Ep. 9 Sermon on Familiar Stories

Excerpts from Aesthetical Sermons

Episode 9 gives us insight into Joris Planck's belief in the gods of mythology.
The excerpt is taken from his "Sermon on Familiar Stories," which tackles the epic task of weaving together every story under the sun.

Transcription of Joris:

"I wonder, should we maintain a perverse belief in these gods of old once sung of in metered hymn and marbled relief? They were as various as my moods and just as lackluster about mankind. Their intention has never been to inspire faith, nor even love, nor even fear: fear in their elemental power and aloof disposition. Love for their brute hegemony and painted faces. The dryads perhaps we love. Yes, their tantalizing limbs are too beautiful to be ignored. But faith? We would be fools to believe the gods' antics were meant as lures for the faithful. We should sooner celebrate the mutability of stone.
So, wanting nothing from us (for no thing could we offer to counterbalance their extravagance), why shouldn't we abandon these ancient gods as we have all other things natural? Why shouldn't we plug our ears with sounds of ourselves and stare ever wide-eyed at mirrors? I've no answers. None at all! All I have is a broken mirror with which I returned home from a voyage to a serene grove tangled with a collection of delicate orchids and razor-pointed bromeliads. There, in that bower of bliss, at risk of losing myself to eternity, I remembered narcissus, and, concluding that only by way of a stream's reflection could I transform into a flower, I smashed the glass instrument against an all too fixed and unchanging stone thereby ridding myself of its unorthodoxy."