Overview

"Myths are usually seen as stories from the depths of time--fun and fantastical, but no longer believed by anyone. Yet, as Philip Ball shows, we are still writing them--and still living them--today. From Robinson Crusoe and Frankenstein to Batman, many stories written in the past few centuries are commonly, perhaps glibly, called ""modern myths."" But Ball argues that we should take that idea seriously. Our stories of Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Sherlock Holmes are doing the kind of cultural work that the ancient myths once did. Through the medium of narratives that all of us know in their basic outline and which have no clear moral or resolution, these modern myths explore some of our deepest fears, dreams, and anxieties. We keep returning to these tales, reinventing them endlessly for new uses. But what are they really about, and why do we need them? What myths are still taking shape today? And what makes a story become a modern myth? In The Modern Myths, Ball takes us on a wide-ranging tour of our collective imagination, asking what some of its most popular stories reveal about the nature of being human in the modern age."

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"Philip Ball worked for over twenty years as an editor for Nature, writes regularly in the scientific and popular media, and has authored many books on the interactions of the sciences, the arts, and the wider culture. His most recent books include Patterns in Nature, Invisible, and Serving the Reich. He lives in London. Gabriel Vaughan is an Audie Award-winning narrator and classically trained actor. He grew up without television in western Massachusetts and listened to a lot of ""books on tape"" as a kid, so narrating audiobooks enjoyably feels like coming full circle. He is a founding member of the Tennessee Shakespeare Company and co-owner of Little Town Studios together with his wife and fellow narrator, Piper Goodeve. He has a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and studied acting in London at British American Drama Academy."

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