The value of the myth is that it takes all the things we know and restores to them the rich significance which has been hidden by ‘the veil of familiarity’. The child enjoys his cold meat (otherwise dull to him) by pretending it is buffalo, just killed with his own bow and arrow. And the child is wise. The real meat comes back to him more savoury for having been dipped in a story; you might say that only then is it the real meat. If you are tired of the real landscape, look at it in a mirror. By putting bread, gold, horse, apple, or the very roads into a myth, we do not retreat from reality: we rediscover it. As long as the story lingers in our mind, the real things are more themselves. This book applies the treatment not only to bread or apple but to good and evil, to our endless perils, our anguish, and our joys. By dipping them in myth we see them more clearly.
-C. S. Lewis, “Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings,” On Stories, 90.
1 comment:
Beth, I was just realizing an inconsistency. I keep saying I like comments, and who doesnt, but how can I ever expect to get comments if i don't leave them. therefore, in the future i will try to do a better job of leaving comments thus encouraging you to both continue to update and to leave comments elsewhere.
all this being said, Vote annie for president :)
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