A great collection of studies on how views of the afterlife evolved in China. One rather striking difference from Western myths is that China seems toA great collection of studies on how views of the afterlife evolved in China. One rather striking difference from Western myths is that China seems to have no story of a time before mortality, or of how death entered the world. It's not like we used to be immortal, and did something wrong to deserve mortality. Basically, death is presumed inevitable and natural. The images of our fates after death are extremely diverse, according to changing social concerns. Ancient tombs are built to enshrine hierarchies of status, or else to replicate the comforts of home. The underworld develops a fiendishly oppressive bureaucracy. Families compete to make their members' graves more prestigious than those of others. Daoists claim that dead commoners live on as ghosts, but the enlightened attain a state of nothingness, free from all care. Where Westerners often feel that belief in the afterlife gives comfort and tranquility, many Buddhists argue that such hopes are just emotional attachments that cause suffering. Overall, I found this parade of Chinese responses to mortality refreshing, and sometimes refreshingly comical....more
This is fantastic. The best and most entertaining approach to comparative mythology I've seen. Mirabello focuses on a central theme (the afterlife), aThis is fantastic. The best and most entertaining approach to comparative mythology I've seen. Mirabello focuses on a central theme (the afterlife), and rambles through all theologies, mythologies, and philosophies of the world, exploring the many alternative visions. Let me just quote his disclaimer:
"I have tried to avoid the idealistic twaddle of the pseudo-occultists, the boilerplate sermons of the established religions, the unadulterated bilge of self-proclaimed prophets, the ontological nonsense of the hack metaphysicians, and the smug nihilism of scientific materialists. ... I have no salvationist agenda. There are no dogmas here--simply fragments of ideas--gathered from many cultures across time."...more
I think it's a competent, entertaining survey of the world's doomsday prophecies. The selection of examples to discuss is a bit random and a bit repetI think it's a competent, entertaining survey of the world's doomsday prophecies. The selection of examples to discuss is a bit random and a bit repetitive, but Newman does her homework and her attitude is refreshing. For example: People can't decide when the Middle Ages ended. Personally, I think we're still in them. After all, if this is the last age, then any quibbles about eras within it are rather pointless.
In discussing Augustine's views on the book of Revelation, she comments, I find it comforting that someone as brilliant and devout as Augustine couldn't understand it either. In examining the predictions of total cataclysm in the Mayan Popol Vu, she notes This is what happens to people who don't respect the hard work their gods went through to create them.
Here's a few more quotes that convey the book's scope and approach:
In researching this book, I read about a lot more prophets, doomsday groups, and theorists than I could possibly include. You may find the ones I've chosen a bit odd. I may have left out your favorite scenario. But the more I researched, the more I realized that the ideas about the end of the world were astonishingly similar.
Also,
I began to realize that no one expects their world to end. People who expect the Apocalypse soon arn't preparing to die but to survive. They'll build an ark or be raptured up or hitch a ride on the mother ship....more
Gollner is an inquisitive, sociable guy, touring the world to check out schemes for attaining eternal life. He talks to Catholic priests, Sufis, OrthoGollner is an inquisitive, sociable guy, touring the world to check out schemes for attaining eternal life. He talks to Catholic priests, Sufis, Orthodox Jews, channelers of departed spirits, fountain of youth tour guides, cryonics body-freezers, magicians, true believers in remedies for rejuvenation to the point of bodily immortality, funders for organizations such as the Immortality Institute or the “Fuck Death Foundation,” and researchers in enterprises for eliminating death such as Sirtris or the defunct company Halycon Molecular.
Off the top, Gollner throws out a rationale whereby life is divided into the knowable and the unknowable. Many things will never be known, and all ideas about those things are matters of belief. In that sense, all beliefs are equally beliefs, and one of those beliefs is that there’s some way to never die. Gollner’s discussions on all this are far-ranging; he keeps the ball rolling, but much of it is an exercise in speculation. Concerning open-minded credulity, he quotes the historian Lucian Boia: “These people who pretended to believe in nothing at all, except, to some extent, in philosophy and science, were ripe to be caught in any trap that a person of speculative intelligence could set. Because they believed in nothing, they were ready to believe anything.” Overall, the book shows a host of contrasts between people obsessed with immortalizing themselves (as in cryonics promoter Robert Ettinger’s book YOUNIVERSE: Toward a Self-Centered Philosophy), and people who can view death with a kind of beautiful serenity.
