Eyes open and watching carefully
Tuesday, 13Jul2010 Filed in: modern adult pagans⭐︎ entertainment
This is a page from the third version of Technopagan Yearnings. There are some formatting differences. Originally published at www.neowayland.com/C65989237/E20100713131223
We have the future we make, nothing more and nothing less
No, I wasn't done for the day.
You see, the other night I was half watching The Two Towers while getting Dramatica Pro (successor link) to run on McLore. There was a little bit of third-party software I needed for the authorization process, and I had to de-authorize MaKai.
Anyway, as I putting Dramatica Pro through it's paces, I started thinking about the societies in LOTR. Here were these civilizations whose greatest achievements were never going to equal the accomplishments of "those who went before." It was set up from the get-go to be a second hand culture tip-toeing among the flotsam of ages past.
Aside from the implications of the kind of creator who would do that, you'd be hard pressed to find any High Fantasy novels which didn't do the same thing. The other example that leapt to mind was Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. There the culture was literally warped into following the clues of someone long dead whose lore and knowledge was far beyond the understanding of the seekers.
Of course you could talk about all sorts of dramatic possibilities, but I want to focus on is the influence of High Fantasy on the the modern Neopagan movement.
We can't afford the blind faith that our Predecessors Knew Better than We Ever Possibly Could.
We also can't afford the blind faith that magick makes the world worth living in.
Let's simplify.
We can't afford blind faith.
This is where the blanket labels like Pagan really bother me. There are people calling themselves Pagan that I do not want to be connected to.
We can't afford blind faith.
There are times I want nothing to do with the label Pagan because of the baggage and expectations that our "special cases" bring. I want to pick and choose the groups I belong to. The label is not enough, the character of the people involved is everything. Give me the Old Breed every time. Give me someone I can trust who trusts me.
We aren't doomed to die in the memories of a previous age. We don't have utopia waiting around the bend either.
What we have is the future we make.
You see, the other night I was half watching The Two Towers while getting Dramatica Pro (successor link) to run on McLore. There was a little bit of third-party software I needed for the authorization process, and I had to de-authorize MaKai.
Anyway, as I putting Dramatica Pro through it's paces, I started thinking about the societies in LOTR. Here were these civilizations whose greatest achievements were never going to equal the accomplishments of "those who went before." It was set up from the get-go to be a second hand culture tip-toeing among the flotsam of ages past.
Aside from the implications of the kind of creator who would do that, you'd be hard pressed to find any High Fantasy novels which didn't do the same thing. The other example that leapt to mind was Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. There the culture was literally warped into following the clues of someone long dead whose lore and knowledge was far beyond the understanding of the seekers.
Of course you could talk about all sorts of dramatic possibilities, but I want to focus on is the influence of High Fantasy on the the modern Neopagan movement.
We can't afford the blind faith that our Predecessors Knew Better than We Ever Possibly Could.
We also can't afford the blind faith that magick makes the world worth living in.
Let's simplify.
We can't afford blind faith.
This is where the blanket labels like Pagan really bother me. There are people calling themselves Pagan that I do not want to be connected to.
We can't afford blind faith.
There are times I want nothing to do with the label Pagan because of the baggage and expectations that our "special cases" bring. I want to pick and choose the groups I belong to. The label is not enough, the character of the people involved is everything. Give me the Old Breed every time. Give me someone I can trust who trusts me.
We aren't doomed to die in the memories of a previous age. We don't have utopia waiting around the bend either.
What we have is the future we make.
Posted: Tue - July 13, 2010 at 01:12 PM
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