Living In Myth

"'...that which was myth in one world might always be fact in another.' PERELANDRA"

-CS Lewis, "Forms of Things Unknown" IN Lewis, The Dark Tower and other stories (London, 1977), pp. 124-132 AT p. 124.

- a perfect recipe for several fictional multiverses like the one associated with Poul Anderson's Old Phoenix.

In SM Stirling's Emberverse, when high tech stops working, the survivors revert to living in mythical, not historical, time. An early pivotal event becomes a defining myth. Some characters start living as if Tolkien's Middle Earth were true history, not fiction.

In Poul Anderson's The Night Face, the Gwydiona, inhabitants of the planet Gwydion, mythologize every experience. On a young planet, volcanic smoke carries deadly heavy metals. Travelers passing near a suddenly erupting volcano must run and take shelter in the Holy City which is usually entered only on an annual special occasion. However, they need not feel that this is inappropriate because, while they are running for their lives, their leader explains that, since the sudden volcanic eruption was an expression of the Night Face called Chaos, they can restore the balance by entering the Focus of God even when they are not God. In fact, by entering the City while they are merely human beings, they will enact a parable of human reason and science. This satisfies them.