The Return to an Ethical Outlook

The Kingdom on the Edge of Reality is an unusually well-developed example of modern mythology, curiously engaging in its pastoral setting and reminiscent of the great fables yet we are often startled to remember that all the action takes place in the present in the Canadian wilderness. All the elements of mythology are there: a forest god with enhanced powers, masked creatures half animal and half human, their clothing made of the materials of the natural forest, the hero who has been heralded by the prophecy of a seer.

Not only is the environment both ancient and modern at the same time but the outlook is also reminiscent of mythology in its adherence to certain virtues that have been displaced in our present society in favor of a lack of virtue which is considered to be enlightened thinking and also expedient in dealing with the complex problems of an urban environment, even a global economic situation. Where time is money, who has time for the hair-splitting considerations of right and wrong, good and evil. A high sense of ethics can be counterproductive, even unprofitable, and contrary to the style of compromise preferred in team playing. In modern mythology the high sense of ethics regains its importance.

The reader longs for the return to an ethical outlook. However much our present society cautions us against the modern consequences of too much morality, however much we are asked to cultivate a habit of denial with regard to ethical matters, something in the human soul feels cheated and diminished by this callous venality. Modern mythology revives that sense of idealism which we secretly cherish, sets it in the modern time frame as well, hence relating it to our current environment and our real lives. Thus we ourselves enter into the mythology as we identify with the characters.