Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Frye: Lack Of Depth In Modern Popular Stories


In the last chapter of Frye’s book, “The Recovery of Myth,” he discusses the lack of depth in modern stories.  He states, "The soap operas of radio and television are addressed primarily to a female audience, and feature a heroine plunged into the woes typical of so many forms of romance.  But while she continually struggles against a swarm of complications, the decisive polarizing of romance does not take place.  She never quite reaches what I have been calling the night world, a life so intolerable that it must end either in tragedy or in a permanent escape.  This is particularly so that the story, along with the financial support of sponsors, can last indefinitely, but there is another social dimension involved" (Frye 165).  It seems to me that the dimension missing is the heroine’s transformation, and that in general, we are no longer using stories and the natural world for spiritual understanding and growth.  

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