SIX MYTHS OF OUR TIME by...

SIX MYTHS OF OUR TIME by Marina Warner (Vintage: $10; 135 pp.). Originally presented on the BBC, these erudite essays cover a wide array of topics, from “Jurassic Park” to the wars in the former Soviet Bloc and shifting interpretations of the role of Medea. Dismissing the image of myths as stories in dusty old books, Warner examines the use of myth in the contemporary world. Myths, she argues, are an essential element in the ethnic strife in Bosnia: “One group will insist on its title to its home in certain, inhospitable terms, which can turn a lifelong neighbour into a hostile stranger overnight, a casual community into an embattled tribe and locate cannibals in the backyard and chimaeras under the bed. At the core of the struggle for home lies the struggle for the way the story of place is told.”