Jacqueline Thornley: Topic Relating to Class

The other day in class we talked about the loss of myth in society. I thought it was an interesting lecture but didn’t really think much of it until later when we were watching an old Christmas favorite, Santa Claus is Coming to Town. The animation was wonderfully awful but the story was as good as always. The movie’s definitely one of my favorites so I was just following along, enjoying the childhood memories of Santa that came flooding back, but my friends, the oh so mature college kids were picking at all the little factoids of the story. They had to discuss the real origination of Christmas Trees and where the origination of Santa Claus really came from and every other historical fact of Christmas ever known to man. It was almost as if the kid’s story is perfectly fine to tell, as long as no one believes that’s actually how it happened and as long as the real story is told right after. It was this strange justification. It’s really true. People are so uncomfortable with myth and fiction that they can’t even watch a kid’s movie without solidifying their facts. I never would have noticed this if we hadn’t talked about it in class.