This article, originally published in 1997, collects tales from children in Dade’s homeless shelters which amount to the creation of a new mythology, if you believe the reporter. In a prior existence, I studied social anthropology with a particular interest in folklore and mythology. One of the things I learned is that it is not as easy as it might appear for an outside observer to impose coherency on a body of myth that is scattered throughout a population. One is essentially doing cross-cultural fieldwork in looking at this rich, fascinating oral tradition in the making. I wonder if this writer is trained in this way. She certainly has a grasp of concepts like what Claude Lévi-Strauss called bricolage when she writes, “What these determined children do is snatch dark and bright fragments of Halloween fables, TV news, and candy-colored Bible-story leaflets from street-corner preachers, and like birds building a nest from scraps, weave their own myths.” Have a look:

“On Christmas night a year ago, God fled Heaven to escape an audacious demon attack — a celestial Tet Offensive. The demons smashed to dust his palace of beautiful blue-moon marble. TV news kept it secret, but homeless children in shelters across the country report being awakened from troubled sleep and alerted by dead relatives. No one knows why God has never reappeared, leaving his stunned angels to defend his earthly estate against assaults from Hell. “Demons found doors to our world,” adds eight-year-old Miguel, who sits before Andre with the other children at the Salvation Army shelter. The demons’ gateways from Hell include abandoned refrigerators, mirrors, Ghost Town (the nickname shelter children have for a cemetery somewhere in Dade County), and Jeep Cherokees with “black windows.” The demons are nourished by dark human emotions: jealousy, hate, fear.” —Miami New Times [via bOING bOING]

Here is an interesting connection: has anyone read Denis Johnson’s Fiskadoro, which came out in 2000? Set in a post-apocalyptic south Florida, I see some similarities. Could Johnson have been influenced by this article’s original publication?