Influences and references

A mythographic point of view

For the writer, myths remain an unattainable model, for they are born of countless anonymous contributions.

They give an impression of great unity, despite the contradictions that run through them.

The first challenge to our expectations: they fit neither a logical framework nor a linear chronology. It is as if their scope forced us to move beyond our conceptions of time and space.

Many of them tell of the first man being shaped by a potter; logic questions the prior existence of that potter.

No doubt we must accept that, when it comes to persuasive power, and for the widest audience, analogy prevails over reason.

In short, mythical narrative makes it possible to play with the constraints that Kant identified as the a priori forms of our sensibility.

Another source of freedom: myth offers a plurality of interpretations without declaring them incompatible; one may see Pandora as an archetype of feminine thoughtlessness; one may also regard her, like Eve, as a salutary agent provocateur, the power that forces Man out of his condition as a blissful consumer to become, volens nolens, the actor of his own destiny.

Even at the most literal level, the protagonists of a founding narrative can inspire opposing judgements; in his deeds, Apollo generally appears as a luminous guide, the guarantor of lofty wisdom; but he is also a jealous god who abuses his strength to punish his mortal rivals; this inconsistency can be resolved by considering that his behaviour models that of the Great, who impose law and order while exempting themselves from obeying it.

The great strength of myth, then, is to bring order to the portrayal of the passions, to set a profusion of voices to music.

It teaches us that the world is a beautiful disorder.

It is for the storyteller, the playwright and the screenwriter to learn from it, drawing on its ideal of fluidity and harmony.