own personal coats. Coats that mimic these shared stories of our collective past. We can now, being higher up, see our actions as parodies of those stories before, and below. Our coats reflect our personal histories, and how they are embroidered upon us, reminding us that we are indeed reliving a demonic parody. The coat that I have chosen to make is representative of our shared stories. But, is equally a my own story, as the way I have chosen to express these stories so clearly shows influences from my own life.

I have always been interested in fiber arts and textiles, and this manifests itself in a variety of ways including sewing, quilting, knitting, felting, spinning yarn, and weaving, just to name a few. The history of textiles is rich, and integrally connected to myths and stories from all over the world. The English word “text” comes from the Latin word for weaving, texare. This explains common phrases such as “weaving a story”. Though there are countless stories involving fiber, I will name only a few. Neith was an Egyptian goddess of weaving, and also the mighty aid of war. Penelope wove by day, and unraveled her beautiful work by night as to avoid marrying one of the suitors. Saule was the life-affirming Baltic sun goddess, who spun sunbeams with the spinning wheel. Working with fiber has been a part of myth throughout time, and from all over the world. By creating my own coat, I wove myself into the larger story.

Though an insignificant piece of the puzzle, I have taken my role in a tale much bigger than my own. And, each story of each weaver is indeed a displacement of those that came before.

The coat itself appears to be jumbled, or lacking in consistent theme. This was intentional, as it is not the plot or storyline of each of these myths that tie them together. Rather, the theme of how they each story has been displaced in various examples discussed in class. We have read in class a different demonic parody of each of these stories, many of which have been displaced multiple times, by many different authors. It is not the story that binds the coat together, but rather the displacements of these stories.

I will not discuss in detail each of the images depicted on the coat, as I am assuming that each member of the class is familiar with these myths. The hood of the jacket is covered in snakes, just as on the head of the feared Medusa. On the rear of the coat I have shown Icarus, flying too close to the sun. His feathers lay strewn across the coat. Below his remains, a quince tree dominates the back of the jacket. (Quinces have appeared in high frequencies in my life as of late. As noted above, though this coat shows the communal stories, it also serves as my own story as told through those of the past.) The tree can be interpreted as that of the Garden of Eden, or the tree of life, and is easily appropriated to a number of stories. The Tree is what bridges the higher to the lower, the living to the dead, the earth and the underworld. The underworld is shown on the front side of the coat. Here I have placed the lyre of Orpheus, and the pomegranate of Persephone.

We are displacement. We are the demonic parody. And we must carry coats to remind us as such. We wear the shared stories, and through them, we are reminded that our stories are not really our own.