The thing about narratives and how they affect perception is that in certain traditions the idea is that the creation and re-enactment of myth is a magical act. By retelling/reenacting a powerful story, you make parts of that story true, and thus stories, in an indirect way, create reality.

Now, I’m not neo-pagan of any variety, and I’m not really down with the whole ‘here’s how you do magic’ bit, but I do find it interesting, the notion that mythopoea is an act of proactive, rather than purely reactive creation, and that the idea works on both a religious/magical level and a more political/cultural/rationalist level.

In a nonreligious way, by retelling a story, we reinforce the values that that story promotes, and help shape our culture through the actions and beliefs of the people who buy in to that story. After all, why do you think there’s been the recent spate of political children’s books, both from the right and the left? If you convince children that certain values are important, they will grow up and go into the world and act on those values, thus making them important. The stories help create reality.

So the idea isn’t just that stories reflect a culture, but that by changing the stories, we can change the culture. Jeez, no wonder people burn books. That’s powerful stuff.

—Myca

ps. OH, the geek references I left out, from Sandman to RuneQuest, to make this more palatable for non-geek readers. You’re welcome. ;->

Roseanne, on the other hand, presenting complex individuals who do not so easily fit into the standard narratives of male and female, breaks the paradigm for a moment.

I see it as bringing to light an alternate paradigm. There are a lot of different paradigms depending on class and ethnicity, which is absent from your essay. All of these elements work together, not independently.

I do not see novellists primarily as social critics. If I wanted an expose on social issues or international conflicts, I’d read The Guardian or something.

Fantasy and science fiction are in many ways the essence of human storytelling — projecting humans into an alternate setting and trying to see how they function. If we project only some people into that setting and not others, if we choose only young, strong, straight white men, then we cheat ourselves of a huge portion of the narrative, and a huge chance to see where the narrative takes us.