Ancient Mythologies vs Modern Stories

Someone mentioned on a message board that they recently read the Amar Chitra Comics as an adult, and realized that the comics they loved so much as a kid seemed to be poorly written. Their dissatisfaction was more with the content, than with the style of narration. They felt that some of the contents of ancient mythology, such as children being born "without consummation", would be hard for young readers to understand.

I agree that they have a point. But the fact that they liked the comics as a kid indicates that they comics are successful in reaching out to their target audience: kids.

The thing about ancient mythology is that, they have all kinds of elements - good behavior and bad behavior, violence, sexuality, anger, jealousy, courage, kindness, etc. Yet, these myths are not targetted at people of any one gender or age group or social strata. Most ancient myths are for the enjoyment of all people, every individual in the culture to which the myth belongs. The beauty of these myths is that they speak to the people on various levels (various personal levels as well as various socio-economic levels), and they speak to individuals at exactly the level of understanding and growth the individual is on.

So, a child can enjoy the stories of Krishna without really having to know the details of Krishna's polyamorous activites, where as, a young adult can enjoy Krishna's stories inclusive of his amorous adventures and a very old person who may not be interested in romance and sexuality, can enjoy Krishna's stories at an entirely different level. That is the beauty of ancient mythology.

This is not true of modern stories. Which is why, it is difficult for us to show most modern movies or share most modern books with young children. Parents these days have to struggle and come up with ingenous explanations and interpretations for kids about the stories they are exposed to on television and in the movies. Parents have to give unconvincing explanations to growing kids about why their access to certain stories and materials should be restricted. Ancient myths did not have these hassles.

Most of us grew up reading Amar Chitra Katha books, most of us grew up being exposed to all kinds of stories which would be considered taboo for children today. Yet, we turned out alright. In fact, people who are not adequate exposed to all aspects of life in their growing years, tend to have problems as adults in adapting and adjusting to new situations. So, Amar Chitra Katha and other books based on ancient stories may not be as bad as they appear to our modern left-brain educated adult minds. Also, children are amazingly resilient, insightful and understanding.