Quote:
David Henderson wrote:
That's an important point, in terms of understanding "mythological truth." Myth is more than "fancy dress," in this sense -- it is a transformation of (possibly) factual datum into a form that is meant to throw light on a more fundamental (if encoded) programmatic truth.
Therein lies, to quote a figure of "myth," the rub: to apprehend the "truth" of myth within the mythic tradition involves accepting and appreciating the myth as though it were factual.
I highly doubt those of us raised to believe the "myth" of rationality really can access "myth." Instead, at best, we can only appreciate the metaphoric structure and the virtual lesson embedded therein.
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"Not all those who wander are lost..." There is a reason Tolkien is considered by many to be the author of the century. The quintessential genre of that and this century was and continues to be science fiction and fantasy of various stripes. We are no longer mere recipients of myth -- we are invited to become active participants, and many are becoming creators. Jules Verne imagined the modern world into existence. We are called to be prophets now, for better or worse.
There is a stuff -- a working medium -- that we all share, and then are invited to shape and build from the foundations of sound traditions. Taken in that mode it is not "art for art's sake" but "art for truth's sake." Willing suspension of disbelief is the operative mode that the creator must elicit in the reader and the reader must accept in order to enter the story and find the truth in it.