Jul 2023 | Reading time: 10 min
Why it matters to read more fiction, generally speaking.
Key ideas were synthesized and formed from Chapter iv on Early Civilizations of Karen Armstrong’s A Short History of Myth, a very worthwhile read (can be found here).
Language is the fundamental unit of literature and mythology that acts as a vessel for human history and time. These expressive mediums enable the genuine expression of human experience and thought. Literature and mythology express intellectual and spiritual explorations of human nature to provide a deeper understanding of the intrinsic self and the extrinsic reality, and thus, create a universal and unitive narrative based on cultural continuity.
Literature and mythology grant permanent expression to human experience in its profound exploration of human nature. These art forms solidify human knowledge by connecting intangible thought with tangible experience, enabling spiritual transcendence. Literature and myth deepen the human experience, such that each work contains a different intellectual and spiritual perspective on human nature, crafted by the author’s artistry. Fundamentally, thought drives action. Then, literature gifts individuals with the ability to solidify the afterthought and craft a narrative, to extend and offer one’s experience to others so that it is not lost in history. As John Lye argues in his wisdom thesis, such intricate expressions demand the reader to develop heightened sensibilities for moral, social, emotional, and spiritual considerations. This insight and rich reflection lead to heuristic wisdom. Thus, to study literature and myth is to study the self. Moreover, the ambiguities, contradictions, and ironies present in all literature parallel the ambiguities of emotions and intricacies of logic in the human psyche. For example, in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the protagonist R.P. McMurphy is transferred to an Oregon psychiatric hospital after faking psychosis. To study institutional corruption in society and its impact on individualistic principles, Kesey manipulates McMurphy’s narrative such that he becomes a radical force in challenging Nurse Ratched’s abusive authority over the mentally ill at the hospital. This exploration of the intrinsic self as a manifestation of the extrinsic environment establishes the convoluted nature of the human self. However, despite the complexity of human nature, literature and myth provide a starting point for self-actualization.
Literature and mythology grant individuals an understanding of intellectual and spiritual connections between the past, present, and potential future. Literature facilitates the contact of physical and transcendent reality, such that the reader’s subsequent intellectual and spiritual enlightenment grounds their human experience. Especially, fictional literature highlights human subjectivity and the existence of multiple perspectives, which subject the reader to new information and ideas. This effectively disrupts readers’ customary egocentrism by providing contrast to what is habitual. After all, it is the contrast that distinguishes one entity from another and not similarities. Furthermore, the quality of all literature as artifacts of the imagination that inherently engages in imagining modes of being. This strengthens humanity’s intellectual and spiritual understanding because of the omnipresent engagement of past, present, and future within every literary work. Mythical narratives sustain themselves over centuries because the common link of human nature between everything always remains the same, much like how the only constant in change is change itself. Although seemingly paradoxical, this constancy results from people’s realization of their mortality. In A Short History of Myth, Karen Armstrong argues, “human beings fall easily into despair… we invented stories that… gave us a sense that, against all the depressing and chaotic evidence to the contrary, life had meaning and value” (Armstrong 2). Humanity crafted stories to dignify every persisting aspect of life overtime to connect the physical with the spiritual. For example, the hero’s archetype remains as a common link in stories from the past like The Odyssey to modern franchises like Star Wars. The appeal lies in the ability of the heroic protagonist(s) to transcend their mortal limitations to accomplish a monumental task, wherein they find their ultimate purpose. Ultimately, myths give explicit shape to a more powerful reality beyond human comprehension. Each earthly reality was some parallel or archetype of its divine counterpart. This provides fragile humans with the ability to experience divinity themselves, and thus, feel a greater sense of purpose.
Literature and mythology establish continuity and stability in culture by creating a universal human narrative that ensures collaboration and productivity in society. These artforms foster a shared set of perspectives and values that connect individuals to others, to their ancestors, and to the natural world. This medium transforms thoughts into ideologies, which eventually formulate a narrative that social groups adhere to, giving rise to culture. In Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, he argues this very ability in human language to talk of entities that do not exist in the physical realm as the reason for human domination over the planet. From the emergence of this form of language and onwards, “history declared its independence from biology” (Harari 10) [1]. Across all animals, only sapiens believe in such fictions that enable collective imagination; these fictions incentivize flexible cooperation with strangers to foster a highly collaborative society for sapiens. This collaboration historically ensured survival, but in a modern context, ensures productivity. Ultimately, humans live in a dual reality of the imagined and subjective reality of gods and nations, which has overpowered the physical and extrinsic reality of unexplainable natural phenomena. Fundamentally, literature provides humans with collective control to change narratives in a short period of time and subsequently, shift behaviour - almost defiant of the process of physical evolution. Thus, the study of literature provides significant insight into the origins and development of humans.
Literature and mythology are timeless guides to one’s understanding of the relationship with the self, others, and the natural world. These artforms transform collective fiction into common narratives that address the spiritual needs of humans during each point of development of civilization. As history unfolds, the imagined reality becomes so powerful that the survival of natural beings is subject to the grace of imagined entities. In this new era of spiritual dubiety, the resolution of this void lies in the universality of literature and mythology.
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Footnotes
[1] Stretched too far, there are many problems with this statement which I didn’t think of at the time of writing this. There have been many criticisms of the reductionistic narrative presented by Harari, which you can read about here, here, and here. I’m also not in strict agreement or disagreement with ideas here, but I do agree with the general criticism.
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Works cited
Armstrong, Karen. A Short History of Myth. Vintage Canada, 2006.
Harari, Yuval N. Sapiens: a Brief History of Humankind. Vintage Books, 2014.
In A Short History of Myth, Karen Armstrong explores the rise of individual agency as a result of increased civilization to establish humanity’s struggle to understand its balance between fate and free will, anchored in spirituality and human creativity, respectively.
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Context: Within Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations at the time (4000 - 800 BCE), it was the era of emerging craftsmen like technicians, blacksmiths, and independent manufacturers.
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Idea 1: Armstrong examines the role of new technology and infrastructure in fostering a culture of self-determinism.
Armstrong establishes consciousness as an understanding of human experience, wherein mythology provided a medium to give permanent expression to human thought and emotion.
This profound form of expression gave rise to the understanding of cause and effect, which developed from the increased rate of change in these ancient civilizations, due to new technological advancements.
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Idea 2: In complement, Armstrong explains the view of humans as godlike beings in their own right; the uncertainty midsty of a spiritual vaccum drove the need to create a new, unifying narrative to organize society at large.
They became “masters of their own destiny” (63) because without infrastructure + technology, humans were vulnerable to unexplainable, mythical, natural experiences that they could only fathom were godly in origin.
As the human experience evolved, humans became more distinct from their natural surroundings and in noticing and acting on this difference, individuals became more self-aware. Driving this desire to understand the why was a fear of the unknown.
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Idea 3: Yet, Armstrong notes that despite humanity’s growing independence from the gods, civilizations did not become secular + still retained faith in the presence of a transcendent element; mythology regarding the relationship between divinity + mortality simply evolved to fit individualistic ideals.
Humanity’s increased ability to understand the function of creativity and self-direction in their civilization caused a drift away from the divine explanations of mysteries. This drift marked the start of a cultural revolution: the birth of a communal identity, rooted in the intrinsic self, rather than the extrinsic gods and myths.
Described the gods’ advancement from bare, primal elements to complex, pairs of natural systems Humanity mirrored their creative/developmental pattern as part of the divine plan.