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SEVEN TALES AND A FABLE Genesis:2:21-22 (Adam's rib).
The lesson of this reading is myths are lies. Of course men do
not give birth to women. It is women who give birth to men, and so it
has always been. The writer of Genesis had what seemed to him good reasons
for defying commonsense in his myth of origins. The fact remains that
his account is no guide to the natural world. Human cultures the world
over have treasured bizarre stories like this. They are not worthless.
Their relationship Once upon a time there was a country where the mountains were so high that navigators of the coastlands far away took the gleaming of their icy peaks for constellations in the night sky. . . (The Snow Apples). I first wrote these hybrid tales when I was nineteen, as a form of fortune-telling for my friends, and carried them around for years, getting a few into print, cannibalising them a little on the way. (The Snow Apples is a precursor of Divine Endurance). The collection won two World Fantasy awards in 1996. |
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to the truth is complex, profound - and endlessly fascinating to analysts
of the devious history of the human mind. Yet still, myths are lies.
We know this, but we forget. Fantasy writers, who claim to be the modern
mythmakers, should remind themselves, occasionally. If we really are
the unacknowledged soul-builders of our culture, then we're probably
lying too. . . 