What do you do when you find yourself in a hole you cannot climb out of? -Dig deeper

"...understand that literature is still doing the same job that mythology did earlier, but filling in its huge cloudy shapes with sharper lights and deeper shadows" p.32

The immediate meaning of this quote is apparent and is something with which i agree wholeheartedly. Myths were the original literature, combining the natural world with the human to such an extent that the very basis of natural phenomena were explained by the repercussions of human behaviour. In the world of the ancients, myths made it so that the entire world was a form of literature, allowing our ancestors to live in a much more familiar world than what we modern people see it as today. Nowadays we have distinctions between the natural and human-made worlds, provided by science and curiosity that can be validated with modern tools, uncovering the truth behind the world that surrounds us. Literature is the more distinct, advanced mythology, creating separate worlds from which we can dive into and again dive out.

Upon further thought, Fryes words arguably apply to many other fields, not just literature. Is human kind not actually taking any new steps, but instead just planting their ancient feet further and further down into deeper and darker soil? It would seem that in all our years of existence the same wants, needs, and fundamental questions still concern us. The ancients solved this through wondrous tales of immortals, we use wondrous particles and constants to explain that which we have a thirst to know. Upon even further review, maybe its obvious that we can never truly progress, for humanity will always be human, dealing with the human experience in ever innovative ways, trying to go beyond our limitations yet always failing to escape that which defines us. It would seem that literature is just another way that we humans try to break through our own complex, hoping to become something greater than just a human, perhaps immortal, perhaps all-knowing. But the truth is that we need not look any farther than the mirror to realize that all we've done is shade the shadows, for we are still here, and we are still trying to be more.