Thursday, December 05, 2013

Is it real or is it Memorex?

Mythic history operates on both the literal and the metaphorical levels simultaneously, precisely because it contains metaphorical language that operates on both levels simultaneously as well. While our primary goal is to recover the pragmatic meaning of metaphorical, mythic history, we must not do so to the degree that we lose sight of its semantic meaning. In other words, it would be fallacious to assume that, because an author recounts mythic history metaphorically, he may not also be referring to actual events in time and space. Metaphorical is not synonymous with fictitious.—Toward a Poetics of Genesis 1-11, page 61

<idle musing>
Indeed! That seems to be a recurring theme in the book: myth is not equal to fiction. But all our training from grade school on has told us that myth = fiction. Hard to shake those early lessons...

I probably dated myself with the title of the post. How many remember that commercial for Memorex™ cassette tapes?
</idle musing>

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