Tools and technology

Good Books About Myth and Culture

Ginette Paris: Wisdom of the Psyche: Depth Psychology after Neuroscience
Paris provides a wonderful explanation of the intersection between personal life story and collective myths and the way myth shapes perspective.
James Hillman: We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy--And the World's Getting Worse
Hillman is a central figure in the field of archetypal psychology, which provides a theoretical base for work on cultural mythologies that I find very useful. This collaboration with Michael Ventura is an accessible and stimulating introduction to some of Hillman's ideas.
Michael Meade: The World Behind the World
"The world," Meade writes, "despite it's disasters, tragedies and villainies, can't end unless it runs out of stories." Useful reflections on these changing and frightening times--I especially like the story of the Old Woman, the black dog, and the loose thread.
Carl G. Jung: The Undiscovered Self (Mentor)
C.G. Jung and Sigmund Freud first articulated the existence of the unconscious (which became depth psychology) and understood the ongoing relationship between human meaning and myth. In this book, Jung discusses the moral obligation to become self aware.
Joseph Campbell: The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Bollingen Series)
Campbell writes, "It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation." An important and influential book that links the mythic narrative of "the hero's journey," found across cultures, to contemporary life.
Barry Mills, editor: Kali's Kites: Essays From The Mythological Imagination
This book is both a beautiful and provocative collection of essays about myth, soul and the depths of the imagination. Each author is a graduate of Pacifica Graduate Institute, a unique institution dedicated to animae mundi colendae gratia (for the sake of tending soul in and of the world). Two of my essays are included: "Euripides' Women: The Role of the Feminine Other," and "The Myth of Actaion: Archetypal Image of Buddhist Enlightenment."
Theodore Roszak, editor: Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind
This anthology is a good introduction to some of the themes and thinkers in the field of ecopsychology, which involves the intersection of human ideas about self and world, and the natural, biological, and ecological. Given the current environmental crisis and modern alienation from the natural world, including our own bodies, it is crucial that we deepen our understanding of the cultural myths that govern these relations.
Dennis Patrick Slattery: A Limbo of Shards: Essays on Memory Myth and Metaphor
In this collection of essays, Slattery explores the related themes of memory, myth, and metaphor, drawing material from literature, poetry, and current events. In "The True Terror of Terrorism," he suggests that the loss of Trust, necessary to maintain "civilized space," may be the greatest loss. "Trust is a virtue," he writes, "security its pale shadow."

October 25, 2008

The natural world is the starting point for human ideas, and for some eons, the rocks and streams and sticks and other materials of the world suggested tools. Find something sharp, consider cutting. But as we moved from tools to technology, the natural origins of our tools faded (how many people today know that aspirin first came from willow trees?) and people developed new materials that gave birth to new needs and uses. We have plastic for example, a material that requires its own technology to produce and cannot be assimilated by nature (it's not biodegradable), that is used to make a lot of doodads that nobody needs, or satisfy a fantasy of convenience that is anything but convenient. Mostly, we all have more stuff to stash someplace or throw away, another landfill to site, stream to choke, bird or fish to kill.

There is a movement called biomimicry, that reunites nature and nature's technologies with human tools and needs. One champion is Janine Benyus, and her book Biomimicry:Innovation Inspired by Nature, looks interesting. The purpose behind biomimicry is the creation of sustainable technologies, things that work better and cost less, in terms of our collective health and resources. Did you know that Phelps won all of his gold medals in a swimsuit designed to mimic sharkskin? Not bad.

Biomimicry makes so much sense. Let nature provide the models. I think this notion could be very vauable in terms of our communities and social contracts as well. If we set up our political and economic and social systems following an ecological model, what would it look like? These would be our laws:

All things are interconnected.
Everything goes somewhere.
There's no such thing as a free lunch.
Nature bats last.

I think we are witnessing the end, as REM put it, of the world as we know it. What comes next will be a matter of story (mythology) and as Naomi Klein says (ironically, quoting Milton Friendman), the ideas that are lying around. Bioneer or pioneer? Hierarchy or web? I vote for nature's model. As it turns out, there really is no such thing as a free lunch.

Posted at 09:34 PM in Bioneers, Cultural Mythology | Permalink

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All things are interconnected.
Everything goes somewhere.
There's no such thing as a free lunch.
Nature bats last.

Cultural Mythology: American Notions of Self and Country

Join Dr. Catherine Svehla in an exploration of current American myths and participate in the development of a new, more sustainable, mythos.

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Good Books About Myth and Culture

October 25, 2008