Recently saw Lady in the Water, and have since had several discussions about myths, and the role they play in our understanding of the world and the divine.
I won't spoil the movie, other than to say it is worth seeing (despite some poor reviews). It is truly a Bedtime Story, a mythology of the Blue World and its people, the interconnectedness of their world and ours. What I always find fasicnating about myths is how moving they are. It is telling that my favorite Lewis book is not one of his great theological works, or even his fiction, but his reworking of the classical myth of Cupid and Psyche. (Although there is obviously mythology in Narnia and the Space Trilogy.)
Lady in the Water makes profound statements about the nature of myths:
1. Myths are truths, designed to bring humans better understanding of the divine -- an 'awakening' of our sense to the Divine's presence in our lives.
2. Our world and the mythological world are intertwined, inseparable without great harm, arguably similar to Polanyi's disembedding and the subsequent Double Movement.
3. The teller of myths, and therefore truths, is an instrument used by the Divine. This can be seen by the character played by M. Night Shyamalan. Shyamalan originally wrote Lady in the Water as a story for his children. In the movie, he plays a character who's fate is intricately tied to the fulfilling of the myth, to his mortal detriment. Yet, he accepts his fate and tells the truths that need to be told.
What, you may say, does this have to do with Grace? I will connect the dots, with the help of a book borrowed from a friend, J.R.R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth, by Bradley J. Birzer. (So far, this is the best book I've read since Polanyi. And I've read Polanyi five times in the last two years. And then defended him for my Oral Comps. If I could find a way to study Polanyi, Lewis and Tolkien for a PhD, I'd do it. Ooo...I just had an idea...)
Like the movie, Tolkien believed myths were truths, our worlds are mingled and his role in writing his 'legendarium' was a recording of revelations about this history of Middle-Earth. The mysteries of Middle-Earth were just as real as the mysteries of our own world, because for Tolkien, Middle-Earth was a mythological reality.
I was struck by how much Tolkien and Shyamalan apparently share in their understanding and belief of myths. I think you have to look at Shyamalan's whole work (which I have not seen all and would love to hear comments from those who have.) But at least there are parallels in Signs and The Sixth Sense. Shyamalan's 'moral of the story' stops with 'we must all learn our role to play in the overlapping of mythological and factual worlds.'
While I think Tolkien would agree, he saw a higher purpose for myths. Myths reveal truths, in preparation for the Great Myth, which reveals Truth. Lewis says (paraphrasing) 'Christianity is a myth which happens to be true as well.' For Tolkien, myths, when sanctified to provide a link to Grace, served as foundational truths on which to build the greater Truth.
I find this absolutely fascinating. I always wondered why I was so drawn to myths, why I understood them and why I felt they 'spoke' to me. I remember very clearly, freshman year of high school, I painted Diana/Artemis in blue and silver, to coincide with an English paper on her, because I could not express her in words alone. (This was not part of our assignment, and my teacher praised me for it, while the class snickered and called me a suck-up.) It is their profound loss that they did not understand the beauty and mystery of myths, just as Shyamalan and Tolkien predicted.
I'm curious to hear your thoughts on myths and the role they play in preparing us for greater revelations on Truth and Grace.
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6 comments:
I just saw the movie today and felt compelled to write about it, but didn't quite know where to start. You might also like the book "Myths to Live By" by Joseph Campbell if you haven't already read it. :-)
Very cool, I will check it out!
Glad to see you are enjoying Birzer. I told you that book would change your life. :)
Oh, even better than life-changing: I now have a topic for a dissertation. Just have to find a PhD program that will let me do it!
Rob emailed me the following, and my response is below.
"It's interesting how myths make nobility and virtue
far more attractive than does most of the print in our
workaday world. Perhaps the faith needed to enter a
myth also can open us up to certain higher things.
P.S.: Is the title of the post from the seventh
Chronicle? It always bothered me that Susan didn't
make it."
-----
I think the purpose of myths is exactly that - to prepare us for higher things.
The title is from the 7th chronicle.
I find Susan's exclusion from Aslan's Land to be Lewis's strongest theological (Calvinist) statement in the Narnia Chronicles. I don't think this is so much a 'loss of salvation' issue as a 'belief not becoming faith' issue. Susan really represents the majority here -those who hear about Aslan, even experience him, and choose to deny him for earthly things.
This might even be representative of what Lewis thought would've been his own fate, had he not become a Christian.
Ryann,
Upon reflection, I was thinking about how myths are like parables. They are so simple and straightforward, but not at all what they seem. They are meant to make sense only to people who seek meaning in them. For those that appreciate simply what's on the surface, a myth is nothing more than a bedtime story.
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