Product Description
Myth and Knowing is by far the most comprehensive world mythology textbook.The text/reader format provides both jargon-free discussions of current themes and thinkers in the ongoing scholarly conversation about myth and a broad selection of complete myths chosen for literary merit and the cultural sensitivity of their translations.Rather than being genre-driven, the book emphasizes the psychological, religious, and cultural meanings of myth, presenting these with the intent of fostering in students a love of literature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

terrible scholarship, terrible textbook
This textbook is a rampaging disaster.To begin with, neither of the authors have a background in mythology or anthropology, and think their shared interest in microbrews and college sports belong in their self-introduction.The book is poorly written from both a academic and a communication standpoint.Their points are unclear and poorly argued, and backed up with few citations.

The book is made up of six sections: an introduction, creation stories, the divine feminine, the divine masculine, trickster figures, and sacred sites.The first two are mostly harmless.The introductory chapter talks about figures such as Sir James George Frazer, Levi-Strauss, and Wagner without addressing their racism.The reason for this is made clear, as the editors repeatedly refer to the Lakota/Dakota/Nakota peoples as "Sioux".The real trouble starts with the next two chapters.

The divine feminine is discussed in terms of psychological archeytpes, literary figures, and the pre-historic Great Goddess myth.Leonard and McClure cite Marija Gimbutas and Robert Graves as if they were not completely discredited.More damningly, they discuss the divine feminine as anything and everything except divine - to Leonard and McClure, these are not figures anyone ever worshiped - cramming them into one of four archeytpes: goddesses of life, death, regeneration/sex, and triple goddesses who embody all three.Celestial Queens are reduced to goddesses of life, and any lust-object - including rape victims such as Callisto - are called goddesses of sex.Demonstrating their complete disregard for the material, they include a short story by French novelist Maurguerite Yourcenar (Kali Beheaded) as if it were an actual Hindu story from the Vedas or oral tradition, rather than her own fabrication.

The divine masculine chapter is even worse.Their definition of shaman - a man who "enter[s] trances ... and mediate[s] between their people and the often indifferent spiritual powers that influence herds, crops and other natural phenomena" - is not wrong, but indicates a less-than-thirty-minutes-with-Google level of research.They divide gods into five categories: kings/judges, fathers/sons, tricksters/shamans, saviors/sages, and underworld/destruction.Anyone with even a passing knowledge of myth can see how flawed these categories are, but the third and fifth are particularly grotesque.Under this rubric, Hades and Ares are the same sort of god, and Hermes is a trickster/shaman.Odin is a god of destruction and his shamanic elements are completely ignored.This chapter also includes more than a dozen Bible verses.

This is a terrible textbook, abusing the subject matter and offensive to the people whose sacred stories are plundered and mistreated.Do not buy it or take a class that uses it.

Introduction to world mythology
Great book for someone who wants to be introduced to general mythology of cultures around the world. Very easy to read. Thorough explanations.

badly written overpriced text for college
I am currently wading through this mess of uncited junk for a literature class and am compelled to offer my two cents here out of sheer frustration.
First:
The MLA standards are shoddy at best.Look forward to lazy, sloppy incomplete citations.For example, in the first section featuring
Creation Myths on page 46
Amma and Nummo Prepare the World
the ONLY annotation or citation is a footnote at the bottome of page 46 that says the story we are about to read is an 'adapted version' from the actual scholarly work of Marcel Griaule.

I would rather have the unadapted, original version from Marcel's pen to my page please!Additionally, this lame half-hazzard jumble of garbage doesn't match up with other sources and accounts, including a random passage I found from Griaule.The reader is left wondering,
which is actually relevant and which pieces are new inventions and adaptations subject to the 'modern' author's whims?Will my points be laughable because I am misinformed as to the real points of the story?

Why? Why? Why?There are plenty of models to follow.Bullfinch, for example, or the KJV Bible are readable models, applicable to this genre and compilation for a Higher Education textbook.Additionally, I have an older translated copy of Dante's Inferno in which the gracious writer provides his translated, 'adapted' English version alongside the original Italian verse.Here the author provides a complete piece of literary work for the reader's edification and to the credit of the original author!Myth and Knowing, with its 'Higher Learning' label, and 'textbook' cost, should deliver should offer these features and then some.

Speaking of verse, the Genesis story is laid out in a jumble,
The eye is shocked at seeing this unnumbered crowded clump of copied crap.The nice verse, chapter and line by line numerations are omitted.Additionally, you will need to grab your old KJV Bible if you want the passage citations and the Elizabethan layout for the pentameter, prose and narrative formats.The myth and knowing geniuses have favored us all by providing their myths in regular modern day formats, so today's young college students will have an easier reading experience.

This format is like handing a jumble of knotted, tangled, unlabeled armful of yarn to a knitter and telling him that your new improved system will help him really enjoy knitting more.Your unpackaged, unsorted, unwound yarn is less intimidating and more inviting for him and all new knitters than the earlier, wound, labeled and archaic formats.

Did I mention that I really hate the incomplete, inaccurate, poorly cited inadequate material presented in this text?

