The miracle of Till We Have Faces is that every time I read it, I swear I am reading about myself on every page. Walk away, and there is small resemblance between me and that veiled sister. Open it up, and it is me again. It is me. It doesn't matter that I know the end. It doesn't matter that I know she's mistaken and bitter and blinded and wrong wrong wrong. Talent cannot write this stuff. It is made out of miracle. Out of an uncanny sight.
because you were all wondering what I'm writing my dissertation on, here's a brief synopsis of my 'research context': When James Macpherson published his Fragments of Ancient Poetry in 1760, he went to great lengths to make the Fragments appear to be authentic remains of an ancient, heroic oral tradition. His reasons for this were largely political, and as such, influenced the content of the epics themselves. As an attempt to establish a particularly Scottish identity, the poems were quite effective. However, to do so required both a simplification and a manipulation of traditional mythology. Stripped of anagogical significance, the Ossian epics more or less represented an Enlightenment version of history, tradition, and mythic heritage. The stories themselves were changed by their very purpose and in turn changed the manner of representing myth in future narratives. Moreover, the emphasis on the Ossian epics as authentic tales from the past, as ‘fragments,’ served...
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