Myth in Till We Have Faces - Jacob (Blog Post 1)

 This class has focused a lot on the nature of myth. Myths, generally speaking, are neither literal nor are they metaphors. Myths communicate reality. However, they are not something which can be reduced to some event that happened in the past. When Orual hears the Psyche myth from the priest, she is irate at what she hears. It is not at all like what she remembers. When she asks the priest whether Psyche has returned from her exile, the question is treated as if it has no meaning. Psyche has returned, which signifies spring, and has not, which signifies a return to winter. She has both returned and has not returned from her exile. It is not something which can be understood in a temporal sense. The myth of Psyche that Orual hears is not literal. It did not concretely play out the way she heard the priest describe the story. Yet, it is true. It reveals something which was not immediately apparent in the concrete event. The myth really happened. One can say that the myth was the underlying spirit of the event. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog #13 Dr. Weston’s Philosophy of Life

In Lewis’ Out of A Silent Planet a certain physicist, Dr. Weston kidnaps Ransom and takes him aboard his spaceship headed towards Malacandra. Once Ransom awakes from his slumber and realizes that he is in a spaceship he begins to question the estranged physicist. With little resistance Weston begins to explain his philosophy of life. Ransom responded, “ you hold all the cards, and I must make the best of it. I consider your philosophy of life to be raving lunacy. I suppose all that stuff about infinity and eternity means that you think you are justifiable in doing anything–absolutely anything–here and now, on the off chance that some creatures or other descended from man as we know him may crawl about a few centuries longer in some part of the universe.” Weston responded, “ Yes–anything whatsoever”. Weston resembles one of the great evils of mankind. That being the telos of evolution or in other words survival of the fittest. That is the basic idea the it is a means to an end and not ...
Read more

Experience vs encounter and its implications

 To experience something is notably different from encountering something. I may experience a bear at a zoo, or dangerously encounter one in a forest. One implies perceiving, and the other implies communion (which could be good or bad). Our discussion of these concepts in class got me thinking, "Does our the interconnectedness of the internet create a culture of experience but not encounter?" I know that questions includes a lot, so let me unpack it. The internet fundamentally changes the way humans being relate to one another. I myself, having being basically raised on the internet have now gotten to the age where I realize my experience of childhood, was very different from the rest of the history of the world. I believe has created a reality in which anyone can experience almost anything, although mediated. I can watch as many cute dog videos as I want, but those dogs in the video will never watch me. I think because of this, a renewed appreciation for the embodied, the sa...
Read more

3/15/2023- The Perfect Sacrifice: Questions about Psyche and Ungit

  I was struck by the scene in which the priest of Ungit describes the reason that Psyche must be sacrificed to Ungit in order to avert the various calamities which befell the nation of Glome. He waxes poetic about the nature of the gods, and that they demand nothing less than the best in order to appease their wrath. He states “That is not enough, King. And you know it. We must find the Accursed. And she (or he) must die by the rite of the Great Offering. What is a thief more than a bull or a man? This is not to be a common sacrifice. We must make the Great Offering.” This sounds a great deal like Christ’s sacrifice within Christian theology. Jesus is the perfect sacrifice- the “Great Offering” made to cleanse the sins of the world. However, the difference between the two lies in the satisfaction of the wrath of the gods. For Psyche’s tale, her supposed sacrifice is not enough to quell the wrath of the gods, however, the divine nature of Jesus’ sacrifice is sufficient to overcome ...
Read more