In chapter 1 of Creation and Recreation, Frye argues that the "complex of ideas and images surrounding the word ‘creation,’" (4) from both sacred and secular sources, has been thoroughly assimilated into Western culture.
Frye opens chapter 1 of Creation and Recreation with a discussion of Oscar Wilde’s essays, "The Truth of Masks," "The Decay of Lying," and "The Critic as Artist." According to Wilde’s use of the word, all the creative arts are a form of "lying" (8). Are they? Is this a useful way of thinking about creativity?
This is a double-edged razor. If we remove ourselves from the “envelope” we are not the center of the university that Frye writes about with the mirror. Most of the time it is a mirror of our own concerns…which exists primarily in reference to us: it was created for us; we are the centre of it and the whole point of its existence. (Frye 6) If we can truly become viewers through the “window” we can, in fact, become a part of nature, and creators in our own right, no longer being creatures of the God-created world. But if we remove ourselves from civilization and culture, then who do we create for? How would we have the domain of our craft?
Works Cited
Frye, Northrup. Creation and Recreation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980. Print.