A snippet to think about

Grading finals for Myth & Folktale, I've come to the last paper for that class, in which the student is discussing, quite intelligently, the problems of eliding myth and history, and the alteration of historical truths for contemporary mass culture entertainment (that would be Disney's Pocahontas if you're wondering).
Anyway, student writes this, and lacking any actual commonplace book to put it, I'm sticking it here for later contemplation:

humanity relies on word of mouth and literature to identify areas of culture which produced positive outcomes and weed them out from decisions that negated prosperity

This is kind of an interesting version of the function of literature, yes? And also ties in very well with my muddy thoughts about evolution and adaptation - scientific principles applied, loosely and with accommodations, to problems of fictional or historical adaptation.