Arron, You seem to have an avocation for symbolic myths; have you thought of developing a sort of Catholic taxonomy of myths? I was thinking of even a binomial nomenclature like Linnaeus' which was intended to show the Biblical order of creation of plants and animals. My inspiration is Northrop Frye's talk, "Repetitions of Jocob's Dream" in "The Eternal Act of Creation", although Frey seems to mean creation of art from a humanist perspective, so his taxonomy is only implicit and all over the place, putting all myth-symbols on a level playing field.
I just look for clues like the mention of quicksilver and metals and see if the rest of the character's actions match the associations. For example, Miller mentions quicksilver, gold, lead and steel. He also mentions the cockatrice, which is another name for basilisk. I consult C. S. Lewis' Discarded Image for associations with the metals and planets and then medieval bestiaries for associations with animals. If the pattern is clear, like in the third section of Canticle, then I have something to write about.
Re-read this after re-reading Leibowitz and am impressed again. This is your best work and one of the best symbolic readings I've read by anyone
Thank you! That is great to hear! I have a whole theory on the alchemical symbolism of the other two sections too.
That truly is very kind of you to say
Arron, You seem to have an avocation for symbolic myths; have you thought of developing a sort of Catholic taxonomy of myths? I was thinking of even a binomial nomenclature like Linnaeus' which was intended to show the Biblical order of creation of plants and animals. My inspiration is Northrop Frye's talk, "Repetitions of Jocob's Dream" in "The Eternal Act of Creation", although Frey seems to mean creation of art from a humanist perspective, so his taxonomy is only implicit and all over the place, putting all myth-symbols on a level playing field.
I just look for clues like the mention of quicksilver and metals and see if the rest of the character's actions match the associations. For example, Miller mentions quicksilver, gold, lead and steel. He also mentions the cockatrice, which is another name for basilisk. I consult C. S. Lewis' Discarded Image for associations with the metals and planets and then medieval bestiaries for associations with animals. If the pattern is clear, like in the third section of Canticle, then I have something to write about.