Like a moth to a flame we are irresistibly drawn to myths,
and regardless of “…our ignorance of the language or culture [from which it
came] is still felt by any reader anywhere in the world. Myths throughout the
world are similar. Myth is language…its value is timeless. The mystical value
of myth does not lie in its style, its original music, or its syntax, but in
the story it tells. With myth, everything becomes possible, it explains the
present and the past as well as the future.”
The Structural Study of Myth by Claude
Levi-Strauss
In the late 1970’s my friend, Dr. Sheldon Klein, Professor
of Computer Science and Linguistics, University of Wisconsin, shared with me he
had worked with Levi-Strauss on the basis of the myth in Paris, France, some of
which he shared with me in the above paragraph. From childhood, I read myths
and mythical type stories, pretty much everything with a mythic structure and
journey; created such stories since I was a child.
Not until I was an adult did I began to write my
stories in earnest. My two recent publications brought me out-of-the closet and my dream came true. I'm now a published writer. After I completed Angel,
I gratefully recalled Sheldon Klein's influence on my present writing. Sheldon
was the first person to show me the true value of the myth, which led to trusting
my own writer’s voice. Although Sheldon, this brilliant man, is no longer with
us, I thank him and his wife, Carol Klein, from the bottom of my heart.
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