The Tale of Creative Destruction
The “Netflix effect” in fairytales
Collective memory and constantly developing knowledge are essential for resilience as a science-based field. Many answers on constantly arising challenges can be found in written culture and mythological motifs if we analyze them equally with the geodata and socioeconomic context. Thus, it's interesting to see how different cultures reflected the element of water as a source of life, or a metaphor of the dark and dangerous world of the subconscious. Evolving both in myths and fairytales, water creatures and spirits are especially important in the archetypes of areas located either at risk of the coastal disasters, depending on the river cycles, or those desperately lacking the rainwater.
The mermaids are probably the most popular water spirits in popular culture. Initially appeared in ancient Mesopotamia as half human half fish deities these seductive spirits were populating rivers and lakes. These archetypes spread around the world along with evolving navigation as the ghosts or evil spirits of drowned women feed on sailors' blood. Greek, British, Scandinavian, and Slavic ethos were impacted by this archetype the most, which later affected the decorative art, popular culture, but also the relation of the native people to the water as a source of unknown power - and smart use of resources.
The Japanese ethos depicted water powers with the mischievous spirits and yokai, powerful dragons, and other creatures embodying the destructive power of typhoons and tsunamis. At the same time, the ritual use of water reflects its purifying and transformative properties. American folklore also involves this duality - the Pacific Northwest tribes associated storms with the powerful water spirits, while worshiping the sacred springs and healing waters.
Among enchanting and dangerous spirits, mermaids, and other characters of Slavic fairy tales, Maria Morevna introduced a neat combination of inherited traits of water. Being a daughter of a mythological Sea King, she operates the powers that the water element brings - a cure and the skillful knowledge, essential to defeat the Villain of the tale. The metaphor of creative power, she is imprisoned by Koschey the immortal. As the Hero - Prince (Tsarevitch) Ivan - makes the efforts to released the Princess, he is recurrently defeated by the Villain up to him being chopped in pieces. And only when the heroes join the forces, his allies cure him with the Water of life, Tsarevna Morevna uses the wit to find the weakness of the Villain and shares it with Tsarevich - good finally triumphs over evil.
The story interestingly overlaps with Joseph Schumpeter's theory of Creative Destruction. That is the alternative to the classical market equilibrium economic model. A broadly known illustration of this process is “Netflix effect” - named after the media company`s new business model considerably disruptive for previous ones. The service of streaming content that a user can watch anywhere anytime overthrew disc and rental industries. The theory was also well illustrated with the revitalization of post-industrial legacy as the spaces suitable for the growth of the creative class. As much as Netflix disrupted the established market procedures, the fairytale shows how innovative approaches win the game.
Resilient means adaptive, livable, and transformative. The key factors for that kind of approach to living with the water are the knowledge, the memory, and collaboration across the fields. Here the analysis of folklore provides interesting insights. Culture has long grown the roots of this process as we can see from the tales and legends. Water itself works as both the cure and the hero. The fairytale Maria Morevna represents a classic motif of death and rebirth with a number of details that illustrate the ways of dealing with the external stress following the principle of creative destruction. Destructing the old with the new collaborations and skillful knowledge transforms from zero to hero and from dead to alive.
As much as innovation brings success and growth as opposed to the established processes, the ultimate knowledge-based collaborative effort of this story finally succeeds. Water as memory, water as knowledge, and water as a cure involved in this folklore - are just the metaphors to what we refer to as resilience. But the takeaways are broadly applicable to urban planning in the age of changing paradigm from resources and industry to the knowledge economies. As much as the architects and planners love the aesthetics of old walls, they do not bring much progress and drive to a place. Neither Tsarevich Ivan chopped in pieces could help defeat the evil. So - what's the catch in hanging around the good old sexy ruins, if the time is running out and the tide gets higher?
Sources:
Creative Destruction:
Diamond, Jr., Arthur M. / 2006. "Schumpeter's Creative Destruction: A Review of the Evidence." The
Journal of Private Enterprise, 22(1): 120-146
Schumpeter, Joseph A. 1950. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. 3rd ed.
New York: Harper-Collins.
Ryan, Lindy. (2013). Leading change through creative destruction: How Netflix's self-destruction strategy created its own market. Int. J. of Business Innovation and Research. 7. 429 - 445. 10.1504/IJBIR.2013.054868.
Fairytales:
Aleksandr Afanasyev, Marya Morevna
Dmitriy Kulagin, Mythological Archetypes
Archetypes:
The Red Book of Carl G. Jung: Its Origins and Influence
