Monday, February 12, 2007

Safety and Chaos

I’m afraid that through patterns, we are somehow looking for safety, for recognition. I always want literature to be unsafe, to find recognition perhaps, but also to not recognize. For an English-type person this may be sacrilegious, but I don’t want explanations. I want to be lost. I'm not so concerned with finding my way out. Are we trying to order the chaos of literature in an unhealthy way? Which is more instructive, order or chaos? Sometimes I think this ordering oversimplifies and demystifies that which needs a certain level of complexity, chaos, and mystification. Are we trying to tame a dragon or conquer it when we should be observing in awe?

1 comment:

Charity said...

Boy howdy do I hear ya on this one! Where is the mystery and magic in our stories? If we teach ourselves to only "read" for archetypes, do we diminish the power of the present story by subsumming it to some universal blob of unconsciousness?
That may not be precisely what you are saying...but it did prompt some thoughts for me ;o)