Assignment 1

”Is it possible that literature, especially poetry, is something that a scientific civilization like ours will eventually outgrow?” (p.11)

In this quote Northrop Frye is posing the question; will our scientific civilization outgrow poetry and literature. He follows up the question by discussing ancient legends of men in flight, how they could only imagine such things, but now it is a reality. He also asks “do we need such stories now that we have airplanes”. I think it is human nature to push the boundaries of possibility, but I also think the mass of civilization will outgrow literature as a medium of conveying stories and poetry. The new age where video and television is so readily accessible, and as the art of filmmaking improves, reading as a way to convey a story will, and already has started to, slip away into history. Even if literature disappears, the thinkers and dreamers will always find a way of telling there story, whether it’s through film or music. The medium may be outgrown, the paper tossed aside, but the dreamers and thinkers will live on.