Living Myths
July 19, 2004 12:16 PM Subscribe
The real action is in the modern myths that guide our social and political lives, and race around the world at breakneck speed, forming new cults overnight, and disbanding them just as quickly. What about the mythical status acquired by new films like "Fahrenheit" and "The Passion," which quickly shoot beyond the status of mere cultural artifacts, and become personas in and of themselves, like "Bush" and "Kerry." Who is this Tupac? What is this "Curves" ritual? A single incident like Janet Jackson's breast is instantly referenced more times in world literature than the whole of the Greek pantheon through all of history, her nipple becomes a cult figure. Reference and repetition gather speed like a rolling snowball, and by the ten thousandth time a late night comedian references some fact like Reuben Stoddard's weight or Bill Clinton's zipper, their eyes glaze over, like a priest saying his ten thousandth latin mass. Then where does it go? Contemporary mythology follows a kind of convection process, where myths rise to the surface out of the information lithosphere, burst forth to suck in their believers and acolytes, and to accept their sacrifices, and are then resubmerged into the boiling mass, to rise again in a different form. The myths and archetypes that appear and disappear on the net are remarkable. Who is this Peter Pan that I've seen so often on the net, suddenly appearing on Conan O'Brian? In the political sphere, the mythmaking privilege that totalitarian governments selfishly guarded, belongs to everyone in a democracy. The past ten years have seen the mythmaking burgeon into insane, whirlwind proportions. Both sides are spinning lies about lies about lies, and this too is a lie...
posted by Faze at 5:17 PM on July 19, 2004
posted by Faze at 5:17 PM on July 19, 2004
Good link. I especially like the Celtic stuff. Thanks, hama7.
posted by homunculus at 5:40 PM on July 19, 2004
posted by homunculus at 5:40 PM on July 19, 2004
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Another interesting find that yields concise information.
Sadly, there is no discussion of Seth...
posted by Seth at 12:44 PM on July 19, 2004