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A review by nytephoenyx
Life Lessons from the Great Myths by J. Rufus Fears
slow-paced
1.0
Ugh. One star is a generous review for this one.
This professor is so condescending and pompous, and the myths shared in this lecture series are all very traditional. We do seven lectures on Troy, and NOT ONE Indigenous or Native myth? No thank you. I've listened to other much more inclusive lecture series from The Great Courses on mythology.
Add to this that the author kept mis-naming the Native tribes and spent time at the end really feeding into white colonial entitlement. And that's the content. I didn't see any "life lessons" in these myths. A couple times, he referenced the way myth aligns with historical fact, but mostly, he just retold Greek myths, American folklore, and Roman and Medieval history from his perspective. There was a lecture about Gilgamesh at the beginning, but it felt very much included from a perspective of "well you can't skip Gilgamesh, it's the oldest known myth" perspective and not real interest.
So this lecture series is a hard pass from me. The concept as told in the title of the lecture series is interesting, but I despised the professor and the biased content and I don't recommend this at all.
This professor is so condescending and pompous, and the myths shared in this lecture series are all very traditional. We do seven lectures on Troy, and NOT ONE Indigenous or Native myth? No thank you. I've listened to other much more inclusive lecture series from The Great Courses on mythology.
Add to this that the author kept mis-naming the Native tribes and spent time at the end really feeding into white colonial entitlement. And that's the content. I didn't see any "life lessons" in these myths. A couple times, he referenced the way myth aligns with historical fact, but mostly, he just retold Greek myths, American folklore, and Roman and Medieval history from his perspective. There was a lecture about Gilgamesh at the beginning, but it felt very much included from a perspective of "well you can't skip Gilgamesh, it's the oldest known myth" perspective and not real interest.
So this lecture series is a hard pass from me. The concept as told in the title of the lecture series is interesting, but I despised the professor and the biased content and I don't recommend this at all.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Racial slurs, Violence, War, Classism, Racism, and Sexism