Author Description

POP MYTHOLOGY: COLLECTED ESSAYS by Laura A. Shamas, Ph.D., is a collection of twenty-three essays about mythology and modern life; seventeen were previously published, plus six new ones and an introduction. From casual to scholarly, the essays vary in tone and topic: from profiles of gods and goddesses; to thoughts on myth in branding; archetypes in film; myth and social media; and more. The author's expertise as a mythology speaker and as a longtime myth consultant is represented in this collection. The book is divided into two sections: "Pantheon Pieces" and "Myth Miscellany." Essay titles in Part One, "Pantheon Pieces," include: "Aphrodite and Ecology," "Apollo Updated," "Pieces of Athena (and Her Head)," "The Hera Factor in Hillary's Run," "The Holiness of Health [Asclepius & Hygieia]," and "Martha Hearts Hestia." Topics covered in Part Two, "Myth Miscellany," include games shows and romance, courtly love, the end times, the Occupy Movement, the Oscars, creation myth and outer space, a meditation on "Revolution" in the I Ching, and Twitter. This second section also includes a "how-to" approach to myth adaptation that Shamas has taught, for over a decade, to writers of all genres at universities and workshops. The book as a whole represents various ways in which the author has advocated for myth's value in modern life. There are aspects of memoir/biography in certain essays, too.