In the Holy City, Elfavy lists what she calls "languages":
speech
mathematics
music
painting
choreography
myth
Uniquely on Gwydion, trained semanticists have developed myth as a language free from primitive confusions with science. That is why the Gydiona can always explain their mythical symbols and stories in elaborate detail. They remind me of Poul and Karen Anderson's Ysans claiming that, unlike Christians, they do not confuse their myths with facts.
Elfavy claims that the Bale time experience of being God could be described only in a fusion of every language, including some that human beings have not yet imagined, then adds that such a super-language would be self-contradictory. Why? Aspects of reality seem paradoxical to us, as in quantum mechanics, but they cannot fundamentally contradict each other. Therefore, a super-language describing every aspect of reality should not contradict itself.
Raven asks whether, in Bale time, the Gwydiona perceive or commune with total reality. Excellent question. Raven is trying to penetrate Gwydiona evasion. My response: perception of total reality, impossible; communion with it, why not? Elfavy responds:
"'That's merely another set of words...'" (p. 599)
Of course it is but what else can he use? More evasion. Her own words have implied an apprehension, if not a comprehension, of total reality but the truth is that that is not what happens at Bale time.
4 comments:
Actually, regarding myth -as- myth robs it of most of its power.
The Gwydonians use myth as a means of controlling themselves when they go insane -- which is to say, precisely when they -stop- making a distinction between myth and fact.
That's when myth with them starts 'functioning as designed'.
I think that the Gwydiona undermine their own myths by continually explaining them - but then they dive right into the myths when they lose their reason.
Kaor, to Both!
Which is why I don't take Gwydiona myths very seriously. Such desperate myth making was simply a part of how these unfortunates strove to survive Bale time.
Ad astra! Sean
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