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zhelana's review against another edition
This book was less a study of Jewish magic before the rise of Kabbalah and more a historiography of magic that spent the first three chapters looking for a definition of magic discussing all the possible definitions back to the armchair anthropologists and coming more recent. I'm willing to accept a porno definiton of magic, something like "I know it when I see it" in order to get on with it and talk about what they were doing and why they were doing it. It didn't seem like we were ever going to get on with it and discuss Jewish magic, so I wound up giving up on this book.
The book was really dense and hard to read, certainly on a graduate school level and not for anyone before that level. It was not at all entertaining. I came up with very little information I could actually use for teaching a class on magic and superstition in the SCA. Everything was like... those things that academics bicker about that don't matter at all. In this case it was several different people's definitions of magic that they're bickering about, and I fail to see that it is important at all. Just tell me the 5 W's. Or at least include the 5 W's.
The book was really dense and hard to read, certainly on a graduate school level and not for anyone before that level. It was not at all entertaining. I came up with very little information I could actually use for teaching a class on magic and superstition in the SCA. Everything was like... those things that academics bicker about that don't matter at all. In this case it was several different people's definitions of magic that they're bickering about, and I fail to see that it is important at all. Just tell me the 5 W's. Or at least include the 5 W's.
atreenamedjulia's review against another edition
3.0
This is not for the casual reader. If you are not interested in the topic of magic at an collegiate academia level than do not read this book. It is not entertaining. I’m sure it’s informative but I couldn’t really even finish it to find out.
lizshayne's review
There was a quote, misattributed to Abraham Lincoln and meant to be derogatory, "people who like this sort of thing will find this is the sort of thing that they like."
Precisely, although without undertones of dismissal. If you enjoy reading critical academic treatments on topics you want to know more about, this book is a really good example of the genre. Harari is consistently coherent and makes it very clear when he is providing information and advancing an argument.
I thought the beginning, where he articulates and opines on the problem of defining magic, was particularly helpful and the last chapter was the most interesting to me, as a scholar and collector of rabbinic narratives.
Yeah, if this is your thing, this is a great thing.
Also, serious shout-out to Batya Stein for the translation. Translating academia is never easy and part of the reason I think this work was so readable was the effort she made to make sure that she wasn't writing just for people who expect to find sentences confusing.
Precisely, although without undertones of dismissal. If you enjoy reading critical academic treatments on topics you want to know more about, this book is a really good example of the genre. Harari is consistently coherent and makes it very clear when he is providing information and advancing an argument.
I thought the beginning, where he articulates and opines on the problem of defining magic, was particularly helpful and the last chapter was the most interesting to me, as a scholar and collector of rabbinic narratives.
Yeah, if this is your thing, this is a great thing.
Also, serious shout-out to Batya Stein for the translation. Translating academia is never easy and part of the reason I think this work was so readable was the effort she made to make sure that she wasn't writing just for people who expect to find sentences confusing.
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