Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Stories of our lives
Canon is an interesting idea for me at the moment. In literature canon is an authentic or authoritative collection of an author's work, or the work of a geographical area or particular school or genre of writing. In religion it is a collection of religious writings that are deemed authentic revelation and authoritative for the beliefs and functionings of the group. (e.g. the Bible, the Koran.)
At the moment, I'm thinking of canon as narratives, stories. The stories that are central to our lives are the ones that we canonise. The stories that shape us and invade our communities are the ones we truly give authority to.
There are stories of passing interest -- the story about the girl who won lotto, hitchhiker found dead in bush, killer dolphins escaping US training camps -- but they aren't the stories that we live by.
The narratives that shape our lives, the ones we canonise, are reflected in the media we enjoy, the company we partake in, the literature we digest.
Gilmore Girls provides a narrative I understand; Single daughter and mother, small town, relationship difficulties as performance pressure continues to mount. The intricacies of life in Star's Hollow is far remote from mine in Auckland, but the stories provide a place to connect and (as my Sunday nights continue to prove) a community of 'believers' that find meaning in and through the narrative.
Ecclesiastes provides a narrative that attracts and shapes me too, although its hold is often broken by competing stories. The numbness of life, the malaise of comfortable existence...The emptiness of a life without emotion, erecting barriers to keep out pain and change.
The hero's journey -- Frodo, Luke, Carrot -- from earth to hell and back again: deeply challenged, eternally changed, always damaged.
There's certainly something special about the Bible's narratives, but I ask my readers -- as I ask myself -- what stories are canon for you?
2 Comments:
What does the "sophia" category mean?
"Sophia" represents wisdom. It's part of the root of the word "philosophy" (love of wisdom).
Since I was going with "theos" to avoid the more highly loaded term "god", I thought I'd stick with the Greek and utilise "sophia" for more philosophical ideas.