Die hilfreichsten Kundenrezensionen
|
|
5 von 5 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
5.0 von 5 Sternen
visions and memory in myth, 17. Dezember 1999
I won't pretend I know exactly what this book is about. Graves presents his arguments with the reasoning of a poet, decidedly not the formal logic of a theologian or the empirical induction of a historian. I gave this book 5 stars because of its sheer ambition and audacity. Graves is attempting a synthesis of the entirety of mythology into a coherent grammatical code, a universal metaphysical language. That is a monumental undertaking, not only due to the breadth of knowledge of the Christian, Pagan and Classical canons it requires, but also because these traditions are commonly regarded as antithetical, their communities, such as they exist, hostile to each other. Graves proffers a common root under the ossified codices, if with an uneven case.Poets, as a group, are known for their affinity to the mystical and mythological. The poetic temperament imbues and projects inner forms with aspects of corporeality, which the rest of us grasp only dimly as a spectre of consciousness, without significance or shape. The true poet is more likely to see them as a magical talisman, an object of necessary reality. Numbers, alphabets, calendars, zodiacs-- lunar and solar domains-- a primal order bubbles from the cauldron of Graves's conceptions. His spells are incarnate in trees, minerals, birds, planets-- metaphors of an underlying truth. This analysis springs from two dense poems of spiritual mysticism, The Battle of the Trees (Welsh Druid) and Hanes Taliesen ( Early Christian). Presented as a vision, like Revelations, they pose a riddle and mix symbols. Graves's solution loosely ties his thesis together. Linguists have theorized about the existence of grammatical archetypes; mythic relics are visible in Christian sacraments; correspondence amongst various folklore is widely acknowledged. Graves is not proposing anything radically new. He has, though, developed a cryptic framework which is supernatural and aesthetic, an elixir of divination and contemplation. He sees the White Goddess, as muse, in every authentic poem since those of Homer. His construction puts history at the service of his grammatical architecture. The White Goddess is a work of introspection and selective interpretation, comparable to those of Jung or Spengler, not one of conventional scholarship. Many of its assertions are farfetched or arbitrary, some pure formulations. That is not to understate its value. This is the culmination of a life's reflections, investigations and musings. It represents the articulation of a powerful, syncretic imagination-- a concordance of speculation and intuition.
|
|
|
1 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
1.0 von 5 Sternen
NOT a pagan resource, 18. Mai 1999
Von Ein Kunde
It bothers me that so many self-proclaimed neo-pagans and witches rely on this book like a bible. After seeing it in biblio after biblio I finally picked up a used copy and was absolutely astounded by the utter lack of scholarship and actual history in this book. Mr. Graves was a poet and he did some wonderful work in his time, including translations of Roman history from the Latin. However, he was out of his element when he wrote this. A lot of pagans thump this book and all of the Joseph Campbell books like stereotypical Baptist Christians thump the Good News Bible and take it as Truth with a capital "T", but they're pretty misguided in doing that. What Graves has done here is write a humongous poetic prose with a pseudo history and his own very imaginative interpretations thereof. He was not an archaeologist, art historian, or anthropologist for that matter (I've heard him referred to as all of these things), he was a poet with a vivid imagination and he coined terms like "triple goddess". If you want something more based in actual fact, read Merlin Stone and/or Riane Eisler and try not to trip over their biases. If you like all that is airy and fairy and highly doubtful, by all means buy this book.
|
|
|
1 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
4.0 von 5 Sternen
This is clearly required reading for modern poets & pagans., 12. Januar 1998
Von Ein Kunde
Robert Graves never truly expected "White Goddess" to become the classic it has. However, along with "I, Claudius" & "Goodbye To All That" it may well be the only book the general public remembers him for. It is certainly unique in the field of poetry &
caused much controversy that still rages on today in poetic, historic & religious circles.
Graves called it "a historical grammar of poetic myth" & while that may sound a little
vague there may be no better way to define it. "White Goddess" is based on the theory that
true poetry isn't the free & interpretive verse that most people believe, but is instead
spiritual in function & governed by ancient pagan religious ideas. It seeks to express, in a
language of traditional mythic symbols, the five-fold stages of a never ending life & death
cycle. Graves attempts to trace the origins of this mythic language back to ancient Europe
& suggests that it may have even originated before the building of stonehenge. In the
process of researching this mythic language he explains history in mythic terms & myth in
historical terms, throwing new light on both by use of his "analeptic" method, which he
argues is a valid form of research.
Graves argues that true poetry, by it's very nature, is pagan & that the druids were
it's undisputed masters. With the coming of Greek philosophers & later Christian
missionaries, the true function of poetry & myth were lost. He uses countless references
to support his claims & the reader should be familiar with Greek & Celtic history &
mythology to get the most from this book. A familiarity with Frazer's "Golden Bough" is
also recommended.
Some of his history is flawed & his ideas of an early universal calendar-alphabet is
highly suspect. However, he still succeeded in his goal. He created, or recreated, a valid
& functional mythology for modern poets to apply to their work. In doing so he
unknowingly also set the standard for the modern neo-pagan movement. The book has
become accepted as one of the founding texts in the pagan community for it's insight into
the meaning & function of mythology. Not to mention it's call for a more liberal & less
dogmatic belief system.
|
|
|
Die neuesten Kundenrezensionen
|
