Latest / Mythic Mind Games / 1 - Video Games as Fairy-Stories: Tolkien and Subcreation

Transcript

1 - Video Games as Fairy-Stories: Tolkien and Subcreation · Mythic Mind Games

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hellone. Welcome to the Mythic Mind Games podcast, where we
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: pursue wisdom on the path between primary and secondary worlds.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: I'm doctor Andrew Snyder, and I'm glad that you're here. Hello,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: and welcome to the brand new Mythic Mind Games podcast,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: and I'm really excited to be joining you today on
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: this new venture. Now. Odds are if you're listening to
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: this shortly after it comes out that then you're already
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: familiar with Mythic Mind. That's probably how you had discovered us. However,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: if you are discovering us a new as you listen
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: to this, then know that this series that we're doing
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: right now, this show is part of a broader humanities
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: organization known as the Mythic Mind Fellowship. And you can
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: check out the main Mythic Mind podcast wherever you get
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: your podcasts. However you're listening to this right now, or
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: you can also find some of the episodes on YouTube.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: I didn't always consistently post there, but you can at
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: least find the more recent episodes of run YouTube now.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Mythic Mind has gone in a number of different directions.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: The podcast started off with philosophy, as I engage with
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: some of the material related to my dissertation on the
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Danish existentialist philosopher Soaring Kirkey Garden. Now, from there, over
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: time we've expanded into this broad Mythic Mind Fellowship, which
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: is made out of patrons of Mythic Mind. As a
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: record list, we have over fifty patrons, a number of
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: which are involved in these conversations that we're having in
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: creating courses, in the content creation of their own independently
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: as well as in conjunction with Mythic Mind. And so
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: this just it's a great community, it's a great fellowship,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: and if you want to be part of that, check
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: us out over at patreon dot com slash Mythic Mind,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: or you can just check out our content right I mean,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: listen to this podcast, listen to the Other Mythic Mind podcast.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: You can find a number of our group conversations over there.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Things on Beywolf, on the poetic eeda of the Northern
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: myths and legends. You can find stuff on Tolkien, on Lewis,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: on a number of a number of topics related to
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: literature philosophy, and right now we're down a book club
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: on Augustine's Confessions, and so there's a lot going on there,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: which is part of why I'm splintering this off instead
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: of having everything come together into the singular Mythic Mind podcast,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: I thought it'd be beneficial to kind of break some
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: of that out in order to to specialize, right, And
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: so this is just gonna be devoted to h to
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: video games and philosophy. And you know, I don't know
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: that I'll always be the one leading this. In fact,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: I hope that eventually, you know, maybe be able to
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: hand this off or at least maybe partner with somebody
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: else in the Mythic Mind Fellowship. And from the outset,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: you're going to be hearing from a number of our
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: other patrons, other other members of this fellowship. But for
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: the rest of today, I really just want to to
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: bring in an episode from the main Mythic Mind podcast
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: that deals with this idea of video games as subcreation.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: And this is going to get into some of the
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: driving themes, the ideas that will justify doing a show
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: like this in looking at video games not just for
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: entertainment value, but for edification and wisdom, right, Like, is
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: that it is that valid our video games just a
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: waste of time? I mean, odds are that you know,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: if you're listening to this, you probably don't think that's
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: the case. But this provides just some of the some
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: of the philosophical justification for what we're doing in this series,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: in this show. And so let me just go ahead
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: and copy that right on over. Now, there's no video
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: for that one if you're watching this on YouTube, but
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: moving forward, there will typically be video for these episodes,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: and so you're welcome to watch on YouTube, welcome to
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: listen through your preferred podcast app. But for now, let's
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: go ahead and get into this. With video games as subcreation,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't call myself a gamer, at least not these days.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Between my responsibilities as a husband and a father, as
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: well as my lesser roles, the time simply has not
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: been there for quite a while, not necessarily a bad thing. Furthermore,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: making up for an over engagement with video games in
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: my youth, I had long become convinced that they were,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: at least for the most part, a waste of time. However,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: as I advanced further into my literary renaissance of the
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: last few years, which has got me thinking about questions
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: regarding what is art, what is enchantment, what is beauty.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: I'm starting to reconsider this prejudice that I've had toward
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: video games based off an over indulgence of my youth.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: So our games, are they indeed an unhealthy escape from
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: responsibility and real world achievements, And obviously that argument can
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: be made, or might video games serve some kind of
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: real world benefit? And I'm still working through this question
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: and even exactly how to articulate that question properly, but
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: I'm definitely moving toward the latter possibility that there is
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: some potential value here. Now. As a kid, video games
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: were ubiquitous in my life. I can't remember a time
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: before the es and the snees were set up, or
