Genesis and Other Storytelling

The day before yesterday, I learned that a friend of mine had previously interviewed Tony Banks and chatted with other members of the band Genesis, of which he is a huge fan. Yesterday, the Genesis album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was the focus of an article that came to my attention in The New Yorker. One of the things mentioned in the latter article is the appropriation of Biblical and classical literature in Genesis songs. As I was pondering this, I also saw the image below, which suggests that science provides a narrative which eliminates the need for fairy tales. I don't know about you, but fairy tales are not in my experience focused solely or even primarily on explaining where the matter we are composed of comes from. That tends to be myth. Fairy tales tend to focus on navigating the challenges of life, avoiding being deceived, finding true love, and other such concerns. And suggesting that scientific understanding somehow invalidates the usefulness of such stories seems to me to be a profound misunderstanding of what stories are and how they function in our lives. As yet, I have seen no evidence which suggests that we as a species can do without stories – factual stories, but also fictional ones. New discoveries may indeed make old stories seem obviously dated. But storytelling has always involved updating and adapting. Why should our era be any different?

You can listen to the entire album The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway on YouTube: