WHAT IS REAL?
By: Gina Emerson
As we began our first day of class we discussed such issues as what is real and how do we know it is real. How do we determine what is real? Let us begin with our childhood. When we were young we were introduced to the notion that there was a Santa Claus, Easter Bunny and even a Saint Valentine that came bearing gifts on these special occasions. We also had the tooth fairy who left a small token under our pillow for the loss of our teeth, and who can forget The Sandman who helped us to sleep. Someone had the wonderful task of taken away our childhood friends when they deemed us too old to believe anymore. What was at one time very real to us is now just an illusion. What is real?
The stories our parents and our grandparents often times told were comforting and in our eyes so believable; however we grew to learn that these tales were just that –– tales. These awesome tales brought so much hope to those who believed they had none, and strength to those who felt weak without them. Why would these people who we trusted and depended on lead us into such a false sense of hope? Was it an illusion? What is real?
Can we only believe that which lies before us? Are we blinded by that which we cannot see? Can there be a place that exists beyond our imagination that returns us to the comfort of our childhood? Can the very thing that keeps us going be there very thing that holds us down?
When we forget the things that matter to us most we often times lose sight of our own ability to dream. Life’s ambitions do not include family or friends because we are just too busy. What matters to us most is to succeed; however, success does not stop the drive for more. We are often time so concerned with what others think of us that we live denying ourselves true life. When is the last time we smiled from the heart? When is the last time we embraced life with arms wide open? Does youth still hold our true happiness through myth and lost friends? When does this illusion called life become a reality called myth? Could our dreams be held in limbo between the primary and secondary worlds? And if it is, could this place be called Faerie? If this is so…can you take me there?
What is real?...
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Myth Supports Relativism - Kevin Crowley
The Value of Myth
It has long been recognized how stories have incredible influence over people’s minds and cultures. From being passed down orally in ancient days, to written scrolls and books, to movies and shows of our day, it doesn’t take much pondering to grasp the significance stories and myths have on human psychology and culture. Like many of our readings have suggested, whether the story really happened or not is irrelevant. What the story is trying to convey, the moral lesson, is the point. The problem I see with this is how the myths interact with values and ethics, which is what I’m sure we will be exploring in much detail throughout this course. Myths can convey whatever the author desires, so one could rationally come up with a good story to illustrate why it is okay to murder or cheat on your spouse. With an unlimited supply of circumstances and characters at one’s literary disposal, a creative mind can come up with about anything to justify just about anything.
Also, interpretation is another problem we run into when trying to understand the axiology of myths. This is indeed especially a huge problem for religious texts as well, of how two people can read the same passage out of the Bible, for instance, and get two separate meanings and universal truths out of it. It then becomes a matter of what the reader is looking for when he opens a book up, that combined with one’s own past and thoughts and how they relate to the material being read. With all of that being said, the values and ethics of myth is an unstable and insubstantial thing, resting solely on the creator’s purpose combined with the reader’s very own understanding of it.
However, one thing that needs to be considered is the collective understanding of myth. It usually so happens that when there is an agreement of the intended purpose of a story, whatever particular understanding dominates becomes the winning interpretation and is thereafter taught on and spread to the masses, thus becoming the correct meaning of that piece of literature. But this doesn’t hold true for everyone, for there is always opposition when it comes to deciphering morality from a story. This is why English teachers love asking their students what they, individually, got out of a story that the whole class read. It’s fascinating to witness how each student takes their turn giving their view and interpretation that somehow differs from one another, after reading the same work.
So the axiology of myth runs into a problem, since meaning can be both created and extracted in any way imaginable. This seems to chop out the “universal” in universal truths, and replaces it with “relative”. Myths then become the quintessential supporter of relativism, as people and their myths work together to establish a moral code for its people, but not for the whole of humanity.
It has long been recognized how stories have incredible influence over people’s minds and cultures. From being passed down orally in ancient days, to written scrolls and books, to movies and shows of our day, it doesn’t take much pondering to grasp the significance stories and myths have on human psychology and culture. Like many of our readings have suggested, whether the story really happened or not is irrelevant. What the story is trying to convey, the moral lesson, is the point. The problem I see with this is how the myths interact with values and ethics, which is what I’m sure we will be exploring in much detail throughout this course. Myths can convey whatever the author desires, so one could rationally come up with a good story to illustrate why it is okay to murder or cheat on your spouse. With an unlimited supply of circumstances and characters at one’s literary disposal, a creative mind can come up with about anything to justify just about anything.
Also, interpretation is another problem we run into when trying to understand the axiology of myths. This is indeed especially a huge problem for religious texts as well, of how two people can read the same passage out of the Bible, for instance, and get two separate meanings and universal truths out of it. It then becomes a matter of what the reader is looking for when he opens a book up, that combined with one’s own past and thoughts and how they relate to the material being read. With all of that being said, the values and ethics of myth is an unstable and insubstantial thing, resting solely on the creator’s purpose combined with the reader’s very own understanding of it.
However, one thing that needs to be considered is the collective understanding of myth. It usually so happens that when there is an agreement of the intended purpose of a story, whatever particular understanding dominates becomes the winning interpretation and is thereafter taught on and spread to the masses, thus becoming the correct meaning of that piece of literature. But this doesn’t hold true for everyone, for there is always opposition when it comes to deciphering morality from a story. This is why English teachers love asking their students what they, individually, got out of a story that the whole class read. It’s fascinating to witness how each student takes their turn giving their view and interpretation that somehow differs from one another, after reading the same work.
So the axiology of myth runs into a problem, since meaning can be both created and extracted in any way imaginable. This seems to chop out the “universal” in universal truths, and replaces it with “relative”. Myths then become the quintessential supporter of relativism, as people and their myths work together to establish a moral code for its people, but not for the whole of humanity.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