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: or before the game Boy was a hallmark of long drives.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: And yes I'm talking about the original clunky gray game Boy.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: I mean equipped with the handy boy of course, to
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: add to the sound, add to the light dynamic, and
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: so I really had that maxed out. And then I
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: remember being taken in by the quote realistic graphics of
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: the Nintendo sixty four and the PlayStation two. And then
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: eventually I moved into primarily PC gaming, and I would
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: regularly ask for a new graphics card for Christmas, and
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: so that's really my thing for a while. And the
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: reality is that I just played video games far too
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: much in my youth, and I now regret that I
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: didn't spend more of that time reading books. I regret
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: that I only really discovered the value of reading relatively recently,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: all things considered, within the last several years, while waxing
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: and waning with other responsibilities. This practice, this regular engagement
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: with video games continued largely through my young adulthood until
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: I was married, at which point I started to play
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: considerably less. Then, once the twins were born, the gaming
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: time became nearly non existent. A significant cause for this
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: was mere necessity, as I saw to fulfill the greater
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: desire of providing for and spending time with my family.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: And you know, part of that meant that I had
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: to work a lot. It's important to me that my
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: wife is able to fulfill her desire to be home
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: full time with the kids. It's important to me that
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: you know my kids that yeah, we're not extravagantly wealthy,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: but I want them to be comfortable. That's important to me,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: and so I work a lot, and I also spend
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: a lot of time with them. Which means I'm working
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: odd hours sometimes to make that happen, which means there's
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: not a whole lot of time for things like video games. However,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: as I continue to consider questions about the nature of
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: enchantment and the power of wonder, I'm starting to conclude that,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: you know, properly ordered within life's demands, there can be
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: some good in playing games. Now, it's not an overstatement
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: to say that my life is changed by reading Tolkien,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: not being an active reader in my youth. As I mentioned,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: I discovered Tolkien later in life, just a few years
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: before writing this article. I was, of course familiar with
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Tolkien inspired media such as the Jackson films and various games,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: but I'm still fairly new to actually reading Tolkien's own
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: words new as in, you know, I just picked up
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: The Fellowship really a few years ago, and from the
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: moment that I opened The Fellowship, I knew that I
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: was engaging with something real, although I didn't get have
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: the categories for articulating what that meant. But it didn't
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: take me long for me to finish Lower the Rings.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: I went through that pretty quickly, and then I moved
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: on to Tolkien's other works, including on fairy Stories, in
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: which he describes fantasy as subcreation, rather than merely being
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: made up. We make in the image of and with
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: the materials made by the one in whose image we
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: are made. Good fiction, therefore, is dealing with things that
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: are dealing in the domain of truth. That's what good
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: fiction does. And this was a very important corrective to
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: a misunderstanding that I had growing up, and that honestly
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: most people today have. Se I once thought that if
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: I wanted to learn something, if I wanted to know
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: something true, then I would have to turn to nonfiction,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: because nonfiction deals with truth and fiction is made up right,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: and this is typically how these two categories of literature
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: are divided. One's true, one's made up. Well, this is
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: certainly what I thought for a number of years, although
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: even before picking up Tolkien, I was already starting to
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: spend some time with fairy tales and with folklore, and
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: I was starting to recognize that there is some hidden
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: wisdom there, there is truth to be found there, and
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: so my appreciation for good, so called made up stories
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: was beginning to grow. But Tolkien helped me to understand
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: that good fiction is not made up at all, but
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: it's rather a secondary creation. That is true, and as
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: much as it relates to the way that things are
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: on a metaphysical level. Of course, we don't believe that
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: there are such things as orcs and elves and dwarfs
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: in the same way, at least that they are portrayed
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: in Tolkien's text. However, there is something fundamentally true about
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: the character of the story, the fibers of his world,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: and the interaction to the peoples that are involved, which
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: is why one can read the Lord of the Rings
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: as an act of Christian discipleship as much as anything else.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: When we escape in the right way and into the
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: right substance, we are not merely running away from the
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: primary world, but we are rather escaping to a place
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: of value that we might recover something of that value
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: and bring it back into the primary world, although of
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: course we can get lost along the way, because for
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: better or worse, no one leaves the perilous realm unchanged,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: because it is there that we come to terms with
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: ourselves and decide what that relationship looks like. Again, in
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: un Fairy Stories, Tolkien clarifies that it is not the
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: denizens of fairy that are supernatural as they're actually hypernatural,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: but that it is we, with our transcendent souls, that
