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Full title: Flowers and myths and other truths

Or, as I have commented on several posts, "Truths obliquely seen."

The PictoberChallenge for October 13 is "Myth", a word we usually use to mean a made-up story. My photograph and title follow JRR Tolkien's use of the word. Tolkien wrote one of his most significant essays in 1939, "On Fairy-Stories". It is well worth reading in its entirety.

Summarizing from Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Fairy… -

In the essay, Tolkien claims that one touchstone of the authentic fairy tale is that it is presented as wholly credible: "It is at any rate essential to a genuine fairy-story, as distinct from the employment of this form for lesser or debased purposes, that it should be presented as 'true'. ... But since the fairy-story deals with 'marvels', it cannot tolerate any frame or machinery suggesting that the whole framework in which they occur is a figment or illusion."

...

Tolkien suggests that fairy stories allow the reader to review his own world from the "perspective" of a different world. Tolkien calls this "recovery", in the sense that one's unquestioned assumptions might be recovered and changed by an outside perspective. Second, he defends fairy stories as offering escapist pleasure to the reader, justifying this analogy: a prisoner is not obliged to think of nothing but cells and wardens. And third, Tolkien suggests that fairy stories can provide moral or emotional consolation, through their happy ending, which he terms a "eucatastrophe".

In conclusion and as expanded upon in an epilogue, Tolkien asserts that a truly good and representative fairy story is marked by joy: "Far more powerful and poignant is the effect [of joy] in a serious tale of Faërie. In such stories, when the sudden 'turn' comes we get a piercing glimpse of joy, and heart's desire, that for a moment passes outside the frame, rends indeed the very web of story, and lets a gleam come through." Tolkien sees Christianity as partaking in and fulfilling the overarching mythological nature of the cosmos: "I would venture to say that approaching the Christian Story from this direction, it has long been my feeling (a joyous feeling) that God redeemed the corrupt making-creatures, men, in a way fitting to this aspect, as to others, of their strange nature. The Gospels contain a fairy-story, or a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. They contain many marvels ... and among the marvels is the greatest and most complete conceivable eucatastrophe. The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man's history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation."

Photography field trip a couple weeks ago with the Studio 678 folks from the Community Darkroom at Flower City Arts Center. We took a neighborhood walk.

Studio 678 is an after-school photography program for sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.

Yashica-D Twin Lens Reflex
Kentmere Pan 400 exposed at 800, developed in D76 1:1 17 min
Epson Perfection V500 Photo scanner

#ilfordfilm , #kentmere400 , #kentmerepan400 , #pushedonestop ,
#tlr , #twinlensreflex , #yashicad , #blackandwhite , #shootfilmstaypoor , #ishootfilm ,
#communitydarkroom , #flowercityarts , #neighborhood ,
#pictober2023 . #myth , #flowers ,

Description

Full title: Flowers and myths and other truths

Or, as I have commented on several posts, "Truths obliquely seen."

The PictoberChallenge for October 13 is "Myth", a word we usually use to mean a made-up story. My photograph and title follow JRR Tolkien's use of the word. Tolkien wrote one of his most significant essays in 1939, "On Fairy-Stories". It is well worth reading in its entirety.

Summarizing from Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Fairy… -

In the essay, Tolkien claims that one touchstone of the authentic fairy tale is that it is presented as wholly credible: "It is at any rate essential to a genuine fairy-story, as distinct from the employment of this form for lesser or debased purposes, that it should be presented as 'true'. ... But since the fairy-story deals with 'marvels', it cannot tolerate any frame or machinery suggesting that the whole framework in which they occur is a figment or illusion."

...

Tolkien suggests that fairy stories allow the reader to review his own world from the "perspective" of a different world. Tolkien calls this "recovery", in the sense that one's unquestioned assumptions might be recovered and changed by an outside perspective. Second, he defends fairy stories as offering escapist pleasure to the reader, justifying this analogy: a prisoner is not obliged to think of nothing but cells and wardens. And third, Tolkien suggests that fairy stories can provide moral or emotional consolation, through their happy ending, which he terms a "eucatastrophe".

In conclusion and as expanded upon in an epilogue, Tolkien asserts that a truly good and representative fairy story is marked by joy: "Far more powerful and poignant is the effect [of joy] in a serious tale of Faërie. In such stories, when the sudden 'turn' comes we get a piercing glimpse of joy, and heart's desire, that for a moment passes outside the frame, rends indeed the very web of story, and lets a gleam come through." Tolkien sees Christianity as partaking in and fulfilling the overarching mythological nature of the cosmos: "I would venture to say that approaching the Christian Story from this direction, it has long been my feeling (a joyous feeling) that God redeemed the corrupt making-creatures, men, in a way fitting to this aspect, as to others, of their strange nature. The Gospels contain a fairy-story, or a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. They contain many marvels ... and among the marvels is the greatest and most complete conceivable eucatastrophe. The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man's history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation."

Photography field trip a couple weeks ago with the Studio 678 folks from the Community Darkroom at Flower City Arts Center. We took a neighborhood walk.

Studio 678 is an after-school photography program for sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.

Yashica-D Twin Lens Reflex
Kentmere Pan 400 exposed at 800, developed in D76 1:1 17 min
Epson Perfection V500 Photo scanner

#ilfordfilm , #kentmere400 , #kentmerepan400 , #pushedonestop ,
#tlr , #twinlensreflex , #yashicad , #blackandwhite , #shootfilmstaypoor , #ishootfilm ,
#communitydarkroom , #flowercityarts , #neighborhood ,
#pictober2023 . #myth , #flowers ,