Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Gabriele's avatar

I think what contributes to the perennial attraction of quest myths is also the more or less implicit notion that the object of the (inner and outer) search itself is transfigured along the way, it (together with the searcher) reveals itself as Something defeating expectation, and is eventually left behind as new horizons disclose uncharted highlands for the journey to continue.

A possible illustration of this is Lovecraft's Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath or Dante's reimagining of the story of Ulysses in the 26th canto of his Inferno: after finally returning to Ithaca, the hero leaves again with a few companions, as not even his son's, his old father's and especially Penelope's love "could extinguish within me the ardour I had to gain experience both of the world, and of the vice and worth of men; but forth I put upon the deep and open sea with but a single ship...".

This leads me irresistibly to the thought that no single experience or final realisation, no Apocalypse can possibly conclude and forever seal up the manifestation of being, whose glorious inexhaustibility will at the appointed time surpass death itself, and is, in Fichte's words, "the imprint of our being destined for eternity".

Expand full comment
Grimalkin's avatar

Thank you, Matt. This sounds like a book I must have. I've been questing all my life.

Expand full comment
2 more comments...

No posts