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: are supernatural, the perilous realm. It brings us not to
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: heaven or to hell, Tolkien tells us, but to the
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: road that we must walk. It's where our destination is determined.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: It's where our direction is set. It may be the
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: path to salvation or damnation. Hence the differing impacts of
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: Galadriel on Borimir and the other members of the party,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: that everyone becomes really more solidified in the direction that
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: they are going. So this is where our relationship with truth,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: for better or worse, becomes solidified. It's where we can
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: be gained or where we can be lost. And so
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Tolkien provides us with a framework for relating to truth
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: even in worlds that are not found in history. And
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: this is immediately relevant for our primary topic in dealing
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: with how we might engage with video games, and in
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: pointing out that this is a place where we can
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: gain something or it's a place where we can lose something,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: even ourselves. Now Again, in the same essay, Tolkien also
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: discusses why literature is a superior medium for fantasy compared
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: to cinema and I think that this is going to
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: give us some useful principles as well. In a movie,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: he tells us, the audience is given the full story,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: including plot, visuals, music, etc. There's no room for the
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: viewer to get involved in the process of subcreation. A book, however,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: does provide this room. When you read a book, assuming
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: you've not first seen a cinematic adaptation of the book,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: you fashion so much of the story in your own
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: head based on your background other books you've read, the
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: thoughts floating around in your conscious and unconscious mental spaces,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: and everything else that you bring with you to the text.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: You cast the characters and decide exactly what the text
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: looks like, what it sounds like, what it feels like.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: So we could all read the same story but have
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: different mental adaptations as we contribute to the story through
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: our own process of subcreation alongside the primary author with
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: what they give us. Now, it seems to me that
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: much the same could be said regarding video games, whether
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: we're talking about a story driven role playing game or
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: something more in the sandbox arena, there is space for
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: the player to decide who they are are, what their
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: background and motivations entail, and what kind of impact they
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: will have on the world, and whatever else may be
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: relevant to that particular game. All of this brings us
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: into the act of subcreation, which can be a great
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: aid in helping us to become more enchanted in our
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: primary world experience. Of course, it should be noted that
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: the potential of the reader's subcreation is directly related to
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: the materials that they are provided in the text, and
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: the same could be said of video games. Sometimes the
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: material is so corrupted that one who engages with it
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: is far more likely to be destructive first and foremost
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: to their own selves than creative in a positive direction.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Some books are just bad. Some games are just bad.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: They're very unlikely to move us in the direction of
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: being more integrated selves, situated to bear primary world responsibilities
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: and to accomplish worthwhile things. Maybe the philosophy at hand
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: is particularly heinous, or maybe the nature of the material
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: is so tedious and addictive it is simply amusing, which
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: is literally to not be amusing that we're likely to
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: throw away time with very little hope of gaining something
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: back in return. Now, sometimes, and probably most of the time,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: the fault is not so much with the material, even
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: if that might be there, but the primary fault is
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: actually with the person who's engaging with it. As with
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: every vice, it's easy to prioritize whatever lesser good that
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: may come from games over the greater goods that are
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: before us. However, that many and that you and I
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: can go wrong with games does not mean that games
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: themselves are an evil. It has been said, do not
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: is abused. Men can go wrong with wine and women,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: shall we then prohibit and abolish women? Now, as far
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: as I can tell, this is an apocryphal quotation attributed
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: to Martin Luther, but the principle certainly holds up even
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: if the citation does not. That we can go wrong
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: with video games does not mean that video games are
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: of necessity wrong. There is a way I believe to
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: go right with games, instead of letting them pull you
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: into the abyss of empty amusement. They can be tethered
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: to virtue, to truth, and too beauty, and in turn
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: they can become points of connection between you and goodness. Furthermore,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: games can become touch points with our culture and with
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: ourselves for dealing with significant topics that apply to primary life.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: As with most mediums, you're likely to find what you
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: are seeking. If your desire is rightly ordered, you will
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: find another step on the upward journey. If your desire
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: is wrongly ordered, you will slip further toward the abyss.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Discernment rarely involves in all or nothing mentality. It instead
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: involves having honest conversations with yourself and with others. If
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: you are honest with yourself, then in your heart you
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: generally know when something is upbuilding and when it's not.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: If you authentically seek the good, you will surely find it,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: as seeking the good is evidence that you have already
