> As German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer emphasized in the past century, traditions are inescapable and unavoidable. It is a question not of whether you are g

> As German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer emphasized in the past century, traditions are inescapable and unavoidable. It is a question not of whether you are going to work in a tradition, but which one. Even the choice of no tradition leaves people ignorantly beholden within a language they didn’t create and frameworks they don’t understand. The above is absolutely true and I can't think of the last time I saw it mentioned. Another comment mentions Bloom and Iirc he calls it "the anxiety of influence." It's why vampire stories are really romances, why what people today think of romances are always comedies, and really beyond all that, the confirmation of Ecclesiastes 1:9... What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Even if you don't believe in the religion in question it doesn't matter, it's in the culture you live in. If you have no knowledge of it you're a babe in your own woods.