Strap yourselves in. Brace yourselves. Prepare to become fictional- from the collected deluxe edition of Flex Mentallo Man of Muscle Mystery by Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly.
Myth does not care. Myth has no concerns for money. Myth has no concerns about spatial or temporal dimensions that society struggles with. Myth pre-supposes all such material and even non-material concerns; It is not just the DNA of things, it is the actual ephemeral. Myth seemingly composes the structures of our stories and by extension the way in which we can or should interact in our cultures and individual lives.
Metis and the idea of a cultural intelligence
Detienne and Vernant (1978), writing on greek myth and culture, define metis in two ways-- "as a common noun, [metis] refers to a particular type of intelligence, an informed prudence; as a proper name it refers to a female deity, the daughter of Ocean" (p. 11). While the secondary definition frames much of what the authors discuss in their work, I want to focus on the former part of the definition about the phrase informed prudence. I believe this to describe myth as a discretionary that pre-supposes actions undertaken; therefore myth has the ability through allegory/metaphor (or story) to advise, inform, entertain, or even caution about situations that can or will inevitably occur within the course of a life lived within a societal structure. This idea is what Grant Morrison seems to be having his crisis about in Flex Mentallo.
"I mean, when you think about it...they're like archetypal...they come right up from the depths, those things...how can they say that stuff's stupid?...Why do people get so ashamed of things? ...I mean, I really love those comics..." from Flex Mentallo, issue # 1.
Morrison has basically spent the part of his career post-Mentallo living the life on paper of his magical word, "Shaman". Spinning out of his own existential and drug fueled trips that took him to places such as the far east (which have been well documented in interviews as well as in his book Supergods and the recent film-opic Talking with Gods), the time spent seemed to allow Morrison to reflect, and in some spiritual way interact, with the stories of heroes that so shaped and molded his writing sensibilities, although at some great pain as on display in the pages of Flex Mentallo. By believing in that he acts as a shaman medium so that myth and story may emerge from the fictional ether into a more substantial reality, Morrison legitimizes his own spiritual beliefs and perhaps even salvation. Honestly it is no different than any other religion or individual treatise on faith that people make in search of a centering in the reality that everyday life has constructed. Morrison has chosen the "fictional" (and I use quotations here to connote fiction as it is understood as a normative cultural operation which many would view Morrison's choice to be), to plant his flag in the ground.
Essentially, Flex Mentallo is Morrison fully realizing for the first time in his writing the greek idea of metis. For Morrison, the heroes and heroines of the golden age can bring to society and pop culture the values of a seemingly good moral citizenship/optimism (an interesting ethical argument I believe for utilitarianism on Morrison's part), which seem to have a quality that is ageless and timeless. It is such reasoning that I believe then that Flex Mentallo stands as a modern day treatise on the power of metis as I described above, and has lead Morrison to write from that standpoint in some of his major works in the last decade, e.g., All-Star Superman, Final Crisis, Joe the Barbarian. For Morrison it comes down to the simple idea that these fictions/stories can save us.
Myth does not care because it exists forever in waiting for culture to utilize it. While the power of myth through the skills of oration are not once at the power the were due to the paradigm shift in western society to symbolizing/communicating through pen to paper, and now 0 to 1's, myth is very much woven into the fabrics of countless cultures. Simply, as Morrison discovered in his own way, we need myth to give us hope, and to let us appreciate what came before us, and expect the best that is yet to come, even if sometimes that gets lost in the shuffle for a little while. This is not a new idea, as the greek concept of metis should demonstrate, but in this modern society, as Morrison believes, the concepts get corrupted and misused, turned out from the intention of showing perhaps a way of life that is more communal and egalitarian if society can accept its own possibility. So bring on the heroes and heroines, and let them shine a little light into our lives.
References
Detienne, M., & Vernant, J.P. (1978). Cunning Intelligence in Greek Culture & Society. Sussex, UK. The Harvester Press.
