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The Mythology of Information Overload
Library Trends, Wntr, 1999 by Tonyia J. Tidline
Levi-Strauss (1966), for example, asserts that, like scientific thought, mythological thought structures human knowledge and experience. Science structures "concepts," which are "transparent with respect to reality." Mythological thought, on the other hand, structures "signs" which "allow and even require the interposing and incorporation of a certain amount of human culture into reality." For Levi-Strauss, mythical thought is a form of "intellectual bricolage" that inventories, orders, and reinterprets the "remains of events" in order to construct meaning (pp. 19-22).
The notion of myth as structure is upheld by Roemer (1995) who claims that story connects and frames humanity by providing a system of explanation. He observes that "like all structures, story integrates and relates" (p. 11). Roemer believes that people are not necessarily aware of this defining framework as they move through life. The framework is, however, connected to context and situation, which exist "before the figures appear in it." According to Roemer, situation is "an attenuated crisis and crisis an exacerbated situation. In myth, fairy tale, and both comic and tragic drama, the figures are transfixed by a crisis." He also notes that the situation may originate within the figures rather than outside them (pp. 12-13). Finally, Roemer realizes that our present experiences resonate with "ancient" mythical tales and that even "escapist fictions" may "confirm a `reality' we continue to encounter even if we no longer have a way of accommodating it" (pp. 178-79). This last statement speaks to the power of myth to provide an emotional outlet that confirms experience without tangible or rational evidence.
In the Encyclopedia Mythica, Doyle (n.d.) offers several ideas about myth that have been combined in the following succinct definition:
a story of forgotten or vague origin basically religious or supernatural in nature, which seeks to explain or rationalize one or more aspects of the world or a society.... All myths are at some stage actually believed to be true by the peoples of the societies that used or originated the myth.... myths are often used to explain human institutions and practices as well, or to provide reinforcement of or a framework for an existing system of myths. Sometimes myths serve all of the above purposes. (unpaginated)
Although Doyle excludes references to deities stressed in preceding discussions, he brings the process and necessity of myth-making fully into the present in spirit and terminology. He acknowledges the capacity of myth to render "aspects of the world or a society" that are equivalent to "superhuman forces" understandable within the context of daily life. For the sake of argument in this article, economic, political, or social structures or processes, and the "institutions and practices" embedded in, or emanating from, them can be considered "superhuman." All such creatures need to be explained and put into context, which propels creation of modern day myths. The origin of myths in modern culture may be hard to determine, but they endure because they afford emotional expression and are understood by many.
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