From: David Buchanan (DBuchanan@ClassicalRadio.org)
Date: Sun Nov 23 2003 - 18:54:23 GMT
Bo, Platt and all:
Bo said:
About your view being confirmed by Campbell is so well addressed by
DMB that I won't try to do my own. Even if Campbell is no MOQian his
approach to the mythological age fits the social epoch (when the
Social level "reigned"). However, if his works throw any light on the
Social-Intellectual transition I don't know ...tell us DMB!
dmb says:
Shedding light on the transition would be harder than what I was trying to
do, which was only to dispute the assertion that mythology is basically bad
science. What guys like Campbell can do for us is help to dispell that
notion by showing in elaborate detail what the aims and purposes of the
myths really are. Once we take a look at that, it becomes very clear that
myths were never intended as a means for the investigation of nature or as
any kind of scientific explanation of the world. Instead, we can see that
the cosmology stories serve a psychological function, they help the
individual understand his function and place in the society. Pirsig's social
level is larger than mythology, but is extremely helpful, maybe even
essential, to understanding what he's refering to. And of course this is not
just an academic history lesson because this level of consciousness is still
very powerful and makes up most of what we are as human beings. Every movie
you ever saw operates on this level. Myths are basically the source of what
motivates our lives, makes us happy or miserable, and each one of us is
living out one myth or another whether we know it or not. In today's culture
we all spend many hours every week absorbing stories of different kinds and
it hardly matters whether the story comes to us through the news, through
gossip, through plays, poems, songs or Hollywood blockbuster. They all have
a profound impact on our psychological make up. Without myths we don't know
who we are and we don't really know what Pirsig means by "social level".
I'd also add that there is an imtimate relationship between myths and
language, but that is a very difficult thing to unravel and will have to
wait for another day.
Tanks (and guns)
dmb
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