To me, the most disturbing thing that Gollner finds is the degree of profit-motivated research fraud, and the pharmaceutical industry’s expanding influence on academic and medical practice. I’ll give a quote he gets from Harvard University Medical School professor Marcia Angell:
“It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached only slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine. … The big drug companies bribed and corrupted the medical establishment so that we no longer know which drugs are effective or why our doctors prescribe them.”...more
I really enjoyed this friendly tour of the Chinese religious universe, through 17 classes of gods, goddesses, elemental spirits, epic heroes, holy fooI really enjoyed this friendly tour of the Chinese religious universe, through 17 classes of gods, goddesses, elemental spirits, epic heroes, holy fools, or enlightened immortals. As the author explains, I have deliberately included both the sublime and the ridiculous. These deities develop and shape-shift as history unfolds. Here's the thing:
Chinese gods evolve. They move about of come into being with socio-economic trends and changing social roles. The new gods of our age are being born as we speak -- pop stars, screen icons, literary giants, and athletes. And the old gods are evolving to support the needs of modern society; their young devotees are creating new forms of worship. There is a wonderfully egalitarian quality to Chinese deities -- who represent a meritocratic pantheon in which anyone can become a god. And these deities can give us fascinating insight into China's national psyche....more
This is a chatty, rambling tour of concepts about emotion over the course of centuries and around much of the world. Actually, Firth-Godbehere is a diThis is a chatty, rambling tour of concepts about emotion over the course of centuries and around much of the world. Actually, Firth-Godbehere is a digustologist, specializing in the study of what different people find revolting, and why. This specialization gives him a basis for comparing numerous “emotional regimes.” Much of the book is quite philosophical, but there’s action in exploring how emotions have changed over time. For example, medieval Christian aversion to desire and pleasure as sinful things tended to shift toward a Renaissance-age appreciation for “good taste” in choosing life’s finer things. To me, the book got quite interesting toward the end, where the author turns to examine modern-age efforts to shape sentiments for political or commercial ends. Then there’s efforts to sense and mimic emotion through AI, all of which prove to be culture-specific, and so far, hopelessly simplistic. ...more
This is the best kind of research on the myth and history of a popular goddess cult in China. It's insightful, fascinating, and even inspiring. The leThis is the best kind of research on the myth and history of a popular goddess cult in China. It's insightful, fascinating, and even inspiring. The legend and it's explanation offer powerful psychological insight and ongoing political implications for women. ...more
China's great Robin Hood saga, featuring over 100 brazen outlaws whose loyalty to each other is, frankly, their only moral value. The great hymn to reChina's great Robin Hood saga, featuring over 100 brazen outlaws whose loyalty to each other is, frankly, their only moral value. The great hymn to rebels who screw a criminally abusive world, and a legend that is both an inspiration and a nightmare of the People's Republic....more
Waley gives an easy-to-follow account, and presents classic China not as a realm of traditional orthodoxy, but a deeply divided world, with deviant viWaley gives an easy-to-follow account, and presents classic China not as a realm of traditional orthodoxy, but a deeply divided world, with deviant views of life in creative or destructive collision....more
The authors present texts of local, popular, or heterodox sects from all over China. We have prayers for the welfare of animals, rites for the burningThe authors present texts of local, popular, or heterodox sects from all over China. We have prayers for the welfare of animals, rites for the burning mouth hungry ghost, commemorations of departed worthies, gnostic-sounding instructions on inner alchemy, spirit-calling formulas, and tales of how Laozi (Lao Tzu) grew from man to god. The book avoids abstractions or generalities, and deals with the actual practices of local people. And however quirky these texts or traditions sound, they seem to vibrate with earnest passion....more
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