The Modern Myths, Philip Ball
The Modern Myths, Philip Ball
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The Modern Myths
Adventures in the Machinery of the Popular Imagination

Author: Philip Ball

Narrator: Gabriel Vaughan

Unabridged: 14 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 07/19/2022

Synopsis

Myths are usually seen as stories from the depths of time—fun and fantastical, but no longer believed by anyone. Yet, as Philip Ball shows, we are still writing them—and still living them—today. From Robinson Crusoe and Frankenstein to Batman, many stories written in the past few centuries are commonly, perhaps glibly, called "modern myths." But Ball argues that we should take that idea seriously. Our stories of Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Sherlock Holmes are doing the kind of cultural work that the ancient myths once did. Through the medium of narratives that all of us know in their basic outline and which have no clear moral or resolution, these modern myths explore some of our deepest fears, dreams, and anxieties. We keep returning to these tales, reinventing them endlessly for new uses. But what are they really about, and why do we need them? What myths are still taking shape today? And what makes a story become a modern myth?

In The Modern Myths, Ball takes us on a wide-ranging tour of our collective imagination, asking what some of its most popular stories reveal about the nature of being human in the modern age.

About Philip Ball

Philip Ball is a writer, author, and broadcaster, and was formerly an editor at Nature. His writing on scientific subjects has appeared in places ranging from New Scientist to the New York Times. He is the author of more than twenty books, including Invisible, Curiosity, and The Water Kingdom: A Secret History of China. He lives in London.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Brian on June 13, 2021

Philip Ball is one of our most esteemed science science writers, so it's easy to think of his new book The Modern Myths as a hobby project. However, Ball brings to this exploration of the idea that stories about the likes of Robinson Crusoe, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes and Batman are our modern day myt......more

Goodreads review by Dan on January 11, 2022

I started off really liking Ball’s work here, but the more I read, the more I soured on it. Ball, who’s best known as a natural science writer, is tackling anthropology here, making the argument that some modern (past 300 years) stories have attained mythic status: Robinson Crusoe, Dr. Jekyll and Mr......more

Goodreads review by Geoffrey on February 13, 2022

What is it: a cultural history of several modern stories we all can't agree how to interpret and all keep retelling our own ways. Why I like it: The "cultural history" part of my summary above is important for setting expectations here. Ball's work throughout most of this book is to lay out an impres......more

Goodreads review by Nick on December 20, 2021

An amazing assessment of key works of fiction that have reached mythical status in our culture, reoccurring in new works regularly, and why they are important to us. Fun read, as well as great historical insights.......more

Goodreads review by Sarah on April 25, 2024

An interesting take on seven IPs that have entered our collective cultural consciousness such that everyone is familiar with them even if -- or perhaps particularly if -- they've never read the originating work. There were three glaring errors in the text that should have been caught by editors or pr......more

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