Outside Reading #1


I read recently for another class Plato’s Symposium and found an unlikely parallel to the material we have been talking about within our discussions. Within our discussions we spoke about how myth can explain concepts which are sometimes only discernible within the moment of experiencing them. This concept also found its way into the discussion as depicted within the Symposium, during Aristophanes’ account of love he describes the Greek myth of the soulmate. From the telling of this myth the reader is imparted with the sense that a mate is one that should complete you and that love as a means of finding that completion is truly good. I feel that Plato included the retelling of the myth for a couple reasons, but mainly because he understood the impact that storytelling could have on a reader and knew that the sense of ultimate satisfaction due to the completion of the self is something that has to, in some way, be experienced to be understood.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Heidegger (I Guess)

In "The Origin of the Work of Art," Martin Heidegger characterizes the essence of art as work which contributes to the unconcealment ( aletheia ) of reality, i.e. the literal (or perhaps literary, given his emphasis on poetry) construction of truth. This philosophy/ontology seems quite compatible with Lewis's bit in "Myth Became Fact," wherein he describes myth as reality. Heidegger describes unconcealing as the existential project of the Dasein, i.e. the human being, and artistic manifestation of the aesthetic impulse is a prime way of doing this: realizing and bringing-forth qualities of Being, facilitating the dialectical relationship between world and earth. Poetry is a privileged art form for Heidegger, given the profound intertwining of language with the human condition (the Dasein ). "Language is the house of the truth of Being," says Heidegger. Thus, Lewis's proclamation that myth, i.e. narrative, i.e. a particular manifestation of poetic a...
Read more

"Myth Became Fact" and the Chronicles of Narnia

In the brief essay “Myth Became Fact” from his collection God in the Dock, C. S. Lewis described myth or narrative as the “isthmus” that connects the abstract realm of thoughts and ideas with the concrete world of experience. It is the mythic aspect of Christianity, therefore, which is potentially the most vital element of the tradition, given its proximity to the Truth. Myth allows us the closest thing to actual tangible encounter which we can experience while still allowing for contemplation in the ideal/abstract. It is fascinating to see this idea played out by Lewis himself through his Chronicles of Narnia, which offer a different, more fairytale-esque myth which nevertheless shares much of its essence/meaning with the Christian narrative. Through the Chronicles, we are treated to much of the substance of the Christian story but served in a childlike packaging (like one of Father Christmas’s gifts, no doubt). In other words, the Narnia narrative arguably communicates much of the ...
Read more

From Narnia to Malacandra

Having finished reading Narnia and started onto the Space Trilogy, I find it very interesting how much more real Lewis’s science fiction world seems to me than the stories of Narnia. Somehow I find it far more easy to believe that there might be a fantastical world where angels dwell on Mars than there’s an equally fantastical world that might be accessed from various closets, caves, and paintings where animals can speak. Partially, I think this is because Out of the Silent Planet is narrated in such a manner that it’s trying to relay incredulous facts in the form of fiction to an understandably skeptic viewer, while Narnia has the feel of a story about it. And while that is not to cast doubt upon the truth that stories carry, it must be admitted that stories are true in different ways than what might be commonly regarded as facts are true. Although some of you may disagree with me on that. Come to think of it, I cannot help but wonder if the way the events of Ransom’s journey to M...
Read more