This is what he would like to believe.

Kurt Cobain is a myth-- of the modern kind. Eliade says that the actions of the myth "[become] exemplary, and consequently repeatable, for it serves as a model, and by the same token as a justification, for all human actions"(Eliade 23). The classic "role model" has hardly left society; in archaic society, the myth contained the actions of the gods in illo tempore, now the critical mind of society rejects the myth and the time outside of time, and chooses to look within society to the contemporary man as a justification of their action.

In archaic time, the myth functioned as the "only valid revelation of reality,"(24) because it was the orienting element that created doorway for the knowledge of the sacred to enter the homogeneous world of the profane. The knowledge of the universe prevented the disproving of the myths, but it was not necessary-- or even desired-- to do such a thing; the myth was vital in maintaining the order of society. Now we have disguised myth, we have denied it and hidden it, but something must take place of the sacred space we have lost. Myth allowed for "collective thinking" within the society: a foundation for the group to build upon to explain that which was beyond understanding. But even today, the, "'participations' and in myth and collective symbols still survive in the modern world, they are far from filling the central part played by myth in traditional societies; in comparison with these our modern world seems destitute of myths" (24).

Eliade doubts that society could exist without the myth, instead he suggests that it is not difficult to recognize the archaic function of myth reinvented, "in all that modern people call instruction, education and didactic culture" (32). It is here that man receives his critical socialization allowing him to function properly within the parameters of society. Archaic man used mythical figures as models of education, modern man uses historical figures. While there is certainly a different level of "awe" concerning the original individuals, both of them are projected into a model status used as reference by society. Humans have a tendency to "hold up one life-history as a paradigm and turn a historical personage into an archetype. This tendency survives even among the most eminent representatives of the modern mentality"(32)

(next)

Eliade, Mircea. Myths, Dreams, and Mysteries. New York: Harper, 1960.