Flossophy Friday October 11

(We haven’t heard from Gilgamesh in a while. He’s fine in case you were worried.)

These gods, demigods and supernaturals all clamored about the following lines from our Wikipedia Friday Favorite:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth

"Since the term myth is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrative as a myth can be highly political."

We sailed right by Wikipedia on our very own Argo, to its now-mythical progenitor, Encyclopedia Britannica, for another pithy passage:

"While the outline of myths from a past period or from a society other than one’s own can usually be seen quite clearly, to recognize the myths that are dominant in one’s own time and society is always difficult."

Read more here:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/myth

No kidding! Really? Fascinating! Something that’s not objectively true, that may be highly political? We may be living through a modern day wanna-be myth, without the perspective of time.

Which brings us to, of course . . . money! Staff and management grappled with the vexing riddle of how to identify contemporaneous myths. In another departure from form, staff and management collapsed in a heap of agreement: the most encompassing modern-day myth to which we genuflect is money. Yes, filthy lucre. Only it’s not really filthy, because it’s not even a thing any more. It’s just strings of ones and zeroes you see on screens, yet it’s as powerful as Zeus, Thor, Prometheus, or Satan in their heydays. Money. It’s a conjured, mythical force we all agree to, for which we all, in different measures, from time to time, do stuff we don’t want to do.

Money + politics + not "objectively true" + hubris = Modern Day Myth

Reader Reply of the Week #1:

From Graham Brookie, in the Mythical Capital of the World, Washington, DC:

"The Pantone Impeach is good. I am going to paint the town with it."

Fictionary Friday: Words You Need. Whether you know it or not.

Mith (Mith) Noun: 1) the belief that resides over there somewhere 2) when you can’t hit something target-like 3) a gender-fluid sloth

In a sentence: It is impossible to write a non-embarrassing sentence using a word with three disparate, yet cosmopolitan, definitions, so please feel free to consider this a mith.

Fizzdom Friday: from our collection of favorite quotes.

"I have always preferred myths to history,
as history is made up of truths that eventually become lies,
and myths are lies that eventually become truths." – Jean Cocteau

* Friday Fluff and Reader Reply of the Week #2:

Thank you, Dan Ellentuck, in response to our question, "Why are there no women doormen?"

"The doormen at 9590 Olympus Avenue keep getting stranger and stranger, especially, but not limited to, Three Eyed Ronnie. They are like doormen nowhere else. Is it because there are no doorwomen? There are women coal miners, iron workers, baseball umpires, short order cooks, lumberjacks, supreme court justices, bond traders. There are no doubt even women mohels, but I have never seen a woman doorman, and this must be a burden to members of this secretive uniformed fraternity, knowing they are archaic remnants of an earlier age, like the bathroom towel attendant or the mythical dodo bird."

Write if you (do) or (do not) paint the town Impeach.

Yours in ascendance on the grand mythical escalator,
Jonathan
www.jonathanmarcus.org

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