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: found it in some measure. For more on this topic,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: you can go back and listen to episode seventy eight
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: of Mythic Mind when I talk with Master Samwise and
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Josh Trailer about this topic in a more extended fashion.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: All right, thank you for listening. Next time, we'll be
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: getting into the second nights of the Old Republic game.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: We just covered the first game over on the main
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: Mythic Mind podcast, and that's really our launching point over here,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: and so next time we'll be talking about Coetar two
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: and hopefully if all goes according to plan, that's already available,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: and so you can go ahead and check that out. Now.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: If you did enjoy this and you want me to
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: keep doing this series, right, if this seems like something
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: that you're excited about, then I strongly welcome you to
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: I mean very at least just let me know, right
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: they send me a message, contact me on X send
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: me an email over at Mythic Mind podcast at gmail
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: dot com, talk to me on Discord or Patreon if
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: you're there, you know, just let me know that this
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: is something you're interested in. But also it really would
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: help me is if you're not already a patron of
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Mythic Mind, then go over to patreon dot com slash
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: mythic Mind and let me know if I mean a
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: few dollars or more than a few dollars, you know,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: whatever it is that you can afford. Every little bit helps,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: and also every little bit counts as a vote that
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: this is something that you're interested in and that's going
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: to go a long way in like showing me this
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: is somewhere that I should invest my time and energy
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: in making it a long lasting venture that's profitable for
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: the both of us and so again, Patroon dot com
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: slash Mythic Mind, become part of our fellowship, whether you
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: are actively involved in these conversations and content creation, or
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: you just want to be a silent supporter of what
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: we are doing. But that's a for now. I really
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: look forward to where we're going with this show. I
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: look forward to the next episode, as we discussed the
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: second Nights of the Old Republic. But that's a for
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: now until next time, God Speeding. I have always, at
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: least ever since I can remember, had a kind of
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: longing for death. It was when I was happiest that
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: I longed most. It was on happy days when we
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: were up in the hills, the three of us, with
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: the wind and the sunshine, where you couldn't see Gloam
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: or the palace. Do you remember the color and the
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: smell in looking across at the gray mountain in the distance,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: And because it was so beautiful, it set me longing,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: always longing somewhere else, there must be more of it.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: Everything seemed to be saying, Psyche, come, but I couldn't come,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: and I didn't know where I was to come to.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: It almost hurt me. I felt like a bird in
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: a cage when the other birds of its kind are
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: flying home. And now I will make answer to you, o,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: my judges, and show that he who has lived as
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: a true philosopher has reason to be of good cheer
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: when he was about to die, and that after death
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: he may hope to receive the greatest good in the
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: other world. For I deem that the true disciple of
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: philosophy is likely to be misunderstood by other men. They
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: do not perceive that he is ever pursuing death and dying.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: And if this is true, why, having had the desire
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: of death all his life long, should he regret the
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: arrival of that which he has always been pursuing and desiring.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: The longing of Plato and the control of the Stoics
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: pervades Lewis's retelling of the Cupid and psyche Myth until
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: we have faces with this incredible novel, which he believed
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: to be his best. Lewis demonstrates the tensions and ancient thought,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: and even more significantly, the limits of rational philosophy, which
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: can only go as deep as the foxes can dig.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: Beyond that, Under that and providing the life of that thought,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: we find the dark and holy places that blind our
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: faculties of reason, What then shall we do? This is
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: a topic that we will explore after first surveying some
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: important philosophical contributions in the ancient world that have had
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: some significant bearing on Lewis's great novel. To this end,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: we will begin with Plato's Fato, which discusses the immortality
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: of the soul and what those who love wisdom might
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: expect in the life to come. And then we'll spend
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: four weeks with some of the great stoics, including Epictetus, Emperor, Marcus, Aurelius,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: and Seneca. Finally, we will turn our attention to till
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: we have faces for the final two weeks with original content,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: and so this will not be the same as what
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: you may have seen in the fiction and philosophy of CS.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Lewis course. Each week of this eight week study will
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: include readings from primary sources that will be provided as PDFs,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: although these are all texts that belong in your personal library.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: You'll be provided with recommendations for secondary readings. You'll have
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: recorded presentations for you to watch at your leisure, ongoing
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: discord chats, and weekly live meetings to discuss the readings
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: enrolled today. By going to patreon dot com slash Mythic
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: Mind and checking out the job. Or you can gain
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: access to all courses, past, present, and future this year
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: by purchasing a Tier three annual subscription. I hope to
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: see you there,