Scan barcode
A review by thepurplebookwyrm
Woman's Lore: 4,000 Years of Sirens, Serpents and Succubi by Sarah Clegg
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
Woman's Lore presents the history of related, demonic (or demonised), fantastical female figures such as Lilith, (the) Lamia and mermaids from (one of) their hypothesised points of origin, in Ancient Mesopotamia – with the (rather scary) goddess Lamashtu – up to the 20th century, when most of these figures were reclaimed, to a certain extent, by feminist activists, artists, etc...
I really enjoyed this one, overall. I appreciated the quality of the author's scholarship (with, thankfully, proper referencing and citation work), the (for the most part) tight focus of her thesis, and even the cheekiness she displayed, at times, in her commentary. I was already pretty familiar with the material, yet learned a few new things nonetheless, so that was a big plus for me.
Given my prior knowledge, there are a couple of elements I found missing from the book which I think could've made its thesis feel more complete. I also would've enjoyed a bit more theological analysis, or extrapolation, in the text as well. That being said, the author's main point concerning the nature of these figures as true elements of women's lore, culture and history was beautifully articulated and supported by the evidence she provided in the book.
Unfortunately, the book started losing some of its tight focus in its penultimate chapter, on the Victorian Era, and I think the author 'overstretched' herself somewhat. The connections and conclusions she drew from previously discussed material didn't feel as solid as they should have, and I just felt there was a glaring gap in her argumentation.
However, that was nothing compared to the absolute train wreck that was the book's last chapter. Mini vent time: why, oh why, do non-fiction writers keep doing this? Why did there need to be an attempt at some sort of grand (but largely unsupported) connection to contemporary social justice stuff in a book already very clearly doing feminist scholarship, by promoting a facet of women's religious and cultural history? If I felt the author overstretched her analysis in her chapter on the 19th century, it was so much worse in her chapter on the 20th and 21st centuries, bloody hell. We left the delightful realm of tight but engaging exposition supported by material evidence and entered the rather unpalatable one of wild, only tangentially related speculation, and outright oversimplification (or misrepresentation) of information (e.g.: a paragraph on Second Wave feminism that was atrociously bad, and a section devoted to Octavia E. Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy that was... actually I don't even know what the fuck that was, quite frankly). Honestly... those last two chapters should've been collapsed into a single one.
It is so incredibly frustrating when books like these just do not stick to landing, especially since Woman's Lore's overarching conclusion, by contrast, was a perfectly fine summary of the book's main thesis. Which means I would, yes, definitely recommend this book to mythology, religious and cultural history nerds interested in female-centric material, but with the major caveat that the book's thesis kind of jumps ship in its last two chapters.
I really enjoyed this one, overall. I appreciated the quality of the author's scholarship (with, thankfully, proper referencing and citation work), the (for the most part) tight focus of her thesis, and even the cheekiness she displayed, at times, in her commentary. I was already pretty familiar with the material, yet learned a few new things nonetheless, so that was a big plus for me.
Given my prior knowledge, there are a couple of elements I found missing from the book which I think could've made its thesis feel more complete. I also would've enjoyed a bit more theological analysis, or extrapolation, in the text as well. That being said, the author's main point concerning the nature of these figures as true elements of women's lore, culture and history was beautifully articulated and supported by the evidence she provided in the book.
Unfortunately, the book started losing some of its tight focus in its penultimate chapter, on the Victorian Era, and I think the author 'overstretched' herself somewhat. The connections and conclusions she drew from previously discussed material didn't feel as solid as they should have, and I just felt there was a glaring gap in her argumentation.
However, that was nothing compared to the absolute train wreck that was the book's last chapter. Mini vent time: why, oh why, do non-fiction writers keep doing this? Why did there need to be an attempt at some sort of grand (but largely unsupported) connection to contemporary social justice stuff in a book already very clearly doing feminist scholarship, by promoting a facet of women's religious and cultural history? If I felt the author overstretched her analysis in her chapter on the 19th century, it was so much worse in her chapter on the 20th and 21st centuries, bloody hell. We left the delightful realm of tight but engaging exposition supported by material evidence and entered the rather unpalatable one of wild, only tangentially related speculation, and outright oversimplification (or misrepresentation) of information (e.g.: a paragraph on Second Wave feminism that was atrociously bad, and a section devoted to Octavia E. Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy that was... actually I don't even know what the fuck that was, quite frankly). Honestly... those last two chapters should've been collapsed into a single one.
It is so incredibly frustrating when books like these just do not stick to landing, especially since Woman's Lore's overarching conclusion, by contrast, was a perfectly fine summary of the book's main thesis. Which means I would, yes, definitely recommend this book to mythology, religious and cultural history nerds interested in female-centric material, but with the major caveat that the book's thesis kind of jumps ship in its last two chapters.