Story and the Place of the Sciences

When I was in high school I discovered that people had different opinions about Shakespeare’s plays – what they meant, what specific passages meant, where he got his ideas, etc. In the back of my mind I formulated a general notion that one day I could settle all those questions. During college I still had a vague notion that I could write the definitive work of explication on Hamlet, settling once and for all what it was about (which I have done – it was about “sin’s true nature”), resolving every issue, and explaining how we should go about mining its riches.

Right.

I have discovered that literature is the most perfect parallel to the cosmos. The maths and sciences seek to describe cosmos. They operate within the quest for finity. They play a vital role. But the soul that neglects story, by which I mean story rooted in the ancient dreams of the human soul, can never know the place of the sciences.