Article:Mythic Structures in Narrative: The Domestication of Immortality
From unthinkMedia
The story world that a narrative create, when compared to dreams and the real world, is safe and non threatening. Readers believe every word they encounter allowing us to be absorbed and entranced.
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I am because I feel
This book states that humans are wired to deny death as if we where invulnerable. Storytellers are bound to this constraint and "interpret the world in conformity with the boundless optimism of the immortality delusion, thus systematically misinterpreting the world to their audience--that would not for the same reason have it otherwise."
Narrative World vs. Dream World
When placed in a hypnotic trance or daydreaming a person may "believe", and believing is a cognitive state of "knowing". However "believing" is not "feeling".
Kinds of Safety in Narrative
- Immortality delusion that make risk taking possible
- invulnerability of the hero (reader)
- it can not overwhelm the reader's consciousness
Myths & Folktale
structured uniformity
- The call to adventure
- meeting with magic helper
The method in which myths and folktale deal with our ideas of immortality is by redefining them as "hope". This toned down form of immortality is more salable for everyday narratives such as gossip, news, leisure reading, etc...
- "Myth is the rock from which all narrative is hewn..."
- "Myths and life are recursive." it emulates the way that we have evolved.
Memetic Fiction
We are satisfied not only by the ending of formulaic fiction such as happiness or death, but also by its redemption. The manner in which events form in narratives engage a readers emotions.
Hope Creation
- If we where always optimist then the extraction of hope would be redundant.
- Neither tranquility or optimism are natural states for humans.
- We are instinctually fearfully vigilant
- We are risk takers which provide a fitness value for survival.
Without risk, death would become real and terrifying, "as a result aggression would be impossible." This and the ability to enter combat derives from our belief that we are invulnerable. This also serves as a method for young males to prepare for "survival tasks of a ruthlessly competitive social environment.
The News
The news is the largest form of narrative, and this transcends the mediums. From newspapers, to magazines, to digital media.
"news is constrained to be a vehicle of hope because it expresses world-views supportive of the society in which it operates."
Heros and Villans
- During disasters the focus is on heroism and the selfless of the rescuers.
- Villans are seen as less then human (dehumanized) to keep hope alive for humanity. For this reason they go though "monsterisation"
