What's with our current obsession with origin stories?

It's pretty obvious right now that we have a huge obsession with origin stories. Batman, Superman, Spiderman, even Star Wars, have recently put forth stories about their origins, and for the most part, they have been quite successful. It isn't limited to movies and super-heroes either (though it does show up there the most). The "phenomenon" which was and I guess still is LOST is fundamentally an origin story. Even the recent Battle Star Galactica which completely ran out of steam at the end, has begun anew in a prequel. Even the Lord of the Rings is going to be doing a a backstory sometime soon (based on the book which started it all.)

The strange part of it for me, is that even though this seems like and feels like a fad to me, I love it. These coming of age stories which are so popular now, they pull on my heart and my emotions much more than the older stories which have clearly defined good guys and bad guys. So somehow they really affect me why is it? Right now I have couple of theories.

First and most obviously, a dynamic character who represents myself is much more interesting than someone who has already achieved the top. This generation is acutely aware of our limitations in a way that I think many before us were not. In some way we have lost hope of progress, of ultimately achieving greatness. But these stories are hopeful in a true sense of the word hope. We know the ending, we know it will all turn out more awesome than any of these characters could ever expect. I want that for myself, and it thrills me to see it.

What else drives this desire to understand the past of characters? It's the very thing that is making me think about this post. A desire to understand and to know so that I can progress. Right now as a society based on science, if we know the rules and the intial conditions we can predict and control the outcome and even understand our presence. We have learned the majority of the rules, now we just need to know the beginnings. Then we can understand where we are today, get a real grasp on what is going on and repeat the success of our heroes.

Finally, I just think that it might be our hearts crying out for history. We live in a time where so much information is about the here and now, with an eye towards the future. Money, fame, riches are all about predicting the next big trend. If you can do that, the world is yours to play with. In this flood of analysis of information about the present (go look at twitter, facebook, buzz, or pretty much any other site) the information will all be about the present. It used to be most books that you could get your hands on were written in the past. But today everything is online, and it's all about today. I see so little history online that I think there is a gaping hole in my understanding of the world. We need our history, and we know it even if we don't know it.

So why the prequel then? We need hope, understanding, and history. And that is all part of the prequel.