This text will take up your time and test your patience.Here is a questionable collection of stories, each of which lacks any scholarly layout, format or annotation thus making your citations twice as difficult and time consuming as you will need to aquire the older, better copies of the SAME stories and check and recheck your information!I hate this book!

More to come later.

Lots of Information, but poorly written.
This book is not well-written, to the point that it becomes anuisance. It would be easier to read the original texts that the discussed myths came from than this book. I was very disappointed.

The book has a lot of great information, but deciphering it is extremely burdensome. I expected this to be a user-friendly book for my college course on Mythologies. User-friendly is far from the truth.But, this is for someone that has a strong grip on mythology already and is familiar with the various ideologies.

The book is just cold hard facts. It's painful to read, and the sentences are poorly constructed and lengthy. A dangerous combination. Don't buy this book if you are trying to self-educate yourself on Mythology or if you are expecting an enjoyable read! You will regret it.

I'm not biased towards college text books. This book is just below par. In fact, I even looked up the authors of the book to see if they are even qualified to write a book. The book is that horrible. Worst book I have ever purchased and read.

I'm not questioning the knowledge of the authors on the subject matter. But, their ability to write a book on the subject matter is embarrassing. Don't buy this book. Save your money. I can't believe it was published.

Myth and Knowing
This book has a lot of great myths in it. I enjoyed using this book as a text book for a class. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Out there
Written in 1960's far out language, and at times Frank gets off track, but a good read written by a real Hells Angel who tells it the way he sees it. This book helped me understand why Outlaw Bikers are what they are. Freewheelin openly talks about his upbringing and relationships and its not hard to understand his outlook on life.

Far Out
I am about half the way through this book. It was hard to find an original copy, but I did and I am really enjoying it. It is written in far out 60s language for sure, but its cool to hear the stories coming straight from an old Hells Angel. I think that this was a time that the Angels were trying to use PR to establish themselves. It puts you in the mindframe of a shocked citizen of the times that is just learning about these wild men called Hells Angels.

Diary of a Drug Fiend
Wow . . . this book was a trip.

Frank Reynolds was a member of the San Francisco chapter of the Hell's Angels way back in '66, when this book was written (or rather, transcribed).He was the stereotypical degenerate scooter trash, and writes of mainlining speed and dropping huge doses of acid on a daily basis.As time progresses, the drugs clearly damage his brain, resulting in a psychotic break with reality.The Frank Reynolds who wrote the first chapter is different from the Frank who wrote the middle chapter, and the polar opposite of the Frank who concludes the book.This makes for a scary anti-drug message far more effective than propaganda like "Go Ask Alice."

Frank starts out as a fairly decent fellow who loves motorcycles and enjoys partying.Halfway through the book, he becomes enamoured with all these "profound" thoughts he begins having, and seems to believe that he has been specially chosen by God to spread some sort of confusing message about the importance of "Love" as opposed to "Fame & Fortune."He goes on some sort of quasi-religious tirade, then starts talking about how he loves all women, and considered having a homosexual relationship with Allen Ginsberg!A few chapters later, he's having delusions, begins acting out in a psychotic manner, states that he hates all women, and begins to embrace some confused version of Satanism.It was almost painful to read his tormented thoughts.This is why nearly every 1%er club bans hypes and pulls patches of addicts.Insanity is a liability.

There was some interesting commentary on the early history of the HAs.This was the first I'd heard about a "war" between the Frisco and Oakland chapters, prior to all Angels sharing a common California rocker.There was also a new perspective on the infamous Bass Lake "rape" incident.Book was written almost verbatim from a series of drugged rants, and it is an important historical document as well as a lesson regarding the harmful effects of drug abuse.

Deeply disturbing.

Don't touch the bike!
awesome book! read it 15 odd years ago and have been trying to get my own copy ever since.
excellent autobiography that gives an excellent viewpoint into the very secretive world of the angels. this book came out after Hunter Thomsons piece and some of the stories overlap and are clarified by Frank. Particularly memorable passage when Frank is being beaten by the police and he just lies down and takes it - until one of the policemen goes to hit his bike; then all hell broke loose!
Would strongly recommend this book to anybody wishing to learn more about subcultures and about what was really happening in California in the mid to late 60's

Freewheelin Frank!
After having heard about and wanting to read this long out of print book for years I finally found a copy to read through the inter-library system. Really this book is everything Hunter Thompsons book about the Hells Angels wishes it was (and I like Thompsons book) Its seemssomebody just turned on a tape recorder and let Freewheelin Frank start ranting, then transcribed it into this book. Wild stream of conciousness rants and stories about fights, gangbangs, police brutality, motorcycles, doing time, doing acid, shooting up speed, the Hells Angels, relationships with women, and other topics. This is actually one of the most bohemian books I've ever read. Damn I need to find an affordable copy of this because it needs to be in my home library.
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Product Description
This digital document is an article from The Hastings Center Report, published by Hastings Center on January 1, 2001. The length of the article is 6386 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Gift of Life and the Common Good: The Need for a Communal Approach to Organ Procurement.
Author: Paul Lauritzen
Publication: The Hastings Center Report (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2001
Publisher: Hastings Center
Volume: 31Issue: 1Page: 29

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