Lost in Translation

Lost in Translation

     R. Crumb's "The Book of Genesis" and Siku's "The Manga Bible" elicit an interesting point about the retelling of Creationism and of general myth retellings. Both, as all myth re-tellings do, add their own touch to the story, one more dramatically than the other but equally important. "The Book of Genesis," despite being a unique medium, does an excellent job of maintaining relative accuracy to the Old Testament's original telling of the story; using familiar language and a parallel chronology paired with straightforward illustrations of the text. For example, the comic uses biblical language like, "And God saw the light, that it was good," of which the tone and grammatical organization is close, if not identical to the Bible's. However, every now and then the author includes some of his own language, like "for on the day you eat from it, you are doomed to die!" Furthermore, unlike the subtle differences seen in R. Crumb's comic, Siku's "The Manga Bible" tells the Creationism myth in a more entertaining context and uses close to no familiar language from the original text. This manga comic tells the creationism myth as if Moses was telling it to the children of Israel, ironically a myth being retold within another myth also being retold.

     Regardless of how different the retelling is from the original, whether understated like in "The Book of Genesis" or very distant like in the "Manga Bible," why do authors feel the need to insert their own personalities into retellings, especially in myths as systematic and "straightforward" as the creationism story? While this "broken-telephone game" phenomenon is often the cause of confusion and misunderstandings, perhaps it's the root of what makes myths beautiful and entertaining to the audience, and even prevents myths from becoming fact. If the same exact story was told endlessly, regardless of its validity, it would likely become accepted as fact over time and effectively close the doors for meaningful interpretation; quite the opposite of the intention of mythology as a genre.