Given that art has been found on walls that may be up to 40,000 or so years
old, one would assume that the people making pictures were also telling
stories. And while, no doubt, Christians believe that their story was always
true, I very much doubt that these earlier storytellers saw themselves as some
kind of stop on the road to Christian perfection. I rather think they probably
believed their own cosmology and associated narrative traditions were just fine
as they were.
One of the things that drives me mad is this Western assumption that stories
that don't fit the mould are more 'primitive' or worthless or not very
interesting, or frequently just not very good. It drives me mad that people
refuse to read stories that are structured unfamiliarly and make a bit of an
effort to understand it. Positing that a decent story is dependent on a
particular religion or associated cultural framework is worse than ignorant, it
is violent and aggressive.
*Penthe dismounts of yet another hobby horse. The corral seems to be getting
quite crowded around
here*
flat_frodo@yahoo.com
