Mything the Point – Through the Eyes of a Child

Curtis has a great article over here. I’ve already posted an essay I did on Myth and History, although it doesn’t make much sense and will probably ruin a great book for you if you read it. Still…I linked it just then.

Anyway, Curtis discusses the way we learn from myth, how myth is universal, and how at some point our scientific learning debunks myth, and if it doesn’t we end up with a sort of cognitive dissonance, where we believe mythology as the truth and ignore science.

Obviously this isn’t true for everybody, and there are ways of having some amount of faith and believe in the evidence and outlook that science provides us with.

But there is a kind of primal moment, where you realise that some things you’ve trusted just can’t be true. Our experience gets in the way of our belief in magic.

But don’t let it get you down. It’s good to maintain that childishness, that sense of wonder and delight at the strangeness of the world.

As our eyes grow older we tend to get weighed down by reality, but try to remember that you’ve learnt that much more, you actually know the world in greater depth than you did before. You can see more of its intricacies.

Curtis’ conclusion is that we should remember to leave a better world for our children, and we should pay attention to the dangers of believing myth when it helps us ignore the truth (the section on the American dream is particularly significant).

Myth is a way of learning, a way of explaining and teaching. We can see them now and get more out of them.

I was watching Lawn Dogs last night. Now that is a film wrapped up in myth, and the perspective of children. It was great, but I’ll try not to spoil it too much.

Anyway, at one point, two characters are talking, and one of them is explaining the myth of Baba Yaga, the myth isn’t important to us right now, what made me stop and think was the question the listener asks.

What’s the point of Baba Yaga, the moral of the story?

I’m sure it was something I did when I was young all the time.

Ask what the moral of the story was. What was it supposed to teach you? What did you learn?

It’s an interesting question, and you can always apply it to literature, film, and life.

Anything you absorb, gives you a new perspective. Look at it, and see what you’ve learnt.

I’m sure that kids don’t put that much thought into it, but because they haven’t learnt as much I think they are more on the look out for it than the rest of us. They listen to what life has to tell them.

That’s what we need to do.

When we talk about seeing things as a child does, it’s hard to explain what we mean.  It often means a lot of things. It might mean looking without prejudice. It could mean looking deeper. Seeing the wonder. Looking for the magic.

Or it could mean being ready to learn.  Look for the myth, and what it teaches you.

You might be surprised just how much you can learn.