The point of mythology or myth is to point to the horizon and to point back to ourselves: This is who we are; this is where we came from; and this is where we're going. And a lot of Western society over the last hundred years - the last 50 years really - has lost that. We have become rather aimless and wandering.
Interpretation
Mythology serves to define our identity and direction in life.
This quote emphasizes the importance of mythology in revealing our origins, our identity, and our future direction. It suggests that many in modern Western society have lost touch with these foundational stories, leading to a sense of aimlessness and disconnection from our roots.
In practice
A professor discussing the relevance of mythology in contemporary literature.
There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities, it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender.
Avoid the tyranny of the reasonable voice...it will guarantee a complacency of never trying anything adventurous.
You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe.
The past tempts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast terrible in-between. But there is still time to seize that one last fragile moment.
When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree by the river of truth, and tell the whole world - No, you move.
When it comes down to it, the reason that science fiction endures is that it is, at its core, an optimistic genre. What it says at the end of the day is that there is a tomorrow, we do go on, we don't extinguish ourselves and leave the planet to the cockroaches.
I always tried to be correct, not politically correct.
The egotist is all surface; underneath is a pulpy mess and a lot of self-doubt. But the egoist may be yielding and even deferential in things he doesn't consider important; in anything that touches his core he is remorseless.
It's just what people do when they're getting old, when they're sick of themselves and their life; they think of money and take care of themselves.
Peace is present when things form part of a whole greater than their sum, as the diverse minerals in the ground collect to become the tree.
Ours is a culture and a time immensely rich in trash as it is in treasures.
And if one of our instruments breaks, it doesn't matter. _x000D_ We have fallen into the place where everything is music.
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