POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY

I usually save my musings on this blog's direction/accomplishments for the start of the new year. Still, over the years a certain irony has repeatedly occurred to me: that even though I've frequently claimed that I consider politics merely a part of a greater whole, as I did in (say) in the essay RACIAL NON-POLITICS IN DJANGO UNCHAINED, I would say that the majority of responses on this blog have been reactions to my political musings, rather than addressing matters of myth or aesthetics.

I don't cavil at this. Subjects like "myth" or "literary quality" are infinitely mutable, and no single person sees these things the same way. Politics, however, speak to the immediate questions: who's trying to control my speech, who's infringing on my rights, and so on. In reality any individual's politics aren't REALLY identical to those with whom that individual aligns himself: political animals are always really out for their own individual priorities. But an individual can come to feel as if he participates in a greater group, and thus are political alliances made.

The ARCHIVE's primary purpose is to trace the way mythic concepts appear in fiction, and the way a "myth-critical" person like myself analyzes narratives with this priority in mind, so political commentary will never dominate this blog. I despise the tendency of even news-blogs to use simplified forms of political discourse as mere "clickbait," when said blogs have no intention of exploring the issues they raise. But as the political climate grows ever stormier, I find myself wanting to commit a few "political myths" to print, rather than yet another meditation on the interrelation of centricity and charisma.

No doubt, a current failing on my part.