Scan barcode
A review by pinxsol
Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock
1.0
It was great. Until it wasn't.
At first I was amazed. The descriptions are very evocative and atmospheric, feel very real and read like lived experiences. The style is simple, not flowery, and yet the author can describe nature in such a way that you not only feel it, you live it.
I turned the notebook towards me, scanning the sprawling, untidy handwriting, picking out words and phrases, reading through the years of my father's life in a few scant seconds. The words were as meaningless, on the whole, as those on my purloined sheet. To read them brought back a memory of anger, of danger, and of fear.
This quote is among my favorites in the book. It's so evocative, even though it uses the simplest, basest nouns to describe feelings associated with [violent] mental illness, and yet those words encompass that broad range of feelings perfectly.
But once the female character was introduced into the picture, it all went downhill. There are erotic unwashed female smell galore, 'childish sexuality' (direct quote from the book btw), she's 16, etc etc.
What I got from it: the mythical woods is just a veneer for sexualizing the 'primitive' woman of the forest. That whole amazing premise all going down the drain for a freaking love story between a 'civilized' man and a 'primitive' woman. And of course, of course she is described as being both child and woman, because it's the 20th century and we simply cannot go without some pedo connotations.
Also, the only other female character of any relevance was a small naked girl of about 14, and the author thought it was important that we know the exact color of her breasts. The author obviously had a problem relating to young girls, because that's jail time right there.
The saddest thing about this book by far is that it started so well. I was so into the whole vibe of those magical fantastical woods with apparitions of Robin Hoods and forgotten pagan deities and everything. It sounds absolutely amazing on paper, like myth and civilization and nature all mashed together into the most amazing and haunting soup ever.
But no. No, it's just a story about a guy smelling unwashed female scent and getting a boner.
At first I was amazed. The descriptions are very evocative and atmospheric, feel very real and read like lived experiences. The style is simple, not flowery, and yet the author can describe nature in such a way that you not only feel it, you live it.
I turned the notebook towards me, scanning the sprawling, untidy handwriting, picking out words and phrases, reading through the years of my father's life in a few scant seconds. The words were as meaningless, on the whole, as those on my purloined sheet. To read them brought back a memory of anger, of danger, and of fear.
This quote is among my favorites in the book. It's so evocative, even though it uses the simplest, basest nouns to describe feelings associated with [violent] mental illness, and yet those words encompass that broad range of feelings perfectly.
But once the female character was introduced into the picture, it all went downhill. There are erotic unwashed female smell galore, 'childish sexuality' (direct quote from the book btw), she's 16, etc etc.
What I got from it: the mythical woods is just a veneer for sexualizing the 'primitive' woman of the forest. That whole amazing premise all going down the drain for a freaking love story between a 'civilized' man and a 'primitive' woman. And of course, of course she is described as being both child and woman, because it's the 20th century and we simply cannot go without some pedo connotations.
Also, the only other female character of any relevance was a small naked girl of about 14, and the author thought it was important that we know the exact color of her breasts. The author obviously had a problem relating to young girls, because that's jail time right there.
The saddest thing about this book by far is that it started so well. I was so into the whole vibe of those magical fantastical woods with apparitions of Robin Hoods and forgotten pagan deities and everything. It sounds absolutely amazing on paper, like myth and civilization and nature all mashed together into the most amazing and haunting soup ever.
But no. No, it's just a story about a guy smelling unwashed female scent and getting a boner.