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A review by perezgeli42
The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Carlos Castaneda
2.0
God, it's night and day reading this ten years apart. I still have a lot of nostalgia and fondness for some of the ideas and writing here, but knowing what I do now about Carlos Castaneda and having grown in my critical frameworks, I'm like... Wow this low-key sucks. Still gave 2 stars on the (generous) principal that the writing is pretty good in some parts and I was invested in the story, but tbh that might be attributed more to the inherently magical and powerful nature of the experiences he had with plant/brujo teachers than his own skill as a writer. Also the incessant questions of 'bro, u mean that LITERALLY?' were sort of defeating the purpose of these very abstract and spiritual experiences. And the last chunk of the book? The 'analysis'? What a load of bullhonky
I appreciate this book for what it was to me as a lost 17 year old- an encouragement to seek out plant/fungal teachers and pursue deeper knowledge of myself/the world I exist in. If it were meant to be fictional I might respect it more, but the dude rlly did the Yaqui/Huichol dirty by conflating their practices and likely making the majority of this story up. And also later being kinda a cult leader.
I appreciate this book for what it was to me as a lost 17 year old- an encouragement to seek out plant/fungal teachers and pursue deeper knowledge of myself/the world I exist in. If it were meant to be fictional I might respect it more, but the dude rlly did the Yaqui/Huichol dirty by conflating their practices and likely making the majority of this story up. And also later being kinda a cult leader.