The Modern Myths: Adventures in the Machinery of the Popular Imagination

Philip Ball

Jul 2022 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Gabriel Vaughan

About this audiobook

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.

About the author

Philip Ball is a writer, author, and broadcaster, and was formerly an editor at Nature. He is the author of more than twenty books, including Invisible, Curiosity, and The Water Kingdom: A Secret History of China. He lives in London.

Gabriel Vaughan is an Audie Award-winning narrator and classically trained actor. A founding member of the Tennessee Shakespeare Company, he co-owns 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.