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gabesteller's review
4.0
Very cool examination of the Trickster figure in various cultures and the similar functions his myths serve, and how he’s like the father of imagination! Woohoo!
Was definitely one of those galaxy brain books that starts one place, seems to get pretty abstract, and then brings it all home and you’re like WooooOOOaaaAAAhhhh!!
Highlights included learning about weird rituals like the medieval festival of fools where people would invade the church dressed in drag, or in grotesque masks, and drink and sing and dance around to gross songs.
As well as discussion of how tricksters can both inspire a challenge to the social order, and be a way to maintain it, his stories/traditions serving as a safety valve for dissent, mocking (festival of fools!).
The comparisons of modern artists to tricksters doesn’t completely avoid cliché but there is a suuuuper interesting exploration of Frederick Douglas, and the discussion of the public reaction to Robert Mapplethorpe’s Homoerotic/graphic photography VS. public reaction to Piss Christ, is useful as well.
By the end Hyde, does sorta start to repeat him self a bit, and even tho it’s only about 300 pages, probably still coulda cut 50 or so. Still, very worth it!
Was definitely one of those galaxy brain books that starts one place, seems to get pretty abstract, and then brings it all home and you’re like WooooOOOaaaAAAhhhh!!
Highlights included learning about weird rituals like the medieval festival of fools where people would invade the church dressed in drag, or in grotesque masks, and drink and sing and dance around to gross songs.
As well as discussion of how tricksters can both inspire a challenge to the social order, and be a way to maintain it, his stories/traditions serving as a safety valve for dissent, mocking (festival of fools!).
The comparisons of modern artists to tricksters doesn’t completely avoid cliché but there is a suuuuper interesting exploration of Frederick Douglas, and the discussion of the public reaction to Robert Mapplethorpe’s Homoerotic/graphic photography VS. public reaction to Piss Christ, is useful as well.
By the end Hyde, does sorta start to repeat him self a bit, and even tho it’s only about 300 pages, probably still coulda cut 50 or so. Still, very worth it!
elly29's review
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
What an interesting book. I was unsure of the narration at first and the introduction, but I've really come around to what Chabon had to say. His scope of trying to understand the role that trickster figures have in mythology and culture is truly staggering: though he focuses on several major figures in various myths (Hermes, Loki, Coyote, Monkey King, Krishna, Legba), his statements do skew towards Western canons.
Really, staggering. A few key takeaways:
1. Tricksters introduce concepts of hunger, which is frequently paired with death. (They eat something, thereby introducing death. See the case of Hermes stealing and eating Apollo's sacred cattle. Previously they were immortal?) Often, tricksters do not wholly indulge their hunger.
2. Tricksters are inventors and culture-creators (think Prometheus stealing fire; artifice is done by "art" which can imitate, and therefore "lie", about what something is). Tricksters travel so widely that they know that items take on different meanings depending on context (ie Homer's Odysseus travels so far from the sea that his oar is mistaken for a winnowing tool).
3. Tricksters cross the boundaries between the sacred and the profane (and life/death; in general they are just beings that dwell in the liminal, in the uncertain). The discussion around Mary Douglas' work on dirt -- being dependent on context -- was fascinating. Indeed, the Legba / Maya story about dishwater, and that Legba splashes dishwater on her causes Maya to leave the earth was very interesting. And in such tricky stories about a trickster's transgression is indeed how the trickster makes/reshapes the world around him to better suit him (or create a place for himself that didn't exist in the previous world)
4. ...and that is why tricksters often (initially) challenge the status quo until they are integrated into the system, ie like Hermes whom Zeus acknowledges and gives the job of messenger of the gods, and a god who can go into the underworld and, say, bring back Persephone. It was also interesting Chabon's claim that such mythological additions could reflect changes in society, ie that landed aristocracy/farmers had to make room for craftspeople and traders, reflected in the story where Apollo/Hermes becoming besties after Hermes tricked him.
5. Tricksters may be creative, and lustful, but that creativity is not reproductive. Instead tricksters, Coyote especially, are itinerant. They do not stay home and do what Beaver or Lion do; Coyote or Raven or Spider mimic others (sometimes to positive ends, sometimes not) and defy classification. See liminality again.
Even with all of the above established, there were so many current examples, too. He included John Cage and Maxine Hong Kinsgston in discussions around silence and the sacred/profane and how culture uses silence and shame to maintain order; Marcel Duchamp and Robert Maplethorpe and Andres Serrano's "Piss Christ" around the sacred and the profane and Levi-Strauss on signs and signified. Chabon talked at length about Frederick Douglass and outsider status and liminality (black and white, freed slave, etc etc)
All in all, whew, a whirlwind of a book. I really enjoyed it. It was certainly on the more academic end of the spectrum, but I was a fan.
Really, staggering. A few key takeaways:
1. Tricksters introduce concepts of hunger, which is frequently paired with death. (They eat something, thereby introducing death. See the case of Hermes stealing and eating Apollo's sacred cattle. Previously they were immortal?) Often, tricksters do not wholly indulge their hunger.
2. Tricksters are inventors and culture-creators (think Prometheus stealing fire; artifice is done by "art" which can imitate, and therefore "lie", about what something is). Tricksters travel so widely that they know that items take on different meanings depending on context (ie Homer's Odysseus travels so far from the sea that his oar is mistaken for a winnowing tool).
