Reality is all very well but it can ‘myth’ the point | Peter Goers

We often prefer myth to the actual. Myth is often a better story, writes Peter Goers.

Our myths are very important. They give us an illusion of reality rather than real reality. Even when myths are busted, they never die because they are part of us and they remain key to the realm of shared imagination. A Dreaming.

A man is found dead on a beach. For 78 years the identity of the Somerton Man and the remnants of his life in a suitcase have been the endless subject of mystery, speculation and investigation as he lay in his grave (paid for by the Bookmakers Guild) at West Terrace Cemetery. He is a myth. And if Ali Khan, Taman Shud.

Professor Derek Abbott and others have obsessively investigated the Somerton Man and the good professor even married the grand daughter of a person of interest to the case of the mysterious stranger. The Somerton Man was exhumed and painstakingly analysed and we have recently been told he is possibly Charles Webb, a Victorian electrical engineer and instrument maker who’d sensibly eaten a pasty before dying and had the clothes of a dead digger to whom he was related in his suitcase.

OK. But happily there’s still a lot of mystery to keep the myth going. His current identification may yet be a “myth apprehension”. Boom. Boom.

Charles “Somerton Man” Webb.

Maybe he now has more dignity but unknown soldiers are accorded great dignity in their anonymity. Do we want him to be Charles Webb or a Russian spy? We often prefer myth to the actual. Myth is often a better story. For example, I’m 48 years old.

For 31 years the identity of the crucial Watergate informant, Deep Throat, was debated. Thirty different people were suspect. Not knowing enlivened the story and when we finally understood it was FBI operative Mark Felt it was a disappointment. However, at the time of his exposure, Mr Felt felt unable to confirm or deny as he had dementia so the Deep Throat myth survives. It’ll never quite be a “mythed” opportunity. Good.

Myths are bigger than truths and just as important. What is religion but myth? The Aboriginal Dreaming is the real explained by the imagined so people can share stories connecting them to land spirit, earth and sky.

Myths allow us to put faith and credence in the improbable as we share in the suspension of disbelief. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. And an Easter bunny and I saw a thylacine on Valmai Hankel’s property in the badlands of the Mallee.

The Loch Ness monster lives and so do bunyips, yowies, drop bears and tonight the Nullarbor Nymph will run along a lonely desert highway as the truckies’ guardian angel. Old saints in their communion are myths and all cultures have creation myths.

The "Nullarbor Nymph" hoax perpetrated in 1971 was uncovered as a stunt involving Eucla woman Geneice Brooker.

Lasseter’s gold reef is just beyond the Great Inland Sea but nowhere near Hanging Rock. You must wait an hour after eating before swimming otherwise you’ll get cramps. It takes seven years to digest chewing gum and everyone swallows eight spiders a year while we sleep. The moon landing was faked and the Great Wall of China is visible from space. No bacteria will contaminate dropped food within five seconds but cracking your knuckles causes arthritis. Pom comes from Prisoners of His Majesty. Drinking eight glasses of water a day will cure everything and Jesus rose from the dead.

Everything dies? No. A myth. There’s a jellyfish which at old age reverts to a juvenile state and keeps going, just like me!

Some myths are extraordinarily damaging. Sexist and racist myths do great harm. The myth of terra nullius – land of nothing and no one, as promoted by the colonial invaders, wrought untold devastation on Aboriginal civilisation and still does.

But softer myths can sustain and inspire. Mystery is beauty if not truth. Reality is all very well but it can “myth” the point. I really am 48. Prove that I’m not.

What’s hot:

– Richard Beasley as SA River Murray Commissioner.

– Kurt Bosecke – brilliant SA visual artist.

– Plympton RSL Club.

– Retiring Royal Show CEO John Rothwell – a huge contribution. Thanks.

What’s no

–This remark is unprecedented. It was poor form of Power fans when we were 10 goals up at the end of the Showdown to boo Tex Walker trying to kick a goal. Bad sportsmanship.

– What is wrong with Scott Morrison?

– What is wrong with the RAA which has disendorsed a board candidate and sent out ballot papers with a wrong name?

Peter Goers can be heard weeknights and Sundays on ABC Radio Adelaide