A Review: Mythologies

Title of Work: Mythologies
Author: Roland Barthes
Format:
Published: 1957
Started:
Finished: 2024-09-03\

Posted: Goodreads
Rating: 4/5

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The modern myth, for Barthes’ purposes, seems to fall somewhere between the traditional/folk story (think Greek myths: Icarus, Pandora, Persephone and Hades, etc.) and the more contemporary usage meaning a widely held belief that is, in fact, false (think: goldfish only have a three second memory, MSG is bad for you, Mythbusters in the good ol’ days of Discovery channel).

Barthes’ myth is a system of communication intended to convey and reinforce specific cultural or ideological status quo, particularly dominant ideologies of the ruling class or institutions (think: the American Dream, the Self-Made Man, the Nuclear Family, the Golden Years of Retirement). We are invited to consider how and why cultural myths such as these are created. Who do they deceive and who do they serve?

Fairly dense for me and the audio book I checked out from the library kept expiring so it took me a few stops and starts to find the end. Mythologies blended nicely with an ongoing interest, a seeking of sorts, in semiotics (symbols, their use, their meaning) as well as cultural convention/rebellion. I got scrambled a few times where Barthes’ focus fell more heavily on the analytical structure of myths, distilling his system into a conceptual representation which reminded me a bit of the “formal logic” used in analytical branches of math, philosophy, linguistics and a heap of other disciplines. This stuff tends to send characters and symbols swimming all over the page for me. I really don’t have the pre-reqs for it and audio wouldn’t be the best medium to dissect a text like this anyway. Still, the ideas are great.

See also: Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (1988, Herman & Chomsky)

• Network *(1976, dir. Sidney Lumet) Matrix, The (1999, dir. Wachowskis) 1984 (1949, George Orwell) Pleasantville (1998, Gary Ross) Big Short, The (2015, dir. Adam McKay) Mad Men (2007–2015, creat. Matthew Weiner)