“For myth is the instant vision of a complex process that ordinarily extends over a long period. Myth is contraction or implosion of any process, and the instant speed of electricity confers the mythical dimension on ordinary industrial and social action today. We live mythically but continue to think fragmentarily and on single planes.” Marshall McLuhan

Ancient myth evolved as explanatory narrative to situate and concretize the unknown. Since the dawn of storytelling, myth has been used not only to explain away but also to brand ideas, products and political belief systems in ways that bring them into the everyday venacular. Cast in anthropomorphic guise, myth generates order from the experiential input and output which without orderly explanation appears chaotic. Oral myth-makers of ancient times relied on analogy between external natural forces and human attitude and foible to build heros of vengeance, destruction as well as grace, love, well being. Since the advent of print and electronic media, analogy and other techniques of myth-making have been appropriated and repurposed to meet the sensibilities, desires and visions of cartoonists, fashion photographers and advertising agencies.

Attitude, an essential handmaiden to myth, promotes the idea of exaggerated stance. As carriers of attitude, the Greek gods stand virtually un-assailed. We have all experienced moments when our own attitude changes; often the most memorable changes are negative, born of frustration as when we are caught in a verbal loop with some sales person on the phone, or when our computer does something totally unexpected and destructive. Not even children are strangers to attitude and from an early age learn to experiment with the relationship between attitudinal expression and control over their environment. On closer, examination we discover that attitude permeates every nook and cranny of our interaction with the world. For instance, urban centers – NY, Boston, LA - are distinguishable by their street attitude as it is pumped out by taxi drivers, construction workers and shop keepers as well as their built form.

On a recent drive through LA, the roadway itself took on anthropomorphic tones. Traffic on 134 West just before rush hour was light. My rental car, a darling red Mustang convertible, immediately placed me in a pleasurable grove, until in a moment my eyes lighted on a network of black skid marks that covered the left two lanes. The highway was pushing back. Not content that I would know it only from a pleasure perspective, it cried out of near escapes and tragedies. Then just as quickly it changed its tune. Turning onto the 405, traffic was still light and I found myself in the shadow and in the embrace of luscious hills. Looking out and up, I wondered at those houses, precariously perched on outcroppings, sporting in the clear afternoon light their grand views, only barely hinting at their potential vulnerabilities. All to soon, we – my car and I – emerge out of the caressing arms of the hills into a more industrial flatter section. Still we were moving, smug now not to be in the gridlocked mess of traffic on the opposite side. Miles passed, until suddenly Santa Monica announced itself on the road-exit sign, and traffic on our side of the roadway began to slow. Simultaneously, my engagement reacts – what an exceptional arrogance characterizes the LA roadway!

According to Webster, attitude applies to physical stance as well as to mental positioning:
1: “the arrangement of the parts of a body or figure : POSTURE 2 : a position assumed for a specific purpose 4 a : a mental position with regard to a fact or state b : a feeling or emotion toward a fact or state 6 : an organismic state of readiness to respond in a characteristic way to a stimulus (as an object, concept, or situation) 7 a : a negative or hostile state of mind b : a cocky or arrogant manner