Wednesday, 11 January 2017

Mythical And Modern Cosmologies

Myths focus on Earth and even on one part of Earth whereas modern cosmology shows Earth as minute. Works of fantasy reflect this dichotomy:

in James Blish's Black Easter, a conjuration in Italy triggers Armageddon - but how is the rest of the universe affected?;

in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, the Endless are personifications of Destiny, Death, Dream, Desire, Despair, Delight/Delirium and Destruction throughout the cosmos yet seem to focus almost exclusively on Earth;

in Alan Moore's Jerusalem, the angles/angels focus on Earth and do so through Northampton.

When an angel strides across the mortal world (see here), we realize, on p. 551, that this is specifically the human mortal world, not the entire universe. So maybe there is at least one more dimension involved - one that enables the "angles" to bypass innumerable galaxies and to focus on the surface of a single planet?

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