TPPM _The Gift_: Sentence 2: Myth

[Glenn Scheper]

http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/uncollected/gift.html

... the myth of Tombstone ...

 4 entries found for myth. myth ( P ) Pronunciation Key
 (mth) n.

 A traditional, typically ancient story dealing with
 supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that serves as a
 fundamental type in the worldview of a people, as by
 explaining aspects of the natural world or delineating the
 psychology, customs, or ideals of society: the myth of Eros
 and Psyche; a creation myth. Such stories considered as a
 group: the realm of myth. A popular belief or story that
 has become associated with a person, institution, or
 occurrence, especially one considered to illustrate a
 cultural ideal: a star whose fame turned her into a myth;
 the pioneer myth of suburbia. A fiction or half-truth,
 especially one that forms part of an ideology. A fictitious
 story, person, or thing: “German artillery superiority on
 the Western Front was a myth” (Leon Wolff).

 [New Latin mthus, from Late Latin mthos, from Greek mthos.]

 my·thol·o·gy ( P ) Pronunciation Key (m-thl-j) n. pl.
 my·thol·o·gies

 A body or collection of myths belonging to a people and
 addressing their origin, history, deities, ancestors, and
 heroes. A body of myths associated with an event,
 individual, or institution: “A new mythology, essential to
 the... American funeral rite, has grown up” (Jessica
 Mitford). The field of scholarship dealing with the
 systematic collection and study of myths.

 [French mythologie, from Late Latin mthologia, from Greek
 mthologi, story-telling : mthos, story + -logi, -logy.]

 my·tholo·gist n.

 myth

 \Myth\, n. [Written also mythe.] [Gr. my^qos myth, fable,
 tale, talk, speech: cf. F. mythe.] 1. A story of great but
 unknown age which originally embodied a belief regarding
 some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often
 the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; an
 ancient legend of a god, a hero, the origin of a race,
 etc.; a wonder story of prehistoric origin; a popular fable
 which is, or has been, received as historical.

 2. A person or thing existing only in imagination, or whose
 actual existence is not verifiable.

 Myth history, history made of, or mixed with, myths.

 myth

 n : a traditional story accepted as history; serves to
 explain the world view of a people

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So, uhh. Maybe I shorted sentence 1. Is myth the unexamined
American virtue that the good guys should kill the bad guys?

Or that there is absolute truth to defend: Right of hegemony.

Or the myth of invincibility: We'll all go to our Valhala:
Guns don't bring possibility of the impossibility of being.

Or a longed-for past, like in the 70's I had an Army buddy
who was all wrapped up in the cars and fashions of the 50's.

Or a denial of a past, that we got to here through there.

I doubt I've scoped all the lit-crit possibilities here.

Yours truly,
Glenn Scheper
http://home.earthlink.net/~glenn_scheper/
glenn_scheper + at + earthlink.net
Copyleft(!) Forward freely.