3. Tricksters cross the boundaries between the sacred and the profane (and life/death; in general they are just beings that dwell in the liminal, in the uncertain). The discussion around Mary Douglas' work on dirt -- being dependent on context -- was fascinating. Indeed, the Legba / Maya story about dishwater, and that Legba splashes dishwater on her causes Maya to leave the earth was very interesting. And in such tricky stories about a trickster's transgression is indeed how the trickster makes/reshapes the world around him to better suit him (or create a place for himself that didn't exist in the previous world)
4. ...and that is why tricksters often (initially) challenge the status quo until they are integrated into the system, ie like Hermes whom Zeus acknowledges and gives the job of messenger of the gods, and a god who can go into the underworld and, say, bring back Persephone. It was also interesting Chabon's claim that such mythological additions could reflect changes in society, ie that landed aristocracy/farmers had to make room for craftspeople and traders, reflected in the story where Apollo/Hermes becoming besties after Hermes tricked him.
5. Tricksters may be creative, and lustful, but that creativity is not reproductive. Instead tricksters, Coyote especially, are itinerant. They do not stay home and do what Beaver or Lion do; Coyote or Raven or Spider mimic others (sometimes to positive ends, sometimes not) and defy classification. See liminality again.
Even with all of the above established, there were so many current examples, too. He included John Cage and Maxine Hong Kinsgston in discussions around silence and the sacred/profane and how culture uses silence and shame to maintain order; Marcel Duchamp and Robert Maplethorpe and Andres Serrano's "Piss Christ" around the sacred and the profane and Levi-Strauss on signs and signified. Chabon talked at length about Frederick Douglass and outsider status and liminality (black and white, freed slave, etc etc)
All in all, whew, a whirlwind of a book. I really enjoyed it. It was certainly on the more academic end of the spectrum, but I was a fan.
anonblueberry's review against another edition
4.0
It's taken me about a year to read this, in part because it got packed up in a box while I was living elsewhere, and partly because Hyde doesn't have the most fluid writing style, at least not consistently.
This is an interesting book, and the analysis he provides on the multiple Trickster mythologies of the world are well thought out and well presented, although I'm not entirely sure how much is his work and how much is him re-presenting the work of others; there are an awful lot of pieces where he seems to solely discuss other interpretations and merely echoes what they have said or leaves them without comment.
I think what would have made the book a lot more interesting would have been less of the discussion of various artists and writers as trickster inspired figures, and more on the inspiration of the tricksters. The Douglass chapter especially seemed very forced and circular, never quite coming to the point that I think it was trying to make.
Overall an interesting book that fell slightly short of what I was hoping it would be, but certainly not one that I regret reading.
This is an interesting book, and the analysis he provides on the multiple Trickster mythologies of the world are well thought out and well presented, although I'm not entirely sure how much is his work and how much is him re-presenting the work of others; there are an awful lot of pieces where he seems to solely discuss other interpretations and merely echoes what they have said or leaves them without comment.
I think what would have made the book a lot more interesting would have been less of the discussion of various artists and writers as trickster inspired figures, and more on the inspiration of the tricksters. The Douglass chapter especially seemed very forced and circular, never quite coming to the point that I think it was trying to make.
Overall an interesting book that fell slightly short of what I was hoping it would be, but certainly not one that I regret reading.
xdaqua's review against another edition
4.0
By far the easiest and most comprehensive book you can reead about the trickster in American culture.
and that appendix on gender is indispensable.
definitely would recommend for anyone who wants to know more about the trickster.
and that appendix on gender is indispensable.
definitely would recommend for anyone who wants to know more about the trickster.
zephyrsilver's review
3.0
On one hand, this is really interesting. I loved learning more about tricksters such as Hermes and Loki, who I already knew. It was cool learning about Raven and Coyote and others as well. He explained stories in an interesting way, and related them to modern stuff we can better relate to.
But then it got very repetitive. And after a while, it stopped being about tricksters and turned more into a philosophy book (and a biography on Frederick Douglass). Which is interesting, if that's what I wanted to read. I wanted to read about tricksters and mythology. So I ended up skipping a lot.
And he definitely spends most of his time talking about Hermes (Greek) and Coyote (Native American). He would occasionally mention others - Loki, Krishna, Etu - but to some degree it felt like he just didn't know them much so didn't bother.
I'm a tiny bit disappointed, honestly. It felt like a chore picking this book up and reading a few pages.
Yes it was somehow still interesting; at least in the beginning.
But then it got very repetitive. And after a while, it stopped being about tricksters and turned more into a philosophy book (and a biography on Frederick Douglass). Which is interesting, if that's what I wanted to read. I wanted to read about tricksters and mythology. So I ended up skipping a lot.
And he definitely spends most of his time talking about Hermes (Greek) and Coyote (Native American). He would occasionally mention others - Loki, Krishna, Etu - but to some degree it felt like he just didn't know them much so didn't bother.
I'm a tiny bit disappointed, honestly. It felt like a chore picking this book up and reading a few pages.
Yes it was somehow still interesting; at least in the beginning.