++> Continuing dialogues between Frank Masingill
 ++> and David Martorana on "Darkness & Myth"
 
 FM>> I see a reaction to MY use of the word "myth" but no explanation of 
hat
 FM>> "myth" means to you.  Is it simply another word of "lie?" Is it merely
 FM>> the fantacizing of primitive minds now completely surpassed by
 FM>> "science." Is there a "myth of science?"  I thought I had offered some
 FM>> explication of its meaning as I view it.  In fact, I thought I did so 
n
 FM>> the very post you were answering although I didn't choose to re-quote
 FM>> the whole.
 
 DM>> I do NOT see "myth" as a lie, but as a word of *REACH*  that is often
 DM>> lost in among the words it travels with. It is a word grown to serious
 DM>> measure in your intellectual heart of hearts- and
 
 FM> A mountain of serious books have been written on myth but you
 FM> think it has mostly to be something in MY "heart of hearts???"
 
     Yes, I see an exchange as between *us*, and any mountain of books
     to be only quiet extensions of your derived correlated positions-
     ...a range of insights that have already digested the books into
     who you intellectually have become. I have some difficulty seeing
     individuals as a mix of personal, and collective, in the same
     package. And, though I can appreciate that "topics" must include
     such range, it is a knowing I must work at.
 
 DM>> therefore!!! when I read your using it, I take it to mean a "bit
 DM>> more" DM>> and perhaps read into it what your many hundred
 DM>> postings have carved it to mean. Time and familiarity can add
 DM>> shades of meaning to a term unique to its author.
 
 FM> Not sure what this means.  That *I* am the author of the myth?
 
   ...that you are the author of the posting/postings exploring
   and expressing "myth".
 
 FM> Surely not. I can only take this to mean that you see my "carving
 FM> out" some kind of unique meaning that doesn't bear much similarity
 FM> to the literature on the subject.  I guess that means that with me
 FM> it is some kind of personal fantasy.
 
     That is not what I meant, but I don't know how to rephrase it
     much better. A bit like your "philosophy" being to ride the
     same wings as "love of wisdom", is not always the colder
     view of others using the same term. As previously said, the
     street definition of "philosophy" is essentially "opinion-ish
     ways to live by" whereas the book on my desk sees it as simple
     evaluation. In time we each of us grow to know not so much
     more what the term means, but the little "extra" notches uniquely
     cut into it by a person's life experience. "Myth" is much the
     same ......a complex term that can often mean more than its
     definition ....especially when growing as a tool of reach.
 
 DM>> What do I mean when I use the word myth?  It is still growing
 DM>> as is my own word, "magic" ......also an extension of meaning
 DM>> that could take time to simmer.  I don't have it all as near
 DM>> together as you. Sometimes I hold a fragment of "aboutness" and
 DM>> sometimes it slips away. Absolute clarity is not my best marble!
 
 FM>  Allow me to align that with an instance in literature.  Isaiah
 FM> (one of the school or maybe the original) advises the king on
 FM> occasion of advance of the Assyrians not to betray trust in God
 FM> to the extent of calling out the military for that would be
 FM> depriving God of HIS prerogative (as in the ancient symbolism o
 FM> f the jihad) of defeating the enemy without any help from his
 FM> trusting followers at all.  THAT is advice to trust in magic.
 FM> The myth would lead to a dependence on the God to render aid
 FM> to the acting servants but it would not normally counsel a
 FM> supine reliance upon the God and take NO military action
 FM> whatsoever any more than the primitive fisherman would sit
 FM> and gaze at the stars until the gods carved out a canoe and let
 FM> it down from heaven - perhaps even providing an angel of some
 FM> sort to man it and catch the fish.
 
     Read it several times. Your "alignment with literature" to
     brighten my understanding zipped over me.
 
 FM> I have a bit of distrust myself, Thank Heaven.  And lay no claim to
 FM> clarity, absolute or otherwise.
 
     I think we might share some core notions, but somehow in different
     corners of the same language...........yes?
 
                            /oo\ ... Dave
--- Maximus/2 3.01
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