Fish Frye

"Literature is an aspect of the human compulsion to create in the face of chaos" (Frye 31).

     I have come back to this quote many times since reading it. When this happens to me it usually means one of two things are going on; either 1. I don't understand what the author is trying to tell me, or 2. I see something amazing and possibly truthful about it. (I know someone is going to complain about my word choice, but I am going to use it anyway.) I know Frye goes on from this statement to tell us how this applies most to romance, but I want to take just this line for a moment and ponder it. We will get to the rest later.

    I am thinking about all the great stories that have withstood the test of time. Adventure with me on the Sea of Stories and maybe we can gain more insight. Many of the very old stories come from the religious traditions. These stories, at least the ones I have known, begin with chaos. See over there-there is the Egyptian creation story. First there is chaos then out of the chaos comes a creator (Re-Atum according to the Heliopolitan Ennead). For another example we must row our boat quite far in time to another enduring story named Genesis (you may be more familiar with this one). In this story from The Bible, we see a creator organizing things. Day, night, earth, sky, etc all seem mixed up in a chaotic soup, and so God begins to organize. What a mess! It takes him six days to get things in their proper places.

    What about other stories? Is it only the stories of religious texts that begin in chaos? Look over there (we are out and about on the Sea of Stories remember). Let's take something even more recent, and much less formal. How about a television show? Star Trek the Next Generation for example. In the first few moments chaos stirs up a nice dilemma and we are off. By the end of the show everything is shiny and happy and the crew departs on another adventure.

     Even when we tell our history, don't we begin with chaos? My daughter loves the movie The King's Speech so I will grab that as an example since it is floating by. It's a great story. War is breaking out, the king is dead, the heir to the thrown is so in love he goes off with some woman and abdicates, and there is only one man who can save us. The problem-he has difficulty with speech. No problem if this were during an earlier time, but at this point in time, radio was very popular. The people wanted to hear the king. So, of course, the people around him find a way to help him, all is well at the end. (Not really since war has broken out, but we know how that ended, and all we needed to see was the good radio broadcast anyway). The important thing is, England has a king and that is the way they feel things ought to be. Their political structure is intact once again.

     Let's get out of the boat and ponder our catch. Frye tells us that humans have a need to create when faced with chaos. Many of our stories begin with chaos and lead to an organization or stability (in my observation). So back to the original question of "What good are stories that are not even true?" that we have been pondering. Our stories show us what to do in the face of chaos. Fictional stories give us space to explore the possibility of creation from chaos. We can escape our fast paced world and find comfort in the artistic creation of the storyteller. Do they give us all the answers to life's mysteries? No-would you want them to? I think a bit of chaos is good, it keeps life interesting.

    Now go back to that quote on page 31 and let's read the rest of what Frye has to tell us. "Romance, I think, is not only central to literature as a whole, but the area where we can see most clearly that the maze without a plan and the maze not without a plan are two aspects of the same thing" (Frye 31). The story and the reality are very close. You may disagree with my analysis, but when I think of these words, I think again to the stories we discussed, but I also think of our lives.
    What do we do when disaster strikes, such as your future mother-in-law (who you have never met) calls and says on Christmas Eve at 9:00 PM when you are heading off to bed leaving the disaster of opened gifts laying around not put away and the hot chocolate mess still on the stove because you and your family are sick? You quickly tame your chaos, create something that looks like a controlled environment and try to smile as the door opens. Okay, maybe not the worst disaster, but who wants to read something depressing today? In literature and in life we face chaos, and do the best we can to tame it or at least try and make our way through it. As we go we learn a few things like making sure there are cookies and milk out on Christmas Eve in case you get visitors.