Time & Perspective Quote by Joan D. Vinge

Vinge’s line treats myth less like sacred scripture and more like a body that keeps getting redressed for whatever room it walks into. The metaphor does two jobs at once: it admits that myths aren’t “pure” artifacts waiting to be preserved, and it defends adaptation as the very mechanism that keeps them alive. “Naked body” suggests a core that is simultaneously intimate and socially unusable as-is; “clothed” implies mediation, modesty, translation. Storytellers aren’t merely repeating the tale, they’re tailoring it - selecting what to reveal, what to conceal, what will fit local expectations without tearing the fabric.

The intent feels both explanatory and quietly polemical. Vinge is writing as a science fiction author steeped in worldbuilding, a genre obsessed with how cultures manufacture meaning. Her claim pushes back against the reflexive purism that greets retellings (the idea that modern versions are “diluting” the original). The subtext: relatability is not a betrayal of depth but a delivery system for it. If listeners “could relate more easily,” that ease isn’t laziness; it’s access. Myth’s “deeper meaning” isn’t sitting on the surface of events, it’s encoded in choices about emphasis, character, and moral framing - the things traditions naturally remix.

Contextually, the quote lands neatly in late-20th-century conversations about folklore, canon, and cultural exchange: who gets to tell which stories, and what changes are permissible. Vinge doesn’t pretend the clothing is neutral. Traditions shape the myth the way garments shape the body’s silhouette. You don’t just make it wearable; you decide how it will be seen.