The meaning of words

The novel is a major intellectual work of European culture. There is an interesting correlation between the development of the novel and the development of societies. The characters in the novels are all relatives of Dr Faust and are equally part of our lives and dreams. Nothing new under the sun. What was the experience of the ancient Greek citizen is the experience of the modern man.
I was not even twenty when I realised that my consciousness was deceptive, that I was a clever illusion of brain activity at work inside me, and that I was nothing but a mass of information. In fact, my awakening to consciousness occurred when I had enough information available to my brain to present me as a person. Of course, my physical endowments, determined by my genes, also influenced the development of my consciousness, but I was shaped more by information from the outside world. Very quickly my head was filled with modern-day versions of ancient stories embedded in culture. I chose heroes, or types, with whom I could identify. Who am I? I am the role that best serves my survival. The human race's survival strategy, which includes a cataclysm, is remarkable. I will write about this later in another article, now back to the role of culture, the novel, in our lives. Both God and the soul are cultural genes (memes) that have been passed down for thousands of years. Funny, but I know I don't have a soul and I am guaranteed not to be an earthly double of any celestial ethereal being. As a middle-aged woman, I have enough experience to see through a meme or two and laugh at them. It's very important to be introspective, to analyse my actions and thoughts, because that's how I've discovered a lot of deception. Oh yes, it is controversial that the deceiving mind is introspective. Absurd. That's right. Funny. But for all its strange flaws, the brain is an important tool. It is our only means of knowing the world. It is the only tool that allows us to see the human in each other, and to work together. It is the illusion of the brain, the consciousness, that allows us to see ourselves as a person who is different from others and yet similar to them. This is very important. Diversity and similarity shape our society in a dynamic interplay. The shared knowledge, the heroes, the stories of progress written in novels are all to our benefit. I'm trying to wrap my mind around something much bigger. A mass of almost half a billion people, and millennia, ripple before my mind's eye.
The story is not over. Although our global civilisation is pervaded by a kind of melancholy death wish, this is also a mistake. Anyone who has seen rocks dating back hundreds of millions of years knows that we are on a bigger adventure than this postmodern digester. Most importantly, never forget what you are heir to and what you need to preserve so that our species can be part of the million-year journey that is just beginning.