The First Thing That Confronts

Literature Is Conscious Mythology: As Society Develops, Its Mythical Stories Become Structural Principles Of Story-telling, Its Mythical Concepts, Sun-gods And The Like, Become Habits Of Metaphoric Thought. In A Fully Mature Literary Tradition The Writerenters Intoa Structure Of Traditional Stories And Images.

Horace, In A Particularly Boastful Mood, Once Said His Verse Would Last As Long As The Vestal Virgins Kept Going Up The Capitoline Hill To Worship At The Temple Of Jupiter. But Horace's Poetry Has Lasted Longer Than Jupiter's Religion, And Jupiter Himself Has Only Survived Because He Disappeared Into Literature.

Literally, The Bible Is A Gigantic Myth, A Narrative Extending Over The Whole Of Time From Creation To Apocalypse, Unified By A Body Of Recurring Imagery That "freezes" Into A Single Metaphor Cluster, The Metaphors All Being Identified With The Body Of The Messiah, The Man Who Is All Men, The Totality Logoi Who Is One Logos, The Grain Of Sand That Is The World.

Man Creates What He Calls History As A Screen To Conceal The Workings Of The Apocalypse From Himself.

Failure To Grasp Centrifugal Meaning Is Incomplete Reading; Failure To Grasp Centripetal Meaning Is Incompetent Reading.