Fantasy and myth

Erik Kain

Erik writes about video games at Forbes and politics at Mother Jones. He's the contributor of The League though he hasn't written much here lately. He can be found occasionally composing 140 character cultural analysis on Twitter.

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2 Responses

  1. A.R.Yngve says:

    Bowman wrote:
    “And if they don’t believe in them, why should I? And if I can’t believe in them, why should I care about them?”

    *Sigh.*

    1. There are layers of meaning even in the most incredible tale, Mr. Bowman. Sometimes words have two meanings, to quote Led Zeppelin.

    2. Counter-question: Instead of questioning the validity of having an imagination, why not question the nature of belief as such? Why is belief more sacred than imagination?

    3. And here is the big thing about human language, the proverbial elephant in the room:

    Anyone can say anything they can imagine.

    As you may have noticed, this capacity of language (i.e. storytelling) to say Anything freaks a lot of people (such as Mr. Bowman) out.

    Thus, from time to time, “concerned citizens” and “friends of order” — and secret policemen — will lecture the rest of humanity about which stories and statements are not “proper.”

    I welcome their efforts to try and control the power of language. Because their efforts are essentially futile. The only way to limit the use of our imaginations is to lobotomize everyone.

    Mr. Bowman, will you be the first volunteer to show us, by example, how much happier we’d be after a lobotomy?Report

  2. jetan says:

    The Bowman essay is pretty awful. Not only does he not seem to get “fantasy”, he is a bit at loggerheads with the whole notion of literature, as with his silly and poorly thought out use of the pejorative “soap opera”. By his lights, Dostoyevsky and Thackeray would also be soap opera.Report